Oh, if one might ask questions—but the courtesy of the desert forbade it.
Tom proved a very valuable aid and in a short time Margaret was out on the back porch pulling the rope which rang a bell and called the other two cow-boys in for the noon repast.
One amusing thing happened which did not escape the watchful Virginia. Tom, eager to assume his new role of cow-boy, began eating in the manner approved in the best society, but, noting that Slim and Rusty Pete ate with their knives, a twinkle appeared in his blue eyes while he did likewise. He handled his knife, however, in a way which showed plainly that he was unused to wielding it in a manner so uncouth.
Virginia turned away to hide a smile. Of one thing she was convinced. This outlaw had a sense of humor.
Half an hour later when the dishes were washed and cleared away and the girls retired to their rooms for an afternoon siesta, Virginia confided, “Megsy, I have never before been so interested in a boy as I am in Tom, have you? Do you suppose we will ever find out who he really is?”
CHAPTER XXVII—THE NEW COW-BOY.
When the girls awakened from their siesta, arm in arm they sauntered down to the corral where they saw Tenderfoot Tom trying to ride a broncho, but without much success. He leaped to the ground when he beheld the girls and removing his hat, in a manner unknown to cow-boys, he held it while he talked. “Young ladies,” he said, “do I look important? Slim and Rusty Pete have gone with your brother to some distant part of the range and may be away until the morrow and I, if you please, am the cow-boy in charge of V. M. Ranch and no longer merely a—.”
He did not finish the sentence and Virg wondered if he had planned saying outlaw, but Margaret was finishing it for him by merrily adding, “can opener.”
“Let me prove that I really am a cook,” the lad exclaimed brightly. “Suppose you two damsels go for a canter and do not return until six o’clock, and then you shall see what you shall see.”
Catching and saddling Star and Comrade took but a few moments and then the lad stood waving his sombrero to the girls as they rode away. Ten minutes later when they had reached the top of the mesa trail, Margaret looked back. Her exclamation of surprise caused Virginia also to turn. They saw Tom with his gun over his shoulder riding away in the opposite direction. “What can that mean?” Margaret wondered. “Do you suppose that he wishes to be rid of us that he might leave the V. M. Ranch?”