"Because I wanted to find out what it meant."
"Well, you found out," sententiously. "Now, go to bed, but first let me help you remove that coat."
"Mrs. Ballou, you are a woman in a thousand," I exclaimed, as I rose to receive her assistance. "And I don't see how I can ever repay you. You are your own reliance."
As I spoke, the coat fell from my shoulder and my hand touched the weapon in my pistol pocket.
She saw it, too, and pointing to it, said:
"I have never owned a pistol, because I could not buy one without letting Fred know it; he is always with me in town. If you think I have earned it give me that."
"Gladly," I said, drawing out the small silver-mounted six-shooter; "it is loaded, every barrel. Can you use it?"
"Yes; I know how to use firearms."