"But you're not going to die, Beechy, and we'll win out," the girl comforted eagerly. "Oh, how can I leave you like this----"
"Mount that pony again, quick!" He gathered his strength by a superhuman effort. "Don't think of me. I'll rest here and then I'll move on, I promise. I want to--get out--of--this scrape as much as--you want me to. That's right--up you--go." The last word was a whisper. He struggled to one elbow. "Tell Greyson if he gets a chance--to put a bullet through the man--Ranlett took on in--my place--that range-rider at Bear-Creek ranch."
Benson regarded Ming Soy in stunned amazement. Her words, "She never come back--not all this time," revolved stupidly round and round in his brain. They had been catapulted into the midst of his passionate declaration to Peggy; what she would have answered he never would know, now. The color which the touch of his lips had brought to the girl's face had faded; she was regarding the Chinese woman with terrified eyes. She laid a trembling hand on Benson's arm. "Thank God, I haven't made you hate me," he thought fervently as he gripped her cold fingers in a comforting clasp. His faith in the wisdom of a surprise attack had been built upon a rock, after all.
"Tell me again, Ming Soy, just when Mrs. Courtlandt started and what she said to you."
In her excitement Ming Soy's English kept tripping her up, but Benson was able to get a fairly clear idea of what had happened.
"I watched her rode--not to the flield she tole me--no--down the road. I listened for shoots. No shoots. No noding. No noding in flield. When Ming Soy see you way down road, Ming Soy bleat glong."
Benson's mind had been working with machine-like speed while he listened. The girl beside him drew a long, ragged breath. He laid his lips upon her hand for a moment.
"Don't worry! I'll find her, Peg-o'-my-heart. She has probably dropped in at Bear Creek ranch to see that new arrival and has forgotten the time. Women are like that when there's a baby." He advanced the theory with a light-hearted laugh which he flattered himself was a marvel of its kind, but it merely drew a long, quivering sob from the girl. "Just for company, I'll ride down to meet her."
"I'll go with you," announced Peggy eagerly.