wanted to collect my scalp."

"Do what?" she frowned.

"Bump me off--send me across the divide."

"Oh, I know that. But why?"

He seemed to reproach himself. "Now how could I be so neglectful?
I clean forgot to ask."

"That's ridiculous," was her sharp verdict.

"Yes, ma'am, plumb ridiculous. My only excuse is that they began
scattering lead so sudden I didn't have time to ask many
'Whyfors.' I reckon we'll just have to call it a Wyoming
difference of opinion," he concluded pleasantly.

"Which means, I suppose, that you are not going to tell me."

"I got so much else to tell y'u that's a heap more important," he
laughed. "Y'u see, I'm enjoyin' my first automobile ride. It was
certainly thoughful of y'u to ask me to go riding with y'u, Miss
Messiter."

"So you know my name. May I ask how?" was her astonished
question.

He gave the low laugh that always seemed to suggest a private
source of amusement of his own. "I suspicioned that might be your