“Father and you again, Johnny?” she asked anxiously.
“Just me this time, I guess. No matter. I got my pay. But let’s talk of somethin’ pleasant, if there is any such.”
The girl’s gayety did not return so easily. “I just can’t be pleasant by request, that way, Johnny,” she said honestly. “I want to talk to you about this before I start for home.”
“When you leavin’ here?”
“Not before morning.”
This suited Mr. Dice.
“You rode in, didn’t yuh?” he questioned. Molly grinned in spite of herself. “Folks to home all worried about you,” the boy went on. “Your daddy tearin’ hair and cursin’. I figured you was down here, and I looked for you at the hotel.”
“Don’t you tell me what you thought when you found I wasn’t there. Of course I wouldn’t go to a hotel. The Langwell girls would never forgive me if I did. Don’t tell me you were worried.”
“That would be kinda hard for me, wouldn’t it?” Johnny drawled.
Molly laughed outright at this. “Next to injured feelings, there’s nothing like self-pity to make a person miserable, is there, Johnny? Now you tell me, is father out looking for me?”