"You wanted to see me?"
The voice had the soft, slow intonation of the South, and it held some
quality that haunted the memory. Or so Melissy thought afterward, but that
may have been because of its owner's appeal to sympathy.
"If you are Miss Yarnell."
"Ferne Yarnell is my name."
"Mr. Bellamy asked me to call on you. He sent this letter of
introduction."
A faint wave of color beat into the cheek of the stranger. "You know Mr.
Bellamy then?"
"Yes. He would have been here to meet you, but he met with an accident
yesterday."
"An accident!" There was a quick flash of alarm in the lifted face.
"He told me to tell you that it was not serious. He was shot in the arm."
"Shot. By whom?" She was ashen to the lips.
"By a man called Duncan Boone."
"I know him. He is a dangerous man."
"Yes," Melissy nodded. "I don't think we know how very dangerous he is. We
have all been deceived in him till recently."
"Does he live here?"
"Yes. The strange thing is that he and Mr. Bellamy had never met in this
country until a few days ago. There used to be some kind of a feud between
the families. But you must know more about that than I do."
"Yes. My family is involved in the feud. Mr. Bellamy is a distant cousin
of mine."
"So he told me."
"Have you known him long?"
Melissy thought that there was a little more than curiosity in the quick
look the young woman flung at her.
"I met him when he first came here. He was lost on the desert and I found
him. After that we became very unfriendly. He jumped a mining claim
belonging to my father. But we've made it up and agreed to be friends."
"He wrote about the young lady who saved his life."
Melissy smiled. "Did he say that I was a cattle and a stage rustler?"
"He said nothing that was not good."
"I'm much obliged to him," the Western girl answered breezily. "And now do
tell me, Miss Yarnell, that you and your people have made up your mind to
stay permanently."
"Father is still looking the ground over. He has almost decided to buy a
store here. Yet he has been in the town only a day. So you see he must
like it."