Page:BM Bower - Her Prairie Knight.djvu/177

 rein. She hesitated, looked doubtfully at Kelly, who stood waiting stoically, and turned to her saddle. She untied a bundle and went quickly over to him.

"You—I don't want my lunch, after all. I'm going home now. I—I want you to take it, please. There are some sandwiches—with veal loaf, that Looey Sam makes deliciously—and some cake. I—I wish it was more. I know you'll like the veal loaf."

Kelly looked down at her, and God knows what thoughts were in his mind. He did not answer her with words; he just swallowed hard.

"Poor devil!" was what Keith said to himself, and the gun he was holding threatened, for a minute, to wing a cloud.

Beatrice laid the package in Kelly's unresisting hand, looked up into his averted face and said simply: "Good-by, Mr. Kelly."

After that she hurried Rex up the steep ridge much faster than she had gone down it, endangering his bones and putting herself very empty-lunged.

At the top of the ridge Keith stopped and looked down. 173