The delight in his manner, his shining joy were almost sufficient recompense to the Padre. He had given way to this youngster as he always gave way. It had been so from the first. Yes, it was always so, and--he was glad.
Buck turned toward the door, and, as he did so, his arm affectionately linked into that of his friend.
"We'll need that supper, Padre," he said, more soberly. "There's a long night, and it ain't easy to guess what may happen before daylight. Come right along."
They passed the doorway, but proceeded no farther. Buck held up his hand, and they stood listening.
"Wait! Hark!" he cried, and both turned their eyes toward the westward hills.
As they stood, a low, faint growl of thunder murmured down the distant hillsides, and died away in the long-drawn sigh of a rising wind. The wind swept on, and the rustling trees and suddenly creaking branches of the forest answered that sharp, keen breath.
"It's coming--from the northwest," said the Padre, as though the direction were significant.
"Yes." Buck nodded with understanding. "That's wher' the other come from."
They stood for some moments waiting for a further sign. But nothing came. The night was pitch black. There was no break anywhere in the sky. The lamplight in the house stared out sharp and clear, but the house itself, as with the barns and other outbuildings, the stockade, even the line of the tree tops where they met the sky, was quite lost in the inky night.
"It'll come quick," said the Padre.
"Sure."
They moved on to the house, and in a few minutes were sitting down to one of those silent meals which was so much a part of their habit. Yet each man was alert. Each man was thinking of those things which they knew to be threatening. Each man was ready for what might be forthcoming. Be it tempest or disaster, be it battle or death, each was ready to play his part, each was ready to accept the verdict as it might be given.
Buck was the first to push back from the table. He rose from his seat and lit his pipe. Then, as the pungent fumes lolled heavily on the superheated air, he passed over to the open window and took his seat upon the sill.
The Padre was more leisurely. He remained in his seat and raked out the bowl of his pipe with the care of a keen smoker. Then he cut his tobacco carefully from his plug, and rolled it thoughtfully in the palms of his hands.
"Say, about little Joan," he said abruptly. "Will she join us on----?"