Lonigan (Ss) (1988) by L'amour Louis

Author:L'amour, Louis [L'amour, Louis]
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 2010-12-12T06:26:47.906000+00:00

Chapter 2 Jilted-and Glad of It.

Shrugging, Rowdy explained, and Vaho Rainey listened attentively, watching him with her wide dark eyes. She frowned thoughtfully at the receding water.

"There must be a reason for this," she said. "There has always been water here. Never in the memory of the Navaho has this water hole been so low."

"Sure, there's a reason," Rowdy said glumly, "but what is it? Maybe there's somebody takin' water before it gets to this pool, but who and where? I always figured this water came off the Rim, somewhere."

"Or from under it," Vaho said thoughtfully.

That remark made no impression on Rowdy at the moment, although he did recall it later, and wondered what she had meant. Right now, his interest in this tall, dark girl was quickening. There was warmth in her, understanding, and sympathy for his problems-all the things that he had missed in Jenny.

He glanced up suddenly. The sun had slid behind the mountains, and it was growing dark.

"You'd better be getting home!" he warned Vaho. "Riding in the mountains at night is no good."

"Not when you know them as I do," she said, smiling. "Anyway, I've not far to go.

Some of our people are camped only a few miles from here. I shall go to them."

When he had watched her ride away into the dusk that lay thick among the dark pines, he swung into the saddle and turned the steeldust down the road home. But he was conscious of a strange excitement, and the memory of that tall, dark girl was like a bright fire in his thoughts. He was remembering the curves of her lips and the way she had moved, how her laughter had sounded an echo in his heart.

With a quick start of guilt he realized that in his mind he was being a little disloyal to Jenny. Despite his guilty feeling, though, he would not forget that girl from the canyons, or the strange warmth she had left with him.

He had ridden home and had stripped the saddle from the steeldust, when he heard a man's voice inside the stable. For an instant he hesitated. It was dark inside and he could see nothing. Then he saw a subdued glow, and stepped quickly to the door. "Who's there?" he demanded.

A man who had been kneeling to examine Cub's leg got to his feet. As he stepped out of the door Rowdy Horn could see him plainly-a tall, thin man in a battered hat not of western vintage, and a shabby suit of store clothes.

"How are you?" he said. "I hope you won't think I'm butting in. I stopped to ask for something to eat and a place to sleep, but finding nobody at home, I walked around a little. Then I found your horse with the bad leg. What happened to him?"

"Stepped into a gopher hole. My roping horse. I'd figured on riding him in the rodeo.

"

"Too bad." The man hesitated. "How about that grub?"

"Sure. Come on up to the house. I haven't eaten myself.

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