Page:The Trail Rider (1924).pdf/314

 "I wish I had my hair," said she, after a long silence.

"It was too bad to cut it off thataway, Fannie. Couldn't it 'a' been combed out?"

"Maybe."

"It was the finest hair I ever saw on a lady's head, bar none. Well, it'll grow out again, Fannie."

"Yes," she said, "it'll grow out, but you'll be gone then, Texas."

"Yes, I'll be gone."

"If I'd known for sure you were here I wouldn't have had it cut. But I didn't know whether you were alive or dead, and I was afraid to come back a girl. Between them, Stott and Mackey would have killed me, Texas."

"I wouldn't put it past them."

"Yes, and I'll tell you, Texas, Stott won't own up to the cattlemen to clear you. He'll wiggle out of it some way."

"I'll call him up to the lick-log in the morning."

"He'll not be afraid of us now, since he's paid that money back to the McCoys; he'll tell us to go to hell."

"Maybe he will, Fannie."

"Nobody will believe a man as generous as him would shoot his pardner in the back. I guess we