said, "I feel like I wanted you to be like the girls in books and not
like these wild women round here. And if you don't know what I mean, you
are a fool."

"Douglas Spencer, you know I'm just as good as any girl that ever lived
in any book!"

"I know that, and I propose to keep you so." Doug lighted a cigarette.

"Since when were you so interested, I'd like to know?"

"That is none of your business. Only, from now on you toe the mark,
miss."

"You're not my boss, Doug Spencer!"

"Yes, I am," returned Douglas serenely. He finished making up a bed on
the floor, rolled himself in two of the quilts and pulled the corner of
one over his head.

Judith put out her tongue at his muffled form and crept under the quilts
that remained on the bunk. By and by the moonlight appeared through the
window. The stove grew cold. The howling of the coyotes circled nearer
and nearer. Suddenly a rifle-shot rung out, then another. The shots did
not waken the sleeping boy and girl, but the mule brayed and began to
kick with the rapidity of machine-gun fire. They both jumped up and ran
out. The mule was just disappearing across the trail. Douglas jumped on
Swift's bare back, catching the lariat from the saddle that lay on the
manger.