If Slone caught the significance of her words he did not believe it.
"I'm goin' to Bostil after the race an' ask him. That's settled," declared Slone, stubbornly.
At this Lucy utterly lost her temper. "Oh! you—you fool!" she cried.
Slone drew back suddenly as if struck, and a spot of dark blood leaped to his lean face. "No! It seems to me the right way."
"Right or wrong there's no sense in it—because—because. Oh! can't you see?"
"I see more than I used to," he replied. "I was a fool over a horse. An' now I'm a fool over a girl.... I wish you'd never found me that day!"
Lucy whirled in the saddle and made Wildfire jump. She quieted him, and, leaping off, threw the bridle to Slone. "I won't ride your horse in the race!" she declared with sudden passion. She felt herself shaking all over.
"Lucy Bostil, I wish I was as sure of Heaven as I am you'll be up on Wildfire in that race," he said.
"I won't ride your horse."
"MY horse. Oh, I see.... But you'll ride Wildfire."