Kent's fingers curled around the doorknob. "No, thanks. Weddings and
funerals are two bunches of trouble I always ride 'way around. Time enough
when you've got to be _it_. Along about nine o'clock you try and get out to
the stockyards without letting the whole town see you go, and I'll have the
horses there; just beyond the wings, by that pile of ties. You know the
place. I'll wait there till ten, and not a minute longer. That'll give you
an hour, and you won't need any more time than that if you get down to
business. You find out from her what saddle she wants, and you can tell me
while I'm eating supper, Mrs. Hawley. I'll 'tend to the rest." He did not
wait to hear whether they agreed to the plan, but went moodily down the
narrow passage, and entered frowningly the "office." Several men were
gathered there, waiting the supper summons. Hawley glanced up from wiping a
glass, and grinned.

"Well, did you git the pie?"

"Naw. She said I'd got to wait for mealtime. She plumb chased me out."

Fred De Garmo, sprawled in an armchair and smoking a cigar, lazily fanned
the smoke cloud from before his face and looked at Kent attentively.




CHAPTER III


A LADY IN A TEMPER

To saddle two horses when the night has grown black and to lead them,