CHAPTER XII.
FINESSE "A man talks because he's drunk or lonesome; a girl talks because that's her way of takin' exercise." This was a maxim of Buck Daniels, and Buck Daniels knew a great deal about women, as many a school marm and many a rancher's daughter of the mountain-desert could testify.
Also Buck Daniels said of women: "It ain't what you say to 'em so much as the tune you put it to." Now he sat this day in O'Brien's hotel dining-room.

It was the lazy and idle hour between three and four in the afternoon, and since the men of the mountain-desert eat promptly at six, twelve, and six, there was not a soul in the room when he entered.

Nor was there a hint of eating utensils on the tables.

Nevertheless Buck Daniels was not dismayed.

He selected a corner-table by instinct and smote upon the surface with the flat of his hand.