Ashton took off his hat and stared at the holes where the heavy forty-four bullet had gone in and gone out. He was silent.
"You see, poor Kid has been unfortunate," remarked the girl, as she headed her pony down over the edge of the mesa. "That time with the rustlers, all the posse were firing, and he just happened to be the one that got the best aim; and the time with the Indians, I'm sure he did not shoot to kill. It just happened that way. He told me so himself."
Ashton ran his tongue over his lip. "Yes--I suppose so," he muttered.
"Kid has all the good qualities and only a few of the faults of the old-time cowboys," went on the girl. "He is almost fiercely loyal to Daddy's interests. That's why he led a raid on a sheep outfit, four years ago, when almost half of a large flock were run over into Deep Cañon--poor innocent beasts! Daddy was furious with Kid; but there was no legal proof as to who were members of the attacking party, and the sheep were destroying our range. All of Daddy's cattle would have starved."
"Daddy could not be expected to discharge him, could he, when Kid did it to save our range? You see, it was just because he was so very loyal. You must not think from these things that he--It is true he is suspicious of strangers, but he always has been very kind and gentle to me. I am very fond of him."
"You are?" exclaimed Ashton, stirred from his uneasy depression. "I should hardly have thought him the kind to interest a girl like you."
"Really?" she bantered. "Why not? I have lived on the range ever since I was fourteen."
He stared at her incredulously. "Since you were fourteen?"
"For nine years," she added, smiling at his astonishment.
"But--it can't be," he protested, his eyes on her stylish costume. "At least, not all the time."
She nodded at him encouragingly. "So you _can_ see--a little. Nearly all my winters have been spent in Denver, except one in Europe."
"We didn't cross in a cattle boat," she flashed back at him, dimpling mischievously. "Nor did I go as the Queen of the Rancho, or of the Roundup, or even of the Wild and Woolly Outlaw Band."
He flushed with mortification. "I am only too well aware, Miss Knowles, how you must regard me."
"Oh, I do not regard you at all--as yet," she bantered. "But of course I could not expect you to know that Daddy's sister is one of the Sacred Thirty-six."