“It’s high time, Miss Withersteen,” he replied. “Will you come into the grove? It ain’t jest exactly safe for me to be seen here.”
She walked with him into the shade of the cottonwoods.
“What do you mean?”
“Miss Withersteen, I went to my mother’s house last night. While there, some one knocked, an’ a man asked for me. I went to the door. He wore a mask. He said I’d better not ride any more for Jane Withersteen. His voice was hoarse an’ strange, disguised I reckon, like his face. He said no more, an’ ran off in the dark.”
“Did you know who he was?” asked Jane, in a low voice.
“Yes.”
Jane did not ask to know; she did not want to know; she feared to know. All her calmness fled at a single thought.
“Thet’s why I’m packin’ guns,” went on Judkins. “For I’ll never quit ridin’ for you, Miss Withersteen, till you let me go.”
“Judkins, do you want to leave me?”
“Do I look thet way? Give me a hoss—a fast hoss, an’ send me out on the sage.”