"_Ca ne fait rien!_" said De Launay, pronouncing it almost like "sinferien" as he had heard the linguists of the A. E. F. do. The two men slowly turned their heads and looked at him apparently aware of his existence for the first time. Like MacGregor, they evidently saw something beneath his habiliments, though the small mustache puzzled them. "You-all been to France?" asked Dave. De Launay did not answer direct. "There was some reputed bronk peelers nursin' mules overseas," he mused. "Their daddies would sure have been mortified to see 'em." "We didn't dry nurse no mules, pilgrim," said Sucatash. "When did you lick Hindenburg?" De Launay condescended to notice them. "In the battle of _vin rouge_," he said. "I reckon you-all musta won a round or two with the _vin_ sisters, yourselves." "You're sure a-sayin' something, old-timer," said Dave, with emotion. For the first time he saw the rosette in De Launay's buttonhole. "You done a little more'n café fightin' though, to get that?" De Launay shrugged his shoulders. "They give those for entertainin' a politician," he answered. "Any cow hands out of a job around here?" Both of the men chuckled. "You aimin' to hire any riders?" "I could use a couple to wrangle pilgrims in the Esmeraldas. More exactly, there's a lady, aimin' to head into the mountains and she'll need a couple of packers." "This lady don't seem to have no respect for snow and blizzards, none whatever," was the comment. "Which she hasn't, bein' troubled with notions about gold mines and such things. She needs taking care of." "Ridin' the Esmeraldas this time o' year and doin' chores for Pop all winter strikes me as bein' about a toss-up," said the man called Sucatash. "I reckon it's a certainty that Pop requires considerable labor, though, and maybe this demented lady won't. If the wages is liberal----" "We ought to see the lady, first," said Dave. "There's some lady pilgrims that couldn't hire me with di'monds." "The pay's all right and the lady's all right. She's French." "A mad'mo'selle?" they echoed. "It's a long story," said De Launay, smiling. "You'd better see her and talk it over. Meantime, this prohibition is some burdensome." "Which it ain't the happiest incumbrance of the world," agreed Sucatash. "They do say that the right kind of a hint will work at the Empire Pool Rooms." "If they have it, we'll get it," asserted De Launay, confidently. "You-all point the way." The three of them rose by the simple process of straightening their legs at the knees, and walked away. CHAPTER VII MAID MARIAN GROWN UP