“Must you be a-movin’ so soon?” she asked.
“Yes; I’m only waiting till the posse gets back and you’re safe.” And even as he spoke his trained ear caught the sound of horses hoofs. “Why, they’re coming now!” he exclaimed with suppressed excitement, and his eyes immediately fastened themselves on his saddle.
The Girl looked her disappointment when she said:
“I’m awfully sorry you’ve got to go. I was goin’ to say—” She stopped, and began to roll the keg back to its place. Now she took the lantern from the bar and placed it on the keg; then turning to him once more she went on in a voice that was distinctly persuasive: “If you didn’t have to go so soon, I would like to have you come up to the cabin to-night an’ we would talk o’ reachin’ out up there. You see, the boys will be back here—we close The Polka at one—any time after....”
Hesitatingly, helplessly, Johnson stared at the Girl before him. His acceptance, he realised only too well, meant a pleasant hour or two for him, of which there were only too few in the mad career that he was following, and he wanted to take advantage of it; on the other hand, his better judgment told him that already he should be on his way.
“Why, I—I should ride on now.” He began and then stopped, the next moment, however, he threw down his hat on the table in resignation and announced: “I’ll come.”
“Oh, good!” cried the Girl, making no attempt to conceal her delight. “You can use this,” she went on, handing him the lantern. “It’s the straight trail up; you can’t miss it. But I say, don’t expect too much o’ me—I’ve only had thirty-two dollars’ worth o’ education.” Despite her struggle to control herself, her voice broke and her eyes filled with tears. “P’r’aps if I’d had more,” she kept on, regretfully, “why, you can’t tell what I might have been. Say, that’s a terrible tho’t, ain’t it? What we might a been—an’ I know it when I look at you.”
Johnson was deeply touched at the Girl’s distress, and his voice broke, too, as he said:
“Yes, what we might have been is a terrible thought, and I know it, Girl, when I look at you—when I look at you.”
“You bet!” ejaculated the Girl. And then to Johnson’s consternation she broke down completely, burying her face in her hands and sobbing out: “Oh, ’tain’t no use, I’m rotten, I’m ignorant, I don’t know nothin’ an’ I never knowed it ’till to-night! The boys always tol’ me I knowed so much, but they’re such damn liars!”