Page:Honore Willsie--Judith of the godless valley.djvu/109

 Douglas, resentfully. "That's just giving him the herd."

"If he has double-crossed me," returned the older man, "I'm in no shape to handle him just now. He never came back to meet you till he'd turned the herd over to an accomplice. In any case, I lose on this trick."

"But he didn't know you were going to meet up with a bull!"

"No, but he was going to keep us away from the corral, somehow. You remember he said he'd come back to get us to help him bring in some steers. Of course, you and he might be in cahoots on this, but Scott's tricky so I'm giving you some of the benefits of the doubt." Charleton turned in his saddle to favor Douglas with a suspicious stare.

"I didn't double-cross you, Charleton," said Douglas, not without a simple dignity that may or may not have impressed his mentor. At any rate, Charleton made no reply.

Douglas was entirely deflated. He drooped dejectedly in the saddle, guiding the stiff and weary Moose without interest. His wonderful expedition by which he was to establish his standing as a man with his father and Judith had ended in ignominy. He watched Charleton's painfully rigid back but he did not dare to speak to him until they were nearly home. As they neared the edge of the first line, the ground became tapestried with lilies, yellow, white and crimson. Tree-trunks turned blue against the blue skies that belled over the valley. As they descended, the Forest Reserve lifted gradually, a black green sea beyond the burning brown level of the ranches. But Douglas was in no frame of mind either to seek or to see beauty. He had a guilty sense that Charleton believed that he had failed him, and finally he