He looked at her sceptically. Her eyes, now turned from him, were soft, feminine and without guile. He wouldn’t let himself be hoodwinked.
“No; there’s no excuse for you,” he declared emphatically. “You are educated. You could have earned an honest living. You didn’t have to steal.”
“No;” she said slowly and thoughtfully. “I didn’t have to.”
“Then why do you? Bender told me you had a lifelong record of pilfering.”
“Lifelong! Kind Kurt, I am young – only twenty.”
“He said you’d been given a chance over and over again, but that you were hopeless. I – think you are.”
“I think so, too,” she acknowledged, with a little giggle that brought back his scowl. “You’ve got a white elephant on your hands, Kurt. What are you going to do with me?”
“There’s only one thing I can do, now,” he said glumly. “Carry out a bad bargain. I’ll see it through.”
“Oh, Mr. Britling!” she murmured sotto voce.
“What did you say?”
“Nothing. Traveling libraries evidently don’t hit this trail. What is it the trail to, anyway? Your house?”
“To Top Hill Tavern.”
“Gee! That sounds good. A tavern! I hope it’s tiptop as well as tophill. How did you come to build a hotel way off here? Summer boarders? Will there be dances?”
“Top Hill Tavern,” he said coldly, “is the name of a ranch – not mine. The owners live there.”
“And does she, ‘the best woman in the world,’ live there?”
“We must start now,” he said, rising abruptly and leading the way to the car.
“I should think,” remarked the girl casually after his fourth ineffectual effort to start the engine, “that if she owns a ranch, she might buy a better buzz wagon than this.”
He made no reply, but renewed his futile attempts at starting, muttering words softly the while.
“Don’t be sore, Kurt. I can’t help it because your old ark won’t budge. I didn’t steal anything off it. Wouldn’t it be fierce if you were marooned on the trail with a thief who has a lifelong record!”
He came around the car and stood beside her. His face was flushed. His eyes, of the deep-set sombre kind that grow larger and come to the surface only when strongly moved, burned with the light of anger.
“Did anyone ever try whipping you, I wonder?”
“Sure,” she said cheerfully. “I was brought up on whippings by a – stepmother. But do you feel that way toward me? You look like a man who might strike a woman under certain provocation, perhaps; but not like one who would hit a little girl like me. If you won’t look so cross, I’ll tell you why your ’mobile won’t move.”
He made no reply, but turned to the brake.
“Say, ’bo,” she continued tantalizingly, “whilst you are a lookin’, just cast your lamps into the gasoline tank. That man who filled it didn’t put a widow’s mite in.”
Unbelievingly he followed this lead.
“Not a drop, damn it!”
“The last straw with you, isn’t it? I’m not to blame, though. If you think I stole your gasoline, just search me. How far are we from your tiptop tavern?”
“Twenty miles. I suppose you couldn’t walk it,” he said doubtfully.
“Me? In these?” she exclaimed, thrusting forth a foot illy and most inadequately shod. “But you can walk on.”
“No:” he refused. “You don’t put one over on me in that way.”
“You know I couldn’t walk back to town.”
“Some one might come along in a car.”
“Wouldn’t you trust me, if I gave you my word to wait for you?”
“The word of – ”
“A thief,” she finished. “All right. I’m in no hurry. What are you going to do?”
“We’ll wait here until some one comes along.”
“Then let’s go back to the trees while we wait,” she proposed, climbing out of the car and taking a small box from the seat.
“Didn’t Bender have one tiny good word for me?” she asked as they sat down in the welcome shade.
“He said stealing was the only offense you’d been up for, and he guessed you couldn’t help it. What was your little game in making him think you were stupid?”
“Did he say I was? Horrid thing! I’m glad I put one over on him and lifted this,” and she held up the box.
“What is it?” he demanded sternly.
“His supper. A peroxided wife brought it to him – just before he presented me to you. It’ll come in handy now, or won’t you partake of stolen goods?”
“I’ll pay him for it the next time I see him.”
“Shucks, Kurt! You got such a bad bargain when you drew me, you ought to have something thrown in. It’s all done up in a nice napkin – looks as if it would taste good. Oh, what a feast! Pork sandwiches, deviled eggs, dills, a keep-hot bottle of coffee, layer cake and pie. Bender knew how to pick a partner. What shall we drink out of?”
He produced a drinking cup, poured some coffee in it and handed it to her.
“Thank you,” she said. “Shall we make it a loving cup, Kurt?”
He ignored her question and plunged greedily into a pork sandwich. He had had so much business in town that day, he had taken no time to eat.
The girl partook of Bender’s pilfered luncheon sparingly and without zest.
“Aren’t you hungry?” he asked her presently, his temper disappearing as his appetite was appeased.
“No; it’s a long time since I’ve been hungry.”
“What did you steal this food for then?”
“I don’t know. Yes, I do. It was because that Bender woman gave me such a once-over, and decided I was the scum of the earth. Is that the way your topside tavern woman will look at me?”
“No;” he replied earnestly. “She’s made a woman out of worse than you.”
“Thanks!” she said, folding the napkin neatly. “I thought you had my number for the worst ever. It’s wonderful what food will do for a man. Hope she will let me stay at the top of the hill while I get an appetite. The doctor said I didn’t need medicine – just the right kind of food, rest and good air. I wouldn’t have got them, maybe, but for you, and I suppose I haven’t been very grateful.”
Her tone was low and wistful. A look she hadn’t seen before – a kindly, sympathetic look – leapt to his eyes and softened the harshness of his features.
“Have you been sick, real sick?” he asked.
“Yes; clean played out, the doctor said.”
“Then I am glad I brought you. We will make you well physically, anyway.”
“And maybe the other will follow?”
“It will, if you will try to do right. Will you?”
“Sure. I’ve always tried – most always. I can’t be very