“Isn’t it strange that he should be here among these rough uneducated people,” observed Mary, thoughtfully. “Did he tell you anything about himself last night, Elinor?”
But Elinor kept her own counsel. She was not one to tell the secrets of others even to her own particular, intimate friends and she knew that what Algernon Blackstone de Willoughby Winston had confided to her the night before, he had meant for her ears alone.
A tap on the door, however, interrupted her guarded reply.
It was Barney McGee. Would any of the young ladies like a gallop on the plains before breakfast?
“I would, I would,” cried Billie, instantly in a state of joyous anticipation.
“Now, Billie, dear,” interrupted her cousin, “I am desperately afraid to have you ride one of those wild untamed horses. Remember those animals we saw in Buffalo Bill’s Show. They were Western horses, all of them, and they jumped around like so many contortionists.”
“We’ll give her the tamest beast in the stable, ma’am,” Barney assured her.
“Not one of those frightful bronco creatures, Barney, I hope?”
“No, no, ma’am, a gentle little Texas horse that goes like the wind and never balks or kicks——”