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.I'd have blowed the money just as quick, if I'd wanted to.""But you didn't.""Because you didn't want me to, I reckon?" he sneered."No.Because you wanted to be fair."He had not known what sort of an answer he had expected from her, but the one he got embarrassed him.He felt a reluctant pleasure over the knowledge that she had faith in him, but mingling with this was a rage against himself over his surrender.When she turned from him and walked over to Dade, speaking to him in a low voice, he could not have told which affected him most, his rage against himself or his disappointment over her abrupt leave-taking.She irritated him, but somehow he got a certain pleasure out of that irritation—which was a wholly unsatisfying and mystifying paradox.He covertly watched Dade during her talk with him and discovered that he did not like the way the young man looked at her; he was entirely too familiar even if he was a friend of the family.He saw, too, that Betty seemed to be an entirely different person when talking to Dade.For one thing she seemed natural, which she didn't seem when talking to him.Until he saw her talking with Dade he had been able to see nothing in her manner but restraint and stiff formality, but figuratively, when in Dade's presence she seemed to melt—she was gracious, smiling, cordial.Betty's attitude toward him during the noon meal puzzled him much.Some subtle change had come over her.Several times he surprised her looking at him, and at these times he was certain there was approval in her glances, though perhaps the approval was mingled with something else—speculation, he thought.But whatever it was, he had not seen it before.Had he known that Dade had told her about the incident of the Red Dog Saloon he would have understood, for she was wondering—as Dade had wondered—why he had pretended to make friends with Taggart, why he had asked the Arrow man to visit the Lazy Y that afternoon.After dinner Calumet went out again to his work, apparently carefree and unconcerned, if we are to omit those thoughts in which Dade and Betty figured, Dade watched him with much curiosity, for the incident of the day before was still vivid in his mind, and if there had been.mystery in Calumet's action in inviting Taggart to the Lazy Y there had been no mystery in the words he had spoken outside the Red Dog Saloon immediately afterward: "It's my game, do you hear?"But along toward the middle of the afternoon Dade became so interested that he forgot all about Taggart, and was only reminded of him when looking up momentarily he saw Calumet sitting on a pile of timber near the ranchhouse, leaning lazily forward, his elbows resting on his knees, his chin on his hands, gazing speculatively into the afternoon haze.Dade noted that he was looking southward, and he turned and followed his gaze to see, far out in the valley, a horseman approaching.Dade had turned stealthily and thought his movement had been unobserved by Calumet, and he started when the latter slowly remarked:"Well, he's comin', after all.I was thinkin' he wouldn't.""That's him, all right, I reckon," returned Dade.He shot a glance at Calumet's face—it was expressionless.There was a silence until Taggart reached the low hill in the valley where on the day following his coming to the Lazy Y Calumet had seen Lonesome, before the dog had begun the stalk that had ended in its death.Then Calumet turned to Dade, a derisive light in his eyes."Do you reckon Betty will be glad to see him?""I don't reckon you done just right in askin' him here after what he said in the Red Dog," returned Dade.Calumet seemed amused."Shucks, you're a kid yet," he said.He ignored Dade, giving his attention to Taggart, who was now near the bunkhouse [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]