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Page 31
When they were well started on their way, the man explained that he had
hurried because from conversation with the men he had learned that this
ranch where they had spent the night was on the direct trail from Malta to
another small town. It might be that the pursuers would go further than
Malta. Did she think they would go so far? They must have come almost a
hundred miles already. Would they not be discouraged?
But the girl looked surprised. A hundred miles on horseback was not far.
Her brother often used to ride a hundred miles just to see a fight or have
a good time. She felt sure the men would not hesitate to follow a long
distance if something else did not turn them aside.
The man's face looked sternly out from under his wide hat. He felt a great
responsibility for the girl since he had seen the face of the man who was
pursuing her.
Their horses were fresh, and the day was fine. They rode hard as long as
the road was smooth, and did little talking. The girl was turning over in
her mind the words the woman had spoken to her. But the thing that stuck
there and troubled her was, "And he knows it is so."
Was she doing something for which this man by her side would not respect
her? Was she overstepping some unwritten law of which she had never heard,
and did he know it, and yet encourage her in it?
That she need fear him in the least she would not believe. Had she not
watched the look of utmost respect on his face as he stood quietly waiting
for her to awake the first morning they had met? Had he not had
opportunity again and again to show her dishonor by word or look? Yet he
had never been anything but gentle and courteous to her. She did not call
things by these names, but she felt the gentleman in him.
Besides, there was the lady. He had told about her at the beginning. He
evidently honored the lady. The woman had said that the lady would not
ride with him alone. Was it true? Would he not like to have the lady ride
alone with him when she was not his relative in any way? Then was there a
difference between his thought of the lady and of herself? Of course,
there was some; he loved the lady, but he should not think less honorably
of her than of any lady in the land.
She sat straight and proudly in her man's saddle, and tried to make him
feel that she was worthy of respect. She had tried to show him this when
she had shot the bird. Now she recognized that there was a fine something,
higher than shooting or prowess of any kind, which would command respect.
It was something she felt belonged to her, yet she was not sure she
commanded it. What did she lack, and how could she secure it?
He watched her quiet, thoughtful face, and the lady of his former troubled
thoughts was as utterly forgotten by him as if she had never existed. He
was unconsciously absorbed in the study of eye and lip and brow. His eyes
were growing accustomed to the form and feature of this girl beside him,
and he took pleasure in watching her.
They stopped for lunch in a coulee under a pretty cluster of cedar-trees a
little back from the trail, where they might look over the way they had
come and be warned against pursuers. About three o'clock they reached a
town. Here the railroad came directly from Malta, but there was but one
train a day each way.
The man went to the public stopping-place and asked for a room, and boldly
demanded a private place for his "sister" to rest for a while. "She is my
little sister," he told himself in excuse for the word. "She is my sister
to care for. That is, if she were my sister, this is what I should want
some good man to do for her."
He smiled as he went on his way after leaving the girl to rest. The
thought of a sister pleased him. The old woman at the ranch had made him
careful for the girl who was thus thrown in his company.
He rode down through the rough town to the railway station, but a short
distance from the rude stopping-place; and there he made inquiries
concerning roads, towns, etc., in the neighboring locality, and sent a
telegram to the friends with whom he had been hunting when he got lost. He
said he would be at the next town about twenty miles away. He knew that by
this time they would be back home and anxious about him, if they were not
already sending out searching parties for him. His message read:
"Hit the trail all right. Am taking a trip for my health. Send mail to me
at ----"
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