Across the room, Belle swung around on the piano stool and looked at him. "Honey, if you're going to make out the order to Montgomery, Ward, I'd like to send on for some more music. I've been going over that new list--" "I ain't," said Tom, removing his cigarette from the corner of his mouth and blowing the tiny, blue-painted shavings off George Washington's face. "You go ahead and make out the order yourself." Belle eyed the pencil-sharpening and sent a keen glance at Tom's face. "Well, honey, from the way you're squaring up to that tablet, I thought you was going to send on for a new buckboard and mower." Tom bent his head and blew again, gave George a sardonic grin and turned him face-down on the table, so that the ruled paper lay ready to his hand. "Right now I'm going to figure up what that dang spotty yearlin' of old Scotty's cost me," he stated grimly. "And there's some other Black Rimmers I've got a bill against." "Hope you don't try holding your breath till you collect," Belle retorted. "Honey, you'd best leave the Black Rimmers alone. I feel as if we'd had enough excitement enough for a while. I wouldn't start anything more right now, if I was you. Every last one of them is ready to jump on your neck--and the Lord only knows why, unless it's because you _didn't_ steal that darned spotted yearling! Some folks sure do love to see the other fellow up to his eyebrows in trouble. They were sitting there in that courtroom just _wishing_ you would be sent up. I saw it in their faces, Tom. And that old rock-hearted Scotchman looked as if he's just lost two bits when the jury said 'Not guilty.'" "Mh-m--hm-m--that's what I'm figuring on now," said Tom, and bent to his problem. "My old dad woulda gone out and shot up a few, but times are changed and we're all getting so damn civilized we've got to stack the cards or quit the game. Belle, what do you reckon it's worth to a man to be hauled into court and called a cow thief?" Belle's lips pressed together. "I don't know, Tom--but I know what it would have cost 'em if they had sent you over the road. I had a gun on me, and when that jury foreman stood up to give the verdict, it was looking him in the eye through a buttonhole in my coat. Him and Cheyenne and old Scotty and two or three more would sure have got theirs, if he hadn't said, 'Not guilty.'" "Lord bless yuh, I knew it all the time. Next time we go to court you'll leave the artillery at home, old girl. I like to got heart failure there for a minute, till I seen you ease down and lay your hand in your lap." He looked at her and laughed a little. "I've got a bill of damages against several of the folks around here, but I ain't fool enough to try and collect with a six-gun."