The Coolidge examiner., 1930-11-21

the ASSURANCE Htu Uleu OuI VI Ilcl
before she finished speaking. Some
thought had occurred to her that
filled her with fear.
"Tell you l shot at an antelope y
the fellow insisted, shifting his feet
uneasily.
"a trained antelope, one riding a
horse" suggested O'Hara.
Sanderson turned sullenly a
shifty eye on him. stranger man,
you better fork yore fuzzy an light
out"
cor you'll send another blue
whistler at me-" the young man
said, brown eyes cleaning.
The girl spoke. She did not
care to see the issue pressed too
far. Sanderson had bad reputa-
ton. "Talkin' about his horse,
Shep, where is it? You'd better
round it up for him"
"MeT' The big man glared at
O'Hara. 81 amt been hired to wran-
gle for no tenderfoot."
Don't you think, since it was
your fault his horse got away, it
would be decent to"
For this hombre? Me? Say,
I'm Shep Sanderson."
This seemed to be answer
enough. His cold salIow eyes, light
as skim milk, slid from O'Hara TO
Miss Steelman and back again. He
moved away. his face toward the
young man, till he reached a dense
clump of prickly pear. Behind this
he vanished.
The girl spoke. First off, we bet
ter get our horses"
They found hers where she had
left it when she slipped from the
saddle to take refuge in the brush
"We'll look for yours" she said,
busying herself with a stirrup. She
was disturbed that he should find
her wearing feathers, using n mans
saddle. She wanted TO explain to
him that in such thorny chaparral
one had to wear leather to protect
the clothes and flesh against cruel
clutching spikes, that she was no
crazy tombOy who raced around the
country dressed up like a man. But
any approach to the subject was
embarrassing.
"We want to be careful" the
young woman said in low voice.
Hes a bad crowd, Shep Sander
son is. Which way did your
horse goY'
They had reached the road.
"There it is, back of that prickly
pear" O'Hara said. 81 knew it
wouldn't wander far. Too tired
He reclaimed his horse and
swung to the saddle.
This way" said Miss Steelman,
and swung her mount deeper into
the chaparral.
For nearly half a mile she led
the man silently in and out among
the brush. Then she reined up
to ride beside him.
Disapprovingly, she looked at his
fancy boots. They'll be ruined in
all this cactus" she told him. "You
have to wear feathers in this coun-
try. It's not a question of how you
look"
He understood that this was not
so much a criticism of him as a de-
fense of herself.
"Yes, miss. I can see it's bet
ter" he agreed. But l was ex-
pecting to stick to the road when |
started"
Started where from?"
'From Aurora"
For Concho?"
Eyes, miss"
She was still puzzled to place
him. Though in the mountains,
COncho was in the heart of a cattle
country. There men talked cows,
worked them, lived them. 1t was
the basic occupation upon which
all others were dependent. 1t was
an easy guess that this stranger
had never ridden out the stampede
of trail herd. Yes, tenderfoot was
sure enough the word for him.
She had feeling that he was
headed for trouble quite uncon-
sciously and that he was poorly
equipped to meet it. The combina-
ton of ignorance and courage is
not a good one, not in hard coun-
try like this into which he was
riding.
He volunteered information TIM
idly, "My name is Garrett O'Hara.
1 am a lawyer"
"a lawyer! Oh, you're going to
Concho as one of Judge Warmers
party"
I'm going to live there"
She drew up her horse and
looked at him in surprise. Live
there! What are you going to
do?"
"Practice law"
'In ConchO." A mouthful of
white teeth flashed in laughter.
Don't you think I'd make good
lawyer?" he asked, too shy to let
her comment pass unanswered.
Il don't know But why Concho?
Who wants a lawyer there?"
prosperous town, isn't it?"
"Yes."
"Then there must be business
contracts, real estate,
lands"
Abruptly she asked: "Who do
you know there? Who sent for
you? Whose man are you?"
1t was the last query that
snagged his attention.
"What do you mean, whose man
am II"
She did not answer that. Her
reply was wholly unexpected. "Bet-
for t11rD rOund and rido hacly tO An