“Yes, I do! You’ve shown this yellow streak before, and I’m tired of it. This is the limit. I’m done with you.”
She stood between tears and benumbing anger now, and he was scared. “Don’t say that, Berrie!” he pleaded, trying to put his arm about her.
“Keep away from me!” She dashed his hands aside. “I hate you. I never want to see you again!” She ran into her own room and slammed the door behind her.
Belden stood for a long time with his back against the wall, the heat of his resentment utterly gone, an empty, aching place in his heart. He called her twice, but she made no answer, and so, at last, he mounted his horse and rode away.
IV
THE SUPERVISOR OF THE FOREST
Young Norcross, much as he admired Berrie, was not seeking to exchange her favor for her lover’s enmity, and he rode away with an uneasy feeling of having innocently made trouble for himself, as well as for a fine, true-hearted girl. “What a good friendly talk we were having,” he said, regretfully, “and to think she is to marry that big, scowling brute. How could she turn Landon down for a savage like that?”
He was just leaving the outer gate when Belden came clattering up and reined his horse across the path and called out: “See here, you young skunk, you’re a poor, white-livered tenderfoot, and I can’t bust you as I would a full-grown man, but I reckon you better not ride this trail any more.”