"One's friends can say a good deal, and generally do," I answered testily. "How long have you set up as a model of discretion, Steel? Still, though there is rather more sense than usual in your advice, doesn't it strike you as a little superfluous, considering that Lane has left us no other possible course?"
Steel said nothing further, and I was in no mood for conversation. Gaspard's Trail was to be sold on the morrow, and Lane had carefully chosen his time. The commercial depression was keener than ever, and there is seldom any speculation in Western lands at that time of the year. It was evidently his purpose to buy in my possessions.
A cheerful red glow beat out through the windows of my dwelling when we topped the last rise, but the sight of it rather increased my moodiness, and it was in silence, and slowly, we rode up to the door of Gaspard's Trail. Sally Steel met us there, and her eyelids were slightly red; but there was a vindictive ring in her voice as she said: "Supper's ready, and I'm mighty glad you've come. This place seems lonesome. Besides, I'm 'most played out with talking, and I've done my best to-day. Those auctioneering fellows have fixed up everything, but it isn't my fault if they don't know how mean they are. They finished with the house in a hurry, and one of them said: 'I can't stand any more of that she-devil.'"
"He did! Where are they now?" asked Steel, dropping his horse's bridle and staring about him angrily; but, after a glance at Sally, who answered my unspoken question with a nod, I seized him by the shoulder.
"Steady! Who is hot-headed now?" I said.
Steel strove to shake off my grasp until his sister, who laughed a little, turned towards him. "I just took it for a compliment, and there's no use in your interfering," she said. "I guess neither of them feels proud of himself to-night, and a cheerful row with somebody would spoil all the good I've done. They're camping yonder in the stable, but you'll tie up the horses in the empty barn."
Sally Steel was a stanch partisan, and, knowing what I did of her command of language, I felt almost sorry for the men who had been exposed to it a whole day in what was, after all, only the execution of their duty. Before Steel returned, one of them came out of the stable and approached me, but, catching sight of Sally, stopped abruptly, and then, as though mustering his courage, came on again.
"I guess you're Mr. Ormesby, and I'm auctioneer's assistant," he said. "One could understand that you were a bit sore, but I can't see that it's my fault, anyway; and from what we heard, you don't usually turn strangers into the stable."
The man spoke civilly enough, and I did not approve of his location; but the rising color in Sally's face would have convinced anybody who knew her that non-interference was the wisest policy.
"It is about the first time we have done so, but this lady manages my house, and, if you don't like your quarters, you must talk to her," I said.