“There’s a heap she’s got to learn yet, Miss Tavia,” Lance agreed, with a grin. “And probably that’s one of them. But say, Miss Dale,” he added, turning to Dorothy, “I suppose you are hankerin’ to get out to the Hardin ranch. If you don’t mind hittin’ the high spots in the old flivver, me and the wife will have you out there in a jiffy. Funny nobody came to meet you,” he added, as the girls accepted with thanks and climbed into the tonneau of the car.
The reiteration irritated Dorothy and she was about to reply rather sharply when she thought suddenly of the two men, Blake and Gibbons, who had been hurrying to meet them when Tavia spied Lance Petterby and his car.
Her quick glance scanned the platform, but she saw they had gone. Seeing her and Tavia with Lance, they had probably thought it advisable to go away quickly.
“By the way, Miss Dale,” Lance asked in his drawling tones, “I meant to ask you when I first saw you. Was you lookin’ for your brother Joe?”
CHAPTER XX
REAL NEWS AT LAST
“Was you lookin’ for your brother Joe?”
For the moment the casualness of that question robbed Dorothy of her power of speech. It was Tavia who answered for her.
“Looking for him!” she repeated. “I should say we were! Half across the continent, and no luck yet.”
“Have you seen him, Lance?” Dorothy’s voice was breathless and pleading and Lance had turned in his seat to look at her as he drove the Ford over the bumpy road.
“I certainly did! And he wasn’t keepin’ no good company, either.” There was hearty disapproval in the last part of this observation, but Dorothy was too interested in the first part to notice.