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Mebbe I'd have been a hero if I'd have let him shoot me, but I wouldn't have been here any more to know about it. An' I'm plumb satisfied to be here, ma'am." "How did you come to hear about me not getting home?" she asked. "I'd rode in to see Catherson. I couldn't see him because he wasn't there. Then I come on over to the ranchhouse, an' Uncle Jepson told me about you not comin' in." "Was Mr.
It had not always been wisely expended, for he knew that Catherson drank deeply at times. Now, however, Randerson realized that the years must inevitably make a change in Hagar. That glimpse he had had of her on the Flying W ranchhouse porch had made him think, but her appearance now caused him to think more deeply. It made constraint come into his manner.
For a time Catherson paid no attention to him, busying himself with his pony, jaded from the night's work. But after half an hour, just as the first faint shafts of dawn began to steal up over the horizon, Catherson walked close, and stood looking down at his victim. "Well," he said, slowly and passionlessly, "I've got you this far. I'm quittin' you. I reckon I've deviled you enough.
And she spoke directly to him, proudly, her head erect: "If you've come ag'in your will If dad had to bring you " She paused, her lips trembling. "Shucks," said Catherson gently; "he's come on his own hook, Hagar. Why, he asked me to bring him didn't you, Masten?"
Later, Catherson brought his pony to a halt, far from where the rope had been cast, and looked grimly down at his fellow being, prone and motionless in the deep sand at his feet. Unmoved, remorseless, Catherson had cut short the pleadings, the screaming, the promises. He had not bungled his work, and it had been done. But as he looked down now, the muscles of his face quivered.
Why, I was just goin' to make a mighty whopper myself, by killing Rex, here. You leave this to me." He pushed her toward Randerson. "You take her back to the shack, Rex. I reckon it won't take me long to do what I'm goin' to do. I'll be back afore dark, mebbe." The girl clung to him for an instant. "Dad," she said. "What are you goin' to do?" "If you was a good guesser " said Catherson coldly.
And Randerson was at the ranchhouse even less frequently than his predecessor; he spent much of his time with the outfit. But he came in one afternoon, after Ruth's friendship with Hagar Catherson had progressed far, and met the nester's daughter on the porch as he was about to enter the house.
"Oh, I'm afraid he'll do somethin' terrible!" she faltered. "Before you came, he asked me if if it had been Randerson. I told him no, but he didn't seem satisfied, an' when I wouldn't tell him who it was, he went out, cursin' Rex. I'm afraid, Ruth I'm afraid!" She glanced wildly around, and her gaze rested on the piece of paper that Catherson had left on the edge of the porch.
Since he had sent Chavis with the note to Hagar, Masten had been uneasy. He had not stayed inside the shack for more than a minute or two at a time, standing much in the doorway, scanning the basin and the declivity carefully and fearfully. And he had seen Catherson lead his pony down. He went in and took the rifle from its pegs. He had had a hope, at first, that it might be Kester or Linton.
A little later he came out again, smoking a pipe. Masten and Hagar were sitting close together on a fallen tree near where he had left them. Catherson smiled mildly at them and peacefully pulled at his pipe.
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