“I don’t reckon we’d better stay here,” he answered uneasily. “In a bigger town I can get a better job likely.”
“But we haven’t money enough to go on the stage, have we?”
“If there was a bull team going out mebbe I could work my way.”
“W-e-ll.” She considered this dubiously. “If we stayed here Mrs. Gillespie would let me wash dishes an’ all. She said she’d give me two dollars a week an’ my board. Tha’s a lot of money, Bob.”
He looked out of the window. “I don’t want trouble with Jake Houck. It—it would worry you.”
“Yes, but—” June did not quite know how to say what was in her mind. She had an instinctive feeling that the way to meet trouble was to face it unafraid and not to run away from it. “I don’t reckon we’d better show Jake we’re scared of him—now. O’ course he’ll be mad at first, but he’s got no right to be. Jes’ ’cause he kep’ a-pesterin’ me don’t give him no claim on me.”
“No, but you know what he is an’ how he acts.”
“I’ll go where you want to go. I jes’ thought, seein’ how good to us Mrs. Gillespie has been, that maybe—”
“Well, we’ll talk it over after supper,” Bob said. “I’m for lighting out myself. To Laramie or Cheyenne, say.”
As they had not eaten since breakfast they were a pair of hungry young animals. They did full justice to the steak, French frys, mince pie, and coffee Mrs. Gillespie had promised.