Part 20 (1/2)
He didn't have to go 'way to town, 'cause he met the man he wanted to see on the way here.”
”Now what has come over the spirit of _his_ dreams?” Pen asked herself wonderingly as she got into her riding things. ”Well, there is always the refuge of fast riding. That is the only time I can make my tongue behave.
I'll give him no chance to preach, that's sure!”
When they set out on their ride, she was careful not to let the brisk pace falter. They stopped for luncheon at a ranch-house where there were many people at the table; but on the way home, when nearing the big bend, Kurt rode up to her; his detaining hand on the bridle slackened the speed she was striving to maintain.
”I want to say something to you,” he began stiffly. ”You mustn't think because I say nothing, that I am unmindful of what you have overcome--I--”
She stole a side glance at him. His eyes were as sombre and impenetrable as ever, but his chin worked nervously.
”You mean that I deserve a credit mark for not having lifted the children's banks, or helped myself to the family silver and jewels. It's sweet in you to put such trust in me and commend me for such heroic resistance!”
She jerked her bridle from his grasp and rode furiously on to the house, and had dismounted and escaped to her room before he could overtake her.
CHAPTER IX
Pen found the ranch-house quite deserted the next morning. Kurt had gone to Wolf Creek to purchase cattle and would not return until night. A little scrawled note from Francis apprised her of the fact that Mrs.
Merlin was taking himself, Billy and Betty to spend the day at her own home.
”A whole day alone for the first time in ages!” she thought exultingly.
”It is surely Pen Lamont's day. What shall I do to celebrate? Stop the clock and play with the matches? I must do something stupendous. I know. I will go into town and shop. I will go in style, too.”
She took Kingdon's racing car out of the garage, and was soon speeding down the hills with the little thrill of ecstasy that comes from leaving a beaten track.
In town she left the car in front of the hotel and went down the Main street, looking in dismay at the windows loaded with a.s.sorted and heterogeneous lots of feminine apparel. At last she came to a little shop with but three garments on display, all of them quite smart in style.
”You must be a 'lost, strayed or stolen,'” she apostrophized in delight.
She went within and purchased two gowns with all the many and necessary accessories thereto.
”Lucky, Kind Kurt and Bender didn't search me that day,” she thought. ”I never saw a sheriff or a near-sheriff so slack. If they'd been in my business, they'd have known that you can't always tell what's in the pocket of a ragged frock.”
She visited in turn a shoe store, a soda water fountain and a beauty shop.
Then it was the town time for dining, and she returned to the hotel.
”I shouldn't have exhausted the resources of the town so soon,” she thought ruefully, as she stood in the office after registering. ”I don't know what I will do this afternoon unless I sit in a red plush chair in the Ladies' Parlor and gaze out through the meshes of a coa.r.s.e lace curtain at the pa.s.sers-by. I might call on Bender and see if he'd remember me. Bet his wife would. Maybe something interesting will come along, though.”
Something did. It came in the shape of a lean, brown-faced young man.
”Larry, Larry!” she cried. ”It's a homecoming to see you. I hadn't any idea what part of the world you were in. What are you doing here?”
”The Thief!” he exclaimed, his dark eyes beaming with pleasure.
”Not so loud. I am Pen Lamont, at present. Incog, you see, under my real name, the least known of any. So don't squeal on me.”
”I never gave anyone away yet, Pen, dear. What are you doing in this neck o' the woods?”
”I am in hiding in the hills--at a ranch--quite domesticated. My first glimpse of a home. Like it better than I supposed I could.”