"Skinny," Carolyn June spoke gently, "I feel sorry for you. I want to like you and I'm disappointed. It breaks my heart to say it but you are a liar--you're just a common double dashed liar--like Uncle Josiah was when he sent that telegram saying there was smallpox at the Quarter Circle KT--" "Am I?" Skinny asked humbly. "You are," she retorted impatiently, "and you know it--" "Do I?" as if dazed. "You do, and did all the time--" "Did I?" he felt like a parrot. "You did!" Carolyn June snapped. "Good heavens," she continued, "why do men think they have to lie to women? Common sense and experience ought to teach them they can never fool them long--I hoped out here in the big West I would find one man who wouldn't lie--" "Th' Ramblin' Kid won't," Skinny said as if suddenly struck by a bright thought, "--he wouldn't lie to you!" Carolyn June laughed scornfully. "Oh, yes he would," she declared, "all of them do--every last one of the poor frail"--contemptuously--"turtles!" "But th' Ramblin' Kid wouldn't," Skinny persisted; "he won't lie to anybody." "Not even to a woman?" she questioned incredulously. "No," he answered positively, "I'm sure he wouldn't." "And why wouldn't he?" she asked. "Well," Skinny replied, "for one thing he don't give a darn. Th' Ramblin' Kid don't care what anybody, man, woman or anything else thinks about him or whether they like what he says or not so there ain't any use of him lying. Maybe he wouldn't tell what was in his mind unless you asked him, but if you did ask him he'd say what it was whether he thought it satisfied you or not. He's funny that way. He just naturally don't seem to be built for telling lies and he wouldn't do it--" "Oh, Skinny, poor simple Skinny!" Carolyn June laughed. "You don't know men--men when they're dealing with women! Through all the unnamed years of my life I've never found one man who was absolutely truthful when talking with a 'female.' They think they have to lie to women. They do it either to keep from hurting them--or else they do it intentionally for the purpose of hurting them, one or the other! And they are so stupid! No man can hide anything long from a woman--" Reaching over she jerked a spray of tiny roses from the rambler at the window near which they were standing; tapping the blossoms against her lips, beginning to smile whimsically, she continued: "Why, I can almost read your own thoughts right now! If I wanted to I could tell you more about what is in your mind than you yourself could tell--" "Could you?" Skinny said, a guilty look coming in his eyes. "For one thing," Carolyn June went on, ignoring the inane question, "you are in love--" "I ain't!" the over-hasty denial slipped from his lips unintentionally. "Lie!" she laughed, "you can't help telling 'em, can you? And you are thinking--" She paused while her eyes rested demurely on the roses in her hand. "What am I thinking?" Skinny asked breathlessly.