As Old Heck turned the woman shrieked in a rasping voice:

"Hey--hey you! Wait a minute!"

The cow-men looked around and stared dumbly, dazedly, at her.

"Can I get you to take me an' my daughter out to that construction camp
where they're buildin' a ditch or something?" she asked; "that policeman
said maybe we could get you to--" she continued. "I got a job cookin'
out there an' Lize here is goin' to wait on table."

Old Heck, still looking up in her eyes, with horror written on every
line of his face, his lips twitching till he could scarcely speak,
finally managed to say:

"Ain't--ain't you Ophelia?"

"Ophelia? Ophelia who?" she asked, then before he could speak she
answered his question: "Ophelia--huh! No, I ain't Ophelia! I'm Missus
Jasamine Swope an' a married woman an' you'd better not try to get fresh
or--"

Simultaneous with Old Heck's question, Skinny, his eyes riveted on the
dowdy girl, asked in a voice barely audible:

"Are you--are you Carolyn June?"

"No, I ain't Carolyn June," she snorted. "Come on, ma; let's go! Them
two's crazy or white slavers or somethin'!"