“I’m going with you,” said the girl. “You’re the best and the strongest man I’ve ever seen and I’m not going to let you get away. If you’ve got a wife it don’t matter. She isn’t what she should be or you wouldn’t be walking about the country alone. Harrigan and Frank say you’re crazy, but I know better. I am going with you and I’m going to help you find what you want.”
Sam wondered. She took a roll of bills from a pocket in her dress and gave it to him.
“I spent three hundred and fourteen dollars,” she said.
They stood looking at each other. She put out a hand and laid it on his arm. Her eyes, soft and now glowing with eager light looked into his. Her round breasts rose and fell.
“Anywhere you say. I’ll be your servant if you ask it of me.”
A wave of hot desire ran through Sam followed by a quick reaction. He thought of his months of weary seeking and his universal failure.
“You are going back to town if I have to drive you there with stones,” he told her, and turning ran down the valley leaving her standing by the board fence, her head buried in her arms.