“I saw ’im off, you know,” she went on in the same low voice; then, before Nick could speak, she concluded anxiously: “But s’pose he don’t git through?”
“Oh, he’ll git through sure! We’ll hear he’s out of this country pretty quick,” consoled the little barkeeper just as Rance, unperceived by them, quietly entered the room and went over to a chair by the stove.
XVI
No man had more of a dread of the obvious than the Sheriff. His position, he felt, was decidedly an unpleasant one. Nevertheless, in the silence that followed the Girl’s discovery of his presence, he struggled to appear his old self. He was by no means unconscious of the fact that he had omitted his usual cordial greeting to her, and he felt that she must be scrutinising him, feature by feature. When, therefore, he shot a covert glance at her, it was with surprise that he saw an appealing look in her eyes.
“Oh, Jack, I want to thank you—” she began, but stopped quickly, deterred by the hard expression that instantly spread itself over the Sheriff’s face. Resentment, all the more bitter because he believed it to be groundless, followed hard on the heels of her words which he thought to be inspired solely by a delicate tactfulness.
“Oh, don’t thank me that he got away,” he said icily. “It was the three aces and the pair you held—”
This was the Girl’s opportunity; she seized it.
“About the three aces, I want to say that—”
It was Rance’s turn to interrupt, which he did brutally.
“He’d better keep out of my country, that’s all.”