United States or Macao ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
"Violent deaths had all the Lorrigans before them all save Tom, and the Lord but stays his hand for a time from that man. The wicked shall flourish as a green bay tree." "Father, how can a tree be green and then bay too!" Mary Hope ventured to inquire. "Is it just a Bible tree, or does it flourish somewhere really?" Aleck Douglas hid his month behind his palm and coughed.
Which brought a surprised grunt from Sam Pretty Cow, Indian though he was, accustomed though he was to the ways of the Lorrigans. But it was not his affair if Lance and his father quarreled when Tom returned. Indeed, Tom might not return very soon, in which case he would not hear anything about Lance's audacity unless Lance himself told it.
In a three-hour ride she could reach the-Devil's Tooth, spend a whole hour looking down upon the ranch house of the wicked Lorrigans, and ride home again. And by choosing the short cuts she practically eliminated the chance of being observed. If she could see Belle go tearing down the trail with her bronks and her buckboard she would be horrifiedly happy.
The subject was beginning to wear her nerves. "Pay for it I shall, if it takes all my teacher's salary for five years! I wish the Lorrigans had minded their own business. I've heard nothing but piano ever since it came there. I hate the Lorrigans! Sometimes I almost hate the piano."
Never in my life will I enter the house of a Lorrigan!" Mary Hope brushed a palm against her forehead, straightened herself as if she resented her weakness, wished to hold herself aloof from him. She did not look at Lance, but stared across the narrow valley to the sage-clothed bluff beyond. "Why not? You've just come from the Lorrigans, haven't you?" Lance studied her face.
That's all right; I understand perfectly. But I'm Lorrigan, too. You'll go, or I'll kill you. Tom Lorrigan, your hand is pret-ty close to your gun! But so is mine. You'd kill me, because I stand in the trail you've been traveling. But you wouldn't kill me a damn bit quicker than I'd kill you! I do stand in the trail and you're going to take another, both you Lorrigans.
Why did they do these things when no one expected goodness or generosity from them? Why had they built the schoolhouse and then given a dance where every one got drunk and the whole thing ended in a fight? Every one said it was the Lorrigans who had brought the whisky.
And it seemed to Mary Hope that the Lorrigans themselves would deeply resent being invited to a dance openly given for the purpose of raising money to repay them. It would never do; she could not ask them to come. Moreover, if the Lorrigans came there would be trouble, whether there was whisky or not.
"Your father believed that we're all of us thieves, that we stole his stock. Perhaps you believe it I don't know. We've a hard name, got when the country was hard and it took hard men to survive. I don't think the Lorrigans, when you come right down to it, were any worse than their neighbors. They're no worse now.
To Mary Hope, reared in a household where dollars were precious things, that last item was the most amazing of all. The Lorrigans must be rich, as rich as they were wicked. She thrilled anew at her own daring. Belle brought lemonade, wonderful lemonade, with an egg beaten to yellow froth and added the last minute. Mary Hope sipped and marveled.
Word Of The Day