He got to his feet, his pistol in his hand.
“I watched you,” said he, sheathing the weapon, as if he had changed his mind about the use of it. “I knew you’d go!”
“But I didn’t intend to when I parted from you up there on the hill,” she declared, greatly confused over being caught in this breach of faith with even a crazy man.
“I considered that, too,” said the philosopher. “But I watched you. I’ll never be fool enough to entirely trust a woman again. You all lie!”
She wondered how he had arrived there so quickly and silently, for he gave no evidence of fatigue or heat. She did not know the dry endurance which a life like his builds up in a man. Sheep-herders in that country are noted for their fleetness. It is a common saying of them that their heels are as light as their heads.
But there he was, at any rate, and her good intentions toward Boyle must be surrendered. Conscience had a palliative in the fact that she had meant to go. 244
“Heaven knows I have as little reason to wish him well as you!” said she, speaking in low voice, as if to herself, as she began to undo the saddle girth.
“Stay here, then,” said the sheep-herder, watching her with glistening eyes. “I’ll kill him for both of us! Where is his camp?”
“I don’t know,” she replied, shuddering.
The demented shepherd’s way of speaking of taking a human life, even though a worthless one, or a vicious one, was eager and hungry. He licked his lips like a dog.