It lingered for just a ponderable sunlit moment or
him. She had smiled once more.
After a decent interval Mac pursued his petit charmer to the
hotel. She was seated on the porch reading a magazine, and was
absorbedly unconscious of him when he passed. For a few awkward
moments he hung around the office, then returned to the porch and
took the chair most distant from her. He had sat there a long ten
minutes before she let her hands and the magazine fall into her
lap and demurely gave him his chance.
"Can you tell me how far it is to the Lazy D ranch?"
"Seventy-two miles as the crow flies, ma'am."
"Thank you."
The conversation threatened to die before it was well born.
Desperately McWilliams tried to think of something to say to keep
it alive without being too bold.
"If y'u were thinking of traveling out that way I could give y'u
a lift. I just came in to get another lady--an old lady that has
just come to this country."
"Thank you, but I'm expecting a conveyance to meet me here. You
didn't happen to pass one on the way, I suppose?"
"No, I didn't. What ranch were y'u going to, ma'am?
"Miss Messiter's--the Lazy D."
A suspicion began to peretrate the foreman's brain.
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