"My, but you're purty!" he cried. She nodded to him, laughing.
They took their way down the gulch, walking soberly in the road, while Peter skirmished unrestrained among the possibilities of the thickets at either hand. In the judgment of the Kid, this was too near town for the best hunting. The Kid talked.
"No," replied Molly, "I've always been up in the hills, you know; it's more fun, I think. Do you think we'll find anything down here near the road?"
"Not just yet; but after we get by Bugchaser's--Say, you've never seen Bugchaser, then, have you?"
"No," laughed the girl, "I should think not. What in the world is Bugchaser?"
"It isn't a 'what'; it's a 'him.' He's crazy. He has a 'coon, and a bear, and a bobcat. I'd like to go up an' see 'em, but I'm scairt of him."
"Pop says he eats little boys. Hoh! that ain't so, of course. But he's crazy, you know."
"Oh!" cried Molly comprehendingly, and began to laugh.
The Kid looked at her with offended reproach.
"Well," he remarked finally, "you can do what you want; but you betcher life I'm keepin' away from him!"
His eyes were wide with childish wonder, strangely incongruous in this solemn, lonely little creature with his ways of early maturity and his ridiculous cut-down clothes.
"There, there," laughed Molly soothingly. "I wonder what's up with Peter!"
Peter was barking like a bunch of fire crackers.
"Sounds exciting!" said she. "Maybe it's a squirrel up a tree. Let's see!"
The Kid threw his rifle into the position of a most portentous ready, and the two entered the bushes. Peter was discovered, his hair bristling between his shoulders, jumping eagerly around some object which lay, invisible, on the ground. He snapped with excitement. The Kid ran forward with a shout. Molly picked her skirts up and followed with equal rapidity and considerably more grace. They nearly ran over a large coiled rattlesnake.
The Kid yelled and leaped to one side. Molly stopped stock-still and uttered a piercing scream, after which she climbed rapidly to the top of a near-by bowlder, where she perched, her skirts daintily raised, her eyes bright with excitement. Peter leaped madly about. The Kid discharged rapid but ineffectual pea bullets at the reptile.