"I was so glad to get to bed I never looked at my watch." Again she regarded him, quite innocently, over the rim of her cup. "Did anybody lose any stock?"
He did not abandon his inquisition willingly, but each time he asked a question, Kate parried and asked one in turn. He gave up without having gained any information she meant to withhold.
It was not hard to keep him in good humor; indeed, it was rather too easy. He pushed back his chair, crossed his legs, talked of a strong cattle market for the fall and spoke of Hawk and the hunt he was keeping up for him. "They had a story around--or some of the boys had the idea--that his friends would pick a wet night like last night to take him into town."
"Is he still in the country?"
"Sure he is. Say, Kate," he changed his att.i.tude as lightly as he did his subject--uncrossed his legs, squared himself in his chair and threw his elbows on the table.
She met the new disposition with a tone of prudent reserve: "What is it?"
"When are you going to do something for a lonesome old scout?" he asked bluntly.
With as little concern as possible, she put down her knife and fork, and, with her hands seeking her napkin, looked at him. "What do you mean?" she returned collectedly, "by "doing something"?"
"Marry me."
"Never."
The pa.s.sage was disconcertingly quick. Van Horn, thrown quite aback, remonstrated. His discomfiture was so undisguised that Kate was embarra.s.sed. The next moment he was very angry. "If that"s the case,"
he blurted out, "what"s the use o" my sticking around here fighting your battles?"
"You"re not fighting my battles."
"Maybe you don"t call "em your father"s, either," he exclaimed scornfully.
"They"re your own battles," declared Kate. "You know that as well as I do."
"All the same, your father gets the benefit of them," he continued hotly.
"I wish to heaven he had kept out of them."
Van Horn eyed her sharply. His face reflected his sarcasm. "Of course, you needn"t worry," he grinned, with implication. "They wouldn"t steal your horse even if you do always leave it in Kitchen"s barn; the Falling Wall bunch think too much of you for that."
Surprised as she was at this outbreak, Kate kept her head. "There are some of the rustlers I"d trust as far as I would some of the raiders,"
she rejoined coolly.
"Why don"t you say Jim Laramie," he exclaimed harshly.
"Jim Laramie," she returned defiantly, "is not the only one."
"He"ll be the "only one" after our next clean-up in the Falling Wall.
And he won"t be "one" if he doesn"t change his tune."
Kate"s eyes were snapping fire. "Take care that next time the Falling Wall doesn"t clean you up," she said bitingly.
He snorted. "I mean it," she exclaimed. "Next time you"ll need to look out for yourself."
He bolted from his chair. "That"s the first time I ever heard anybody on this ranch take sides with the men that"s robbing it--or carry a threat to this ranchhouse for rustlers."
"Call it whatever you please, you won"t change my opinion of you. But, of course, I"m only a woman and don"t know anything."
"I"m thinking you know a whole lot more than you let on," he declared.
"Anyway, I wish you"d leave this ranch out of the rest of it. If you keep on "cleaning up," as you call it, you"ll go farther and fare worse."
He brought down his fist. "Not until I"ve cleaned out two more pups, anyway! Now, look here, Kate," he went on, "you may be fooling about this marrying, but you can bet I"m not."
"Well, you can bet _I"m_ not," she returned, echoing his pert slang sharply.
"Who"s the man?" He flung the question at her point-blank.
If she flushed the least bit it was with anger at his rudeness. "There isn"t any man, and there isn"t going to be any--so please never talk again about my marrying you or anybody else."
She rose and left the table. He jumped to intercept her and tried to catch her hands. She let him see she was not in the least afraid and as he confronted her, she faced him without a tremor. "Let me pa.s.s!"
She fairly snapped out the words.
Van Horn, without moving, broke into a boisterous laugh. Kelly walked in just then from the kitchen and Van Horn, losing none of his malevolence, did stand aside.
"All right," he said, "--this time."
CHAPTER XXVIII
A DIFFICULT RESOLVE
For two days Kate burned in feverish reaction from her exposure, wretched in mind and body. Her only effort in that time was to get down to the corral and see that Bradley, acting as barn boy, should do something for her cut and bruised pony.
Her father was still in Medicine Bend, and Van Horn, much to her relief, had disappeared. When she left her bed she spent the morning trying to rehabilitate her riding suit. The task called for all her ingenuity and she was still in the kitchen working on it late in the afternoon when Bradley came in.
He had no sooner sat down by the door to report to Kate at his ease, than Kelly interrupted him with a call for wood. Even after he had filled the box, Kelly warned him he would have to split more next morning to get a supply ahead.
"Easy, Kelly," remonstrated Bradley, in his deeply tremulous voice.
"Easy. I can"t split no wood t"morrow mornin", not for n.o.body."
"Why not?"
"Got to go to town."
"What for?"
Bradley declined to answer, but Kelly, persistent, bored into his evasiveness until Kate tired at the discussion: "Tell him what you"re going for and be done with it," she said tartly. The reaction of three days had not left her own nerves unaffected; she admitted to herself she was cross.
Bradley, taken aback by this unexpected a.s.sault, still tried to temporize. Kate refused to countenance it. When he saw he was in for it, he appealed to her generosity: "It"d be most "s much "s my job"s worth if they knew here what I"m goin" to town tomorrow f"r."
"If that"s all," said Kate, to rea.s.sure the old man, "I"ll stand between you and losing your job."