The girl had twined herself into every fiber of his nature from the time she had come to him as a child. She was identified with every hope. Humph! He knew well enough what the answer would be if anything happened to Kate. He would shoot the chutes, again--quick. It was she who had awakened his ambition and kept him tolerably straight. Without her? Humph!
He stoked the sheet-iron camp stove, put the potatoes to boil, cut chops enough for two and laid the table with the steel knives and forks and tin plates. Then he set out a tin of molasses and the sour-dough bread, after which there was nothing to do but wait for the potatoes to boil, and for Kate.
He was trying the potatoes with a fork when he raised his head sharply. He was sure he heard the rattle of rocks. A faint whoop followed.
"Thank God!" He breathed the ejaculation fervently, yet he said merely as he stood in the entrance puffing his pipe as she rode up, "Got 'em, I see, Katie!"
"Sure. Don't I always get what I go after?" Then, with a tired laugh, "I'm disappointed; I thought you would be worried about me."
He smiled quizzically.
"I don't know why you'd think that."
"I'll know better next time," she replied good-humoredly, as she swung down with obvious weariness.
"There won't be any next time," he replied abruptly, "at least not at this season of the year."
"Oh, but I'm glad I went," she interposed hastily.
As Mormon Joe unwrapped the lead-rope from the saddle horn and took the horses away to picket, he wondered what wonderful adventure she would have to relate, for she seemed able to extract entertainment from nearly anything. By the time he returned she had removed her hat, gloves and spurs, washed her dust-streaked face, smoothed her hair, slipped on an enveloping apron over her riding clothes and had the chops frying.
The sight warmed his heart as he paused for a moment outside the circle of light which came through the entrance.
He had seen the same thing often before, but it never had impressed him particularly. Her presence in the canvas tent made the difference between home and a mere shelter. The small crumbs of bread he had cast upon the water were indeed coming back to him.
"I've ridden over forty miles since morning," she chattered, while he flung the snow flakes from his hat brim and brushed them from his shoulders. "The wind blew the horses' tracks out so I couldn't follow them. I never caught sight of them until just this side of Prouty. You can sit down, Uncle Joe--everything's ready."