“Yes.”
“I was gone two weeks, and them two weeks done me. We was going slow enough before, God knows, but even with the rank weather and all, I think we'd have won out, if we could have held the same gait.”
Radway paused. Thorpe was silent.
“The boys thought it was a mighty poor rig, my leaving that way.”
He paused again in evident expectation of a reply. Again Thorpe was silent.
“Didn't they?” Radway insisted.
“Yes, they did,” answered Thorpe.
The older man sighed. “I thought so,” he went on. “Well, I didn't go to spend Christmas. I went because Jimmy brought me a telegram that Lida was sick with diphtheria. I sat up nights with her for 'leven days.”
“No bad after-effects, I hope?” inquired Thorpe.
“She died,” said Radway simply.