asleep.

"Beats all," confided Abigail that afternoon, to Grace, watching her
deft manipulation of the dinner's pie crust, "what misonderstandable
fools these men critters be. Thar's thet Ken Douglas o'
yourn,"--watching slyly out of the corner of her eye the flushing face
and compressing lips of her auditor--"now 'tain't sca'cely six months
since he was sky-hootin' around yeah, wishful o' killin' every blessed
cowpuncha in this outfit; an' now they ain't ary one o' the pin-headed
dogies that ain't a beggin' to be allowed to do his killin' fer him! He
had quite a time makin' 'em promise not ter cut in on Matlock, las'
night. I hear 'm jawbonin' about it oveh to thu shack. But they finally
allows he's Ken's meat an' 'grees ter keep han's off. I'd feel some
sorry fer that Matlock ef he wa'nt sech a pizen skunk. I r'ally do wisht
he was moah of a man! Ken's too clean a boy to hev ter stomp out sech a
snake."

Miss Carter was not a woman of iron nerve and this dispassionate talk of
killing affected her visibly. As the old woman proceeded with her
disquieting recital, her face blanched, but with a great effort at
self-control she held her peace; this was evidently the hour of
revelations--and she had to know!

"But he has it ter do--he suah has! An' I wisht 'twas oveh. I doan
reckon Matlock will ketch him nappin'--Ken's eye tooths is cut--but yuh
nevah kin tell!" She sighed lugubriously and the girl's blood ran cold
in her veins. "Thar's allus a chanct--an' Ken is a heap keerless at
times. I hope he gits him soon!"

"But why?" said Grace unevenly, making a heroic struggle to retain the
composure that was fast deserting her. "You talk as if he were compelled
to kill this man."

"Well, hain't he?" replied Abbie, with naive surprise in her voice, as
she stopped pinching the edges of a pie and looked up in astonishment.
"Hain't Matlock declar'd hisself? Hain't he bragged as how he'd cut thu
heart out o' Ken an' show it ter him? Didn't he crawfish like a cowardly
coyote when Ken called his bluff in thu Alcazar, an' then came sneakin'
around yeah in thu night an' buhn yuh haystacks? Why, what moah d'yuh
want him to do?" The indignation in her voice was genuine.

"But why--I cannot understand--" began the girl confusedly, "why is it
necessary for Mr. Douglass to personally undertake the punishment of
this wretch? Have you no laws that can be invoked to punish the one and
protect the other?"

"Laws!" snorted the old woman c