fella named Jerkline Jo belong to this outfit?" he asked,
walking along beside Jo's wagon.

"I'm Jerkline Jo," she told him.

"You! Huh! Well, there's a wire for you. I'll run and get it."

Jo called to her ten whites to halt, and the wagon came to a rest. A
minute later the yellow paper was in her hands. She read:

Twenty tons awaiting you at Mulligan Supply
Company, Julia. Get it over the mountains at once
to Breece Brothers, Hunter & Stevenson, and
Washburn-Stokes. Drummond's trucks are coming. You
are in for a stiff fight. Good luck. DEMAREST.

CHAPTER XV

MR. TWEET NEGOTIATES A LOAN

Oblivious to the staring eyes of the little desert town of Julia,
Jerkline Jo, after pitching camp near water on the edge of the village,
began hurrying about on her business.

She was directed to the man who owned the land on which the teams and
men were now resting, and found that she could make a deal to lease the
property at a reasonable figure. She made a freckle-faced boy happy
with a bright new dime, and sent him back to her men with instructions
for them to pitch the tents permanently and proceed to make the spot
the Julia headquarters of the outfit.

She wired her thanks to Demarest and assured him that the order would
go forward next day, if the dealers had it ready. Next she hunted up
the Mulligan Supply Company and found that it was a new concern in
Julia, having just moved in with a large stock of goods from Los
Angeles. It was a branch of a big Los Angeles jobbing firm, and the
new railroad across the mountains had brought it here.

The manager greeted her warmly, and told her that he had heard of her
through Mr. Demarest. The entire order was ready for immediate
shipment, he said, so Jo hurried back to camp and had her men hook two
horses on each of six wagons, now empty, and drive to the store, where
they were backed in to the loading platform.

They ate their supper then, and afterward worked far into the night
loading case goods, baled hay, grain, new tools, and innumerable like
commodities. When the wagons were loaded and the great tarpaulins
hauled down over everything but the hay and grain, it was necessary for
Jo to appoint a watchman for the night. She had no more than broached
the subject when Playmate Tweet, who had helped manfully with the
loading, offered his services.

"I been just ridin' all day," he said, "and tryin' to convince Pete
that I'm a reg'lar fella