sed the lid of the piano and called her mother's attention to
the presence of Slim Hoover.

"How d'ye do, Slim Hoover?--you might have left some of that dust
outside."

The Sheriff was greatly embarrassed by her chiding. In his ride from
Florence to the Sweetwater, the alkali and sand stirred up by the hoofs
of the horses had settled on his hat and waistcoat so freely that his
clothing had assumed a neutral, gray tone above which his sun-tanned
face and red hair loomed like the moon in a fog. Josephine's scolding
drove him to brush his shoulders with his hat, raising a cloud of dust
about his head.

"Stop it!" Mrs. Allen shouted shrilly. "Slim Hoover, if your brains
was dynamite you couldn't blow the top of your head off."

Polly was greatly amused by Slim's encounter with the cleanly Mrs.
Allen. Slim stood with open mouth, watching Mrs. Allen flounce out of
the room after Polly, who was trying in vain to suppress her laughter.
Turning to the girl, he said: "Ain't seen you in some time."

Slim was thankful that the girl was seated at the table with her back
to him. Somehow or other he found he could speak to her more freely
when she was not looking at him.

"That so?" she challenged. "Come to the birthday?"

"Not regular," he answered.

Polly glanced at him over her shoulder. It was too much for Slim. He
turned away to hide his embarrassment. Partly recovering from his
bashfulness, he coughed, preparatory to speaking. But Polly had
vanished. As one looks sheepishly for the magician's disappearing
coin, so Slim gazed at floor and ceiling as if the girl might pop up
anywhere. Spying an empty chair behind him, he sank into it gingerly
and awkwardly.

Meantime Polly returned with a broom and began sweeping out the
evidences of Slim's visit. She spoke again:

"Get them hold-ups yet that killed 'Ole Man' Terrill?" she asked.

"Not yet. But we had a new shootin' over'n our town yesterday."

Slim was doing his best to make conversation. Polly did not help him
out very freely.

"That so?" was her reply.

"Spotted Taylor shot two Chinamen."

Polly's curiosity was aroused.

"What for?" she asked, stopping her sweeping for a moment.

"Just to give the new graveyard a start," Slim chuckled.

Polly joined in his merriment.

"Spotted Taylor was always a public-spirited citizen," was her comment.

"He sure was," assented Slim.

"Get up there. I want to sweep under that chair." Polly brushed