"I do not work alone," he hinted, darkly. "The day my body is found dead
of violence, that day marks the doom of a long list of men whom I
consider inimical to me--like, perhaps, yourself." He stared me down
with his unwinking gaze.




CHAPTER V


I returned to Box Springs at a slow jog trot, thinking things over. Old
Man Hooper's warning sobered, but did not act as a deterrent of my
intention to continue with the adventure. But how? I could hardly storm
the fort single handed and carry off the damsel in distress. On the
evidence I possessed I could not even get together a storming party. The
cowboy is chivalrous enough, but human. He would not uprise
spontaneously to the point of war on the mere statement of incarcerated
beauty--especially as ill-treatment was not apparent. I would hardly
last long enough to carry out the necessary proselyting campaign. It
never occurred to me to doubt that Hooper would fulfill his threat of
having me killed, or his ability to do so.

So when the men drifted in two by two at dusk, I said nothing of my real
adventures, and answered their chaff in kind.

"He played the piano for me," I told them the literal truth, "and had me
in to the parlour and dining room. He gave me a room to myself with a
bed and sheets; and he rode out to his pasture gate with me to say