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"Hmm-mm I see!" He turned and went back to the littered desk and wrote carefully again upon another sheet of paper. "I think this will be quite satisfactory," he said, and handed the paper to Marthy. "Git my specs, Billy Louise off 'n the shelf over there," she said, and read the paper laboriously, her lips forming the letters of every word which contained more than one syllable.
"I ain't got the money now," Marthy stated, too apathetic to be either defiant or placating. "You c'n fix up the papers t' suit yerself. I'll sign anything yuh want." "Hmm-mm yes! A note covering the amount, with legal rate of interest, will be quite satisfactory, Mrs. Meilke. I shall make a lump sum at the going price for mixed stock. If you have a blank note, I "
"I'll attend to the chores, Miss MacDonald." Seabeck's lips quirked under the fingers that pulled at his whiskers. "You say over his picture?" "Yes, over his picture!" Billy Louise spoke with a suppressed fury. "With that honest look in his eyes oh, I could kill him!" "Hmm-mm it does seem a pity that one can't. But if she can cry " "I see.
"And yet," she added bitterly, "she's going to protect him if it takes every cent she's managed to rake together these last thirty years. You heard what she told you. She said she'd kill you if you hurt Charlie. She'd try it, too." "Hmm-mm, yes! My life has been threatened several times to-day." Seabeck looked at her with eyes a-twinkle, and Billy Louise blushed to the crown of her Stetson hat.
Seabeck?" she asked sharply, just because she felt the imperative need of facts she who had struggled so long in the quicksands of suspicion and doubts and fears and suspense. "Hmm-mm how bad is it in the house?" he countered. "The real crime has been committed there, it seems to me. A few head of cattle, more or less, don't count for much against the broken heart of an old woman." "Oh!"
And they're your cattle that were stolen! You saw it oh, you're you're " "Hmm-mm a human being, I hope, Miss MacDonald, as well as a mere cattleman. How is the old lady?" "Crying," said Billy Louise, with brief directness. "Crying over the picture of that swine. Think of his running off and leaving her here all alone and not even doing the chores first!"
"I heard 'em say that's how they would git rid of 'em, an' I heard 'em shootin' down there." "Hmm-mm, yes! Do you know just what " "Five dry cows 'n' two steers long two-year-oles, I jedged 'em to be." Marthy was certainly prompt enough and explicit enough. And her lips were grim, and her faded blue eyes hard and steady upon the face of Seabeck. "Hmm-mm yes!
"I'm liable t' suffer some gittin' that five hundred dollars paid up," Marthy returned with some acerbity. "I'm much obleeged to yuh, Mr. Seabeck, fer bein' so easy on us. If yuh hadn't drug Billy Louise into it, I'd say yer too good to be human." "Hmm-mm not at all," Seabeck stammered deprecatingly and left the room with what haste his natural dignity would permit.
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