“Sam always was hot tempered,” she declared. “And then he only listens to the last one who has his ear. I’ve always told Hen so—and this business proves it. Still, I’m mighty glad you came back. I was beginning to feel scared, all alone here. It’s no place to leave a woman, with her home in ruins and all those cattle in the corral.”
Groaning as he realized from this torrent of words that even the events of the night would not stop the woman’s loquacity, the foreman cursed silently to himself.
But he was given little time to indulge in his own thoughts.
“Who knows, it may be an act of Providence that you’ve come back,” rattled on the woman. “Like as not, something will happen before morning that will give you a chance to show your worth and make us all glad you didn’t go. Let’s go over to the corral and see how the cattle are. I’ve got to be doing something. There’s no house to go into and——”
“That’s just what I was agoing to speak to you about,” exclaimed Sandy, interrupting. “It’s no fit place for a lady to be—here on the plains with her home in ruins and no roof or nothing to protect from storms and no food to eat.”
“You never spoke a truer word, Sandy. But what can we do? Now, you’re here, I don’t propose to let you go and leave me while you ride to the Centre for provisions or anything.”
“Why not go over to the Double Cross?” suggested the foreman. “You and Mrs. Bowser could get along together—you’d be company for each other, so you wouldn’t feel afraid—and that being so, it would let Pinky and me go to join Sam and the rest of them.”
For several minutes the woman considered the proposition, without making any comment.
By watching her face closely, thanks to the light from the still glowing ruins, the foreman could see from its expression that his suggestion had appealed to her, and this was proved by her words.
“Do you think it would be right for me to leave the cattle?” she queried, anxiously. “Something might happen to them—or they might be raided.”