CHAPTER XII

FINESSE


"A man talks because he's drunk or lonesome; a girl talks because that's
her way of takin' exercise."

This was a maxim of Buck Daniels, and Buck Daniels knew a great deal
about women, as many a school marm and many a rancher's daughter of the
mountain-desert could testify.

Also Buck Daniels said of women: "It ain't what you say to 'em so much
as the tune you put it to."

Now he sat this day in O'Brien's hotel dining-room. It was the lazy and
idle hour between three and four in the afternoon, and since the men of
the mountain-desert eat promptly at six, twelve, and six, there was not
a soul in the room when he entered. Nor was there a hint of eating
utensils on the tables. Nevertheless Buck Daniels was not dismayed. He
selected a corner-table by instinct and smote upon the surface with the
flat of his hand. It made a report like the spat of a forty-five; heavy
footsteps approached, a door flung open, and a cross-eyed slattern stood
in the opening. At the sight of Buck Daniels sitting with his hands on
his hips and his sombrero pushed back to a good-natured distance on his
head the lady puffed with rage.