Presently she whispered: "Oh, my friend! It wants only three days till October first!"
"Lass, it might be a thousand years for all you need worry," he replied, his voice low and full. Then it seemed, as she flung up her arms, that she was about to embrace him. But her gesture was an appeal to the stars, to Heaven above, for something she did not speak.
Wade bade her good night and went his way.
The cowboys and the rancher's son were about to engage in a game of poker when Wade entered the dimly lighted, smoke-hazed room. Montana Jim was sticking tallow candles in the middle of a rude table; Lem was searching his clothes, manifestly for money; Bludsoe shuffled a greasy deck of cards, and Jack Belllounds was filling his pipe before a fire of blazing logs on the hearth.
"Dog-gone it! I hed more money 'n thet," complained Lem. "Jim, you rode to Kremmlin' last. Did you take my money?"
"Wal, come to think of it, I reckon I did," replied Jim, in surprise at the recollection.
"An' whar's it now?"
"Pard, I 'ain't no idee. I reckon it's still in Kremmlin'. But I'll pay you back."
"I should smile you will. Pony up now."