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"I have left your breakfast ready, but you must excuse me," she announced; "I am going to the cañon." Waynefleet raised his brows and looked at her with his most precise air, but, seeing that had no effect, he made a gesture of resignation. "Very well," he said. "I presume you do not, as usual, think it worth while to acquaint me with your object." Laura laughed.
Though he was quite aware that when his strength came back, he could probably earn more than Waynefleet offered him, he accepted the chance to stay at the ranch. Moreover, the varied work was likely to be much easier than logging. "It's a bargain. I'll make a start now, and haul one or two of those logs out with the oxen," he said.
"I haven't had a word with you since last night," said Nasmyth. "How are the boys at the settlement?" "Hustling along as usual." Gordon laughed. "Is there anybody else you feel inclined to ask about?" "Yes," said Nasmyth, "there certainly is. How is Miss Waynefleet?" Gordon looked down at his cigar. "Well," he said, "I'm a little worried on her account.
I'd let you stay if you were a reasonable man, and would lie quiet beside the stove until that hand got better; but since it's quite clear that nobody could keep you there, you're starting to-morrow for Waynefleet's ranch." Gordon turned to Waynefleet. "We'll lay you off for a week.
It is a curious fact that some men, and probably women, too, feel more drawn to the persons upon whom they confer a benefit than to those from whom they receive one. Laura Waynefleet, he realized, would have urged him to make some attempt to reach the Tillicum, and in all probability would have insisted on taking a share in it, while his companion desired only to lean on him.
"I was coming round to make sure I was quite through with your case, but it's tolerably evident you have no more use for me," he said. "Stopping here?" Nasmyth said he was, and Gordon nodded. "Well," he said, "in several ways I'm rather glad. It's going to make things easier for Miss Waynefleet. Guess you understand what I meant when I said she ran the ranch?"
"I think I shall always realize what I owe to her. Still and how shall I say it? that recognition is the most I would venture to offer, or that she would accept from me." He stopped for a moment, and then went on a trifle hastily. "Laura Waynefleet could never have taken more than a half-compassionate interest in me," he asserted. "There could scarcely be any doubt upon that point."
He wondered again why he had been drawn into the conflict with it, or, rather, why he had permitted Laura Waynefleet to set him such a task, and the answer that it was because he desired to hold her good opinion, and, as he had said, to do her credit, did not seem to go far enough. It merely suggested the further question why he should wish to keep her friendship.
"Make yourself comfortable," he answered hospitably. "We'll have dinner a little earlier than usual." The sight of the label on the box came near rousing Gordon to an outbreak of indignation. "I'm not going to stay," he declared. "It seems to me Miss Waynefleet has about enough to do already."
It was a nipping morning, and the clearing outside the ranch was flecked with patches of frozen snow, when Waynefleet sat shivering in a hide chair beside the stove.
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