“Another of Dame Fortune’s kicks,” he said.
“Another?”
“Yes––ah, I forgot. Of course. Well, we’ll call it one of Dame Fortune’s kicks.”
“You mean the––cattle stealing?” She was staring straight ahead of her, and into her eyes had leaped a sudden look of fear which she dared not let him see.
But Jim was too busy with himself to even notice her hesitation. He had no room to realize her emotions just then.
“Yes,” he said, almost viciously. “It’s about that––I s’pose I ought to say ‘because’ of that.” She glanced at him swiftly, but waited for him to go on. He did so with another nervous laugh. “I’m ‘fired,’ Eve. Kicked out by Dan McLagan, and branded by him as a suspected cattle-thief, as surely––as surely as they’ve found a bunch of his cattle branded with my brand.”
They had reached the gate, and Eve turned facing him. There was a curious look in her eyes. It was almost one of relief. Yet it was not quite. There was something else in it. There was incredulity, resentment; something which suggested a whole world of trust and confidence in the man before her.
“Nonsense,” she cried. “You––you accused of cattle stealing? You? He must be mad. They must all be mad.”
“They?”