"Hello, Glenn! Look who's here!" she cried, not wholly failing of
gayety.
He threw up his sombrero.
"Whoopee!" he yelled, in stentorian voice that rolled across the canyon
and bellowed in hollow echo and then clapped from wall to wall. The
unexpected Western yell, so strange from Glenn, disconcerted Carley. Had
he only answered her spirit of greeting? Had hers rung false?
But he was coming to her. She had seen the bronze of his face turn to
white. How gaunt and worn he looked. Older he appeared, with deeper
lines and whiter hair. His jaw quivered.
"Carley Burch, so it was you?" he queried, hoarsely.
"Glenn, I reckon it was," she replied. "I bought your Deep Lake ranch
site. I came back too late.... But it is never too late for some
things.... I've come to wish you and Flo all the happiness in the
world--and to say we must be friends."
The way he looked at her made her tremble. He strode up beside the
mustang, and he was so tall that his shoulder came abreast of her. He
placed a big warm hand on hers, as it rested, ungloved, on the pommel of
the saddle.
"Have you seen Flo?" he asked.
"I just left her. It was funny--the way she rushed me off after you. As
if there weren't two--"
Was it Glenn's eyes or the movement of his hand that checked her
utterance? His gaze pierced her soul. His hand slid along her arm to her
waist--around it. Her heart seemed to burst.
"Kick your feet out of the stirrups," he ordered.
Instinctively she obeyed. Then with a strong pull he hauled her half
out of the saddle, pellmell into his arms. Carley had no resistance. She
sank limp, in an agony of amaze. Was this a dream? Swift and hard his
lips met hers--and again--and again....
"Oh, my God!--Glenn, are--you--mad?" she whispered, almost swooning.
"Sure--I reckon I am," he replied, huskily, and pulled her all the way
out of the saddle.
Carley would have fallen but for his support. She could not think. She
was all instinct. Only the amaze--the sudden horror--drifted--faded as
before fires of her heart!
"Kiss me!" he commanded.
She would have kissed him if death were the penalty. How his face
blurred in her dimmed sight! Was that a strange smile? Then he held her
back from him.
"Carley--you came to wish Flo and me happiness?" he asked.
"Oh, yes--yes.... Pity me, Glenn--let me go. I meant well.... I
should--never have come."