She sat straight and proudly in her man's saddle, and tried to make him
feel that she was worthy of respect. She had tried to show him this when
she had shot the bird. Now she recognized that there was a fine something,
higher than shooting or prowess of any kind, which would command respect.
It was something she felt belonged to her, yet she was not sure she
commanded it. What did she lack, and how could she secure it?
He watched her quiet, thoughtful face, and the lady of his former troubled
thoughts was as utterly forgotten by him as if she had never existed. He
was unconsciously absorbed in the study of eye and lip and brow. His eyes
were growing accustomed to the form and feature of this girl beside him,
and he took pleasure in watching her.
They stopped for lunch in a coulee under a pretty cluster of cedar-trees a
little back from the trail, where they might look over the way they had
come and be warned against pursuers. About three o'clock they reached a
town. Here the railroad came directly from Malta, but there was but one
train a day each way.
The man went to the public stopping-place and asked for a room, and boldly
demanded a private place for his "sister" to rest for a while. "She is my
little sister," he told himself in excuse for the word. "She is my sister
to care for. That is, if she were my sister, this is what I should want
some good man to do for her."
He smiled as he went on his way after leaving the girl to rest. The
thought of a sister pleased him. The old woman at the ranch had made him
careful for the girl who was thus thrown in his company.
He rode down through the rough town to the railway station, but a short
distance from the rude stopping-place; and there he made inquiries
concerning roads, towns, etc., in the neighboring locality, and sent a
telegram to the friends with whom he had been hunting when he got lost. He
said he would be at the next town about twenty miles away. He knew that by
this time they would be back home and anxious about him, if they were not
already sending out searching parties for him. His message read: "Hit the trail all right. Am taking a trip for my health. Send mail to me
at ----"
Then after careful inquiry as to directions, and learning that there was
more than one route to the town he had mentioned in his telegram, he went
back to his companion. She was ready to go, for the presence of other
people about her made her uneasy. She feared again there would be
objection to their further progress together. Somehow the old woman's
words had grown into a shadow which hovered over her. She mounted her
horse gladly, and they went forward. He told her what he had just done,
and how he expected to get his mail the next morning when they reached the
next town. He explained that there was a ranch half-way there where they
might stop all night.