He went on rubbing sand around in the bottom of the frying-pan, but none the less caught, with side-long glance, the flush upon the brown cheek visible beneath its veil.
"I'm mighty glad to see you this mornin', ma'am," he went on; "I am, for a fact. It more'n pays me--it more'n pays him--" and he nodded again toward Dan Anderson, "for our trip down here. We wasn't expectin' to meet you."
"How did you happen to come?" asked Constance, feeling as she did so that she was guilty of treachery.
Tom Osby again looked her straight in the face. "Just because we was naturally so blamed lonesome," said he. "That is to say, I was. I allowed I wanted to hear a woman sing. It wasn't him, it was me. He come along to take care of me, like, because he's used to that sort of thing, and I ain't. He's my chaperoon. He didn't know, you know--didn't either of us know--but what I might be took advantage of, and stole by some gipsy queen."
Tom looked around. "Where is it?" he asked.
"Did he? Good for him! I was goin' to do it my own self. You see, ma'am, I come down here to hear a song about Annie Laurie. I done so. Ma'am, I heard about a 'face that was the fairest.' Him? Was he surprised to see you-all this morning? Was, eh? Well, he didn't seem so almighty surprised, to my way of thinkin', last night when I told him you was comin' up here from El Paso. I don't know how he knowed it, and I ain't sayin' a word."
A strange lightening came to Constance Ellsworth's heart. The droop at the corners of her mouth faded away. She slid down off the blanket roll and edged along across the ground until she sat at his side. She reached out her hand for the skillet.
"That spider isn't clean in the least," said she.
"Oh, well," apologized Tom Osby, leaning back against the wagon wheel and beginning to fill a pipe. "I suppose there might be just a leetle sand left in it, but that don't hurt. Do you want a dish towel? Here's one that I've used for two years, freightin' from Vegas to Heart's Desire. Me and it's old friends."
"Let your dishes dry in the sun if you can't do better than that," reproved Constance. "Ah, you men!"
"You're right hard to get along with, ma'am. Us gettin' you two breakfasts, too!"
They looked into each other's faces and Constance laughed. "The air is delightful--isn't it a beautiful world?" she exclaimed joyously.