"I wonder if you'll do me a favor?" Harry exclaimed, as Mason turned his horse. "Will you leave a little package at the Robinsons' for me? It's some salve for Mrs. Robinson's hand."
"Sure I will. I haven't seen the family for quite some time."
"What a stupid I am!" Harry exclaimed, as she watched the man ride away in the distance. "I didn't remember to ask him where Jones was, or where he found the colts, or anything. I wonder whether anything can be wrong—whether he arrested Jones?"
She turned away. A swarm of new, strange fears had suddenly sprung to life to torment her.
CHAPTER IX
Standing in the door of the tent, Harry stared out over the desert where the Sheriff had disappeared.
"Dear me!" she exclaimed. "It seems that out here in the desert you have to know more and think quicker and be generally all-around smarter to be good for anything than you do back East, where every one is supposed to know everything that's worth while."
All during the afternoon, no matter what she happened to be doing, her thoughts returned to that curious and not very flattering conclusion. She recalled to mind the different people she had met in the short time she had been in Idaho. They had all been "onto their job," as they would have said. Even when they were not naturally qualified for their work, they were self-reliant and resourceful.