The girl glanced sharply at him as she noted his nervousness.
“We’ve got visitors,” the old man began.
“Madeiras, you mean,” Molly exclaimed. “What is he doing here?”
“Begged me for a job. Hobe needs him, so I let him come.”
“Why didn’t you tell me that he was the man you had found to bring out my pony?”
“I don’t know, Molly. The two of us are at swords’ points all the time lately. I knew if I told you that Tony had broken with Dice, that you’d think I’d had somethin’ to do with it. The Basque came to me; I didn’t seek him out. But no matter, it ain’t Madeiras I’m referrin’ to now; it’s Gallup and Tobias Gale. Maybe you can guess what Gallup wants. It breaks my heart to tell you.”
“Oh, father, father!” Molly cried. “Do I have to go through with that again? I promise you I’ll kill myself before I’ll marry that man.”
“I begged off the last time he was here,” the old man wailed. “I can’t do it today. You don’t know it, but Gallup’s holdin’ my paper for thirty thousand dollars. It’s overdue. He’s demandin’ his money or you. I told him to foreclose, and he laughed at me. He doesn’t want the money, little girl. It’s you he’s aimin’ to take away from me.
“When he was here four months ago, I told him I’d try to talk you into marryin’ him. I hadn’t no intention of doin’ that. I figured prices were goin’ up and that come shippin’ time they be high enough to give me the cash to square up with him. The market didn’t go thata-way, though. Now he wants me to trade you like a slave so that I can keep the ranch. And that after tellin’ me he’s got over a hundred thousand out at from six per cent up. What am I goin’ to do? Tell me that, little girl, what am I goin’ to do?”
The old man choked over his words, and turned his head away as tears filled his eyes.