Therefore she played the one card she held, hoping to rouse the bully, and did just the thing she was trying to avert.
“Buck,” she said, her black head on his shoulder, her dark eyes watching covertly his careless face, “the Last girl is lost to every Valley 216 man. Sooner or later she’ll leave the country, mark my word, with this Forest Service fellow, for she’s in love with him, though she doesn’t know it yet.”
With a slow movement Courtrey loosed his arm about Lola and lifted her from him. His eyes were narrowed as he looked into her face.
“For God’s sake!” he said, “what makes you think that?”
“Knowledge,” said Lola, “long knowledge of women and men.”
“If I thought that,” said Courtrey slowly, his eyes losing sight of her as he seemed to look beyond her. “If––I––thought that––why, hell! If that’s th’ truth––why, it––it’s th’ lever!”
And he rose abruptly, though he had just settled himself in Lola’s apartment for a pleasant chat, as was his habit whenever he rode in from the Stronghold.
“Lola,” he said presently, “I might’s well tell you that I’m plannin’ to have this girl for mine,––mine, you understand, legally, by law. I can’t have her like I’ve had you. She’d blow my head off th’ first time I stopped holdin’ her hands.” He laughed at the picture he had conjured, then went on.
“An’ so I feel grateful to you, old girl, for that remark. It sets me thinkin’.” And he stooped and 217 kissed her on the lips. The woman returned the kiss, a wonderful caress, slow, soft, alluring, but the man did not notice.
His face was flushed, his eyes studying.