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Updated: May 31, 2025
The full force of the irony of it all was too great for her. He was going back to Elvine, and she had sent him. Jeff was abroad at daylight. Even Bud, whose habit was sunrise, had not yet wakened from his heavy slumbers. But Nan was stirring. She heard Jeff moving, and she saw him beyond her window. She saw him bring his horse from the barn, saddled and bridled.
We're goin' to have our way now. You'll pay for that deal the only way we know." Elvine sat watching the scenes of the work of the range. The men were returning from distant points making for the ranch house where their evening meal was awaiting them at the bunkhouse. Teams were moving toward the barns, and barn-hands were watering those which had already returned.
Now, as she surveyed each detail in her final tour of inspection, she convinced herself that nothing, nothing she could think of had been forgotten. Even the city-bred Elvine could find no fault with any detail of it.
Elvine Masters was on the veranda of her new home gazing after the receding figure of her husband, who had just left her to discuss with his partner those vital things which they had touched upon at the moment of his arrival yesterday. Everywhere about her the busy life of the ranch was stirring. Inside the house the maids were at work garnishing the home which Nan had already left spotless.
Perhaps five minutes later she, too, became lost in the growing twilight, and her horse's hoofs awoke anew the echoes of the place. But her way did not lie in the track of the others. Her horse was racing headlong in the direction of Nan's home. Bud and Nan were just finishing their supper when Elvine broke in upon them.
The expression of his blue eyes suggested a deep, searching introspection. He might have been searching for an opening. Again, he might simply have been reviewing scenes which stirred his innermost soul with their horror and pain. At last, however, Elvine made a half impatient movement. Instantly the blue eyes turned in her direction, and their expression startled her.
You must have crossed it, an' I lost 'em." "But can't you get back to it? Maybe I can help some. I've followed a trail before," Elvine added, in a tone which Nan understood better than the other knew. But the girl shook her head. "My plug is tired, and there's the chase back to home. I guess we'll leave 'em, and just report. But there's something doing. I mean something queer.
Elvine was comparing this man's big generosity with her understanding of most of the men she had ever known. She was thinking, too, of days long since passed, and events which even a wide distance of time had not succeeded in rendering mellow. She sighed. Somehow "Honest Jeff" was hurting her in a way she would never have believed any man could hurt her now. "This Bud Tristram's daughter Nan.
"It isn't easy to condemn amongst folks on the prairie," she said with a sigh. Elvine shook her head. Her eyes were turned from the girl. They were staring down into the turbulent stream. "I don't think I've found it that way." "How?" The interrogation was natural. But it brought Elvine's eyes sharply to the girl's, and, for a moment, they gazed steadily into each other's.
When the day came that he should turn and rend her soul she could submit. But until that day she would cling to every straw that offered. While the scenes through which they were passing preoccupied the man, the silence of the wide plains left Elvine to her fears. The great breadth of the world about her added to her hopelessness.
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