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Updated: June 19, 2025
"She's seen one killin', an' I reckon, if she stays here a while longer, she'll see another: Chavis'." He stopped and then went on: "Why, I reckon Chavis dyin' wouldn't make no more impression on her than Pickett dyin'. But I reckon she thinks a heap of Willard, don't she, Uncle Jep?" "If a girl promises " began Uncle Jepson. "I reckon " interrupted Randerson.
"I killed Chavis, Randerson," she said, looking up at him with a pitiful smile. "I have learned what it means to to take human life. I killed him, Rex! I shot him down just as he was about to spring upon me! But I had to do it didn't I?" she pleaded. "I I couldn't help it. I kept him off as long as I could and nobody came and he looked so terrible " "I reckon you've got things mixed, ma'am."
She saw him, later, as he passed her window, talking seriously to Chavis, and she imagined he was telling Chavis about the attack. Of course, she thought, with a wave of bitterness, Chavis would be able to sympathize with him. She went to her room shortly afterward. The sun was swimming in a sea of saffron above the mountains in the western distance when Ruth again came downstairs.
He was staring stonily out into the plains. Ruth's cheeks reddened, for she felt that she knew his thoughts. But still, Randerson hadn't really used him ill at the river, and besides, he had apologized, and it seemed to her that that should end the incident. Also, she still felt rather resentful toward Masten for his attitude toward Tom Chavis after she had complained.
A wood rose near the river, and at its edge she saw what she had come to see Chavis' shack.
Masten looked quickly at Vickers, and as quickly looked away, his face slowly reddening. "He's foreman now, isn't he?" he said. "It seems that Harkness trusted him that much." "There's a first time for every man to go wrong, Mister," said Vickers. Masten's voice was almost a sneer. "Why don't you tell Chavis that?" "I've told him, Mister to his face." Vickers' own face was growing dark with wrath.
"There was a fire, all right," he said grimly. "Some one built it, on purpose. It was rustlers, ma'am. They burned the hoofs of the mothers so the mothers couldn't follow when they drove their calves off like any mother would." He eyed her calmly. "I reckon it was Chavis, ma'am. He's got a shack down the crick a ways. He's been there ever since you paid him off.
No longer was she afraid of him; she was resolute, unflinching. But Chavis merely smiled seemingly in huge enjoyment. And then, while he looked at her, his expression changed to wonder. "Holy smoke!" he said. "Where's Masten's eyes? He said you didn't have any spirit, Ruth, that you was too cold an' distant. I reckon Masten don't know how to size up a girl a girl, that is, which is thoroughbred.
Kester was one of the men who had quit the day that Ruth had met Randerson, when the latter had been riding in for the money due them. It did not surprise Ruth to discover that Kester was with Chavis, for Randerson had told her what might be expected of him. Linton was the other man. Nor did it surprise Ruth to hear Chavis talking of stealing the Flying W stock.
A cold dread that seized her senses helped her to regain control of herself presently, however, and scarcely breathing she stole behind some dense weeds at the edge of the cut, murmuring a prayer of thankfulness for their presence. What Chavis and Kester had said upon seeing the pony, she had not heard.
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