CHAPTER XXI

THE GIRL AND THE GAME

She did not fully understand, she could not grasp everything yet, she was filled with doubts and suspicions and a growing terror.  What had her uncle said to Thornton, what had the cowboy “swallowed whole”?  What was the whole scheme which connected the two men, which envolved Thornton and the sheriff, which seemed clear in one moment only to be a tangle in the next?

One thing only was perfectly clear now to the girl.  And seeing it, she gathered up her skirts in her two hands and ran, ran back along the wall, keeping in the shadows, drawing close about her the dark cloak she had thrown about her white dress.  She must get into the house before they came in, she must let her face show nothing, she must have time to think before she spoke with them.  So she came to the back door, paused a brief moment, commanding her nerves to be steady, then slipped in, letting the cloak fall from her shoulders.  She saw Bud King standing with his back to the wall watching the dancers, and going swiftly to him, putting her hand lightly upon his arm, she summoned a smile into her eyes as she cried breathlessly: 

“Will you dance this with me?”

Young King looked at her in quick surprise, startled at the nearness of the girl for whom his eyes had been seeking, and a little flush ran up into his cheeks, a sparkle of gladness into his eyes.

“Sure,” he grinned happily.  “I been looking for you, Miss Waverly.”

He ran his arm about her, she bent her head a little so that he could not see the whiteness of her face, and they caught the beat of the music.  She lost the step, purposely that she might have a little more time before they pass down the room toward Pollard and Broderick, hesitated, taking her time to catch it, laughed at his apology for the mistake, noted that her own laugh sounded free and natural, caught the step, and swirled away into the crowd, daring now to look up laughingly into Bud’s face unmindful of the havoc she was working in his soul.  The two-step was lively; the room was warm, and the colour rose high in her cheeks.  But still she was careful to turn her head a little as they whirled by the front door.  But when, for the second time, the dance carried them to the end of the room where Pollard and Broderick were, she was so sure of herself that she sent a quick, laughing glance at her uncle.  And a little of the tightness about her heart was gone as she saw the look of relief in his eyes.

King, reckless with the wine of her, demanded the next waltz, claiming that this had been only half a dance, and she gave it to him laughingly, the more pleased that she saw Broderick coming toward her and that this was the second time tonight that he had been a little too late, and that she saw a frown in his eyes as they followed her and King out upon the floor.