Part 5 (1/2)
Once Ferguson had seen a band of traveling minstrels in Cimarron.
Their jokes (of an ancient vintage) had taken well with the audience, for the latter had laughed. Ferguson remembered that a stranger had said that the minstrels were ”entertaining.” And now he was entertaining her. A shadow pa.s.sed over his face; he looked down at his foot, with its white bandage so much in evidence. Then straight at her, his eyes grave and steady.
”I'm glad to have amused you, ma'am,” he said. ”An' now I reckon I'll be gettin' over to the Two Diamond. It can't be very far now.”
”Five miles,” she said shortly. She had dropped her sewing into her lap and sat motionless, regarding him with level eyes.
”Are you working for the Two Diamond?” she questioned.
”Lookin' for a job,” he returned.
”Oh!” The exclamation struck him as rather expressionless. He looked at her.
”Do you know the Two Diamond folks?”
”Of course.”
”Of course,” he repeated, aware of the constraint in her voice. ”I ought to have known. They're neighbors of your'n.”
”They are not!” she suddenly flashed back at him.
”Well, now,” he returned slowly, puzzled, but knowing that somehow he was getting things wrong, ”I reckon there's a lot that I don't know.”
”If you are going to work over at the Two Diamond,” she said coldly, ”you will know more than you do now. My----”
Evidently she was about to say something more, but a sound caught her ear and she rose, dropping her sewing to the chair. ”My brother is coming,” she said quietly. Standing near the door she caught Ferguson's swift glance.
”Then it ain't a husband after all,” he said, pretending surprise.
CHAPTER V
THE MAN OF DRY BOTTOM
A young man rode around the corner of the cabin and halted his pony beside the porch, sitting quietly in the saddle and gazing inquiringly at the two. He was about Ferguson's age and, like the latter, he wore two heavy guns. There was about him, as he sat there sweeping a slow glance over the girl and the man, a certain atmosphere of deliberate certainty and quiet coldness that gave an impression of readiness for whatever might occur.
Ferguson's eyes lighted with satisfaction. The girl might be an Easterner, but the young man was plainly at home in this country.
Nowhere, except in the West, could he have acquired the serene calm that shone out of his eyes; in no other part of the world could he have caught the easy a.s.surance, the unstudied nonchalance, that seems the inherent birthright of the cowpuncher.
”Ben,” said the girl, answering the young man's glance, ”this man was bitten by a rattler. He came here, and I treated him. He says he was on his way over to the Two Diamond, for a job.”
The young man opened his lips slightly. ”Stafford hire you?” he asked.
”I'm hopin' he does,” returned Ferguson.
The young man's lips drooped sneeringly. ”I reckon you're wantin' a job mighty bad,” he said.
Ferguson smiled. ”Takin' your talk, you an' Stafford ain't very good friends,” he returned.
The young man did not answer. He dismounted and led his pony to a small corral and then returned to the porch, carrying his saddle.