Lonesome Land | Page 9

her face closed."
They murmured together for five minutes. Kent seemed to meet with
some opposition from Fleetwood--an aftermath of Valeria's objections
to flight--and became brutally direct.
"Go ahead--do as you please," he said roughly. "But you know that
bunch. You'll have to show up, and you'll have to set 'em up, and--aw,
thunder! By morning you'll be plumb laid out. You'll be headed into
one of your four-day jags, and you know it. I was thinking of the
girl--but if you don't care, I guess it's none of my funeral. Go to it--but
darned if I'd want to start my honeymoon out like that!"
Fleetwood weakened, but still he hesitated. "If I didn't show up--" he
began hopefully. But Kent wittered him with a look.
"That bunch will be two-thirds full before they start out. If you don't
show up, they'll go up and haul you outa bed--hell, Man! You'd likely
start in to kill somebody off. Fred De Garmo don't love you much
better than he loves me. You know what him and his friends would do
then, I should think." He stopped, and seemed to consider briefly a plan,
but shook his head over it. "I could round up a bunch and stand 'em off,
maybe--but we'd be shooting each other up, first rattle of the box. It's a
whole lot easier for you to get outa town."
"I'll tell somebody you got the bridal chamber," hissed Arline, in a very
loud whisper. "That's number two, in front. I can keep a light going and
pass back 'n' forth once in a while, to look like you're there. That'll fool
'em good. They'll wait till the light's been out quite a while before they
start in. You go ahead and git married at seven, jest as you was going
to--and if Kent'll have the team ready somewheres, I can easy sneak
you out the back way."
"I couldn't get the team out of town without giving the whole deal

away," Kent objected. "You'll have to go horseback.".
"Val can't ride," Fleetwood stated, as if that settled the matter.
"Damn it, she's got to ride!" snapped Kent, losing patience. "Unless you
want to stay and go on a toot that'll last a week, most likely."
"Val belongs to the W.C.T.U.," shrugged Fleetwood. "She'd never--"
"Well, it's that or have a fight on your hands you maybe can't handle. I
don't see any sense in haggling about going, now you know what to
expect. But, of course," he added, with some acrimony, "it's your own
business. I don't know what the dickens I'm getting all worked up over
it for. Suit yourself." He turned toward the door.
"She could ride my Mollie--and I got a sidesaddle hanging up in the
coal shed. She could use that, or a stock saddle, either one," planned
Mrs. Hawley anxiously. "You better pull out, Man."
"Hold on, Kent! Don't rush off--we'll go," Fleetwood surrendered. "Val
won't like it, but I'll explain as well as I can, without--Say! you stay and
see us married, won't you? It's at seven, and--"
Kent's fingers curled around the doorknob. "No, thanks. Weddings and
funerals are two bunches of trouble I always ride 'way around. Time
enough when you've got to be it. Along about nine o'clock you try and
get out to the stockyards without letting the whole town see you go, and
I'll have the horses there; just beyond the wings, by that pile of ties.
You know the place. I'll wait there till ten, and not a minute longer.
That'll give you an hour, and you won't need any more time than that if
you get down to business. You find out from her what saddle she wants,
and you can tell me while I'm eating supper, Mrs. Hawley. I'll 'tend to
the rest." He did not wait to hear whether they agreed to the plan, but
went moodily down the narrow passage, and entered frowningly the
"office." Several men were gathered there, waiting the supper summons.
Hawley glanced up from wiping a glass, and grinned.
"Well, did you git the pie?"

"Naw. She said I'd got to wait for mealtime. She plumb chased me out."
Fred De Garmo, sprawled in an armchair and smoking a cigar, lazily
fanned the smoke cloud from before his face and looked at Kent
attentively.
CHAPTER III
A LADY IN A TEMPER
To saddle two horses when the night has grown black and to lead them,
unobserved, so short a distance as two hundred yards or so seems a
simple thing; and for two healthy young people with full use of their
wits and their legs to steal quietly away to where those horses are
waiting would seem quite as simple. At the same time, to prevent the
successful accomplishment of