“Mebbe,” said Reber shortly. “Mebbe not. She’s smart, Doc. I wish she was my daughter. If things had turned out different I might have had a girl or a boy of about her age.”
“Yes, that’s true.”
“And she spoiled Buck Priest’s shot,” said Reber. “He’s got no love for her. I wonder where these men would take her? Not to any known place, that’s a cinch. She’s their ace in the hole. I’d like to get my two hands around Buck Priest’s throat and choke the truth from him. Oh, he hates me, Doc!
“When he looks at me with his lop-sided grin, I feel that he’s gloating over somethin’.”
“Be calm,” advised the doctor. “You’ll work yourself into a fever. Did any doctor ever have such a patient to contend with? That meeting almost ruined everything; and now you insist on getting excited and riding helter-skelter over the hills in the dark! I ought to tie you down.”
“Here come some of my men,” said Reber. “Now you keep your tongue out of it, Doc. I’m goin’, if I have to go on a stretcher.”
It was almost dark when Jack Silver led the way to the Two Bar X. There were no lights in the ranchhouse. June dismounted and forced Jack to knock on the door. But there was no answer to his knock. The door was unlocked. Without any orders from June, Jack lighted the big lamp in the main room.
“Where is everybody?” wondered June. “Is this the Two Bar X?”
“It’s the Two Bar X all right,” said Jack.