The Last Straw Part 24

"Is that always so?"

She shrugged and said, "It's always been so with us. Big cattle outfits have drove us out time after time. They're always sayin' Alf steals; they're always makin' us trouble. I hate 'em!

"I could get along all right. I can fight but Alf can't. He's had so much bad luck that it's took th' heart out of him.... If it wasn't for me he couldn't get along at all. He's discouraged."

"You must think a lot of your father."

She shook her head as if to infer that measuring such devotion was an impossibility.

"Think a lot of him? G.o.d, yes! He's all I got. He's all I ever had.

He's the only one that hasn't chased me out ... or chased after me.

We've been on the move ever since I can recollect, stayin' a few months or a year or two, then hittin' the trail again. Move, move, move!

Always chased out by big outfits, always made fun of, an' he's been good to me through it all. I'd crawl through fire for Alf."

"A devotion like that is a very fine and n.o.ble thing."

"Is it? It comes sort of natural to me. I never thought about it,"--with a weary sigh.

"How did you happen to come here?" he asked.

She looked at him and a flicker as of suspicion crossed her face.

"Just come," she replied, rather evasively, he thought.

For a time they did not speak. The fire crackled dully. Steam rose in wisps from Hilton's soaked clothing and a cunning crept into his expression. The rain pattered on the roof and dripped through in several places, forming dark spots on the hard floor; the horse stamped in the mud outside.

The man saw the regular leap of the pulse in her throat and caressed his thumb with finger tips as delicately as though they stroked that smooth skin.

Her lips were parted ... and _such_ lips! He told himself that she was more beautiful than he had first thought and as filled with contrasts as the heavens themselves. Shortly before she had been defiant, ready for trouble, prepared to defend herself with a rifle if necessary; now she was a child; that, and no more ... and she was distinctive ... quite so.

"You better stay," she said rather shyly after a time. "Alf'll be back some time before mornin'. n.o.body'll know."

He shook his head.

"You and I would know, and after I've told you what I think about it, maybe you wouldn't like me if I did stay ... you've said you did like me."

He rose, smiling.

"Sure enough goin'?"

"Sure enough going."

"But you're soaked and cold."

"No man could do less for a girl like you."

He bowed playfully low and when he lifted his eyes to her again they read her simple pleasure. He had touched her greatest love, the desire to be treated by men with respect.

"I'll just ask you to show me the way."

"You come by the way, I guess. Just start back that trail and your cayuse'll take you to the road--

"But Alf'll be back. We've never turned anybody out in the rain before."

"Then this is something new. Don't ask me again, please. When you ask a man it makes it very hard to refuse and I must ... for your sake.

"After I strike the road, then what?"

"Follow right past the HC ranch to town. You know where that is?"

A wave of rage swept through him.

"I ought to!" he said bitterly. "I was sent away from there tonight."

"Sent away? In the _rain_?"

"In the rain."

"Why did they do that?"

He shrugged his shoulders.

"Because there are things which some people do not value as highly as you do. Generosity, thoughtfulness for the desires of others, hospitality."

He licked his lips almost greedily as he watched her.

"Did _she_ know?"

"Who do you mean?"

"That greenhorn gal."

"Yes, she knew," he answered grimly, and b.u.t.toned his coat.

He put out his hand and she took it, rather awed.

"Some time I may come back and thank you for what you've wanted to do."

"Oh, you'll come back?"

"Do you want me to?"

"Yes,"--eagerly.

"Then it is impossible for me to stay away for long!"

She stood watching, as, touching his hat, he rode into the night. She let the curtain drop and returned to the fire, standing there a moment.

Then she sat down, rather weakly, and stretched her slim legs across the hearth.