“Oh, of course,” Honey assented.  “I miss the boys, too,” he mourned, “I used to have a frolic with them every morning before I left and every night when I got home.”

“And it’s all so uncomfortable living alone,” Ralph grumbled.  He was unshaven.  The others showed in various aspects of untidiness the lack of female standards.

“I’m so sick of my own cooking,” Honey complained.

“Not so sick as we are,” said Pete.

“Anybody can have my job that wants it,” Honey volunteered with a touch of surliness unusual with him.

At noon the five women appeared again at the end of the trail.

In contrast to the tired faces and dishevelled figures of the men, they presented an exquisite feminine freshness, hair beautifully coiled, garments spotless and unwrinkled.  But although their eyes were like stars and their cheeks like flowers, their faces were serious; a dew, as of tears lately shed, lay over them.

“Shall Angela fly?"’ Julia asked without parley.

The women turned.

“Wait a moment,” Frank called in a sudden tone of authority.  “I’m with you women in this.  If you’ll let me join your forces, I’ll fight on your side.”

He had half-covered the distance between them before Julia stopped him with a “Wait a moment!” as decisive as his own.

“In the first place,” she said, “we don’t want your help.  If we don’t get this by our own efforts, we’ll never value it.  In the second place, we’ll never be sure of it.  We don’t trust you — quite.  You tricked us once.  That was your fault.  If you trick us again, that’s our fault.  Thank you — but no, Frank.”

The women disappeared down the trail while still the men stood staring.

“Well, can you beat it?” was the only comment for a moment — and that came from Pete.  In another instant, they had turned on Merrill, were upbraiding him hotly for what they called his treason.

“You can’t bully me,” was his unvarying answer.  “Remember, any time they call on me, I’ll fight for them.”

“Well, you can do what you want with your own wife, of course,” Ralph said, falling into one of his black rages.  “But I’m damned if you’ll encourage mine.”

“Boys,” he added later, after a day of steadily increasing rage, “I’m tired of this funny business.  Let’s knock off work to-morrow and hunt them.  What gets me is their simplicity.  They don’t seem to have calculated on our superior strength.  It won’t take us more than a few hours to run them to earth.  By God, I wish we had a pair of bloodhounds.”

“All right,” said Billy.  “I’m with you, Ralph.  I’m tired of this.”

“Let’s go, to bed early to-night,” said Pete, and start at sunrise.”

“Well,” said Honey philosophically, “I’ve hunted deer, bear, panther, buffalo, Rocky Mountain sheep, jaguar, lion, tiger, and rhinoceros — but this is the first time I ever hunted women.”