Chapter 197

Chapter 13

She wore a cartridge-belt slung jauntily across her hips and from it hung a holster of stiff new leather with the top flap open to show the butt of a man-sized forty-five caliber six-shooter—her first g*n. Not a man of the g**g but had loaned her his guns time and again, but they had never dreamed of giving her a weapon of her own.

So they stared at her agape, where she stood with her head back, one hand resting on her hip, one hovering about the butt of the g*n, as if she challenged them to question her right to be called "man."

It was as if she abandoned all claims to femininity with that single step; the g*n at her side made her seem inches taller and years older. She was no longer a child, but a long-rider who could shoot with the best.

One glance she cast about th……