Page:Ritchie - Trails to Two Moons.djvu/186

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
Trails to Two Moons

wearing overalls beneath a courtesy skirt was on the warpath with her scalp lock roached.

The three pulled rein at the hitching bar before the Occidental and before she dismounted Woolly Annie called to an acquaintance on the sidewalk in a great voice:

"Anybody seen them two rickety doodle bugs, Timberline Todd and Andy Dorson, hidin' under a wet log hereabouts? For if anybody has, just lead me to 'em so 's I can take 'em apart an' examine into their systems, pronto."

Immediately a crowd gathered, for Two Moons was in a state of nerves this day and ready to stampede at the popping of a sarsaparilla bottle. Woolly Annie did not play upon the crowd's expectancy; she unbosomed herself immediately and in rumbling organ tones of wrath:

"Three nights ago, me playin' horse here in Two Moons an' enjoying myself like a new-born schoolgirl because I thought I did n't have an enemy in the world outside ten or a dozen I could name offhand, an' what happens? Timberline Todd, Andy Dorson an' ten other crawlin' kiotes from the cattle outfits ride out to my range on Poison Spider, shoot up two