She looked up at him, her wild eyes melting, her delicately cut lips upcurling in a smile; then her head drooped, her whole body expressed a soft yielding.

Hanson grew white, almost he stretched out his arms as if to clasp her, when she threw up her head with a low laugh, a tinkle of mockery through it, like the jangled strings of her guitar.

“But I mean it,” she insisted, and now he saw that she had something really on her mind, something she had determined to say to him.  “Listen to me,” imperiously, “and stop looking at me as if you were looking through me and still didn’t see me.”

“I’m seeing your eyes, Pearl,” he muttered, “and they drown me.  And I’m seeing your lips and they draw me like a magnet does a needle; but if they drew me through hell, I’d go.”

“Listen,” she spoke more imperiously than before.  “Have you noticed how Pop’s been watching you—­looking slantwise out of the corners of his eyes whenever you come around.”

“I sure have,” replied Hanson, “being as I’m not blind.  But what of it?  I supposed he treated every one that came around you like that.”

“No,” she shook her head thoughtfully.  “I been studying over it, but I can’t quite make it out.  Pop don’t pay much attention to men that ain’t his kind, and you’re not.  And Bob Flick is always jealous, of course, but he doesn’t usually take it out watching folks like a ferret does a rat hole.  No, it isn’t that.”

“Well, what do you put it down to?” Rudolf tried to speak easily.

Pearl paid no particular heed to this question.  “And it’s not all Hughie,” she mused.  “Of course,” and here he saw an expression of real regret, almost worry, on her face, “of course it’s bad for all of us when Hughie takes a dislike to any one.”

Hanson’s sense of injury was inflamed.  “But why the devil,” he cried, “should Hughie’s unreasoning cranks count with commonsense people?  I can’t understand,” with wondering impatience, “why you all act like you do about that boy!”

“We’ve all learned that Hughie knows things that we don’t know.”

“Umph!” the exclamation was disgustedly incredulous.  “And so, simply because Hughie chooses to take a dislike to me, I’m to be watched like a criminal and treated, even by you, with suspicion.”

“No,” she said, “I’ve been studying over it, but I can’t quite make it out.  Pop don’t pay much attention, usually.  But,” she spoke slowly, “I thought maybe you’d tell me this morning.”

“Well, there’s nothing to tell,” he affirmed obstinately.

She looked out over the desert for a moment.  “Bob Flick hit the trail last night,” she spoke casually.

“To go where?”

“I don’t know.  I wish I did.  But I kind of feel, I can’t help but feel, that it had something to do with you, and I wanted to tell you, to let you know, so that you can clear out if you’ve a mind to.”

“I’ve no cause to clear out,” said Hanson.  “Gee!” his bold eyes looked gaily into hers, “you all seem determined to make me out bad, don’t you?  But if that’s your way of trying to get rid of me, it don’t go.  When you tell me that you won’t sign up with me, and are going back to Sweeney, for just half of what I offer you, then I’ll know that you want to get rid of me, and I’ll clear out.”