Part 6 (1/2)
The man on the horse sneered. ”h.e.l.l!” he said; ”bit by a rattler!” He laughed insolently, pulling his pony's head around. ”I reckon I'll be goin',” he said. ”You'll nurse him so's he won't die?” He had struck the pony's flanks with the spurs and was gone into the shadows before either man on the porch could move. There was a short silence, while the two men listened to the beat of his pony's hoofs. Then Ferguson turned and spoke to the young man.
”You know him?” he questioned.
The young man smiled coldly. ”Yep,” he said; ”he's range boss for the Two Diamond!”
CHAPTER VI
AT THE TWO DIAMOND
As Ferguson rode through the pure suns.h.i.+ne of the morning his thoughts kept going back to the little cabin in the flat--”Bear Flat,” she had called it. Certain things troubled him--he, whose mind had been always untroubled--even through three months of idleness that had not been exactly attractive.
”She's cert'nly got nice eyes,” he told himself confidentially, as he lingered slowly on his way; ”an' she knows how to use them. She sure made me seem some breathless. An' no girl has ever done that. An' her hair is like”--he pondered long over this--”like--why, I reckon I didn't just ever see anything like it. An' the way she looked at me!”
A shadow crossed his face. ”So she's a writer--an' she's studied medicine. I reckon I'd like it a heap better if she didn't monkey with none of them fool things. What business has a girl got to----” He suddenly laughed aloud. ”Why I reckon I'm pretty near loco,” he said, ”to be ravin' about a girl like this. She ain't nothin' to me; she just done what any other girl would do if a man come to her place bit by a rattler.”
He spurred his pony forward at a sharp lope. And now he found that his thoughts would go back to the moment of his departure from the cabin that morning. She had accompanied him to the door, after bandaging the ankle. Her brother had gone away an hour before.
”I'm thankin' you, ma'am,” Ferguson said as he stood for a moment at the door. ”I reckon I'd have had a bad time if it hadn't been for you.”
”It was nothing,” she returned.
He had hesitated--he still felt the thrill of doubt that had a.s.sailed him before he had taken the step that he knew was impertinent. ”I'll be ridin' over here again, some day, if you don't mind,” he said.
Her face reddened a trifle. ”I'm sure brother would like to have you,”
she replied.
”I don't remember to have said that I was comin' over to see your brother,” was his reply.
”But it would have to be he,” she said, looking straight at him. ”You couldn't come to see me unless I asked you.”
And now he had spoken a certain word that had been troubling him. ”Do you reckon that Two Diamond range boss comes over to see your brother?”
She frowned. ”Of course!” she replied. ”He is my brother's friend.
But I--I despise him!”
Ferguson grinned broadly. ”Well, now,” he said, unable to keep his pleasure over her evident dislike of the Two Diamond man from showing in his eyes and voice, ”that's cert'nly too bad. An' to think he's wastin' his time--ridin' over here.”
She gazed at him with steady, unwavering eyes. He could still remember the challenge in them. ”Be careful that you don't waste your time!”
was her answer.
”I reckon I won't,” was his reply, as he climbed into the saddle. ”But I won't be comin' over here to see your brother!”
”Oh, dear!” she said, ”I call that very brazen!”
But when he had spurred his pony down through the crossing of the river he had turned to glance back at her. And he had seen a smile on her face. As he rode now he went over this conversation many times, much pleased with his own boldness; more pleased because she had not seemed angry with him.
It was late in the morning when he caught sight of the Two Diamond ranch buildings, scattered over a great basin through which the river flowed. Half an hour later he rode up to the ranchhouse and met Stafford at the door of the office. The manager waved him inside.