e appeal that his handsome manhood
made to femininity.

"What a godlike physique!" she thought.

Then impulsively she stepped forward and extended her hand.

"I'm glad you've come, Mr. Hooker," she said. "And I do hope you are
really a jerkline skinner."

"And how 'bout me?" complained Mr. Tweet.

"I beg your pardon," said the girl, biting her lip. "What a stupid
thing for me to say! But really--well, Mr. Hooker does look more like
an outdoors man than you do, Mr. Tweet. I didn't mean to discriminate
between you in my offer of welcome, though. Mr. Hooker, _are_ you a
jerkline skinner?"

For the first time Hiram's soft voice began to drawl. "Yes, ma'am," he
told her earnestly. "I've driven jerkline since I was knee-high to a
duck--eight and ten and twelve, and even sixteen, ma'am. I reckon I
can make 'em pull, no matter how far out you hook 'em on."

"Where have you worked?"

"At home, ma'am--in the big timber o' Mendocino County--haulin' tanbark
and ties and shakes and posts over the mountains to the lumber steamers
on the coast."

"Do you love horses and mules?" she queried eagerly.

"I love everything that breathes, I reckon, ma'am," he told her softly.
"I kill nothin' that lives, except rattlesnakes, unless I need the
meat. Then sometimes I don't kill."

Jerkline Jo's dark eyes glowed. She turned to Mr. Tweet.

"And you?" she asked.

"Madam," he replied, "I came down here under false pretenses, but now
I'll make a clean breast o' my treachery. I was broke; I had to get
out o' Frisco and get a toehold somewhere. But after seein' you, I
can't try to put one over on you. Couldn't if I wanted to try, I
guess. I am not a jerkline skinner, but I love animals. I am one of
those confident persons who will try anything once--even twice. The
things I have done, and was told I could not do, are legion. If you
will give me a trial for my inseparable friend's sake, I have no doubt
at all but that in the course of a short time your mules will refuse to
lift a foot unless I am behind 'em with my persuasive voice. In other
words, Miss Jo, I am yours to command."

She smiled, a finger to her lips. "Well, come over to the corrals,
both of you," she said, "and we'll see what we can do. I simply must
have Mr. Hooker. So if you two are inseparable, why----" She paused.

"I understand," Tweet put in. "All women are that way, once they're
subjected to Hooker's spell. I simply can't get it myself,