“That’s simple enough,” he answered briefly. “I’ve got a job on this ranch.”
She looked slightly puzzled. “Really? But I thought—I had no idea you knew—Mary.”
“I didn’t. I needed a job and drifted in here thinking I’d find a friend of mine who used to work on the same outfit in Texas. He was gone, but Miss Thorne took me on.” 137
“You mean you’re a regular cow-boy?” the girl asked in surprise. “Why, you never told me that aboard ship?”
A sudden chill swept over Stratton, and for a moment he was stricken speechless. Aboard ship! Was it possible that this girl had been part of that uncanny, vanished year, the very thought of which troubled and oppressed him. His glance desperately evaded her charming, questioning eyes and rested suddenly with a curious cool sense of relief on the face of Mary Thorne, who had come up unperceived from behind.
But as their eyes met Buck was conscious of an odd veiled expression in their clear depths which vaguely troubled him. It vanished quickly as Miss Thorne moved quickly forward to embrace her friend.
“Stella!” she cried. “I’m so awfully glad to see you.”
There were kisses and renewed embracings; the young man was greeted more decorously but with almost equal warmth, and then suddenly Miss Thorne turned to Stratton, who stood back a little, struggling between a longing to escape and an equally strong desire to find out a little more about this attractive but startling reminder of his unknown past.
“I had no idea you knew Miss Manning,” she said, with the faintest hint of stiffness in her manner. 138
Buck swallowed hard but was saved from further embarrassment by the girl.