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Although he said never a word, Frances' hand tightened on Molly's rein. The next moment she would have spurred the pinto up the hill; but a drawling voice within a yard of her spoke. "How-do, Frances? 'Light, won't yer?" and there followed Ratty M'Gill's well-known laugh. "We didn't expect ye; but ye're welcome just the same." Ratty's hand was on Molly's bridle-rein.
Frances let her have her head, for when Molly was a bit tired she would forget the sting and smart of Ratty M'Gill's spurs and quirt. Frances had not seen Silent Sam that morning; but was not surprised to observe the curling smoke of a fresh fire down by the branding pen.
It was Pete Ratty M'Gill's acquaintance the man who had been orderly at the Bylittle Soldiers' Home, and who had come all the way to the Panhandle to try to secure the treasure in the old Spanish chest. Perhaps Frances had half expected some such incident as this to punctuate her journey to Amarillo. Nevertheless, the reckless tone of the man, and the way he used his rifle, troubled her.
Matters, were at last made up between M'Gill's parents and the schoolmaster, but by that time I had got the start of him, and never in my life did I exert myself so much as to keep the mastery. It was in vain; the powers of enchantment prevailed, and I was again turned down with the tear in my eye. I could think of no amends but one, and, being driven to desperation, I put it in practice.
Now the girl had to be much more than the intermediary between the old ranchman and his employees. The doctor had impressed her with the rule that his patient was not to be worried by business matters. Many things she had to do "off her own bat," as Sam Harding expressed it. The matter of Ratty M'Gill's discharge must be one of these things, Frances saw plainly.
The scratches made by Ratty M'Gill's spurs were eliminated. When the potted plants came a four-mule wagon-load Frances arranged them about the dancing floor and dining-room. She found her father practising his steps in the hall one morning before breakfast. "Goodness, Daddy," she cried. "Do be careful of your weak leg." "Don't you worry about me," he chuckled. "I'm going to give old Mr.
From sunset to sunrise a relay of cowboys rode around the huge house and compound, and although Pete Marin, as Ratty M'Gill's friend from Mississippi was called, was still at large, there was no fear that he, or anybody else, would get into the hacienda at night. Frances, with all her duties, had less time to devote to Pratt's entertainment now.
"But I am indeed curious about this friend of Ratty M'Gill's. And now I'll tell Silent Sam that there is a man lurking about the Bar-T who must be watched." She said nothing to Captain Rugley about sending for Lonergan until she had written. The doctor said it would be just as well not to discuss the matter much until it was accomplished.
I often wrought for hours together at this likeness, nor was it long before I made myself so much master of the outline that I could have drawn it in any situation whatever, almost off hand. I then took M'Gill's account book of algebra home with me, and at my leisure put down a number of gross caricatures of Mr. Wilson here and there, several of them in situations notoriously ludicrous.
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