The cowboys had already taught her how to handle a horse and to ride; and if all they said of her appearance and accomplishment were true she was indeed worth watching. “I’m sorry,” replied Jane. “I promised Nevada I’d ride with him today.”
“I reckon Nevada is miles an’ miles up the valley by now,” replied Tex. “He won’t be back till long after dark.”
“But he made an engagement with me,” protested the school mistress.
“An’ shore he has to work. He’s ridin’ for Springer, an’ I’m foreman of this ranch,” said Tex.
“You sent him off on some long chase,” averred Jane severely. “Now didn’t you? Tell me the truth.”
“I shore did. He comes crowin’ down to the bunk-house—about how he’s goin’ to ride with you an’ how we-all are not in the runnin’. I says, ‘Nevada, I reckon there’s a steer mired in the sand up in Cedar Wash. You ride up there an’ pull him out.’”
“And then what did he say?” inquired Jane, curiously.
“Why, Miss Stacey, shore I hate to tell you. I didn’t think he was so—so bad. He just used the most awful language as was ever heard on this heah ranch. Then he rode off.”
“But was there a steer mired up in the Wash?”
“I reckon so,” replied Tex, rather shamefacedly. “Most always is one.”