plain to Sandy that Sam and Mormon, despite Sam's protest, took
Molly's pleasantry in earnest and he made no comment as Mormon deftly
shuffled the deck and riffled it out over the table. He picked a jack,
Mormon a three of clubs and Sam an eight of hearts. Sam whooped at sight
of Mormon's card.

"Hold on, Molly said 'High man out.' That's Sandy. You an' me got to
draw again. Ain't that so, Sandy?"

"Sure is," said Sandy gravely. "You hollered too soon, Sam. Prob'ly
crabbed yore luck."

Both chose their cards and drew them to the edge of the table, face
down, taking a peep at the index corners.

"Bet you ten dollars I got you beat," said Mormon cheerfully.

Sam turned up his card disgustedly. It was the deuce of spades.

"Oh, hell!" he exclaimed. "Now I got to kiss a dawg!"

At his voice and face Mormon and Sandy bent double with laughter that
brought water to their eyes and nearly sent Mormon into convulsions. Sam
surveyed them with gloomy contempt.

"Laf, you couple of ring-tailed snakes in the sage!" he said bitterly.
"I'm stuck an' I'm game, but if either of you ever whisper a word of it
to a livin' soul, outside of Molly, I'll plumb scalp, skin an' silence
both of you. _Kiss a dawg!_ Hell's delight!"

They started to follow him, still weak with laughter, but he threatened
them with his gun and they fell back in mock alarm while Sam went round
back of the corral and they heard him whistling for Grit. When he
reappeared, straddling along on his bowed legs, his good humor had
returned.

"How's he like it?" asked Mormon.

Sam grinned at him.

"You bald-headed ol' badger, you, he acted plumb like yore wives must
have, when I salutes him on the snoot. Licks my nose first an' then
curls up his tongue an' licks off his own. Wipes out all trace of the
oskylation pronto an' thorough. Most unappreciative animile I ever see."

"I'll tell you straight out that none of my wives ever acted thataway,"
started Mormon, and the laugh swung at his expense.

"I didn't mind the operation so much," Sam confided to them, "when I
figger out that I was just handin' it on fo' Molly, an' that she owes me
one, whether she decides to salute you two galoots or not."

Molly's letters were prime events at the Three Star. She wrote every
week telling of life at the Keiths'. Miranda made up the quartet to read
them. Molly wrote:

It is full of excitement, this life at the Keiths', and they
are just lovely to me. There i