"No, thanks, I've et hearty," declared Tubbs, while McArthur shuddered. "I've had thousands." "Why, where is White Antelope?" Susie looked in surprise at the vacant chair, and asked the question of her mother. Involuntarily Smith's eyes and those of the Indian woman met. He read correctly all that they contained, but he did not remove his own until her eyelids slowly dropped, and with a peculiar doggedness she drawled: "He go way for l'il visit; 'bout two, t'ree sleeps maybe." IV A SWAP IN SADDLE BLANKETS "Madam," said McArthur, intercepting the Indian woman the next morning while she was on her way from the spring with a heavy pail, "I cannot permit you to carry water when I am here to do it for you." In spite of her surprised protest, he gently took the bucket from her hand. "Look at that dude," said Smith contemptuously, viewing the incident through the living-room window. "Queerin' hisself right along. No more _sabe_ than a cotton-tail rabbit. That's the worse thing he could do. Feller"--turning to Tubbs--"if you want to make a winnin' with a woman, you never want to fetch and carry for her." "I knows it," acquiesced Tubbs. "Onct I was a reg'lar doormat fer one, and I only got stomped on fer it." "I can wrangle Injuns to a fare-ye-well," Smith continued. "Over on the Blackfoot I was the most notorious Injun wrangler that ever jumped up; and, feller, on the square, I never run an errant for one in my life." "It's wrong," agreed Tubbs. "There's that dude tryin' to make a stand-in, and spilin' his own game all the time by talkin'. You can't say he talks, neither; he just opens his mouth and lets it say what it damn pleases. Is them real words he gets off, or does he make 'em up as he goes along?" "Search me." "I'll tip you off, feller: if ever you want to make a strong play at an Injun woman, you don't want to shoot off your mouth none. Keep still and move around just so, and pretty soon she'll throw you the sign. Did you ever notice a dog trottin' down the street, passin' everybody up till all to once it takes a sniff, turns around, and follers some feller off? That's an Injun woman." "I never had no luck with squaws, and the likes o' that," Tubbs confessed. "They're turrible hands to git off together and poke fun at you." As McArthur and the Indian woman came in from the kitchen, he was saying earnestly to her: "I feel sure that here, madam, I should entirely recover my health. Besides, this locality seems to me such a fertile field for research that if you could possibly accommodate my man and me with board, you may not be conferring a favor only upon me, but indirectly, perhaps, upon the world of science. I have with me my own bath-tub and pneumatic mattress." Tubbs, seeing the Indian woman's puzzled expression, explained: "He means we'll sleep ourselves if you will eat us." The woman nodded. "Oh, you can stay. I no care."