He dropped his horse’s bridle and came to her side. “I’ve a question for you, best girl,” he said, his hand on the pommel of her saddle, “These horses are hardly fit to climb this next range. They might do it and make the rest of the trip to-day if we urged them but it ain’t a square deal. Then, too, it would be dark before we got there.
“This is a place where we could stay. There’s pasture for the horses and I think that little stream that I found down in the canyon starts from up here somewhere. If we go on we may make it and again we may get tangled up in the mountains after dark, which I don’t fancy. I’m no forest ranger, you know. Shall we stay here till three or four o’clock in the morning or shall we plug ahead? It’s up to you.”
Polly turned an appalled face toward him. “But, Marc, you don’t mean to stay here—in this place—all night?” she said, faintly.
“Well, it won’t be exactly all night. It’s nearly five o’clock now and we could start at daybreak.”
“But—why, we haven’t anything to stop with! No tent and no blankets and nothing to eat! It would be rather dreadful, wouldn’t it?”
“Well, not dreadful, exactly. We’ve the blankets under our saddles, and you have your long cloak. I’ll build you a fire. Of course there’s nothing to eat except the rest of the sandwiches.”
“Well, perhaps—it would be pretty bad to get lost up here after dark. There might be mountain lions or mad skunks. They do have mad skunks out here, don’t they?”
Scott chuckled. “Search me, honey, all the skunks I ever met were mad. Come on down and we’ll have a look at the country.”
“Marc,” Polly looked down at him, her eyes soft, “I’m wondering what I would have done if those bandits had gobbled you.”
“I don’t let bandits gobble me when I’m escorting ladies,” replied Scott. Then meeting her eyes, the twinkle faded out of his. “You’d better say what would I have done if you hadn’t hidden in that cave.” His head rested for a moment against her knee.