He always had to ask his way
around. If your bunch of town mutts can't behave themselves and leave
each other alone, I don't know what's to be done about it. We ain't
hired to keep the peace."

"No, you've been hired to steal all the land you can and make all the
trouble you can. We understand that perfectly."

Andy shook his head in meek denial, and with a sudden impulse turned
toward the cabin. "Oh, Pink!" he called, and brought that boyish-faced
young man to the door, his eyes as wide and as pure as the eyes of a
child.

Pink lifted his hat with just the proper degree of confusion to impress
the girls with his bashfulness and his awe of their presence. His eyes
were the same pansy-purple as when the Flying U first made tumultuous
acquaintance with him. His apparent innocence had completely fooled the
Happy Family, you will remember. They had called him Mamma's Little Lamb
and had composed poetry and horrific personal history for his benefit.
The few years had not changed him. His hair was still yellow and curly.
The dimples still dodged into his cheeks unexpectedly; he was still much
like a stick of dynamite wrapped in white tissue and tied with a ribbon.
He looked an angel of innocence, and in reality he was a little devil.

Andy introduced him, and Pink bowed and had all the appearance of
blushing--though you will have to ask Pink how he managed to create that
optical illusion. "What did you want?" he asked in his soft, girlish
voice, turning to Andy bashfully. But from the corner of his eye Pink
saw that a little smile of remembrance had come to soften Miss Hallman's
angry features, and that the other girl was smiling also. Pink hated
that attitude of pleasant patronage which women were so apt to take
toward him, but for the present it suited his purpose to encourage it.

"Pink, what time was it when we went to bed last night?" Andy asked him
in the tone of one who wished to eliminate all doubt of his virtue.

"Why--it was pretty early. We didn't light the lamp at all, you
remember. You went to bed before I did--we couldn't see the cards--" He
stopped confusedly, and again he gave the two women the impression that
he blushed. "We weren't playing for money," he hurriedly explained.
"Just for pastime. It's--pretty lonesome--sometimes."

"Somebody did something to somebody last night," Andy informed Pink
with a resentful impatience. "Miss Hallman thinks we're the guilty
parties--me in particular, because she d