olmes," Applehead remarked sourly. "Her goin'
off same, day they stuck up that bank don't look to me like no
happenstance--now I'm tellin' yuh! 'N' if I was shurf, and was ast to
locate that squaw, I'd keep right on the trail uh Bill Holmes, jest as
we're doin' now."

"That isn't like Annie," Luck said sharply to, still the conviction in
his own mind. "Whatever faults she may have, she's been loyal to me, and
honest. Look how she stuck last winter, when she didn't have anything at
stake, wasn't getting any salary, and yet worked like a dog to help
make the picture a success. Look how she got up in the night when the
blizzard struck, and fed our horses and cooked breakfast of her own
accord, just so I could get out early and get my scenes. I've known
her since she was a dirty-faced papoose, and I never knew her to lie
or steal. She wasn't in on that robbery--I'll bank on that, and she
wouldn't go off with a thief. It isn't like Annie."

"Well," said Big Medicine, thinking of his own past, "the best uh women
goes wrong when some knot-headed man gits to lovemakin'. They'll do
things fer the wrong kinda man, by cripes, that they wouldn't do fer no
other human on earth. I've knowed a good woman to lie and steal--fer
a man that wasn't fit, by cripes, to tip his hat to 'er in the street!
Women," he added pessimistically, "is something yuh can't bank on, as
safe as yuh can on a locoed horse!" He kicked his mount unnecessarily
by way of easing the resentment which one woman had managed to instil
against the sex in general.

"That's where you're darned right, Bud," Pink attested with a sudden
bitterness which memory brought. "I wouldn't trust the best woman that
ever lived outa my sight, when you come right down to cases."

"Aw, here!" Andy Green, thinking loyally of his Rosemary, swung his
horse indignantly toward the two. "Cut that out, both of you! Just
because you two got stung, is no reason why you've got to run down all
the rest of the women. I happen to know one--"

"Aw, nobody was talking about Rosemary," Big Medicine apologized
gruffly. "She's different; any fool knows that."

"Well, I've got a six-gun here that'll talk for another one," silent
Lite Avery spoke up suddenly. "One that would tip the scales on the
woman's side for goodness if the rest of the whole sex was bad."

"Oh, thunder!" Pink cried, somewhat redder than the climbing sun alone
would warrant. "I'll take it back. I didn't mean THEM--you know darne