“Jest wanted me close? Ol' friends are the best friends—ain’t they?” He grinned weakly at her.
“Pete,” slowly, “there are some questions I want to ask you.”
“Thought it was about time for the pumps to start. What do you want to know?”
Kate’s heart leaped. She endeavored to steady her voice, to keep out of her face the eagerness with which she trembled, as she replied:
“I want to know who my father is—where he is, if he’s alive. Oh, Pete!” Her hands came together beseechingly, “Tell me that—I beg of you tell me about him.”
Satisfaction glistened in his eyes.
“I thought that would be it! The only civil words I ever got out of you when you was a kid was when you hoped to make me loosen up and talk to you about him.” Then he asked again with an expression she could not interpret, “You’re sure you’d ruther I give up that than anything else on earth?”
“Yes, Pete!” she gulped. “It means so much to me.”
“I guess yes. The ground wouldn’t be good enough for your feet if the 'Old Man’ had you.”
“Is that the truth? He’d care for me like that? Oh, Pete!”