“She’s a right bouncin’ young un,” she sighed, but there was a world of pride beneath the complaint. “You would think she was nigh on a year old instead of only a few months.”
The infant almost immediately surrendered to her godmother’s blandishments and in no time at all the two were the best of chums.
Dorothy tried to take an interest in the baby, but she could not keep her anxious thoughts from Garry and Joe.
Had Joe reached the Knapp ranch in safety? Why had not Garry come to meet the train? What influence had that man Larrimer over Joe?
“Lance,” she said, suddenly, “did you see those two men at the station—the two who got off the train at the same time Tavia and I did?”
“The tall guy and the little feller?” queried Lance. “You just better believe I did. Those two was what me and Sue was lookin’ for. We had advance information that they was due on this train, but we had a hankerin’ to make sure.”
“Who are they?” asked Dorothy, while Tavia stopped playing with Octavia Susan to listen.
CHAPTER XXI
TWO SCOUNDRELS
“Who? Them?” asked Lance, in apparent surprise at the question. “Why, the names of those two rogues is mighty unpopular words round this section. Reckoned you knew who they was. They was the two I been tellin’ you about—pals of Larrimer’s.”
“Not——” began Dorothy.