Stratton laughed. “Oh, but I am,” he assured her. “I suppose the war rubbed off some of the accents, and of course I had a pretty good education to start with. But I’m too keen about the country and the life to ever want to do anything else.”
Her face glowed. “It is wonderful,” she agreed. “When I think of the years I’ve wasted in cities! I 87 couldn’t ever go back. Even with all the worries, this is a thousand times better. Ah! There they are ahead. They’re turning the herd into this pasture, you see.”
Half a mile or more to the southward a spreading dust-cloud hugged the earth, through which, indistinctly, Stratton could make out the moving figures of men and cattle. The two spurred forward, reaching the wide opening in the fence ahead of the vanguard of steers. Passing through, they circled to the right to avoid turning back any of the cattle, and joined the sweating, hard-worked cow-punchers.
As they rode up together, Buck found Lynch’s eyes fixed on him with an expression of angry surprise, which was suppressed with evident difficulty.
“How’d yuh get back so quick?” he inquired curtly.
“Nothing more to keep me,” shrugged Stratton. “I waited for the doctor to look Rick over, and then thought I’d come out and see if you needed me.”
“Huh! Well, since you’re here, yuh might as well whirl in. Get over on the far side of the herd an’ help Flint. Don’t let any of ’em break away, but don’t crowd ’em too much.”
As Buck rode off he heard Miss Thorne ask if there wasn’t something she could do. Lynch’s reply was indistinct, but the tone of his voice, deferential, yet with a faint undercurrent of honey-sweetness, irritated him inexplicably. With a scowl, he spurred 88 forward, exchanged a brief greeting with Bud Jessup as he passed, and finally joined Kreeger, who was having considerable difficulty in keeping the herd together at that point.
During the succeeding two hours or so, Buck forgot his irritation in the interest and excitement of the work. Strenuous as it was, he found a distinct pleasure in the discovery that two years’ absence from the range had not lessened his ability to hold his own. His horse was well trained, and he thoroughly enjoyed the frequent sharp dashes after some refractory steer, who stubbornly opposed being driven. Before the last animal had passed through the fence-gap into the further pasture, he was drenched from head to foot with perspiration and his muscles ached from the unaccustomed labor, but all that was discounted by the satisfaction of doing his chosen work again, and doing it well.
Then, in the lull which followed, his thoughts returned to Miss Thorne and he wondered whether there would be any chance for further conversation with her on the way back to the ranch-house? The question was quickly answered in a manner he did not in the least enjoy. After giving instructions about nailing up the fence, Tex Lynch joined the girl, who sat her horse at a little distance, and the two rode off together.