"Of course the Indian's feet are tough as leather, and they have it on you there. Hence this liquid courtplaster. It's worth a trial. Honestly, I held my finger on the stove--oh, ever so long! A full second, I'd say." Back went her glorious head, and her teeth flashed in the sunlight as, drunk with the wine of youth and health, she sent her rollicking laughter out over the hills and cañons. "I'll be there watching and rooting for you," she assured him at last. "I can do so openly now--since you've won the heart of Adam Selden. What do you think? He told me to invite you over sometime! But all this doesn't fit in quite logically with the ivory-handled Colt I see on your hip today for the first time. Explain both, please." "Well," he said, "Selden seemed ready to cut my throat till he examined Poche's bridle and saw the B on the back of a _concha_." "Ah!" she breathed, drawing in her lips. "And then he grew nice as pie--and that's all there is to that." "And the six?" "Well, I buckled it on this morning, thinking I might practice up a bit, as you advised." "So far so good. Now amend it and tell the truth." "I went down to Sulphur Spring after the Poison Oakers left me, and as I was examining the water a bullet plunked into it from the hills and I got my eyebrows wet. As I don't like to have anybody but myself wet my eyebrows, I'm totin' a six. And I rather like the weight of it against my leg again. It reminds me!" "Who shot at you?" He shrugged. "_At_ you, do you think?--or into the water to frighten you?" "Whoever fired could not see me, but knew I was in the bushes about the spring. Took a rather long chance, if he merely wished to give me a touch of highlife, don't you think?" "I wonder if the bullet is still in the basin." "I never thought of that. I ducked for cover at once, of course, and, as nobody showed up, rode back home." She lifted White Ann to her hind legs and spun her about in her tracks. "We'll ride to Sulphur Spring and look for that bullet," she announced. "And be ambushed," he added, as Poche followed White Ann's lead. CHAPTER XIV HIGH POWER Jessamy and Oliver had wheeled their horses with such unexpected suddenness that the man who was trailing them was caught off his guard. He stood plainly revealed for a moment in the open; then he found his wits and plunged indiscriminately into the shielding chaparral. "Oh-ho!" cried Jessamy in a low tone. "The plot thickens! Did you see him?" "I'm going after him," declared her companion. "Stop!" she commanded, as he lifted Poche for a leap toward the skulker's vanishing point. He reined in quickly. "Why?" "What good will come of it? Why try to nose him out? We may be ahead in the end if we play the game as they do. We have more chance of finding out what they're up to by leaving them alone, I'd say."