"I was thinking what a change has come over this part of the prairie," I said, framing but one portion of my thoughts into words. "Not long ago one saw nothing but anxious faces and gloomy looks, while now, I fancy, there is only one downcast man in all this vicinity, and he the one from whom your father and Boone have just parted. The change, considering that a single person is chiefly responsible, is almost magical; but, remembering a past rebuke, that hardly sounds very pretty, does it?"
Lucille Haldane laughed mischievously. "To one of the superior sex; but are you not forgetting that this season the heavens fought for you? It certainly might have been more neatly expressed. Do you know that the education you mentioned is not yet quite finished?"
"I know there is much you could teach me if you would," I said, with a humility which was not assumed, choking down bolder words which had almost forced themselves into utterance; and perhaps the effort left its trace on me, for Lucille turned her head towards the prairie.
"Here is Sergeant Mackay. I wonder what he wants," she said.
Mackay, dusty and damp with perspiration, was ushered in a few minutes later, and for the first time I felt all the bitterness of jealousy as I saw the friendly manner in which the girl greeted Cotton, who followed him. There was nothing of the coquette in Lucille Haldane, and the knowledge of this added to the sting; but I did not think that even she was always so unnecessarily gracious. Mackay, however, appeared intent and grim, and by no means in a humor for casual conversation.
"I'm wanting your father and fresh horses at once, Miss Haldane," he said. "Ye had a visit from Lane yesterday?"
"We certainly had. What do you want with him?" asked Lucille. And Mackay smiled dryly when I added a similar question.
"Just his body, and your assistance as a loyal subject, Henry Ormesby. Ye were once good enough to say ye could not expect too much from the police; but it's long since your natural protectors had eyes on the thief who was robbing ye. Niven, when he wasn't quite sober, told a little story, and there's another bit question of a debt agreement forgery. Ye will let us have the horses, Miss Haldane?"
Lucille bade them follow her, and I heard her giving orders to one of the hired men. Then she returned alone in haste to me. "You saw where my father put the book Miss Redmond gave him?" she said.
"Yes," I answered, wondering. "He locked it inside that bureau and put the keys into his pocket."