He saw a horseman ride up out of a hollow and disappear almost immediately into another.  The man seemed to be coming over in this direction, though Starr could not be sure.  He watched for a reappearance of the rider on high ground, but he saw no more of the fellow.  So after a little he took down the glasses to scan the country as a whole.

It was then that he glanced toward the other rock and saw that the tan boots had moved out of sight.  He believed that he would have heard her if she moved away, and so he kept his eyes turned upon the corner of the rock where her feet had shown a few minutes before.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

A SHOT FROM THE PINNACLE

“Why—­did some one come with you, Mr. Starr?  I thought you were alone.”

Starr turned his head and saw Helen May standing quite close, on the other side of him.  She was glancing inquiringly from him to the pinto pony, and she was smiling the least little bit, though her eyes had a shamed, self-conscious look.  Starr eyed her keenly, a bit reproachfully, and she blushed.

“I thought maybe you’d come around where I was,” she defended herself lamely.  “It—­seemed cooler there—­”

“Yes, I noticed it was pretty cool, from the tone of your voice.”

“Well—­oh, I was just nursing a grouch, and I couldn’t stop all at once,” Helen May surrendered suddenly, sitting down beside him and crossing her feet.  “I’ve read in stories how sheepherders go crazy, and I know now just why that is.  They see so few people that they don’t know how to act when some one does come along.  They get so they hate themselves and everybody else.  I had just finished abusing poor old Pat till he went off and sulked too.”

“I thought probably you and Pat had just had a run-in, the way he acted.”  Starr went back to scanning that part of the mesa where he had glimpsed the rider.  He could not afford to forget business in the pleasure of talking aimless, trivial things with Helen May.

“What are you looking for?”

“Stock,” said Starr, falling back on the standard excuse of the range man.

“And what’s the idea of two saddle-horses and two saddles and two bridles?” Helen May’s voice was as simply curious as a child’s.

“The idea is that you’re going to ride instead of walk from now on.  It’s an outfit I got from a fellow that was leaving.  He borrowed money from me and left his horse and saddle, for a kind of security.  I didn’t want it, but he had to leave ’em somewhere.  So I thought you might as well keep the horse and use it till he comes back, or something.”  Starr did very well with this explanation; much better than he had done in explaining Pat.  The truth was that he had bought the horse for the express purpose of giving it to Helen May; just as he had bought the dog.

Helen May studied his face while he studied the distant plain.  She thought he acted as though he didn’t care much whether she kept the horse or not, and for that reason, and because his explanation had sounded like truth, she hesitated over refusing the offer, though she felt that she ought to refuse.