Part 7 (2/2)
Bill snorted. ”You goin' to invest your plunder in more dew-dabs for Sally d.i.c.kson, Ike? Yah! she wouldn't look at you cross-eyed.”
Bashful Ike's face flamed up redder than ever-if that was possible.
”I don't want her to look at me cross-eyed,” he said. ”She couldn't look cross-eyed. She's the sweetest and purtiest gal on this range, and don't you forgit that, Mr. Hicks.”
”Sho, now! don't git riled at me,” grunted the older man. ”No offense intended. But I hate to see you waste your time and money on a gal that don't give two pins for ye, Ike.”
”I ain't axin' her to give two pins for me,” said Ike, with a sort of groan. ”I ain't up to the mark with her-I know that. But thar ain't no law keepin' me from spending my money as I please, is there?”
”I dunno,” returned Bill Hicks. ”Maybe there's one that'll cover the case and send a feller like you to the foolish factory. Sally d.i.c.kson won't have nothing to say to you.”
”Never mind,” said Ike, grimly. ”You take this two dollar bill, Miss Ruthie-if you will. And you buy the nicest box o' candy yo' kin find in Bullhide. When you come back by Lem d.i.c.kson's, jest drop it there for Sally. Yo' needn't say who sent it,” added the bashful cowboy, wistfully. ”Jest-jest say one o' the boys told you to buy it for her.
That's all, Miss. It won't be too much trouble?”
”Of course it won't, Mr. Stedman,” declared Ruth, earnestly. ”I'll gladly do your errand.”
”Thank you, Miss,” returned the foreman, and spurring his horse he rode rapidly away to escape further remarks from his boss.
CHAPTER VIII-WHAT WAS ON THE RECORDS
”Now, what can you do with a feller like that?” demanded Mr. Hicks, in disgust. ”Poor old Ike has been s.h.i.+nning around Sally d.i.c.kson ever since Lem brought her home from school-from Denver. And she's a nice little gal enough, at that; but she ain't got no use for Ike and he ought to see it. Gals out here don't like fellers that ain't got sperit enough to say their soul's their own. And Ike's so bashful he fair hates hisself!
You've noticed that.”
”But he's just as kind and good-natured as he can be,” declared Ruth, her pony cantering on beside the ranchman's bigger mount.
”That don't help a feller none with a gal like Sally,” grunted Mr.
Hicks. ”She don't want a reg'lar _gump_ hanging around her. Makes her the laffin' stock of the hull range-don't you see? Ike better git a move on, if he wants her. 'Tain't goin' to be no bashful 'ombre that gets Sally d.i.c.kson, let me tell ye! Sendin' her lollipops by messenger-bah!
He wants ter ride up and hand that gal a ring-and a good one-if he expects to ever git her into double harness. Now, you hear me!”
”Just the same,” laughed Ruth, ”I'm going to buy the nicest box of candy I can find, and she shall know who paid for it, too.”
And she found time to purchase the box of candy while Mr. Hicks was attending to his own private business in Bullhide. The town boasted of several good stores as well as a fine hotel. Ruth went to the railroad station, however, where there was sure to be fresh candies from the East, and she bought the handsomest box she could find. Then she wrote Ike's name nicely on a card and had it tucked inside the wrapper, and the clerk tied the package up with gilt cord.
”I'll make that red-haired girl think that Ike knows a few things, after all, if he is less bold than the other boys,” thought Ruth. ”He's been real kind to me and maybe I can help him with Sally. If she knew beans she'd know that Ike was true blue!”
Mr. Hicks came along the street and found her soon after Ruth's errand was done and took her to the office of the young lawyer he had mentioned. This was Mr. Savage-a brisk, businesslike man, who seemed to know at once just what the girl wished to discover.
”You come right over with me to the county records office and we'll look up the history of those Tintacker Mines,” he said. ”Mr. Hicks knows a good deal about mining properties, and he can check my work as we go along.”
So the three repaired to the county offices and the lawyer turned up the first records of the claims around Tintacker.
”There is only one mine called Tintacker,” he explained. ”The adjacent mines are Tintacker _claims_. The camp that sprang up there and flourished fifteen years ago, was called Tintacker, too. But for more than ten years the kiotes have held the fort over there for the most part-eh, Mr. Hicks?”
”And that crazy feller that's been around yere for some months,” the ranchman said.
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