Page:RidersOfSilences - Max Brand.djvu/145

Rh blankets in each hard-set hand. Over her Pierre leaned, utterly bewildered, found nothing that he could say, and then turned and strode, frowning, from the room. Wilbur hastened after him and caught him just as the door was closing.

"Come back," he pleaded. "This is the best game I've ever seen. Come back, Pierre! You've made a wonderful start."

Pierre le Rouge shook off the detaining hand and glared up at Wilbur.

"Don't try irony, Dick. I feel like murder. Think of it! All this time she's been hating me; and now it's making her weep; think of it—Jack—weeping!"

"Why, you're a child, Pierre. Go back and take her in your arms and tell her you're going to make her go to the dance."

"Take her in my arms? She'd stab me, there's that much of the devil in her. Don't grin at me and keep chuckling like an utter ass. What's up, Dick?"

"Don't you see? No, you don't, but it's so plain that a baby of three years could understand. She's in love with you."

"With me?"

"With Red Pierre."

"You can't make a joke out of Jack with me. You ought to know that."

'Pierre, I'd as soon make a joke out of a wild-cat." "Grinning still? Wilbur, I'm taking more from you than I would from any man on the ranges."