Page:Honore Willsie--Judith of the godless valley.djvu/229

 she did not laugh. Instead, her eyes were deep with some emotion he could not name.

"I don't think I understand you, Doug," she said at last. "I couldn't get so worked up over anything that had to do with religion. But I do see that it means a lot to you and I think you're foolish to trust to a man like Fowler to put anything over in this valley for you."

"You don't know my old sky pilot like I do," insisted Doug.

"Yes, you must have got a deep knowledge of him in one night!"

"I sure did!" said Douglas simply.

"You are sure that you realize how bitterly the Valley resents your doing this?"

"Yes. And the Valley had better realize, if it plans trouble, that I'm neither soft, nor easy."

"I just wish you weren't trying to do it," repeated Judith.

"What do you want me to do?" asked Douglas.

"Why, be a first-class rancher, make money, and travel and learn something about life."

"That's what I plan to do. But I want to do more than that. I want to fix Lost Chief so that a couple of kids like you and me don't have to learn all they know about real things from a woman like Inez and a man like Charleton. And if a sky pilot can answer those questions right, why I'm going to have one in here if I have to mount guard on him, day and night. My kids are going to grow up right here in Lost Chief and they aren't going round like little wild horses when it comes to asking questions about love and death. No, ma'am!"

"Oh! What does old Fowler know about such things?" cried Judith.