“D’they locate you in on ’em?”

“Locate me—­in?  You mean, as a partner?  They emphatically did not!  I went up to the claims to-day, saw that they had not done a thing since the last time I was there; they had even taken away my tools.  So we tracked them, Baby and I, and found their location monuments just over the hill, and saw where they had been working.  So to-night I asked them about it, and they were very defiant and very cool and decided that they were through out here and would go to town.  They were borrowing Jawn—­so they said.  I was objecting, naturally.  I was quite against being left alone out here, afoot, with Babe on my hands.  It will soon be coming on cold,” she said.  “I’d have been in a fine predicament, with supplies for only about a month longer.  And I must get the assessment work done, too, you know.”

“D’you want ’em to stay and finish your work?” Casey reached out with his foot and pushed Joe down upon his back again.

The little woman looked down at Joe and across at Ole by the car.  “No, thank you.  I should undoubtedly put strychnine in their coffee if they stayed, I should hate the sight of them so.  I have some that I brought for the pack rats.  No, I don’t want them—­”

She had sounded very cool and calm, and she had impressed Casey as being quite as fearless as himself.  But now he caught a trembling in her voice, and he distinctly saw her lip quiver.  He was so disturbed that he went over and slapped Ole again and told him to shut up, though Ole was not saying a word.

“Where’s their bed-rolls?” Casey asked, when he turned toward her again.  She pointed to the tent, and Casey went and dragged forth the packed belongings of the two.  It was perfectly plain that they had deliberately planned their desertion, for everything was ready to load into the car.

Casey went staggering to the Ford, dumped the canvas rolls in and yanked Ole up by the collar, propelling him into the tonneau.  Then he came after Joe.

“If you can drive, you’ll mebby feel better if yuh go along,” he said to the woman.  “I’m goin’ to haul ’em far enough sos’t they won’t feel like walkin’ back to bother yuh, and seein’ you don’t know me, mebby you better do the drivin’.  Then you’ll know I ain’t figurin’ on stealin’ your car and makin’ a getaway.”

“I can drive, of course,” she acquiesced.  “Not that I’d be afraid to trust Jawn with you, but they’re treacherous devils, those two, and they might manage somehow to make you trouble if you go alone.  Jawn is a temperamental car, and he demands all of one’s attention at times.”

She walked over to the car, reached out in the gathering dusk and fingered the carburetor adjustment.  “When they first revealed their plan of making away with Jawn,” she drawled, “I came up like this and remonstrated.  And while I did so I reached over and turned the screw and shut off the gas feed.  Jawn balked with them, of course—­but they never guessed why!”