Part 24 (1/2)
”Is that always so?”
She shrugged and said, ”It's always been so with us. Big cattle outfits have drove us out time after time. They're always sayin' Alf steals; they're always makin' us trouble. I hate 'em!
”I could get along all right. I can fight but Alf can't. He's had so much bad luck that it's took th' heart out of him.... If it wasn't for me he couldn't get along at all. He's discouraged.”
”You must think a lot of your father.”
She shook her head as if to infer that measuring such devotion was an impossibility.
”Think a lot of him? G.o.d, yes! He's all I got. He's all I ever had.
He's the only one that hasn't chased me out ... or chased after me.
We've been on the move ever since I can recollect, stayin' a few months or a year or two, then hittin' the trail again. Move, move, move!
Always chased out by big outfits, always made fun of, an' he's been good to me through it all. I'd crawl through fire for Alf.”
”A devotion like that is a very fine and n.o.ble thing.”
”Is it? It comes sort of natural to me. I never thought about it,”--with a weary sigh.
”How did you happen to come here?” he asked.
She looked at him and a flicker as of suspicion crossed her face.
”Just come,” she replied, rather evasively, he thought.
For a time they did not speak. The fire crackled dully. Steam rose in wisps from Hilton's soaked clothing and a cunning crept into his expression. The rain pattered on the roof and dripped through in several places, forming dark spots on the hard floor; the horse stamped in the mud outside.
The man saw the regular leap of the pulse in her throat and caressed his thumb with finger tips as delicately as though they stroked that smooth skin.
Her lips were parted ... and _such_ lips! He told himself that she was more beautiful than he had first thought and as filled with contrasts as the heavens themselves. Shortly before she had been defiant, ready for trouble, prepared to defend herself with a rifle if necessary; now she was a child; that, and no more ... and she was distinctive ... quite so.
”You better stay,” she said rather shyly after a time. ”Alf'll be back some time before mornin'. n.o.body'll know.”
He shook his head.
”You and I would know, and after I've told you what I think about it, maybe you wouldn't like me if I did stay ... you've said you did like me.”
He rose, smiling.
”Sure enough goin'?”
”Sure enough going.”
”But you're soaked and cold.”
”No man could do less for a girl like you.”
He bowed playfully low and when he lifted his eyes to her again they read her simple pleasure. He had touched her greatest love, the desire to be treated by men with respect.
”I'll just ask you to show me the way.”