“You talk straight,” she admitted. “But if you ain’t here to spy, what are you doin’ up here, hid into the ledge? Folks said you went out through the Gap this mornin’ with your pack and all. So to-night I thought you must be some new feller.”
“I did go. I moved because I want to sleep at night instead of watching men sneak around in the bushes. Then I decided to come back, and I came. Didn’t try to hide myself, either—tramped right along the road. You people ought to keep sharper watch on desperate dee-teck-tiffs who wander in and out of here; you never know when they’ll come back.”
His cheerful grin brought an answering smile this time. But it did not last long. At his next question it vanished.
“By the way, what am I supposed to detect in here? Detectives have to detect something, you know.”
“You be careful, mister, or you’ll detect a rock fallin’ off onto your head from up top, or a load of buckshot scatterin’ out of the brush. Some of the boys are awful careless. If you figger to stay round here you better stay away from these ledges—and keep out of caves—and don’t ask too many questions.”
“M-hm. I take it that this is a good place to keep still.”
Her tongue made no answer; but her eyes narrowed at the emphasis on the word “still.” He laughed again and bent to freshen the fire.
When he had moved the sticks inward upon their common focus and the flame was growing brighter and hotter, he frowned at a canvas water-bag pendent from a splinter of rock; thoughtfully eyed the girl’s inflamed ankle and gashed arm; glanced at a small coffee-pot at the edge of the blaze, and ran a hand through his light hair. Then his face brightened. Rising, he rummaged in a small bag of waterproof fabric, from which he produced two flat tins of tobacco.
“Have to economize on water,” he said. “All I own is in that cloth bucket, and the spring’s a deuce of a distance down. Between bathing your arm and making coffee and fixing your ankle—well, I just can’t cook that ankle as it should be done. But I can draw out most of the soreness with a tobacco poultice. That’s what we’ll have to do.”
She eyed the two tins in his hand.