vigorous, like they aims to transact some business with us. Which
they shorely does; it's an outfit of Greaser guerillas, an' we-alls
ain't nothin' more or less than captives. "'The ornery an'
ongrateful part is that the Princess sends one of her own peonies
scoutin' 'round in the hills to bring in this band of cattle-eaters
onto us. "'When the lieutenant hears of the perfidy of the Princess
female, he's that mortified he gets a pistol the first jump he makes
an' blows off the top of his head; which if he only blows off the
top of hers it would have gone a heap further with the rest of us.
If he'd consulted any of us, it would have shorely been advised. But
he makes an impulsive play that

a-way; an' is that sore an' chagrined he jest grabs a gun in a
frenzied way an' cashes his chips abrupt. "'No, as I states,' says
Enright, musin' to himse'f, 'if the lieutenant had only downed that
Princess who plays us in as pris'ners so smooth an' easy, it would
have been

regarded. He could have gone caperin' over the brink after her with
the bridle off the next second, an' we-alls would still talk well of
him. "'As it is, however, this riotous female don't last two months.
Which it's also a fact that takin' us that time must have been a
heap

on. lucky for them Greasers. Thar's nine of 'em, an' every last man
dies in the next five months; an' never a one, nor yet the Princess,
knows what they're ag'inst when they quits; or what breeze blows
their light out. I knows, because me an' a party whose name is Tate-
-Bill Tate--never leaves them hills till the last of that outfit's
got his heap of rocks piled up, with its little pine cross stickin'