FIRST BLOOD!
Occasionally Alice Mackenzie met Collins on the streets of
Tucson. Once she saw him at the hotel where she was staying, deep
in a discussion with her father of ways and means of running down
the robbers of the Limited. He did not, however, make the least
attempt to push their train acquaintanceship beyond the give and
take of casual greeting. Without showing himself unfriendly, he
gave her no opportunity to determine how far they would go with
each other. This rather piqued her, though she would probably
have rebuffed him if he had presumed far. Of which probability
Val Collins was very well aware.
They met one morning in front of a drug store downtown. She
carried a parasol that was lilac-trimmed, which shade was also
the outstanding note of her dress. She was looking her very best,
and no doubt knew it. To Val her dainty freshness seemed to
breathe the sweetness of spring violets.
"Good morning, Miss Mackenzie. Weather like this I'm awful glad I
ain't a mummy," he told her. "The world's mighty full of
beautiful things this glad day."
"Essay on the Appreciation of Nature, by Professor Collins," she
smiled.
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