“Not a sight of ’em,” he declared harshly. Then he turned a swift, malevolent glance in the direction of the hills to the south-west. “An’ we ain’t gettin’ a sight of ’em anyway. Our six prime cows in full milk. It ain’t no sort o’ use chasin’ these hills fer strays with—hoss thieves around.”
Molly’s smile changed to a look of incredulity.
“Horse thieves?” she echoed. Then she shook her head. “They surely would look for a territory where there’s stock to steal. Why, there isn’t fifty head between Dan Quinlan, up in the hills, and us, and that poor boy, Andy McFardell, on the road to Hartspool, with his miserable half section he’s trying to make look like a homestead. And there’s no one else within fifty miles of us, except Hartspool way.”
The choreman slid out of the saddle. He loosened the cinchas of the saddle and flung it on the ground. Then he clapped his mare on the quarters, and watched her move off for that roll which a horseman knows means so much.
“It’s only reasonable fer you thinkin’ that way,” Lightning admitted with unintentional patronising. “I guess you argue like the dandy gal you are, an’ not like a hoss thief tough.” He gazed thoughtfully down at the girl’s slim figure in its simple home-made clothing, that was so carefully planned to leave freedom for her work. “But I ain’t told you all the stuff I got in my head. I tell you my eyes and ears, an’ nose are all wide open. I’m wise to a whole heap of doings about these hills. Them cows is gone. Plumb gone. They ain’t within a ten-mile range of us. I’ve rode every yard this day. An’ six milch cows full of milk couldn’t have made ten miles in the night grazin’. They’ve been drove. Them bars at the corral hev been taken down. When I set ’em in place ther’s no buzzy cows ken make a getaway.”
Molly’s smile broke out.
“I fixed them last night,” she corrected. “You were busy getting the seeder right for me. Don’t you remember?”
The man stared.
“I’d fergot,” he said shortly.
“Maybe I didn’t fix them right,” Molly went on quickly, in an endeavour to make things easier. “It was nearly dark. But—best come right up to the house. I’ll fix supper, and you can tell me about—horse thieves.”