From the corral came a shrill, prolonged neighing. VB arose and laid a hand gently on Jed's bowed shoulder.
"That's the Captain," he said solemnly; "and he calls me when he's thirsty."
While he was gone Jed remained as he had been left, staring at the floor.
CHAPTER XII
Woman Wants
Gail Thorpe rose from the piano in the big ranch house of the S Bar S, rearranged the mountain flowers that filled a vase on a tabouret, then knocked slowly, firmly, commandingly, on a door that led from the living room.
"Well, I don't want you; but I s'pose you might as well come in and get it off your mind!"
The voice from the other side spoke in feigned annoyance. It continued to grumble until a lithe figure, topped by a mass of hair like pulled sunshine, flung itself at him, twining warm arms about his neck and kissing the words from the lips of big Bob Thorpe as he sat before his desk in the room that served as the ranch office.
"Will you ever say it again—that you don't want me?" she demanded.