It was tossed contemptuously out; and watching it, to catch its last roll, I heard Daniel gleefully yelp "Out o' my way, yu-all!"--half saw his hand dart down and up again, felt the jar of a shot, witnessed the can jump like a live thing; and away it went, with spasm after spasm, to explosion after explosion, tortured by him into fruitless capers until with the final ball peace came to it, and it lay dead, afar across the twilight sand. Verily, by his cries and the utter savagery and malevolence of his bombardment, one would have thought that he took actual lust in fancied cruelty. "I 'laow thar's not another man hyar kin do that," he vaunted. There was not, judging by the silence again ensuing. Only-- "A can's a different proposition from a man, as I said afore," Jenks coolly remarked. "A can don't shoot back." "I don't 'laow any man's goin' to, neither." Daniel reloaded his smoking revolver, bolstered it with a flip; faced me in turning away. "That's somethin' for yu to l'arn on, ag'in next time, young feller," he vouchsafed. If he would have eyed me down he did not succeed. His gaze shifted and he passed on, swaggering. "Come along, Edna," he bade. "We'll be goin' back." A devil--or was it he himself?--twitted me, incited me, and in a moment, with a gush of assertion, there I was, saying to her, my hat doffed: "I'll walk over with you." "Do," she responded readily. "We're to have more singing." The men stared, they nudged one another, grinned. Daniel whirled. "I 'laow yu ain't been invited, Mister." "If Mrs. Montoyo consents, that's enough," I informed, striving to keep steady. "I'm not walking with you, sir; I am walking with her. The only ground you control is just in front of your own wagon." "Yu've been told once thar ain't no 'Mrs. Montoyo,'" he snarled. "And whilst yu're l'arnin' to shoot yu'd better be l'arnin' manners. Yu comin' with me, Edna?" "As fast as I can, and with Mr. Beeson also, if he chooses," said she. "I have my manners in mind, too." "By gosh, I don't walk with ye," he jawed. And in a huff, like the big boy that he was, he flounced about, vengefully striding on as though punishing her for a misdemeanor. She dropped the grinning group a little curtsy. A demure sparkle was in her eyes. "The entertainment is concluded, gentlemen. I wish you good-night." Yet underneath her raillery and self-possession there lay an appeal, the stronger because subtle and unvoiced. It seemed to me every man must appreciate that as a woman she invoked protection by him against an impending something, of which she had given him a glimpse. So we left them somewhat subdued, gazing after us, their rugged faces sobered reflectively. "Shall we stroll?" she asked. "With pleasure," I agreed. Daniel was angrily shouldering for the Mormon wagons, his indignant figure black against the western glow. She laughed lightly. "You're not afraid, after all, I see." "Not of him, madam." "And of me?"