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Elvine's tongue remained almost cleaving to the roof of her mouth. The man's fair brows were depressed. His eyes were sternly cold. And not once did they turn in her direction. He spoke in his usual tone to the barn-hand. He issued his orders without a sign of emotion. Elvine could stand no more. She stirred. Then slowly she passed within the house. Presently Jeff's step sounded on the veranda.
This was how he felt, as he awaited Nan's return from the pastures. She came at last. She rode up and passed her weary horse to a barn-hand who promptly waited upon her. She was covered with dust to her waist. Her top-boots were white with it. But her cheeks were as fresh as peach bloom, and her soft eyes shone with all a ranchman's enthusiasm at the most exhilarating period of the year.
"Why, yes." Bud's eyes were watching Nan as she mounted her pony, carefully held by a solicitous barn-hand. Under other circumstances the man's attention would have afforded him amusement. Just now he was regretting the manager's remark. "Y'see, ther's a deal to fix. Seein' he's president this year, why, I guess it's up to him to kep his ladle busy in the soup."
Presently a "hand" appeared leading a saddle horse. He was a youngster, a "barn-hand" who only worked around cattle in times of pressure. But he possessed all the air of a cowpuncher, which he ultimately purposed to become. Elvine watched his leisurely approach, and remembered the days when she would have saddled her own pony. The boy displayed no sign of deference.
Her tongue was ready for its release. Pent words lay deep in her soul for an outpouring at the lightest sign. But these things were dependent, dependent upon the reading she found in the man's eyes. The horse stood drooping at the termination of its effort. The man sprang from the saddle. A barn-hand took the beast away to its stable.
Bud's eyes were following the horses as they moved away in the wake of the barn-hand. "It's pretty bad?" "An' gettin' worse." Bud's eyes came back to his partner's face. They gazed steadily into it. "Can't you tell me now? Evie's in there with Nan," he added significantly. Bud shook his head. "It's a big yarn, an' needs time. But " He paused, searching the other's face. "Go right on."
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