The girl gave a cry—sharp, anguished, as one might scream out with a crushed finger.
Bowers advanced a step and demanded fiercely of Lingle:
“Don’t you know nothin’—not no damned nothin’?”
Kate’s face was marble.
“You mean—he’s dead—he won’t come back here—ever?”
“You’ve said it,” the deputy replied, huskily.
Kate walked back unsteadily to the seat she had just vacated and her head sank upon her folded arms on the table. She did not cry like a woman, but with deep tearless sobs that lifted her shoulders.
The two men stood with their hands hanging awkwardly, looking at each other. Then Bowers made a grimace and jerked his head towards the tent entrance. The deputy obeyed the signal and went out on tip-toe with the sheepherder following.
“She’s got guts,” said Bowers briefly.
“She’ll need ’em,” was the laconic answer.