"But you'll need that and more, too, for hay. Did you get hay?"
"A hundred tons of the finest, and we're going there to feed."
"O Bobby!" she could not go on. She leaned against the end of the stall and stared after him as he poured oats into the mangers for the horses. No matter what went wrong, he always found a way out and pulled her out, too. "If it weren't for you," she began.
"Of course, I know. It's an endless tug of war between us to see which one can get along without the other."
"Say!" cried Garnett, coming across the stable yard toward them. "Can't you folks sandwich those argyments in between the supper food? Little lady up at the house says she has boiled water enough to scald a hog and yet supper ain't real ready neither. Says she's waitin' on the boss for orders."
"Never mind. When I went off yesterday I left things so that five minutes with a frying pan would finish them."
It was a very little more than that before the food was sizzling. The two girls were busy setting the table, when heavy steps thumped across the porch, and some one knocked sharply.
"Come in!" Rob called and moved toward the door, while the three others watched. Every one gave a start of surprise as it was shoved open from without and Ludlum faced them.
Red-faced and scowling with fatigue and annoyance, with his eyes gleaming maliciously upon the cheery scene before him, he stood against the blackness of the night like a messenger of evil.