"I goes to El Crucifixo, like yuh tells me to," drawled Toothpick. "An' I'm tellin' yuh I seen there a million dollars' worth of outlaws, 'cause a gent down there ain't known socially unless he carries a thousand, dead or alive. I ambles into the Palace Saloon, and the gents look hard at me, an' that bunch can sure look hard. A couple slid up to me and ask me bluntlike who I am. I tell 'em quick I'm huntin' Jim-twin Allen. At that they eye me different. Then I spots Jim sittin' at a table by his lonesome, and I calls him. He's darned glad to see me. Fie tells those hard hombres I'm his friend, and they get soft, pronto." His deliberation irritated the girl. "But is he coming?" she demanded impatiently. "Sure is." Snippets' eyes lighted with joy. "I tell him about the Lava Gang, and he won't come. Then I tell him yuh want him to come, and still he refuses. He gets sorta bitter an' says he ain't no cow-thief catcher--that's his brother Jack's job. I plead with him and tell him how your uncle's in danger. He says he's not comin' up here to help your uncle hang a man. By accident I tell how the Lava Gang now and then runs off gals across the border fer ransom and how they murdered that Courfay woman. At that he says quicklike he'll come a-runnin'." "When is he coming?" she asked quickly. He shook his head. "I dunno." "And when you told him I wanted him to come, he wouldn't?" she asked softly. "Positively not," Toothpick said bluntly. Another question trembled on her lips, but her eyes clouded and she turned away, leaving it unsaid. Toothpick called to her. "Yuh know why he refused," he grumbled. "Yuh know darn well Jim Allen is an outlaw and hasn't a Chinaman's chance of being pardoned. He'd be a hell of a fellow if he came to see a girl like yuh. But I'll tell yuh this: He talked a heap about yuh and made me promise I'd tell yuh he was no good, an' that he thought yuh was only a fool romantic gal what thinks yuh like him' cause he's the famous 'White Wolf.'" "That's not true, Toothpick," she said quietly. "Sure, I knows," he told her. "It's not the Wolf I like, but----" "Sure, you and me and Dutchy is the same. We likes the kid, Jim Allen, what blubbers about his hosses." Toothpick twirled his hat to hide his emotion. "It's a damned shame!" he exploded. "Just the same, kid, yuh want to forget yuh ever see him and marry some nice tame gent." "Like you, Toothpick?" she asked, smiling. "Me?" Toothpick grunted. "Not any! I knows yuh too well. Yuhr tongue is too darned sharp. It keeps a man hoppin' all the time. Come on! Here's the train."