She would have considered it as much as her life was worth to put her saddle on him without first asking Bill.

Once she had asked Bill, and Bill had looked as if she had asked for his toothbrush; shocked, incredulous, as though he could not believe his ears.

"Well, I should sa-ay not!" Bill had replied when she had made it plain that she expected an answer.
Ordinarily that would be accepted as final, even by Mary V.But ordinarily Mary V did not climb out of her bedroom window to ride all night, even though there was a perfectly intoxicating moon.

Certainly not to a far line-camp where a young man lived alone, just to ask him why some one else answered his telephone for him.
To-night was her night for extraordinary behavior, evidently.

She certainly showed that she had designs on Jake.