"Oh, don't bother about Ranger---- Look out!"
So engrossed had been the two that neither had heard the gallop of an approaching horse till it shot around the corner of the house and was almost upon them. As Kate shrieked her warning she sprang from the hammock and flung herself in front of Loudon. For the man on the horse was Pete O'Leary, and he was apparently aiming a six-shooter at Loudon.
Even as O'Leary's six-shooter cracked, Loudon swept Kate to one side and fired from the hip. O'Leary swayed, dropped his gun, then pitched forward over his saddle-horn. Loudon ran to him. As he reached O'Leary the latter rolled over on his back.
"Teach her to spy on my letters!" he gasped. "If it hadn't been for her I----"
Loudon thrust his sixshooter into its holster and turned. Kate, her lips colourless, her eyes dilated, was clinging to one of the porch uprights. Loudon crossed the intervening space in two leaps.
"I'm not hit," she replied, shakily. "But--but did he--did you--are you hurt?"
"I ain't even creased. Now you go in the house an' stay. Here come Jimmie an' Rainey. We'll take care o' what's out here."
Half an hour later, in the living room, Loudon found her. She rose from her chair at his entrance and faced him in silence. The cold, defiant expression had vanished from her face. In its stead was the look of a frightened child. Loudon halted within a yard of her.
"Kate," said he, "yuh can say what yuh like about yore reasons for goin' to Judge Allison an' takin' that night ride to the Cross-in-a-box, an' I've got to believe yuh. But if yuh don't love me why did yuh jump in front o' me when O'Leary fired?"
"I thought he was going to shoot you," she replied, forcing herself to meet his eyes. "I--I didn't know I was the one till I heard him say so."
"Yuh thought he was goin' to drop me, an' yuh jumped in front o' me; why?"
Kate's face was upturned. Her lips parted. Her body swayed toward him.
"Why did yuh say what yuh did about wantin' to make me suffer when yuh loved me all the time?"
"I couldn't help it. I thought I'd lost you, and then you came, and--and then I wanted to hurt you, and I did. I don't know what I'd have done if you'd gone away. For I do love you, boy!"
Loudon held her close as the dark head snuggled against his shoulder.