Loretta got no comfort from her in her tentative efforts to talk
of Buck Falin, and once, indeed, June gave her a scathing rebuke.
With every day her feeling for her father and Bub was knit a
little more closely, and toward Dave grew a little more kindly.
She had her moods even against Hale, but they always ended in a
storm of helpless tears. Her father said little of Hale, but that
little was enough. Young Dave was openly exultant when he heard of
the favouritism shown a Falin by the Guard at the Gap, the effort
Hale had made to catch Rufe Tolliver and his well-known purpose
yet to capture him; for the Guard maintained a fund for the arrest
and prosecution of criminals, and the reward it offered for Rufe,
dead or alive, was known by everybody on both sides of the State
line. For nearly a week no word was heard of the fugitive, and
then one night, after supper, while June was sitting at the fire,
the back door was opened, Rufe slid like a snake within, and when
June sprang to her feet with a sharp cry of terror, he gave his
brutal laugh:
"Don't take much to skeer you--does it?" Shuddering she felt his
evil eyes sweep her from head to foot, for the beast within was
always unleashed and ever ready to spring, and she dropped back
into her seat, speechless.
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