had a new and different feeling for him. He was her husband, but he was also her lover and her child.
The days went on. The rain ended, and it turned bitterly cold. Tom rose in darkness in the mornings and came back to her after darkness had fallen again. He was working as a "rep" now with other outfits, but he was afraid to leave her alone at night. Not for him the long evenings in the warm cook tent, the poker games, the early turning in. He would come back in the car, turn in to sleep like a dead man, and be up and off after a minimum of rest.
He had left his revolver for her, against her protest.
"You're the one who may need it."
"I'm not worrying about myself."
But as a matter of fact, after that malicious breaking of his dam, nothing happened, nor was to happen for a long time yet. When the drives ended at the railroad, sometimes the outfits would work side by side with the Indians, and at such times Tom kept a wary eye open for Little Dog. But he never saw him, and later he heard that he was working on the other side of the range. After that he was easier.
He himself was doing no shipping that year, but his purchases of hay and cake had practically exhausted his money. When the last cattle car had been loaded at the railroad near Judson, he went in one day to see George Seabright at the store, and asked how good his credit was.
"Good as money in the bank, Tom."
"Well, I'm not asking for interest on it!" he drawled. "But I may have to stretch it some this winter."
"That's all right, Tom. Anything you say."
But George was practical too. The big Newcomb wheat job was still threshing, and it needed men. They paid good money.
"I'm no farmer," he objected. "And what's more, I'm not leaving my wife alone these days."
"Send her into town," George suggested. "Sally and I've been talking about that. She's young. Send her in and let
