Page:BM Bower - Her Prairie Knight.djvu/27

 "We aren't really crazy" Beatrice told him, sitting up straight and drying her eyes daintily with her handkerchief. "We were on our way to Mr. Lansell's ranch, and the horses broke something and ran away, and Dick—Mr. Lansell—has gone to catch them. We're waiting until he does."

"I see." From the look in his eyes one might guess that what he saw pleased him. "Which direction did they take?"

Beatrice waved a gloved hand vaguely to the left, and, without another word, the fellow touched his hat, turned and waded to shore and galloped over the ridge she indicated; and the cluckety-cluck of his horse's hoofs came sharply across to them until he dipped out of sight.

"You see, he wasn't a robber," Beatrice remarked, staring after him speculatively. "How well he rides! One can see at a glance that he almost lives in the saddle. I wonder who he is."

"For all you know, Beatrice, he may be going now to murder Richard and Sir Redmond in cold blood. He looks perfectly hardened."

"Oh, do you think it possible?" cried Miss Hayes, much alarmed.

"No!" cried Beatrice hotly. "One who did not 25