Jim smiled and glanced around as the door opened to admit the red-headed figure of Larry Manford. Then his eyes came back to the girl who had risen to welcome the late-comer.
“I knew you would, Blanche. Thanks.”
CHAPTER XVI
Two Women
IT was a well-sheltered patch of ploughing. To the south a fringe of woodland bounded it. Then came a narrow opening. And then again, on the eastern side, a wooded hill rose up to protect it from the bitter east and north-east. To the north stood an extensive stretch of tamarack and pine woods, beyond which lay the farm, while its western boundary was formed by the creek which watered the farm. There were approximately two hundred acres of open, and the last of the ploughing had just been harrowed down.
Lightning stood beside his team gazing over his completed work. The man’s fringe of whisker was thrust aggressively. His eyes were unsmiling. His gnarled, brown hands were thrust in the top of his soil-stained trousers.
He was regarding his work with a curious contempt. It was the contempt of the cattleman for the industry of the simple farmer. He was nursing his memories of past glories, when his skill with both rope and gun, and in the saddle, were bywords with the men who were as ready to fight as drink themselves to death. How he regretted those wonderful days!
Blue Pete flung up his fiddle head, and Jane was gazing out to the south-west. Lightning spoke a sharp word in the harsh tone the beasts knew so well. And the break in his thought brought him back to the meaning of the things about him.
Oh, yes. Those days were past, and he had no real right to complain. They were days of irresponsibility. Now it was all different. Responsibility was with him, and something more. He knew that. And he was glad. He regretted the cattle days, but his work now was for Molly. And Molly needed all the help he could give her.
For all she had returned home the night before with the lost cows he still retained his obstinate conviction that there were cattle thieves about. Who was the white-haired man she had told him she had met? The man had learned all the information she had to supply, and had given her in return no inkling of whence he came, or his business in the hills, or even of his name.
Then she had told him the man was riding a coal-black horse from the race-tracks of Kentucky. That sort of thing was by no means new to him. Every cattle thief prided himself on his horseflesh. Doubtless the horse had been stolen. Then his city clothes. That was sheer bluff, only to deceive a simpleton. Disguised as a city man! Why, it was a game that was a good deal older than he was.