Which is it, Pierre ?" The other made a familiar gesture with those who knew him, a touching of his left hand against his throat where the cross lay.
He said: "I suppose it seems like that to you." "Like what?
Dodging me, eh?
Well, I never press the point, but I'd give the worth of your horse, Pierre, to see you and Mary together." Red Pierre started, and then frowned.
"Irritates you a little, eh?
Well, a woman is like a spur to most men." He added, with a momentary gloom: "God knows, I bear the marks of 'em." He raised his head, as if he looked up in response to his thought.
"But there's a difference with this girl.

I've named the quality of her before--it disarms a man." Pierre looked to his friend with some alarm, for there was a saying among the followers of Boone that a woman would be the downfall of big Dick Wilbur again, as a woman had been his downfall before.

The difference would be that this fall must be his last.
And Wilbur went on: "She's Eastern, Pierre, and out here visiting the daughter of old Barnes who owns about a thousand miles of range, you know.

How long will she be here?
That's the question I'm trying to answer for her.

I met her riding over the hills--she was galloping along a ridge, and she rode her way right into my heart.