Page:Arthur Stringer - The Hand of Peril.djvu/30

 of this hammerless Colt was pointed unequivocally at his own head.

He did not like the idea of that Colt, for there was a calm audacity about the young woman in the tiptilted hat that left the next possibility a matter of rather painful conjecture.

"Put 'em up!" commanded the girl, taking a step or two nearer him, "and put 'em up quick!"

Kestner assumed that she meant his hands at the same moment that he decided it to be expedient to do as she ordered.

"Now stand up!" said the girl.

The audacious grey-green eyes looked him over. Then the owner of the audacious eyes sighed audibly.

"Gee, an' you an Amurrican! An' gotta pass away so many miles from home."

"Oh, put that thing down!" cried the impatient Kestner, for his attitude was not a comfortable one.

The girl laughed. But the ever-menacing revolver remained where it was.

"No, honey-child, not on your life!" She took still another step nearer him. "Don't you s'pose I've got me home an' mother to purtect? No sir-ee, not on your retouched negative!"

"Then what do you intend doing?" asked Kestner. He risked the movement, as he spoke, of calmly folding his arms.

Her face hardened, for a second, as she saw the movement. But on second thought she seemed to accept the new position as one sufficiently safe.

"You don't dream you're goin' to get out o' here alive, do you?" innocently demanded the girl.