In ten minutes he went his way, drawing her musing eyes
after him. Until he had reached his own door and turned it at the Casa
Blanca the two girls on Struve's veranda were silent. Florrie's
thoughts were flitting hither and yon, bright-winged, inconsequential,
fluttering about Jim Galloway, deserting him for Roderick Norton,
darting off to Elmer Page, coming home to Florrie herself. As for
Virginia, conscious of a sort of dread, she was oppressed with the
stubbornly insistent thought that if Jim Galloway cared to amuse
himself with Florrie he was strong and she was weak; if he called to
her she would follow. . . .
Virginia was not the only one whom Galloway had set pondering; certain
of his words spoken to the sheriff when the two faced each other on the
Tecolote trail gave Norton food for thought. For the first time Jim
Galloway had openly offered a bribe, one of no insignificant
proportions, prefacing his offer with the remark: "I have just begun to
imagine lately that I have doped you up wrong all the time." If
Galloway had gone on to add: "Time was when I didn't believe I could
buy you, but I have changed my mind about that," his meaning could have
been no plainer. Now he held out a bribe in one hand, a threat in the
other, and Norton riding on to Tecolote mused long over them both.
Pages:
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146