Page:MacLeod Raine - The Sheriff's Son.djvu/199

 instructions not to let you know anything. He'd better learn to padlock his own tongue."

"Is n't there a room where I can sleep here?" Beulah asked.

"There's a cot in the back room," he admitted sulkily. "But you can't—"

"That's another thing," she broke in. "Dad does n't want Dan left alone with Mr. Dingwell."

"Who's that out there, Ned?" growled a heavy voice from inside.

Beulah followed her brother into the hut. Two men stared at her in amazement. One sat on the bed with a leg tied to the post. The other was at the table playing solitaire, a revolver lying beside the cards. The card-player was Meldrum. He jumped up with an oath.

"Goddlemighty! What's she doing here?" he demanded in his hoarse raucous bass.

"That's her business and mine," Rutherford answered haughtily.

"It's mine too, by God! My neck's in the noose, ain't it?" screamed the former convict. "Has everybody in the park got to know we 're hiding Dingwell here? Better put it in the paper. Better—"

"Enough of that, Dan. Dad is running this