“I have been almost praying all the way over, Freckles,” he said, “that you would have some evidence by which we could arrest those fellows and get them out of our way, but this will never do.  We can’t mix up those women in it.  They have helped you save me the tree and my wager as well.  Going across the country as she does, the Bird Woman never could be expected to testify against them.”

“No, indeed; nor the Angel, either, sir,” said Freckles.

“The Angel?” queried the astonished McLean.

The Boss listened in silence while Freckles told of the coming and christening of the Angel.

“I know her father well,” said McLean at last, “and I have often seen her.  You are right; she is a beautiful young girl, and she appears to be utterly free from the least particle of false pride or foolishness.  I do not understand why her father risks such a jewel in this place.”

“He’s daring it because she is a jewel, sir,” said Freckles, eagerly.  “Why, she’s trusting a rattlesnake to rattle before it strikes her, and of course, she thinks she can trust mankind as well.  The man isn’t made who wouldn’t lay down the life of him for her.  She doesn’t need any care.  Her face and the pretty ways of her are all the protection she would need in a band of howling savages.”

“Did you say she handled one of the revolvers?” asked McLean.

“She scared all the breath out of me body,” admitted Freckles.  “Seems that her father has taught her to shoot.  The Bird Woman told her distinctly to lie low and blaze away high, just to help scare them.  The spunky little thing followed them right out into the west road, spitting lead like hail, and clipping all around the heads and heels of them; and I’m damned, sir, if I believe she’d cared a rap if she’d hit.  I never saw much shooting, but if that wasn’t the nearest to miss I ever want to see!  Scared the life near out of me body with the fear that she’d drop one of them.  As long as I’d no one to help me but a couple of women that didn’t dare be mixed up in it, all I could do was to let them get away.”

“Now, will they come back?” asked McLean.

“Of course!” said Freckles.  “They’re not going to be taking that.  You could stake your life on it, they’ll be coming back.  At least, Black Jack will.  Wessner may not have the pluck, unless he is half drunk.  Then he’d be a terror.  And the next time—­” Freckles hesitated.

“What?”

“It will be a question of who shoots first and straightest.”

“Then the only thing for me to do is to double the guard and bring the gang here the first minute possible.  As soon as I feel that we have the rarest of the stuff out below, we will come.  The fact is, in many cases, until it is felled it’s difficult to tell what a tree will prove to be.  It won’t do to leave you here longer alone.  Jack has been shooting twenty years to your one, and it stands to reason that you are no match for him.  Who of the gang would you like best to have with you?”