“Ain’t there no punishment for men who deceive girls?”
“Very little, Hagar, I fear—unless it is God’s punishment.”
“Shucks!” The girl’s eyes flashed vindictively. “There ought to be. Durn ’em, anyway!”
“Hagar, what has brought such a subject into your mind?” said Ruth wonderingly.
The girl reddened, but met Ruth’s eyes determinedly. “I’ve got a book in here, that dad got with some other traps from ol’ man Cullen’s girls, back in Red Rock—they thought we was poorly, an’ they helped us that-a-way. It’s ‘Millie’s Lovers,’ an’ it tells how a man deceived a girl, an’ run away an’ left her—the sneakin’ coyote!”
“Girls shouldn’t read such books, Hagar.”
“Yes, they ought to. But it ought to tell in ’em how to get even with the men who do things like that!” She frowned as she looked at Ruth. “What would you think of a man that done that in real life?”
“I should think that he wouldn’t be much of a man,” said Ruth.
As before, Ruth departed from this visit, puzzled and wondering.
On another morning, a few days following Ruth’s discovery of the shooting of Kelso, she found Hagar standing on the porch. The dog had apprised Hagar of the coming of her visitor. Hagar’s first words were: