Part 7 (1/2)

”Ket--I'm afraid of that man at Whisper!” she breathed miserably against its fur.

CHAPTER VIII

”IT TAKES NERVE JUST TO HANG ON”

Brit was smoking his pipe after supper and staring at nothing, though his face was turned toward the closed door. Lorraine had washed the dishes and was tidying the room and looking at her father now and then in a troubled, questioning way of which Brit was quite oblivious.

”Dad,” she said abruptly, ”who is the man at Whisper?”

Brit turned his eyes slowly to her face as if he had not grasped her meaning and was waiting for her to repeat the question. It was evident that his thoughts had pulled away from something that meant a good deal to him.

”Why?”

”A man came this morning, and said he was the man at Whisper, and that he would come again to see you.”

Brit took his pipe from his mouth, looked at it and crowded down the tobacco with a forefinger. ”He seen me ride away from the ranch, this morning,” he said. ”He was coming down the Whisper trail as I was taking the fork over to Sugar Spring, Frank and me. What did he say he wanted to see me about?”

”He didn't say. He asked for you and Frank.” Lorraine sat down and folded her arms on the oilcloth-covered table. ”Dad, what _is_ Whisper?”

”Whisper's a camp up against a cliff, over west of here. It belongs to the Sawtooth. Is that all he said? Just that he wanted to see me?”

”He--talked a little,” Lorraine admitted, her eyebrows pulled down.

”If he saw you leave, I shouldn't think he'd come here and ask for you.”

”He knowed I was gone,” Brit stated briefly.

With a finger nail Lorraine traced the ugly, brown pattern on the oilcloth. It was not easy to talk to this silent man who was her father, but she had done a great deal of thinking during that long, empty day, and she had reached the point where she was afraid not to speak.

”Dad!”

”What do you want, Raine?”

”Dad, was--has any one around here died, lately?”

”Died? n.o.body but Fred Thurman, over here on Granite. He was drug with a horse and killed.”

Lorraine caught her breath, saw Brit looking at her curiously and moved closer to him. She wanted to be near somebody just then, and after all, Brit was her father, and his silence was not the inertia of a dull mind, she knew. He seemed bottled-up, somehow, and bitter. She caught his hand and held it, feeling its roughness between her two soft palms.

”Dad, I've got to tell you. I feel trapped, somehow. Did his horse have a white face, dad?”

”Yes, he's a blaze-faced roan. Why?” Brit moved uncomfortably, but he did not take his hand away from her. ”What do you know about it, Raine?”

”I saw a man shoot Fred Thurman and push his foot through the stirrup.

And, dad, I believe it was that man at Whisper. The one I saw had on a brown hat, and this man wears a brown hat--and I was advised not to tell any one I had been at that place they call Rock City, when the storm came. Dad, would an innocent man--one that didn't have anything to do with a crime--would he try to cover it up afterwards?”

Brit's hand shook when he removed the pipe from his mouth and laid it on the table. His face had turned gray while Lorraine watched him fearfully. He laid his hand on her shoulder, pressing down hard--and at last his eyes met her big, searching ones.

”If he wanted to live--in this country--he'd have to. Leastways, he'd have to keep his mouth shut,” he said grimly.

”And he'd try to shut the mouths of others----”