Without looking up, Molly handed the picture to him. It was a confession of faith well calculated to arouse the best in the boy.
“And about my comin’ to the ranch,” he went on. “If you asked me to come tomorrow I’d come, and nothin’ wouldn’t stop me. But I can’t see that it would serve any purpose. From now on I go alone. Even Tony stays behind. As it is, I’ve not been frank with him. What I find out no one but me’ll know. If there’s talk you’ll know who to blame. If ever you want me, you get word to the Basque; he’ll find me. And—good-bye.”
He was gone; nor did he hear the girl’s softly murmured answer.
CHAPTER XV
MADEIRAS GETS A CHANCE
Molly had quite forgotten that the Langwell girls had arranged a bridge party for her that afternoon. When three o’clock passed and their guest had not returned, Miss Sue Langwell set out to find her.
Bridge was remote from Molly’s mind, but Sue’s interruption was welcomed by old Jackson and he urged the girl to run along. Molly, with pardonable caution, tried to conceal her distraught condition and keep from her friend’s eyes any inkling of what had occurred. To succeed, she allowed herself to be carried off.
With gratitude in his heart, Kent watched the two girls ride away in Sue’s car. It effectually put an end to talk. There had been too much of that already this day. So while Molly played cards and the old man sought forgetfulness in the doing of purely routine business, Johnny talked to old Dan Secor.
Dan had exhausted himself at noon, so Johnny went back to Tony.
Madeiras was in a bad humor. He had been waiting these many hours for Johnny and felt himself slighted, left out of something.
Your Basque is thin-skinned and quick to resent a fancied hurt.