The blue eyes of the woman softened as she looked at June--softened indescribably. They read instantly the doubt and loneliness of the child. She threw the cigar into the street and moved swiftly toward the bride. A moment before she had been hard and sexless, in June's virgin eyes almost a monstrosity. Now she was all mother, filled with the protective instinct. "I'm Mollie Gillespie--keep the hotel here," she explained. "You come right in an' I'll fix up a nice room for you, my dearie. You can wash up after yore ride and you'll feel a lot better. I'll have Chung Lung cook you both a bit of supper soon as he comes back to the kitchen. A good steak an' some nice French frys, say. With some of the mince pie left from dinner and a good cup of coffee." Mollie's arm was round June, petting and comforting her. June felt and repressed an impulse to tears. "You're mighty good," she gulped. The landlady of the Bear Cat House bustled the girl into a room and began to mother her. Bob hung around the door. He did not know whether he was expected to come in or stay out, though he knew which he wanted to do. Mollie sent him about his business. "Scat!" she snapped. "Get outa here, Mr. Husband, an' don't you show up till five o'clock prompt. Hear me?" Bob heard and vanished like a tin-canned pup. He was the most relieved youth in Bear Cat. At least he had a reprieve. Mrs. Gillespie would know what to do and how to do it. If being a married man was like this, he did not wonder that Dud Hollister and Blister Haines felt the way they did toward that holy estate. CHAPTER IX THE WHITE FEATHER At the appointed time Bob sneaked back to the hotel. He hung around the lobby for a minute or two, drifted into the saloon and gambling annex, and presently found himself hanging over the bar because he did not know what else to do with himself. Was he to go to the room after June and bring her to supper? Or was he to wait until she came out? He wished he knew. Mollie caught sight of him and put a flea in his ear. "What d' you think you're doing here, young fellow, me lad? Get outa this den of iniquity an' hustle back to the room where the little lady is waitin' for you. Hear me?" she snorted. A minute later Bob was knocking timidly on the door of room 9. A small voice told him to come in. He opened the door. June shyly met the eyes of her husband. "Mrs. Gillespie said maybe you'd want to wash up before supper." "I reckon that'd be a good idee," he said, shifting from one foot to the other. Did she expect him to wash here? Or what? June poured water into the basin and found a towel. Not for a five-dollar bill would Bob have removed his coat, though there had never been a time in his young life when he would have welcomed more a greenback. He did not intend to be indelicate while alone with a young woman in a bedroom. The very thought of it made him scarlet to the roots of his red hair.