Part 20 (1/2)
”Yes, but I thought you were only fooling. Besides I _had_ to come.”
”Why? You don't fit here. You've got too clean a look.”
Pan gazed down at her, feeling in her words and presence something that prompted him to more than kindliness and good nature.
”Louise, I can return the compliment. You don't fit here.”
”_d.a.m.n you!_” she flashed. ”I'll fall in love with you.”
”Well, if you did, I'd sure drag you out of this h.e.l.l,” replied Pan, bluntly.
”Come away from these gamblers,” she demanded, and drew him from behind the circle to seats at an empty table. ”I won't ask you to drink or dance. But I'm curious. I've been hearing about you.”
”That so? Who told you?”
”I overheard d.i.c.k Hardman tonight, just before supper. He has a room next to mine in the hotel here, when he stays in town. He was telling his father about you. Such cussing I never heard. I'm giving you a hunch. They'll do away with you.”
”Thanks. Reckon it's pretty fine of you to put me on my guard.”
”I only meant behind your back.--What has d.i.c.k against you?”
”We were kids together back in Texas. Just natural rivals and enemies.
But I hadn't seen him for years till last night. Then he didn't know me.”
”He knows you now all right. He ran into you today?”
”I reckon he did,” replied Pan, with a grim laugh.
”Panhandle, this is getting sort of warm,” she said, leaning across the table to him. ”I'm not prying into your affairs. But I could be your friend. G.o.d knows I like a _man_.”
”That's the second compliment you've paid me tonight. What're you up to, Louise?”
”See here, cowboy, when I pay any two-legged hombre compliments you can gamble they are sincere.”
”All right, no offense meant.”
”Do you resent my curiosity?”
”No.”
”I've got you figured right when I say you're in trouble. You're _looking_ for someone?”
”Yes.”
”I knew it,” she retorted, snapping her fingers. ”And that's Hardman and his outfit ... I didn't hear all d.i.c.k said. When he talked loud he cussed. But I heard enough to tie up Panhandle Smith with this girl Lucy and the Hardman outfit.”
Pan eyed her steadily. She was encroaching upon sacred ground. But her feeling was genuine, and undoubtedly she had some connection with a situation which began to look complex. The same instinct that operated so often with Pan in his relation to men of the open now subtly prompted him. Regardless of circ.u.mstances he knew when to grasp an opportunity.
”Louise, you show that you'd risk taking a chance on me--a stranger,”
he replied, with quick decision. ”I return that compliment.”
The smile she gave him was really a reward. It gave him a glimpse of the depths of her.