United States or Barbados ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
They found Lance with his coat off and the perspiration streaming down his face, battling with Aleck Douglas who was raving still of the Lorrigans and threatening to kill this one who would not leave him alone to die in peace.
"But it was Lorrigan meanness brought me here; it was a Lorrigan got me into the trouble now, and a Lorrigan got me out of it. It's always the Lorrigans." "Yes, and a Lorrigan's got to see you a little farther before you're through with them, so cheer up." Lance laughed again, an amused little chuckle that was calculated to take the droop out of Mary Hope's lips, and failed completely.
His nose was fine and straight, too, not at all like a beak, though her father had always maintained that the Lorrigans were but human vultures. His mouth, there was something in the look of his mouth that made her catch her breath; something tender, something that vaguely disturbed her, made her feel that it could be terribly stern if it were not so tender.
He still felt her need of him, but since she was not at the school he hesitated. The schoolhouse was in a measure neutral ground. Riding over to the Douglas ranch was another matter entirely. Too keenly had he felt the cold animosity of Mother Douglas, the wild, impotent hate of old Scotty mouthing threats and accusations and vague prophecies of future disaster to the Lorrigans.
The Lorrigans always had been hard to get along with, but that Lance he sure must be a caution to cats, the way he'd cleaned off the ranch. Marrying the Douglas girl, and taking that paralyzed old lady right to the ranch, had probably had a lot to do with it. Lance might be willing to forget that old trouble with Scotty, but the rest of the Lorrigans sure never would.
The Lorrigans? Very well, there was also the Douglas blood, and that was not weaker than the Lorrigan. She was quite calm, quite impersonal when she gave Lance a list of the pitifully small errands she and her mother would be grateful if he would perform for them.
The door was flung open violently, letting in men with unfinished sentences hot on their tongues. "Next time a Lorrigan dance comes off " "What I'd a done, woulda " "Fix them damn Lorrigans!" Detached phrases, no one man troubling to find a listener, the words came jumbled to the ears of Lance, who fancied himself in the bunk-house at home, with the boys just in from a ride somewhere.
I know I'm turnin' down something that's better than anything I got here, but this here party's on the Lorrigans. No, mom, I got orders not to take in s'much as a sour pickle from nobody. You jest put it back in the rig, whatever you got there, and consider't you got some Sat'day bakin' did up ahead. "Yes, mom, it's Lance's party.
She wanted to ride down there a half mile down the bluff, a mile and a half by the road but she would never dare take that trail deliberately. Her father might hear of it, or her mother. Nor could she ask the Lorrigans not to tell of her visit.
He had told her to be game to go on being game. She wondered if he knew just how hard it was going to be for her. He had said that the Lorrigans were strong, were harder to defeat, had always held their own. He was proud because of their strength! She lifted her head, carefully wiped the tears from her cheeks Mary Hope seemed always to be wiping tears from her cheeks lately! and opened the door.
Word Of The Day