In a flash she had taken advantage of this oasis of shade that beckoned enticingly to the passer-by.
He followed reluctantly.
“This is Heaven let loose,” she said, lolling luxuriously against the trunk of a tree. “You’re the only nice sheriff man that ever run me in.”
He sat down near her and looked gloomily ahead.
“Cheer up!” she urged, after a short silence. “It may not be so bad. Any one would think you were the prisoner instead of poor little me.”
“I wish I were,” he said shortly.
She looked at him curiously.
“Say, what’s eating you, anyway? If you hate your job so, what did you take it for?”
“It was forced on me. I’m only sworn in as acting sheriff for the county until the sheriff returns.”
“How long you been ‘it’?”