"Shake hands with Mr. Holloway, Miss Messiter. He"s from up in the hill country and he rode to our frolic. Y"u"ve got three guesses to figure out what he"s made up as."
"One will be quite enough, I think," she answered coldly.
Fraser departed on his destination with the coffee and the newcomer sat down on the bench beside her.
"One"s enough, is it?" he drawled smilingly.
"Quite, but I"m surprised so few came in costume. Why didn"t you? But I suppose you had your reasons."
"Didn"t I? I"m supposed to be a bad man from the hills."
She swept him casually with an indifferent glance. "And isn"t that what you are in real life?"
His sharp scrutiny chiseled into her. "What"s that?"
"You won"t mind if I forget and call you Mr. Bannister instead of Mr.
Holloway?"
She thought his counterfeit astonishment perfect.
"So I"m Ned Bannister, am I?"
Their eyes clashed.
"Aren"t you?"
She felt sure of it, and yet there was a lurking doubt. For there was in his manner something indescribably more sinister than she had felt in him on that occasion when she had saved his life. Then a debonair recklessness had been the outstanding note, but now there was something ribald and wicked in him.
"Since y"u put it as a question, common politeness demands an answer.
Ned Bannister is my name."
"You are the terror of this country?"
"I shan"t be a terror to y"u, ma"am, if I can help it," he smiled.
"But you are the man they call the king?"
"I have that honor."
"HONOR?"
At the sharp scorn of her accent he laughed.
"Do you mean that you are proud of your villainy?" she demanded.
"Y"u"ve ce"tainly got the teacher habit of asking questions," he replied with a laugh that was a sneer.
A shadow fell across them and a voice said quietly, "She didn"t wait to ask any when she saved your life down in the coulee back of the Lazy D."
The shadow was Jim McWilliams"s, and its owner looked down at the man beside the girl with steady, hostile eyes.
"Is this your put in, sir?" the other flashed back.
"Yes, seh, it is. The boys don"t quite like seeing your hardware so prominent at a social gathering. In this community guns don"t come into the house at a ranch dance. I"m a committee to mention the subject and to collect your thirty-eights if y"u agree with us."
"And if I don"t agree with you?"
"There"s all outdoors ready to receive y"u, seh. It would be a pity to stay in the one spot where your welcome"s wore thin."
"Still I may choose to stay."
"Ce"tainly, but if y"u decide that way y"u better step out on the porch and talk it over with us where there ain"t ladies present."
"Isn"t this a costume dance? What"s the matter with my guns? I"m an outlaw, ain"t I?"
"I don"t know whether y"u are or not, seh. If y"u say y"u are we"re ready to take your word. The guns have to be shucked if y"u stay here.
They might go off accidental and scare the ladies."
The man rose blackly. "I"ll remember this. If y"u knew who y"u were getting so gay with--"
"I can guess, Mr. Holloway, the kind of an outfit y"u freight with, and I expect I could put a handle to another name for you."
"By G.o.d, if y"u dare to say--"
"I don"t dare, especially among so many ladies," came McWilliams"s jaunty answer.
The eyes of the two men gripped, after which Holloway swung on his heel and swaggered defiantly out of the house.
Presently there came the sound of a pony"s feet galloping down the road. It had not yet died away when Texas announced that the supper intermission was over.
"Pardners for a quadrille. Ladies" choice."
The dance was on again full swing. The fiddlers were tuning up and couples gathering for a quadrille. Denver came to claim Miss Messiter for a partner. Apparently even the existence of the vanished Holloway was forgotten. But Helen remembered it, and pondered over the affair long after daylight had come and brought with it an end to the festivities.
CHAPTER 6. A PARTY CALL
The mistress of the Lazy D, just through with her morning visit to the hospital in the bunkhouse, stopped to read the gaudy poster tacked to the wall. It was embellished with the drawing of a placid rider astride the embodiment of fury incarnate, under which was the legend: "Stick to Your Saddle."
BIG FOURTH OF JULY CELEBRATION AT GIMLET b.u.t.tE. ROPING AND BRONCO BUSTING CONTESTS FOR THE CHAMPIONSHIP OF THE WORLD AND BIG PRIZES, Including $1,000 for the Best Rider and the Same for Best Roper. Cow Pony Races, Ladies" Races and Ladies" Riding Contest, Fireworks, AND FREE BARBECUE!!!! EVERYBODY COME AND TURN YOUR WOLF LOOSE.
A sudden thud of pounding hoofs, a s.n.a.t.c.h of ragtime, and her foreman swept up in a cloud of white dust. His pony came from a gallop to an instant halt, and simultaneously Mac landed beside her, one hand holding the wide-brimmed hat he had s.n.a.t.c.hed off in his descent, the other hitched by a casual thumb to the belt of his chaps.
She laughed. "You really did it very well."
Mac blushed. He was still young enough to take pride in his picturesque regalia, to prefer the dramatic way of doing a commonplace thing. But, though he liked this girl"s trick of laughing at him with a perfectly grave face out of those dark, long-lashed eyes, he would have liked it better if sometimes they had given back the applause he thought his little tricks merited.
"Sho! That"s foolishness," he deprecated.