And then she came suddenly upon Sandy! Of course she uttered the little staccato cry of her sex.

But when she had paid that tribute to her physical weakness she became overbold, and halted for a moment--at least six feet from this prostrate monster--with her white skirts gathered in her hand, ready for flight.

But neither sound nor motion came from the bush.

With one little foot she then overturned the satirical headboard, and muttered "Beasts!"-- an epithet which probably, at that moment, conveniently classified in her mind the entire male population of Red Gulch.

For Miss Mary, being possessed of certain rigid notions of her own, had not, perhaps, properly appreciated the demonstrative gallantry for which the Californian has been so justly celebrated by his brother Californians, and had, as a newcomer, perhaps fairly earned the reputation of being "stuck-up." As she stood there she noticed, also, that the slant sunbeams were heating Sandy's head to what she judged to be an unhealthy temperature, and that his hat was lying uselessly at his side.