Lingle mumbled that he “presumed so.”
“I suppose you are the new herder?”
“I came out with him,” the deputy replied evasively.
“Didn’t Uncle Joe come?” Kate’s face fell in disappointment.
Lingle shifted his weight and looked elsewhere.
“He’s in town yet,” he answered.
Lingle knew instinctively that she thought Mormon Joe was drinking heavily.
Then, fixing her troubled eyes upon him she asked hesitatingly:
“Did he—say when I could expect him?”
The merciless hound of the law, who had dismounted, shuffled his feet uneasily and looked down to see if his badge was showing.