A happy smile shone in his eyes. “I belong to you, do I? That’s good hearing, girl o’ mine.” His arm went round her and he stroked the black head softly. “I’ll not be gone long, dear. Don’t y’u worry about me. I’ll be back with y’u soon; just as soon as I have finished this piece of work I have to do.”
“But if you should get—if anything should happen to you?”
“Nothing is going to happen to me. There is a special providence looks after lovers, y’u know.”
“Be careful, Ned, of yourself. For my sake, dear.”
“I’ll dry my socks every time I get my feet wet for fear of taking cold,” he laughed.
“But you will, won’t you?”
“I’ll be very careful, Helen,” he promised more gravely.
Even then she could hardly let him go, clinging to him with a reluctance to separate that was a new experience to her independent, vigorous youth. In the end he unloosened her arm, kissed her once, and hurried out of the room. In the hallway he met McWilliams, also hurryin out from a tearful farewell on the part of Nora.
Bannister, the outlaw, already mounted, was waiting for them. “Y’u did get through at last,” he drawled insolently. “Well, if y’u’ll kindly give orders to your seven-foot dwarf to point the Winchester another way I’ll collect my men an we’ll be moving.”
For, though the outlaw had left his men in command of the ranch when he went into the house, he found the situation reversed on his return. With the arrival of reinforcements, in the persons of McWilliams and his friend, it had been the turn of the raiders to turn over their weapons.