“What about Molly?” asked Mrs. Hartwell.
Marsh looked up at her.
“What do you mean, Mother?”
“She’s alone over there, Marsh.”
“She’s probably across the dead-line, too.”
“Probably. But we don’t know that she is. And you know that there isn’t a more lonesome place in the valley. And more than that, Marsh: It isn’t safe for a woman to be alone now.”
“Jack isn’t in jail now. He’d be with her.”
“Would he? With every cattleman in the valley against him?”
“Even his own father,” said Mrs. Brownlee dismally.
“No!” Marsh Hartwell threw up his head. “Don’t say that! —— knows I’m sorry for what I’ve done to Jack. I hated Eph King so much that—well, it made me bitter to have my own son marry his daughter. I didn’t realize what it meant, I tell you.