Hayes for the guidance of
postmasters when I tell you, lady, that something has broke loose and that
the red garment that you fain would hide from the gaze of the world has
asserted itself and appears to the naked eye about two chains and three
links below your dress. I am going abroad, to visit Joe Lindon, the
independent candidate for sheriff, and you can step into the back office
and take a reef in it."
He did not see the look of fire in her eyes as he went out, because he was
not looking at her eye. She passed out, and Doc Spaulding, who has got a
heart in him as big as a box car, saw it, and touching his broad brimmed
felt hat he said, in a whisper:
"Madame, you better drop into a millinery store and fasten up your--"
But she passed him on a run, and was just going into a hardware
store, with her hand on her pistol pocket, when Jule Keyes happened along.
Now, Jule would consider himself a horse thief if he should allow a woman
to go along the street with anything the matter with her clothes, and he
not warn her of the consequences, so he stopped and told her that she must
excuse him, a perfect stranger, for mentioning her petticoat, but the fact
was that it was coming off.
[Illustration: MYSTERY OF A WOMAN'S CLOTHES!]
By this time the woman was mad. She bought a pistol and started for the
depot, firmly resolved to kill the first man that molested her.
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