"Outrageous!" Carolyn June added vehemently, "but truth just the same! To start with they didn't want us to come. That telegram lying about them all having the smallpox proved as much. We were, for some reason or other, considered 'afflictions,' Why, I don't know. I guess they thought we were a pair of female vampires or something and had to be disposed of in advance to prevent our stirring things up and causing a lot of murders or suicides or duels on the Quarter Circle KT!" "I can't believe it," Ophelia muttered as if stunned. "Why, that would be 'dealing' with us just as though we were cattle!" "That's it!" Carolyn June exclaimed vindictively, her anger for the moment getting the better of her sense of the ridiculous, "they 'dealt' in us! More than likely they played poker to decide how to divide us up--to see who should love you and which should love me! As if the heart of a woman can be made to run in a groove cut to order by the hand of any masculine--insect!" she finished, thoughtless of the incongruous metaphor. "Then Skinny and your Uncle Josiah," the widow murmured, "and Parker--are--are--pretending?" "No," Carolyn June answered, "they started out 'pretending,' but they've stepped into their own trap! They are painfully serious now--they are 'intending!'" "What shall we do about it?" Ophelia asked helplessly. "We ought to assassinate them!" Carolyn June snapped, then laughed as the absurdity of the situation dawned upon her and her sense of humor overcame the moment of anger and indignation. "I have it--I've got it! We will Vamp' them in dead earnest! We'll fix the 'fixers,' we'll frame the 'framers'!" "But how?" doubtfully. "From now on," Carolyn June replied decisively, "I am going to flirt, individually and collectively--desperately and wickedly--with the whole male population of this ranch! We'll show them what premeditated love-making really is! When it comes to Uncle Josiah and, well, possibly Parker, you will have to take care of that giddy pair yourself and, incidentally, you might work some on Charley Saunders," mentioning the oldest of the cowboys. "I'll just flicker an eyelid occasionally at Parker, unless you object?" "Not in the least," Ophelia answered, blushing a trifle. "Well, then, we will make it a free-for-all," Carolyn June said, "and--" "How about the Ramblin' Kid?" the widow interrupted, "do you think he is one of the conspirators--is in on the--the--'frame-up?' Is he also to be a 'Victim'?" Carolyn June colored the least bit, paused a moment before she replied, then said rather stiffly: "He--yes, he is probably having more fun watching us being 'officially' made love to than any other one of the entire bunch. The Ramblin' Kid will have to take his medicine along with the rest! Every man-thing on the Quarter Circle KT--eliminating Sing Pete from that classification --is my meat!" "When does the slaughter begin?" Ophelia laughed. "Right now!" Carolyn June answered. "War is declared--"