“And that isn’t all I know,” he snarled. “Mexicans and cowboys and others have talked––women don’t 112 hear these things––how he’s had to pay Mexicans hush-money for girls of theirs he’s wronged. But what do people care? He’s rich, he’s old man Sorenson’s boy; everything’s kept quiet; and he goes around as big as life.” With a muttered oath he turned away, his lips shut hard and his beard sticking out savagely.
He came back to her again.
“The young one gets it from the old one,” he exclaimed. “Bad crooked blood in both of them. I know. I’ve been here ever since I was a boy and remember things Sorenson believes every one has forgotten, I know how he got his start, how he and the rest of his bunch cleaned out Dent of his ranch and cattle gambling and then killed him when he discovered they had used marked cards, how at the same time they robbed another man–––”
Janet struggled to her feet. She had covered her eyes and bowed her head before the torrent of his vehemence.
“No more, I want to hear no more,” she gasped. “Let me go home. I’m sick.”
“It all makes me sick, too,” he answered. “Sick and sore, both. But it’s the truth. I’m sorry if it’s been a bad pill to swallow, but it’s the God’s truth, girl. I’m sorry it couldn’t be any other way, but I wouldn’t see you marry that scoundrel if I lost a hand stopping you. Mary felt sick at first, too; she’s over it now. You’ll not feel bad long. Better stay for dinner with us.”
“I couldn’t swallow a bite. Thank you for your kindness in asking me––and for telling me what I wanted to know, too. Father never knew, or he would have warned me. People saw I was engaged to Ed Sorenson and would say nothing to father, of course. 113 I shall always count you as one of my best friends, Mr. Johnson. And you too, Mary; you must come down and stay with me sometime, for I imagine you get lonely here. No, another day I’ll remain to dinner––and I want to be alone now.”
They pressed her no further, seeing her wretchedness of spirit. But they walked with her to the car and shook hands with her when she was in and urged her to come again.
When she had disappeared in the aspens among which the trail led, Mary said to her father:
“You said they killed a man named Dent.”