"I knowed yus wanted to tear that pistol out of my hand because it was hern.But yus never did such things to me,fer there's a gentleman in you somewheres,Lin.And yus didn't never hit me,not even when you come to know me well.And when I seen you so unexpected again to-night,and you just the same old Lin,scaring Lusk with shooting them chickens,so comic and splendid,I could 'a'just killed Lusk sittin'in the wagon.Say,Lin,what made yus do that,anyway?""I can't hardly say,"said the cow-puncher."Only noticing him so turruble anxious to quit me--well,a man acts without thinking.""You always did,Lin.You was always a comical genius.Lin,them were good times.""Which times?"
"You know.You can't tell me you have forgot.""I have not forgot much.What's the sense in this?""Yus never loved me!"she exclaimed.
"Shucks!"
"Lin,Lin,is it all over?You know yus loved me on Bear Creek.Say you did.Only say it was once that way."And as he sat,she came and put her arms round his neck.For a moment he did not move,letting himself be held;and then she kissed him.The plates crashed as he beat and struck her down upon the table.He was on his feet,cursing himself.As he went out of the door,she lay where she had fallen beneath his fist,looking after him and smiling.
McLean walked down Box Elder Creek through the trees toward the stable,where Lusk had gone to put the horse in the wagon.Once he leaned his hand against a big cotton-wood,and stood still with half-closed eyes.
Then he continued on his way."Lusk!"he called,presently,and in a few steps more,"Lusk!"Then,as he came slowly out of the trees to meet the husband he began,with quiet evenness,"Your wife wants to know--"But he stopped.No husband was there.Wagon and horse were not there.The door was shut.The bewildered cow-puncher looked up the stream where the road went,and he looked down.Out of the sky where daylight and stars were faintly shining together sounded the long cries of the night hawks as they sped and swooped to their hunting in the dusk.From among the trees by the stream floated a cooler air,and distant and close by sounded the splashing water.About the meadow where Lin stood his horses fed,quietly crunching.He went to the door,looked in,and shut it again.He walked to his shed and stood contemplating his own wagon alone there.Then he lifted away a piece of trailing vine from the gate of the corral,while the turkeys moved their heads and watched him from the roof.A rope was hanging from the corral,and seeing it,he dropped the vine.He opened the corral gate,and walked quickly back into the middle of the field,where the horses saw him and his rope,and scattered.But he ran and herded them,whirling the rope,and so drove them into the corral,and flung his noose over two.He dragged two saddles--men's saddles--from the stable,and next he was again at his cabin door with the horses saddled.She was sitting quite still by the table where she had sat during the meal,nor did she speak or move when she saw him look in at the door.
"Lusk has gone,"said he."I don't know what he expected you would do,or I would do.But we will catch him before he gets to Drybone."She looked at him with her dumb stare."Gone?"she said.
"Get up and ride,"said McLean."You are going to Drybone.""Drybone?"she echoed.Her voice was toneless and dull.
He made no more explanations to her,but went quickly about the cabin.
Soon he had set it in order,the dishes on their shelves,the table clean,the fire in the stove arranged;and all these movements she followed with a sort of blank mechanical patience.He made a small bundle for his own journey,tied it behind his saddle,brought her horse beside a stump.When at his sharp order she came out,he locked his cabin and hung the key by a window,where travellers could find it and be at home.
She stood looking where her husband had slunk off.Then she laughed.
"It's about his size,"she murmured.
Her old lover helped her in silence to mount into the man's saddle--this they had often done together in former years--and so they took their way down the silent road.They had not many miles to go,and after the first two lay behind them,when the horses were limbered and had been put to a canter,they made time quickly.They had soon passed out of the trees and pastures of Box Elder and came among the vast low stretches of the greater valley.Not even by day was the river's course often discernible through the ridges and cheating sameness of this wilderness;and beneath this half-darkness of stars and a quarter moon the sage spread shapeless to the looming mountains,or to nothing.
"I will ask you one thing,"said Lin,after ten miles.
The woman made no sign of attention as she rode beside him.
"Did I understand that she--Miss Buckner,I mean--mentioned she might be going away from Separ?""How do I know what you understood?"
"I thought you said--"
"Don't you bother me,Lin McLean."Her laugh rang out,loud and forlorn--one brief burst that startled the horses and that must have sounded far across the sage-brush."You men are rich,"she said.
They rode on,side by side,and saying nothing after that.The Drybone road was a broad trail,a worn strip of bareness going onward over the endless shelvings of the plain,visible even in this light;and presently,moving upon its grayness on a hill in front of them,they made out the wagon.They hastened and overtook it.
"Put your carbine down,"said McLean to Lusk."It's not robbers.It's your wife I'm bringing you."He spoke very quietly.
The husband addressed no word to the cow-puncher "Get in,then,"he said to his wife.
"Town's not far now,"said Lin."Maybe you would prefer riding the balance of the way?""I'd--"But the note of pity that she felt in McLean's question overcame her,and her utterance choked.She nodded her head,and the three continued slowly climbing the hill together.
