Page:Caroline Lockhart--The Fighting Shepherdess.djvu/52

 rand the radiance that leaped into her face started him.

" Would I like to go? " she cried joyously. " There's nothing I can think of that I would like better. I've never been to a dance in all my life. I've never been anywhere. It's so good of you to ask me ! "

" It's good of you to go with me," he said awkwardly shamed by her gratitude, remembering the wager.

" But I don't know how to dance," she said almost tearfully.

"You don't?" incredulously. He had thought every girl in the world knew how to dance. " Never mind," he assured her, " I can teach you in a few lessons."

So it was settled, and they talked of other things, laughing merrily, frequently, while Mormon Joe and Teeters discussed with some gravity the fact that it had been several months since the latter had been able to get his wages from Toomey.

" I think he's workin' on borried capital and they're shuttin' down on him," Teeters conjectured. " His 'Old Man,' " he nodded toward Hughie, " has got consider'ble tied up in the Outfit, I've an idea. Anyhow, if I git beat out of my money after the way Toomey's high-toned it over me — " He cast a significant look at a fist with particularly prominent knuckles.

" You hang on a while," Mormon Joe cautioned. "You may be boss of the Scissor Outfit yet — stranger things have been waiting around the corner."

Teeters shifted his weight in the saddle.

" Say," he confessed in some embarrassment, " a sperrit told me somethin' like that only day 'fore yesterday. I was settin' in a circle over to Mis' Taylor's and an Injun chief named ' Starlight ' spelled out on the table that all kinds of honor and worldly power was comin' to me.