breaking the desert silence, three pairs of brilliant eyes gazing
through the screening mesquite branches vanished and the gray, shadowy
figures of three coyotes disappeared as noiselessly as they had come.

"How did I know about the woman?" She repeated the question and
considered it, still with amused scorn, as if debating whether she would
enlighten him or not. "Well--" drawling aggravatingly, "I knew you and
Pop had the knife ready for Ru--Mr. Hanson." Flick's mouth twisted
again. "That wasn't very hard to see. So when you hit the trail, Bob, I
gave him the chance to clear out. I did so, tipped him off, you know.
Now I guess if he'd been wanted bad for anything that would--well, put
him behind the bars, say, he'd have gotten out pretty quick. And,
anyway, if he'd been wanted like that he wouldn't have stayed here so
long, for they wouldn't have had any trouble in nailing a man as well
known as him before, so, you see, I knew it wasn't any of the usual
things. But," and here she stopped and, looking up into his face, spoke
more emphatically, "I gave him the chance, too, to tell me all about
himself and he didn't take it. Now, there isn't a man living that
wouldn't have taken it--under the circumstances--" she spoke with a
deliberately cruel emphasis, and Flick's shoulders contracted a little
as the dart pricked him--"unless it was some mix-up about a woman."

"It's about a woman, all right," grimly.

"What about her?" Pearl's voice cut the air like the swift, downward
stroke of a whip.

"She's his wife," returned Flick. "She's been living up near Colina. She
owns a part of a mine there and has been managing it."