Part 6 (1/2)
She gave a little smile of victory which, if he had seen it, would have strangled all his new-born compa.s.sion.
”Why didn't you tell me your story in the first place?” he demanded.
”When you are out in the world alone, you know,” she said sagely, ”and everyone is taking a shot at you, you have to put out a bluff of bravado, same as a porcupine shoots out his quills.”
He gave another murmur of sympathy.
”Don't feel too bad about it, Kind Kurt, because being knocked about sharpens your wits and makes you an expert dodger when you aren't equal to fighting in the open.”
Suddenly into the black-purple sky shot forth a moon and stars.
”Makes the white lights of a city look like thirty cents, eh, Kurt?” she commented.
He made no response, and she was serenely aware of his silent disapproval.
”What's matter, Kurt?”
”My name,” he replied frigidly, ”is Walters.”
”Is it, then? And what might your middle name be?”
”You can call me 'Mr. Walters,'” he replied, striving for dignity and realizing instantly how lame was the attempt.
”Oh, can I now? Well, I'll do nothing of the kind to the first real friend I've ever had. As I said, I am all in, and I'm going to snooze while you watch for a gasoliner to come along.”
She stretched herself out and closed her eyes. In a semi-slumber she was dreamily conscious of a firm roll slipped deftly under her head. She made a faint murmur of content and acknowledgment and knew no more. Her sleeping sense didn't tell her that a tall sheriff came and looked down upon her small, pale, moonlit face from which sleep, the great eliminator, had robbed of everything earthy and left it the face of an innocent, sleeping child. She didn't dream that as he gazed he remitted sentence and told himself that she was but a stray little kitten lost in the wide plains of life, and solely in need of patient guidance to a home hearth.
”She was right,” he confessed. ”I did make her feel contrary. It seems to be a characteristic of mine. Maybe her true little self is the one Jo saw and she can be made worthy of him yet.”
CHAPTER III
When the first faint edges of light outlined the coming day, she sat bolt upright and stared about her. As far as eye could see was the tortuous trail leading up sculptured hills that were the preface to the mother mountains of the West.
The wonder-stare in her eyes gradually disappeared as memory awakened.
Down beyond the trees in a little valley the sheriff was attending to a fire he had built.
She arose, cramped and unrefreshed, and hastened toward the welcome blaze.
”Good morning. Any gasoline yet?”
”No; not an automobile pa.s.sed during the night.”
”How do you know? Didn't you sleep?”
”No.”
”Guarding your car and me? No!” she added quickly. ”That wasn't the reason. I had all the robes and your coat. You had to stay awake to keep warm.”
He smiled slightly and spoke in the hushed voice that seems in keeping with the dawn.