Before he began to speak she was pale, sad, dull of eye.
Swiftly, with his words, she was transformed, and when he had ended she did not appear the same girl. She gave him one blazing flash of comprehension and nodded her head rapidly.
"Yes, I understand. I'll do it!" she whispered.
The outlaw turned slowly away with the most abstract air, confounded amid his shrewd acting, and he did not collect himself until half-way back to his comrades. Then, beginning to hum an old darky tune, he stirred up and replenished the fire, and set about preparation for the midday meal. But he did not miss anything going on around him. He saw the girl go into her shelter and come out with her hair all down over her face. Wilson, back to his comrades, grinned his glee, and he wagged his head as if he thought the situation was developing.
The gambling outlaws, however, did not at once see the girl preening herself and smoothing her long hair in a way calculated to startle.
"Busted!" ejaculated Anson, with a curse, as he slammed down his cards. "If I ain't hoodooed I'm a two-bit of a gambler!""Sartin you're hoodooed," said Shady Jones, in scorn. "Is thet jest dawnin' on you?""Boss, you play like a cow stuck in the mud," remarked Moze, laconically.
"Fellars, it ain't funny," declared Anson, with pathetic gravity. "I'm jest gittin' on to myself. Somethin's wrong.
Since 'way last fall no luck -- nothin' but the wust end of everythin'. I ain't blamin' anybody. I'm the boss. It's me thet's off.""Snake, shore it was the gurl deal you made," rejoined Wilson, who had listened. "I told you. Our troubles hev only begun. An' I can see the wind-up. Look!"Wilson pointed to where the girl stood, her hair flying wildly all over her face and shoulders. She was making most elaborate bows to an old stump, sweeping the ground with her tresses in her obeisance.
Anson started. He grew utterly astounded. His amaze was ludicrous. And the other two men looked to stare, to equal their leader's bewilderment.
"What 'n hell's come over her?" asked Anson, dubiously.
"Must hev perked up. . . . But she ain't feelin' thet gay!"Wilson tapped his forehead with a significant finger.
"Shore I was scared of her this mawnin'," he whispered.
"Naw!" exclaimed Anson, incredulously.
"If she hain't queer I never seen no queer wimmin,"vouchsafed Shady Jones, and it would have been judged, by the way he wagged his head, that he had been all his days familiar with women.
Moze looked beyond words, and quite alarmed.
"I seen it comin'," declared Wilson, very much excited. "But I was scared to say so. You-all made fun of me aboot her.
Now I shore wish I had spoken up."
Anson nodded solemnly. He did not believe the evidence of his sight, but the facts seemed stunning. As if the girl were a dangerous and incomprehensible thing, he approached her step by step. Wilson followed, and the others appeared drawn irresistibly.
"Hey thar -- kid!" called Anson, hoarsely.
The girl drew her slight form up haughtily. Through her spreading tresses her eyes gleamed unnaturally upon the outlaw leader. But she deigned not to reply.
"Hey thar -- you Rayner girl!" added Anson, lamely. "What's ailin' you?""My lord! did you address me?" she asked, loftily.
Shady Jones got over his consternation and evidently extracted some humor from the situation, as his dark face began to break its strain.
"Aww!" breathed Anson, heavily.
"Ophelia awaits your command, my lord. I've been gathering flowers," she said, sweetly, holding up her empty hands as if they contained a bouquet.
Shady Jones exploded in convulsed laughter. But his merriment was not shared. And suddenly it brought disaster upon him. The girl flew at him.
"Why do you croak, you toad? I will have you whipped and put in irons, you scullion!" she cried, passionately.
Shady underwent a remarkable change, and stumbled in his backward retreat. Then she snapped her fingers in Moze's face.
"You black devil! Get hence! Avaunt!"
Anson plucked up courage enough to touch her.
"Aww! Now, Ophelyar --"
Probably he meant to try to humor her, but she screamed, and he jumped back as if she might burn him. She screamed shrilly, in wild, staccato notes.
"You! You!" she pointed her finger at the outlaw leader.
"You brute to women! You ran off from your wife!"Anson turned plum-color and then slowly white. The girl must have sent a random shot home.
"And now the devil's turned you into a snake. A long, scaly snake with green eyes! Uugh! You'll crawl on your belly soon -- when my cowboy finds you. And he'll tramp you in the dust."She floated away from them and began to whirl gracefully, arms spread and hair flying; and then, apparently oblivious of the staring men, she broke into a low, sweet song. Next she danced around a pine, then danced into her little green inclosure. From which presently she sent out the most doleful moans.
"Aww! What a shame!" burst out Anson. "Thet fine, healthy, nervy kid! Clean gone! Daffy! Crazy 'n a bedbug!""Shore it's a shame," protested Wilson." But it's wuss for us. Lord! if we was hoodooed before, what will we be now?
Didn't I tell you, Snake Anson? You was warned. Ask Shady an' Moze -- they see what's up.""No luck 'll ever come our way ag'in," predicted Shady, mournfully.
"It beats me, boss, it beats me," muttered Moze.
"A crazy woman on my hands! If thet ain't the last straw!"broke out Anson, tragically, as he turned away. Ignorant, superstitious, worked upon by things as they seemed, the outlaw imagined himself at last beset by malign forces. When he flung himself down upon one of the packs his big red-haired hands shook. Shady and Moze resembled two other men at the end of their ropes.
Wilson's tense face twitched, and he averted it, as apparently he fought off a paroxysm of some nature. Just then Anson swore a thundering oath.
"Crazy or not, I'll git gold out of thet kid!" he roared.
"But, man, talk sense. Are you gittin' daffy, too? I declare this outfit's been eatin' loco. You can't git gold fer her!"said Wilson, deliberately.
"Why can't I?"
