“Do you think it’s right to keep Ruth’s husband shut up from her and the baby?” she demanded indignantly.
“I don’t know. I wish I did.”
“You told me yourself that he’s a fine man,” Louise reminded him triumphantly.
“I talk too much,” he groaned humorously. “But say he is. The penitentiaries are full of fine men. I can’t free them all. He and his friends killed two men. That’s the point. I can’t turn them all loose in a year. Folks would say it was because I’m a cattleman and that Rowan and Brad Rogers are my friends. What’s more, they would have a right to say it.”
Ruth and Tim Flanders showed the guests over the ranch, and afterward in the absence of the mistress, who was in the kitchen consulting with Mrs. Stovall about the dinner, the owner of the Dude Ranch sang her praises with enthusiasm:
“I never saw her beat, Phil. That slim little girl you could break in two over your knee has got more git-up-and-dust than any man I know. Mac wanted her to sell the ranch and live off the proceeds. Did she do it? Not so you could notice it. She grabbed hold with both hands, cleared off the debts of the trial, wiped off the mortgage, got a permit to run a big bunch of cattle on the reserve, and has made money hand over fist. Now she’s in lettuce an’ I’m blamed if I don’t think she’s liable to make some money out of it. Two or three others are aimin’ to put some out next year.”
McDowell smiled dryly. “She’s doing so well it would be a pity to let Mac come home and gum the works up.”
But in his heart the governor was full of admiration for this vital young woman who had thrown herself with such pluck and intelligence into the task of saving the ranch for her imprisoned husband. The situation troubled him. He wanted to do for her the most that he legitimately could, but he came up always against the same barrier. Rowan McCoy had been convicted of first-degree murder. He had no right to pardon him within fifteen months without any new, extenuating evidence.
The governor was a warm-souled Scotch Irishman. Until the past year he had been a bachelor. He was very fond of children. Rowan, junior, walked right into his heart. Children have an infallible instinct that tells them when they are liked. The young boss of the Circle Diamond opened up his mouth in a toothless grin and stretched his dimpled fingers to the governor. He rubbed noses with him, goo-gooed at him, clung mightily with his little doubled fist to his excellency’s forefinger. Whenever Rowan was in the room he claimed the big man immediately and definitely. As for the governor, he surrendered without capitulation. He was a willing slave.
None the less, he was glad when the time came for him to go. It made the big, simple cattleman uncomfortable not to be able to relieve the sorrow of this girl whom his wife loved.