Page:From the West to the West.djvu/151

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

"What can I do for you, sir?"

"Will you carry a note for me to Mrs. Benson?"

"I don't know, sir. See! They 're bringing in the cattle. I must hurry back to camp."

"Wait a little, miss. I must write a note."

"I haven't promised to give it to anybody, sir."

"But you 'U do it," he said, thrusting a few hastily written, unsealed lines into her hand. "Give that to the young lady's mother. I feel that I can trust you. Here's a dollar. You will not read the note, nor say a word about it to any one?"

"You can trust me, sir, but I do not want your dollar."

"Keep it, child."

He wheeled and was gone. She watched him disappear in a cloud of dust, and hid the note away in the bosom of her dress.

"He trusted me, and I won't read it, though I'd be glad to know its contents," she whispered to herself. " Why does Fate make me the depositary of other people's affairs and then burden me with secrecy? I 'm only an ignorant girl; but I know enough about the secrets of more than one of our fellow-travellers to explode bombs in several directions if I'd tell I "

"I am overjoyed at the success of my first practice as a veterinary doctor," said Mrs. McAlpin the next day.

"We 're all glad," said the Captain. "Small use any man would have for this world if it weren't for the women to help him out under difficulties."

"Poor Captain! How he misses his wife!" she thought, as she sought the wagon where Scotty lay.

"I'd get well a great deal faster if I had you for a nurse. Daphne," he said appealingly.

"Nature is doing her best for you. She's mending your bones thoroughly. If we patched you up in too big a hurry, we'd soon be in trouble again."

"But I feel like a chained eagle, lying here."

IQ