Page:J Allan Dunn--The Girl of Ghost Mountain.djvu/82

64 got down the crock from a high shelf obediently. "No signs of arrival," he said as he put the crock on the table by the violin and took off the cover.

"They sure smell good," he said. Thora plucked him away.

"You bane keep your nose in place, young feller."

Mary Burrows smiled at Sheridan. Thora and Red had become "acquainted" while they were getting the wood.

"You don't find it lonely here?" he asked. He was resolved not to show any desire to probe her secrets until she showed a desire to take him into confidence.

"Why, no. It is as we expected. And it is so beautiful, like a park, the flowers, bees by the million, and birds, orioles, and mocking-birds. There is a pair of eagles that nest on one of the crags. And there are deer in the valley; mountain-sheep, too. We thought of keeping goats. And making honey. Do you suppose it would be profitable?"

There was a certain wistfulness in her inquiry that did not miss Sheridan. They needed to make money. The pity of it clouded his mind for a moment before he answered. Then the melancholy howl of a puma sounded from a distance. Both men got to their feet. Sheridan opened the door.

"That's the same beast we disturbed, I fancy," he said. "It should mean that they are coming."

"We are ready for them, as soon as the kettle boils," said the girl, quietly. Sheridan and Jackson, a bit shamed at her coolness, though she could not entirely comprehend the peril of the situation, sat down again.