“You made me,” she said. “I didn’t want to. But now that you’ve started this thing, I’ll see it all the way if you make another move toward me. I’m a woman, you must remember. A jury couldn’t be got together that wouldn’t acquit me. Think it over.”
Blacky did, then said huskily: “You win, I guess.”
“Then turn around and walk away from me.”
He obeyed her silently, and she touched the mare’s ribs and rode swiftly away from the tank.
Roars of derision sounded behind her as the disappointed Romeo returned to Johnny’s Place.
The triumphant but badly shaken girl reached the street in front and rode before Stlingbloke’s single store. There she dismounted and made a purchase hurriedly, and, back in her saddle, she engaged herself with it and the pencil she always carried in her chaparajos.
She finished just as Mart came riding in from the darkening desert on his snip-nosed bay.
Still pale from her recent experience, Manzanita rode to meet him, calling:
“Mart! Mart!”