Nevertheless, Buck wished more than once that he had been able to get in touch with her since that memorable afternoon when he had watched her ride out of sight down the little cañon, if only to prepare her for what was going on. It must have been very hard for her to go about day after day, knowing nothing, suspecting a thousand things, fretting, worrying, with not a soul to confide in, yet forced continually to present an untroubled countenance to those about her.
"Thank the Lord it'll soon be over and she'll be relieved," he thought, when they finally came in sight of the ranch-house.
As the posse swept through the lower gate and up the slope, Buck's eyes searched the building keenly. Not a soul was in sight, either there or about the corrals. He had seen it thus apparently deserted more than once before, and told himself now that his uneasiness was absurd. But when the girl suddenly appeared on the veranda and stood staring at the approaching horsemen, Buck's heart leaped with a sudden spasm of intense relief, and unconsciously he spurred his horse ahead of the others.
As he swung himself out of the saddle, she came swiftly forward, her face glowing with surprise and pleasure.
"Oh, I'm so glad you've come," she said in a low, quick voice, clasping his outstretched hand. "We've been worrying--You--you're quite all right now?"
"Fine and dandy," Buck assured her. "Thanks to you, and Bud, I'm perfectly whole again."
She greeted Jessup, who came up smiling, and then Sheriff Hardenberg was presented.
"Very glad to meet you, Miss Thorne," he said. There was a faint twinkle in his eyes as he glanced toward Stratton for an instant, his belief confirmed as to the principal reason for Buck's desire to keep the secret of the Shoe-Bar ownership. Then he became businesslike.
"Where's Lynch and the rest of 'em?" he asked briskly.
The girl's face grew suddenly serious. "I don't know," she answered quickly. "They were all working about the barns until a strange cow-boy rode in about two hours ago. I saw him pass the window but didn't think much about it. About half an hour or so later I went out to give some orders to Pedro; he's the cook, you know. But he wasn't there and neither was Maria, and when I went out to the barns the men were gone. Of course something urgent might easily have taken them out on the range, but neither Maria nor Pedro has been off the place for weeks. Besides, when I peeped into the bunk-house everything was tossed about in confusion, as if--Well, I was afraid something--had happened."
