"You—you won't come back at night?"
"Probably not. Why?"
"Nothing—much. That is, I only thought you might be able to go to town in a day or two. We need several things."
Harry twisted her fingers together and tried to control her voice. To have Rob stay away—to leave her all alone! She stood silent, looking up at him. She must not let him see that she was afraid, for she had determined never to complain again.
Nevertheless, she waited almost breathlessly for him to answer.
"All right, then," he said, after a moment. "I'll come back to-morrow night, and we'll go to town the day after."
As soon as Rob had ridden off the next morning, Harry began to put the tent in order and to arrange for the journey to town. She prepared a luncheon for the trip, washed a pair of overalls for Rob, got out a clean flannel shirt for him, and sewed a button on his coat. She had by this time learned to regard overalls as "dress-up" garments.
In the afternoon she went out to irrigate the garden. While she was cultivating at one end, a ditch broke at the other and let the water rush down across half the rows. She had hard work repairing the damage, and was so busy that she lost all track of time. In fact, she did not realize that the sun had set until a long-drawn melancholy howl from the butte, answered suddenly by a chorus from the "scab" land, told her that the coyotes were out for the night.
"Probably Bobs went farther than he realized," she decided, when at nine o'clock she sat down alone to eat her supper.