"
"So you know my name. May I ask how?" was her astonished
question.
He gave the low laugh that always seemed to suggest a private
source of amusement of his own. "I suspicioned that might be your
name when I say y'u come a-sailin' down from heaven to gather me
up like Enoch."
"Why?"
"Well, ma'am, I happened to drift in to Gimlet Butte two or three
days ago, and while I was up at the depot looking for some
freight a train sashaid in and side tracked a flat car. There was
an automobile on that car addressed to Miss Helen Messiter. Now,
automobiles are awful seldom in this country. I don't seem to
remember having seen one before."
"I see. You're quite a Sherlock Holmes. Do you know anything more
about me?"
"I know y'u have just fallen heir to the Lazy D. They say y'u are
a schoolmarm, but I don't believe it."
"Well, I am." Then, "Why don't you believe it?" she added.
He surveyed her with his smile audacious, let his amused eyes
wander down from the mobile face with the wild-rose bloom to the
slim young figure so long and supple, then serenely met her
frown.
" Y'u don't look it."
" No? Are you the owner of a composite photograph of the teachers
of the country?"
He enjoyed again his private mirth.
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