“She’s in love with him an’——” Tom Powers left his sentence unfinished.
“Knows he’s goin’ to cash pronto an’ keeps laughin’,” Sam Hogg finished for him.
“She’s got nerve, even if she is only a gal,” Toothpick stated.
“It’s a shame. Ain’t there a chance of gettin’ the little cuss a pardon?” Tom Powers asked.
“Not any, an’ that’s positive. The United States wants him, an’ every State west of Mississippi has a price on him,” Toothpick replied.
“I’m tellin’ yuh he’ll get a pardon in Texas if he comes out of this,” Sam Hogg cried.
“Yea, if——” Tom Powers said softly.
The two they watched continued their laughter.
“Tell me where this valley of yours is,” Snippets pleaded.
“Yuh start from Wilton in Arizona. Yuh follow the sun until yuh come to the Three Widows. They is Black Buttes what looks sorrowful. The trail goes up Paintbox Canyon. An’ when yuh can’t go no farther, yuh start climbing to the moon, and pretty soon yuh see it. It ain’t very big, but there’s surprising trees an’ grass an’ plumb gorgeous flowers, an’ there’s a house an’ hosses—regular man-eaters. An’ there’s a gal cooking pies fer ’em an’——Shucks!” Allen interrupted his dreaming. “They’s everything yuh want, when yuh get to the moon.”