Page:Max Brand--The Seventh Man.djvu/313

Rh “That loose shutter upstairs come around in the wind with a bang and Buck Daniels comes out of his chair as fast as powder could blow him. He didn't say nothin'. Just sat down lookin' kind of sick, and the other two was the same way. When they talked, they'd bust off in the middle of a word and let their eyes go trailin' into some corner of the room that was plumb full of shadow. Then Lee Haines gets up and walks up and down.

“'Swann,' says he, 'how many good men have you got on the place?'

“'Why,' says I, 'they're all good!'

“'Huh,' says Haines, and he puts a hand on my shoulder, 'Just how good are they, Swann?'”

“I seen what he wanted. He wanted to know how many scrappy gents was punchin' cows here; maybe them three up there figures that they might need help. From what? What was they runnin' away from?”

“Hey!” broke in one of the cowpunchers, pointing with a dramatic fork through the window.

It was a bright spot of gold that disappeared over the top of the nearest hill; then it came into view again, the whole body of a yellow-haired child, clothed in a wisp of white, and running steadily toward the north.

“The kid!” gasped the foreman. “Boys, grab her. No, you'd bust her; I know how to handle her!”

He was gone through the door with gigantic leaps and shot over the crest of the low hill. Then those in the cookhouse heard a small, tingling scream; after it,