“Sure I will. My official duty is to look out for society. If something in the machine breaks loose and goes to ripping things to pieces, the engineer has to stop the damage, even if he has to smash the rod that’s causing the trouble.”
The ponies dropped down again into the bed of the wash, and plowed across through the heavy sand. After they had reached the solid road, Collins resumed conversation at a new point.
“It’s a month and a day since I first met you Miss Mackenzie,” he said, apparently apropos of nothing.
She felt her blood begin to choke. “Indeed!”
“I gave you a letter to read when I was on the train.”
“A letter!” she exclaimed, in well-affected surprise.
“Did you think it was a book of poems? No, ma’am, it was a letter. You were to read it in a month. Time was up last night. I reckon you read it.”
“Could I read a letter I left at Tucson, when it was a hundred miles away?” she smiled with sweet patronage.
“Not if you left it at Tucson,” he assented, with an answering smile.
“Maybe I did lose it.” She frowned, trying to remember.