His arms fell to his sides. "You--you won't hear me!"
"You know what I'm trying so hard to say. It means so much to me. It's hard for a man to say the one word which he knows will make him or break him for all time to come. He'd rather--he'd rather just hope on blindly, I guess, than to speak when he can't guess how the woman feels. Must--must I say it--right out, Jessamy?"
"Is there anything that stands between us?"
Her red lips quivered. "I said for you to wait," she told him softly.
"Why should I wait? For what? I know myself. I'm grown. I know that I--"
"Don't!" she interrupted. "Wait!" And she leaned in the saddle and swung White Ann away from him.
"Let's ride back home," she said. "You'll stay to supper? The moon will be bright for your ride home later. I'll make you a cherry pie!"
It will be necessary to return to the day that Chuck Allegan and Obed Pence met on the ridge beyond the Old Ivison Place, and rode together to the hiding place of the Poison Oakers' moonshine still.
Obed Pence continued to lie prone in the mouth of the cave, while his close-set eyes angrily watched the progress of Old Man Selden and his son Bolar through the chaparral.
As the continued crawling of the coming pair brought them nearer to the retreat Obed Pence withdrew his lank figure into the shadowy cave; and he and his companion endeavoured to appear innocent and unconcerned.
Then when Old Man Selden and the boy reached the opening and stood erect, Obed appeared at the mouth again and greeted them with a matter-of-fact:
"Why, howdy, Obed," returned Adam Selden. "Didn't know ye was here. Who's with ye?"
"I reckon you see our horses down in Clinker Cañon," returned Obed in trouble-hunting tones. "And you know every horse between Red Mountain an' the Gap."
"Yea, me and Bolar thought we saw a couple o' animals through the trees. But we hit the ground farther up the creekbed, and come in slonchways. Thought maybe one o' the brutes was Chuck's."
Obed Pence snorted softly, but did not add more fuel to an argument along this line.
"Me an' the kid was packin' a sack o' salt on a burro down toward the river," Adam observed, approaching the cave, "an' thought we'd belly up an' have a little smile. Cows need salt. Hello there, Chuck!"--as the round, boyish face of Allegan shone like a small moon from the dark interior.