She took his opening so eagerly that he smiled, at which her color mounted again.
"If y"u like. What shall I read?"
"Some more of Barrie"s books, if y"u don"t mind. When a fellow is weak as a kitten he sorter takes to things that are about kids."
Nora came in and cleared away the supper things. She was just beginning to wash them when McWilliams and Denver dropped into the kitchen by different doors. Each seemed surprised and disappointed at the presence of the other. Nora gave each of them a smile and a dishcloth.
"Reddy, he"s shavin" and Frisco"s struggling with a biled shirt--I mean with a necktie," Denver hastily amended. "They"ll be along right soon, I shouldn"t wonder."
"Y"u better go tell the boys Miss Nora don"t want her kitchen littered up with so many of them," suggested his rival.
"Y"u"re foreman here. I don"t aim to b.u.t.t into your business, Mac,"
grinned back the other, polishing a tea plate with the towel.
"I want to get some table linen over to Lee Ming to-night," said Nora, presently.
"Denver, he"ll be glad to take it for y"u, Miss Nora. He"s real obliging," offered Mac, generously.
"I"ve been in the house all day, so I need a walk. I thought perhaps one of you gentlemen--" Miss Nora looked from one to the other of them with deep innocence.
"Sure, I"ll go along and carry it. Just as Mac says, I"ll be real pleased to go," said Denver, hastily.
Mac felt he had been a trifle precipitate in his a.s.sumption that Nora did not intend to go herself. Lee Ming had established a laundry some half mile from the ranch, and the way thereto lay through most picturesque shadow and moonlight. The foreman had conscientious scruples against letting Denver escort her down such a veritable lovers" lane of romantic scenery.
"I don"t know as y"u ought to go out in the night air with that cold, Denver. I"d hate a heap to have y"u catch pneumony. It don"t seem to me I"d be justified in allowin" y"u to," said the foreman, anxiously.
"You"re THAT thoughtful, Mac. But I expect mebbe a little saunter with Miss Nora will do my throat good. We"ll walk real slow, so"s not to wear out my strength."
"Big, husky fellows like y"u are awful likely to drop off with pneumony.
I been thinkin" I got some awful good medicine that would be the right stuff for y"u. It"s in the drawer of my wash-stand. Help yourself liberal and it will surely do y"u good. Y"u"ll find it in a bottle."
"I"ll bet it"s good medicine, Mac. After we get home I"ll drop around.
In the washstand, y"u said?"
"I hate to have y"u take such a risk," Mac tried again. "There ain"t a bit of use in y"u exposing yourself so careless. Y"u take a hot footbath and some of that medicine, Denver, then go right straight to bed, and in the mo"ning y"u"ll be good as new. Honest, y"u won"t know yourself."
"Y"u got the best heart, Mac." Nora giggled.
"Since I"m foreman I got to be a mother to y"u boys, ain"t I?"
"Y"u"re liable to be a grandmother to us if y"u keep on," came back the young giant.
"Y"u plumb discourage me, Denver," sighed the foreman.
"No, sir! The way I look at it, a fellow"s got to take some risk. Now, y"u cayn"t tell some things. I figure I ain"t half so likely to catch pneumony as y"u would be to get heart trouble if y"u went walking with Miss Nora," returned Denver.
A perfect gravity sat on both their faces during the progress of most of their repartee.
"If your throat"s so bad, Mr. Halliday, I"ll put a kerosene rag round it for you when we get back," Nora said, with a sweet little glance of sympathy that the foreman did not enjoy.
Denver, otherwise "Mr. Halliday," beamed. "Y"u"re real kind, ma"am.
I"ll bet that will help it on the outside much as Mac"s medicine will inside."
"What"ll y"u do for my heart, ma"am, if it gits bad the way Denver figures it will?"
"Y"u might try a mustard plaster," she gurgled, with laughter.
For once the debonair foreman"s ready tongue had brought him to defeat.
He was about to retire from the field temporarily when Nora herself offered first aid to the wounded.
"We would like to have you come along with us, Mr. McWilliams. I want you to come if you can spare the time."
The soft eyes telegraphed an invitation with such a subtle suggestion of a private understanding that Mac was instantly encouraged to accept.
He knew, of course, that she was playing them against each other and sitting back to enjoy the result, but he was possessed of the hope common to youths in his case that he really was on a better footing with her than the other boys. This opinion, it may be added, was shared by Denver, Frisco and even Reddy as regards themselves. Which is merely another way of putting the regrettable fact that this very charming young woman was given to coquetting with the hearts of her admirers.
"Any time y"u get oneasy about that cough y"u go right on home, Denver.
Don"t stay jest out of politeness. We"ll never miss y"u, anyhow," the foreman a.s.sured him.
"Thank y"u, Mac. But y"u see I got to stay to keep Miss Nora from getting bored."
"Was it a phrenologist strung y"u with the notion y"u was a cure for lonesomeness?"
"Shucks! I don"t make no such claims. The only thing is it"s a comfort when you"re bored to have company. Miss Nora, she"s so polite. But, y"u see, if I"m along I can take y"u for a walk when y"u get too bad."
They reached the little trail that ran up to Lee Ming"s place, and Denver suggested that Mac run in with the bundle so as to save Nora the climb.
"I"d like to, honest I would. But since y"u thought of it first I won"t steal the credit of doing Miss Nora a good turn. We"ll wait right here for y"u till y"u come back."
"We"ll all go up together," decided Nora, and honors were easy.
In the pleasant moonlight they sauntered back, two of them still engaged in lively badinage, while the third played chorus with appreciative little giggles and murmurs of "Oh, Mr. Halliday!" and "You know you"re just flattering me, Mr. McWilliams."
If they had not been so absorbed in their gay foolishness the two men might not have walked so innocently into the trap waiting for them at their journey"s end. As it was, the first intimation they had of anything unusual was a stern command to surrender.
"Throw up your hands. Quick, you blank fools!"
A masked man covered them, in each hand a six-shooter, and at his summons the arms of the cow-punchers went instantly into the air.
Nora gave an involuntary little scream of dismay.
"Y"u don"t need to be afraid, lady. Ain"t n.o.body going to hurt you, I reckon," the masked man growled.
"Sure they won"t," Mac rea.s.sured her, adding ironically: "This gun-play business is just neighborly frolic. Liable to happen any day in Wyoming."
A second masked man stepped up. He, too was garnished with an a.r.s.enal.
"What"s all this talking about?" he demanded sharply.