She deliberately gazed into his eyes. Like the eyes of an eagle, they were clear and hard, just now warmed by the dalliance of the moment, but there was no light, no intelligence in them to prove he understood her. The instant separated Ellen immeasurably from him and from all of his ilk.
"Daggs, I was a child," she said. "I was lonely--hungry for affection--I was innocent. Then I was careless, too, and thoughtless when I should have known better. But I hardly understood y'u men. I put such thoughts out of my mind. I know now--know what y'u mean--what y'u have made people believe I am."
"Ahuh! Shore I get your hunch," he returned, with a change of tone. "But I asked you to marry me?"
"Yes y'u did. The first day y'u got heah to my dad's house. And y'u asked me to marry y'u after y'u found y'u couldn't have your way with me. To y'u the one didn't mean any more than the other."
"Shore I did more than Simm Bruce an' Colter," he retorted. "They never asked you to marry."
"No, they didn't. And if I could respect them at all I'd do it because they didn't ask me."
"Wal, I'll be dog-goned!" ejaculated Daggs, thoughtfully, as he stroked his long mustache.
"I'll say to them what I've said to y'u," went on Ellen. "I'll tell dad to make y'u let me alone. I wouldn't marry one of y'u--y'u loafers to save my life. I've my suspicions about y'u. Y'u're a bad lot."
Daggs changed subtly. The whole indolent nonchalance of the man vanished in an instant.
"Wal, Miss Jorth, I reckon you mean we're a bad lot of sheepmen?" he queried, in the cool, easy speech of a Texan.
"No," flashed Ellen. "Shore I don't say sheepmen. I say y'u're a BAD LOT."
"Oh, the hell you say!" Daggs spoke as he might have spoken to a man; then turning swiftly on his heel he left her. Outside he encountered Ellen's father. She heard Daggs speak: "Lee, your little wildcat is shore heah. An' take mah hunch. Somebody has been talkin' to her."
"Who has?" asked her father, in his husky voice. Ellen knew at once that he had been drinking.
"Lord only knows," replied Daggs. "But shore it wasn't any friends of ours."
"We cain't stop people's tongues," said Jorth, resignedly "Wal, I ain't so shore," continued Daggs, with his slow, cool laugh. "Reckon I never yet heard any daid men's tongues wag."