Cinnabar stared open mouthed: "Loves her!" he roared, when he could find his voice. "That damn snake couldn't love no one!" The girl's face went a shade paler: "You know him?" she asked. "Know him! You bet I know him! I know he's the orneriest livin' white man! They ain't nothin' he wouldn't do--onless it was somethin' decent!" "And yet--I can hardly believe it. There's something about him so--wholesome--so clean--and he has really fine eyes." Cinnabar Joe placed his hands on his hips and stared at the girl in astonishment. "You ain't be'n into old Mac's bottle, have you?" he asked, at length. "Wholesome! Clean! Fine eyes! Why, he's the slimiest, dirtiest, evil-eyedest lookin' scoundrel that ever draw'd breath!" Janet winced at the words: "When did he bring her here?" she asked after a moment of silence. "Yesterday afternoon." "Yesterday afternoon! Why, he--told me last night that he hadn't found her!" "You ain't none surprised that he'd lie, be you?" Janet nodded thoughtfully: "Yes, I am," she answered. "He didn't look like he was lying. Oh, there must be some mistake! Did you know him before he worked on the Y Bar?" "Y Bar!" Cinnabar laughed, "that bird never seen the Y Bar onless he's be'n tryin' to run off some Y Bar horses." "Run off horses! Is he a horse-thief, too?" Cinnabar waved his arms in despair: "Oh, no," he asserted, emphasizing the ponderous sarcasm of his words with a dolorous shaking of the head, "he ain't no horse-thief. He's--judge of the supreme court. An' the reason he lives in the bad lands is because all the judges of the supreme court lives in the bad lands." The girl interrupted him: "Don't try to be facetious. You do it badly. But the fact is, he don't live in the bad lands, he don't look like a horse-thief, he don't act like a horse-thief--and I don't believe he is a horse-thief--so there! When he struck out this morning on Purdy's trail----" "On Purdy's trail!" Cinnabar fairly shouted the words. "Who's on who's trail? What's all this mixup about? Purdy ain't no horse-thief! He's a wet nurse in a orphan asylum! He's clean lookin' an' wholesome. He wouldn't lie!" "Purdy!" exclaimed Janet, "have you been talking about Purdy all this time?" A sudden gleam of comprehension shot from Cinnabar's eyes: "Who did you think I was talkin' about," he grinned, "the Gazookus of Timbucktoo?"