Page:The Cow Jerry (1925).pdf/283

 He sat on the bench near her, out of the light from the door.

"What did Cal Withers and the sheriff do about them cattle?" Mrs. Cowgill demanded.

There was a gritting sound coming from Myron's vicinity, together with a disquieting smell of concentrated nicotine. He was reaming the carbon out of his cob pipe, according to the custom of people whose tastes confine them to that humble vessel. Tardiness of reaction to any force was the outstanding peculiarity of Myron Cowgill, slowness of response being his most vexing weakness. He ground away on the cavity of his pipe, making no reply.

Whatever Myron's failures, fear of his wife was not among them. He was a calm man; no amount of tongue-lashing could whip him to a trot, no sharpbarbed burr of ridicule or censure under his saddle could make him rear and buck. He was not the kind of a man to be hung on his own testimony, if deliberation could save a man in that extremity.

"Did the sheriff make Tom give them cattle up to Withers, I asked you?" Mrs. Cowgill demanded.

Myron made a blowing in his pipe, a gurgling and distressing sound.

"Not that I heard of," he replied.

Louise Gardner was standing just inside the door, her hand put out to push it open, her attitude one of hesitant timidity, as if she might turn and fly at a word. She was dressed in white lawn with pink flowers sprayed through it, the skirt long and voluminous after