Cabin Fever - Page 87/118

Bud, his sleeves rolled up, his hair rumpled and the perspiration

standing thick on his forehead, stood over him with his hands on his

hips, the picture of perturbed helplessness.

"You doggone little devil!" he breathed, his mind torn between amusement

and exasperation. "If you was my own kid, I'd spank yuh! But," he added

with a little chuckle, "if you was my own kid, I'd tell the world you

come by that temper honestly. Darned if I wouldn't."

Cash, sitting dejected on the side of his own bunk, lifted his head, and

after that his hawklike brows, and stared from the face of Bud to

the face of Lovin Child. For the first time he was struck with the

resemblance between the two. The twinkle in the eyes, the quirk of

the lips, the shape of the forehead and, emphasizing them all, the

expression of having a secret joke, struck him with a kind of shock. If

it were possible... But, even in the delirium of fever, Bud had never

hinted that he had a child, or a wife even. He had firmly planted in

Cash's mind the impression that his life had never held any close

ties whatsoever. So, lacking the clue, Cash only wondered and did not

suspect.

What most troubled Cash was the fact that he had unwittingly caused all

the trouble for Lovin Child. He should not have tried to scrub the floor

with the kid running loose all over the place. As a slight token of his

responsibility in the matter, he watched his chance when Bud was busy at

the old cookstove, and tossed a rabbit fur across to Lovin Child to play

with; a risky thing to do, since he did not know what were Lovin Child's

little peculiarities in the way of receiving strange gifts. But he was

lucky. Lovin Child was enraptured with the soft fur and rubbed it over

his baby cheeks and cooed to it and kissed it, and said "Ee? Ee?" to

Cash, which was reward enough.

There was a strained moment when Bud came over and discovered what it

was he was having so much fun with. Having had three days of experience

by which to judge, he jumped to the conclusion that Lovin Child had been

in mischief again.

"Now what yuh up to, you little scallywag?" he demanded. "How did you

get hold of that? Consarn your little hide, Boy..."

"Let the kid have it," Cash muttered gruffly. "I gave it to him." He got

up abruptly and went outside, and came in with wood for the cookstove,

and became exceedingly busy, never once looking toward the other end of

the room, where Bud was sprawled upon his back on the bunk, with Lovin

Child astride his middle, having a high old time with a wonderful new

game of "bronk riding."