"Well, Mr. Speed!"
"Yes, quite well."
"You traitor!"
"You modern Borgia! Didn"t you go and tell Helen everything?"
"Didn"t you promise to stop Culver?"
"I did. I had him thrown in jail at Omaha. What more could I do?"
"You _did_ try? Honestly?" Mrs. Keap allowed her indignation to abate slightly. "If I had known that, I wouldn"t have told Helen. I"m sorry you didn"t explain. I was angry--furious. And I was frightened so!" She broke down suddenly. "What shall I do about them? I can see what they want to say, and yet I daren"t let either speak a word."
"Mrs. Keap, are you sure Culver loves you?"
"Horribly! And he suspects the truth. I saw him change the moment he found me here." Roberta began to weep; two limpid tears stole down her cheeks, she groped for a chair, and Wally hastened to her a.s.sistance. As he supported her, she gave way completely and bowed her head upon his shoulder.
It was in perfect keeping with the luck of things that Miss Blake should enter at the moment. She had come with Jack and his sister to inquire regarding the fitness of her champion and to nerve him for the contest, and she stood aghast. Chapin stepped forward with a look of suspicion, inquiring:
"What"s going on here?"
Miss Blake spoke brightly, tinkling ice in her voice.
"There"s no necessity for an explanation, is there? It seems time for congratulations."
"Oh, see here now! Mrs. Keap"s really engaged to Culver, you know."
"Culver!"
"Culver!"
Both the young ranchman and his sister stared at the chaperon with growing horror, while she undertook to explain; but the blow had fallen so swiftly that her words were incoherent, and in the midst of them her hostess turned and fled from the room.
"Now don"t begin to aviate until you understand the truth," Speed continued. "While she"s engaged to that broken-toed serpent, she doesn"t love him, do you see?" He smiled.
"I do _not_ see!"
"It was simply a habit Mrs. Keap had got into--I should say it was an impulsive engagement that she has repented of."
"No doubt she was repenting when we interrupted you," said Miss Blake, bitterly.
Then Chapin added, helplessly: "But Culver is engaged to my sister Jean!"
"Jean!" Mrs. Keap exposed her tragic face. "Then--he deceived _me_! Oh-h! What wretches men are!" The widow commenced to sob.
Outside came Miss Chapin"s voice: "So here you are, Mr.
Covington!" And the next moment she reappeared, dragging the crippled champion behind her. Thrusting him toward Roberta, she pouted: "There, Mrs. Keap! I give him back to you."
"Perhaps you"d better go on with your explanations," Chapin suggested, coldly, to Speed.
"How can I when you won"t listen to me? Hear ye! Hear ye! Culver was engaged to marry Mrs. Keap, but she discovered what a reprobate he is--"
There was indistinguishable dissent of some sort from Mr.
Covington.
"--and she learned to detest him!"
Mrs. Keap likewise dissented in accents m.u.f.fled.
"Well, she would have learned to detest him in a short time, because she"s in love with Jack Chapin; so she came to old Doctor Speed in her troubles, and he promised to fix it all up. Now I guess you four can do the rest of the explaining. Let this be a lesson to all of you. If you ever get in trouble, come to the match-making kid. I"ll square it."
They were four happy young people, and they lost no time in escaping elsewhere. When they had gone, their benefactor said to Miss Blake:
"Wouldn"t you like to make that a triple wedding? We might get club rates."
For answer Miss Blake hurried to the door and was gone.
Over at the Centipede there was a great activity and yet a certain idleness also, as if it had been a holiday. The men hung about in groups listening to the peripatetic phonograph. A dozen or more outsiders had ridden over from the post-office to witness the contest. Out by the corral, which stood close to the first break of the foot-hills, Skinner was superintending the laying out of a course, selecting a stretch of level ground worn smooth and hard by the tread of countless hoofs.
"Makes a pretty good track, eh?" he said to Gallagher. "I wonder how fast this feller is? Ever heard?"
"They seem to think he"s a whirlin" ball of fire, but that don"t worry you none, does it?" Gallagher bent his lead-blue eyes upon the cook, who shrugged carelessly, and Gallagher smiled; he was forced to admit that his man did not appear to be one easily frightened. Skinner"s face was hard, his lips thin, his jaw was not that of a weakling. He had dressed early, then wrapped a horse-blanket about his shoulders, and now, casting this aside, sprinted down the dirt track for a few yards to test the footing, while Gallagher watched him with satisfaction--a thing of steel and wire, as tough, as agile, and as spirited as a range-raised cow-pony. He was unshaven, his running-trunks were cut from a pair of overalls, held up at the waist by a section of window- cord, and his chest was scantily covered by an undershirt from which the sleeves had been pulled. But when he returned to pick up his blanket Gallagher noted approvingly that he was not even breathing heavily. With a knowledge confined mainly to live- stock, the foremen inquried:
"How"s your laigs? I like to see "em hairy, that-a-way; it"s a sign of stren"th. I bet this college boy is as pink as a maiden"s palm! He don"t look to me like he could run."
"They fool you sometimes," said Skinner. "By-the-way, what have you bet?"
"We laid the phonograph agin their treasures an" trappin"s--"
"But how much money?"
"We got three hundred pesos down, but they sent word they was comin" loaded for b"ar, so we rustled five hundred more."
Skinner"s eyes gleamed. "I wish I had a couple of hundred to bet on myself."
"Broke, eh?"
"I"m as clean as a hound"s tooth."
"I"m sorry y"all tossed off your wages, but"--Gallagher started suspiciously--"say! I reckon that won"t affect your runnin" none, will it?"
Skinner admitted that he could run best when he had something to run for. "You might advance me a month"s wages," he reflected.
"I"ll do it. h.e.l.lo! Say, ain"t that one of them Flyin" Heart city visitors?" From the direction of the ranch buildings Berkeley Fresno was approaching.
"Good-afternoon! You are Mr. Gallagher, I believe? I rode over with our crowd just now." Fresno looked back. "Let"s step around to the other side of the corral; I want to talk to you." He led the way; then inquired, "Is this your runner?"
"That"s him. His name"s Skinner, and that"s a promisin" t.i.tle to bet on." Gallagher slipped a roll of bank-notes from his pocket.
"Unhook! I"ll bet you."