"Your brace, Biddy. How in hades did you get on that burro without it?"
"Oh, I don't need it any more. A man fixed my leg yesterday."
"A who—did what?"
"A very nice man up in the hills. He has a shiny box and he had me hold some wires and now my leg is all healed up again."
"What man are you talking about?"
"He has a cave up there. At first I thought he was from the Eastern Bloc and was one of our enemies. But he's from space or somewhere and he's very good."
Cecil Bates stared at Biddy's leg and then came close and put his hands on it. Biddy didn't like that very much and she kicked a heel into Buck's ribs and said, "I've got to go now, Mr. Bates. It's going to be a very nice day isn't it? Good-bye."
She rode away leaving the sheriff standing wide-eyed in the middle of the street with his mouth open. As she moved out of town she looked back uneasily, the nameless fear nagging at her again. She had the feeling of having done or said something wrong but she wasn't sure what.
The east brightened into fresh dawn as Buck pattered along toward the ridges. Biddy had never been up so early before and she thought it was wonderful but her happiness was dampened a little by the fact that she'd gone off without asking Mom. That was wrong, she thought, and maybe Mom would be angry. But Biddy's thoughts were mainly occupied with wondering why she had done it. She hadn't consciously wanted to deceive Mom, but something she could not really understand had made her sneak off so quietly.