“Probably,” he answered. “There are lots of prairie dogs and things about. The more you listen, the more you hear on the prairie, especially at night.”
There was silence for a moment, and then he added: “My broncho’ll steer straight for Slow Down Ranch, and that’ll bring my men. You can be quite sure there’ll be a search-party out from Tralee, too, at the first streak of dawn. You can’t make the journey, so the only thing to be done is to wait here. That coat will keep you from getting cold, and I’ll cut a lot of long grass and make you a bed here. Also, the grass is warm, and I’ll cover you with it and with pine branches.”
“I can’t lie down,” she answered. “No, I can’t; I’m afraid. It’s all so strange, and to-morrow, he—”
“There’s nothing to be frightened about,” he interrupted. “Nothing at all, Louise.”
It was the first time he had ever addressed her by name, and it made her shiver with a new feeling. It seemed to tell a long, long story without words.
“You must do what I ask you to do—whatever I ask you to do,” he repeated. “Will you?”
“Yes, anything you ask me I’ll do,” she answered, and then added quickly, “For you won’t ask me to do anything I don’t want to do. That’s the difference. You understand, Orlando.”
A few minutes later he had found a suitable place to make a kind of bed of grass for her, and had prepared it, with his knife, cutting the branches of small shrubs and grass and the scanty branches of the pine. When it was finished, he came to her and said:
“It’s all ready. Come and lie down, and I’ll cover you up.”
She got to her feet slowly, for she was in pain greater than she knew, so absorbed was her mind in this new life suddenly enveloping her, and then she said in a low voice: “No, not yet; I can’t yet. I want to sit here. I’ve never felt the night like this before. It’s wonderful, and I’m not nearly so cold now. I know I oughtn’t to be cold at all, in the middle of summer like this.” She paused, and seemed lost in contemplation of the sky. After a moment she added: “I never knew I could feel so far away from all the world as I do tonight. But the sky seems so near, and the moon and the stars so friendly.”