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Updated: September 5, 2025
God keep you all, and God help me! I see truly that you are tied; that I can do no good. The Colonel will surely take care that you are protected. Lounsbury and Charles will watch. I must go with that comforting knowledge. My love to Marylyn Good-by." She steadied her voice to answer. "I watch," she said. "I don't sleep well, so it's easy. If they heard a gun at Brannon "
"We got to keep a stiff upper lip, baby sister," she would say, with an encouraging pat. And her smile was always hopeful and cheering. Mrs. Oliver came daily, and spent her time with Marylyn. She did not feel that Dallas needed buoying Dallas, quiet, self-poised, and staunch. Yet, all the while, the elder girl was growing wan under the strain.
And now he was for no man's help, but for a vengeance wreaked with his own gun. Hurling a final defy toward Shanty Town, he disappeared behind the partition. No breakfast was eaten that morning. The section-boss was too angry to taste of food, Marylyn was too frightened, and Dallas had no time. For she was busy with the mules, currying them and putting them before the wagon.
The mules shot forward for a wagon-length. The sudden jolt awakened Marylyn. She got to her knees and there were the cottonwoods with the laden boughs! "Spunky little sister," encouraged the elder girl, and helped the other to the seat. The road was so dark, now, that it took on the aspect of a standing man, who was no sooner overridden than he rose again in the lead.
Dallas was thinking fast. At her shoulder, aware all at once that they were in danger, was Marylyn, clinging in pitiful terror. "Yes," added Matthews, as if that clinched the matter. Dallas looked at him without speaking. "I jus' come from Dodge City," he went on. "My intention is t' live on my land all winter. I'm very sorry" this ironically "your old man took th' trouble to build on it.
It resisted her effort. From within came the rattle of a chain. "It's locked!" She went back to Marylyn. The two looked at each other. Over the younger's face swept a flush of relief. But Dallas had forgotten her dread of seeing Lounsbury in a keen disappointment at finding him gone. She glanced anxiously up and down the street. It was deserted and still. Dallas climbed back to the seat.
Now, he vowed that if any harm befell Dallas and Marylyn, he had only himself to blame. He buckled on his pistol-belt and padlocked the door. "I don't care whether the old man likes it or not," he declared aloud, "I'm going down there." As he swung through the camp on his way to the corral, he saw one of Old Michael's helpers coming toward him, picking his steps in the slush.
She rose also, a wavering figure in the half light. He picked up hat and coat, then halted. If he offered his help in the lean-to, what would be his reception? He felt utterly hampered, and began twirling his thumbs like a bashful cowboy. Moreover, Lancaster had been gone a good while. Was his absence a hint for his visitor to go? The storekeeper went up to Marylyn. "Good-by," he said.
She had risen early to feed the occupants of the lean-to Shadrach in particular; next, with a promise of rest later on, she had awaked Marylyn. Formerly, the younger girl would have persisted in questioning her about the proposed journey, and in knowing its purpose.
But the afternoon was not without its tormenting thoughts. And she, who feared no physical danger, quailed before a temptation that was overwhelming. When the shack pointed a stubby finger toward the east, and the mules, with Simon in tag, came trailing home from their grazing, Marylyn called her. Near the door, there wafted out the good smell of corn-pone and roasting fowl.
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