After he had scrubbed himself till his face was like a shining apple, June lent him a comb. She stole a furtive look at him while he was standing before the small cracked mirror. For better or worse he was her man. She had to make the best of him. A sense of proprietorship that was almost pride glowed faintly in her. He was a nice boy, even if he was so thin and red and freckled. Bob would be good to her. She was sure of that. "Mrs. Gillespie said she reckoned she could fix you up a job to help the cook," the bride said. "You mean--to-night or for good?" "Right along, she said." Bob did not welcome the suggestion. There was an imperative urge within him to get away from Bear Cat before Jake Houck arrived. There was no use dodging it. He was afraid of the fellow's vengeance. This was a country where men used firearms freely. The big man from Brown's Park might shoot him down at sight. "I don't reckon we'd better stay here," he answered uneasily. "In a bigger town I can get a better job likely." "But we haven't money enough to go on the stage, have we?" "If there was a bull team going out mebbe I could work my way." "W-e-ll." She considered this dubiously. "If we stayed here Mrs. Gillespie would let me wash dishes an' all. She said she'd give me two dollars a week an' my board. Tha's a lot of money, Bob." He looked out of the window. "I don't want trouble with Jake Houck. It--it would worry you." "Yes, but--" June did not quite know how to say what was in her mind. She had an instinctive feeling that the way to meet trouble was to face it unafraid and not to run away from it. "I don't reckon we'd better show Jake we're scared of him--now. O' course he'll be mad at first, but he's got no right to be. Jes' 'cause he kep' a-pesterin' me don't give him no claim on me." "No, but you know what he is an' how he acts." "I'll go where you want to go. I jes' thought, seein' how good to us Mrs. Gillespie has been, that maybe--" "Well, we'll talk it over after supper," Bob said. "I'm for lighting out myself. To Laramie or Cheyenne, say." As they had not eaten since breakfast they were a pair of hungry young animals. They did full justice to the steak, French frys, mince pie, and coffee Mrs. Gillespie had promised. They hung for a moment awkwardly outside the dining-room. Both of them were looking for an excuse to avoid returning to their room yet. "Like to look the town over?" Bob asked. June accepted eagerly. They walked up the single business street and looked in the windows. The young husband bought his bride a paper sack of chocolates and they ate them as they strolled. Somehow they did not feel half as shy of each other in the open as when shut up together between the walls of a bedroom. Dusk was beginning to fall. It veiled the crude and callow aspects of the frontier town and filled the hollows of the surrounding hills with a soft violet haze.