I took
considerable chances but not a soul suspicioned the change. The next
night I put it back again. The old man timed the colt an' so did I.
_Fifty-one seconds!_ I knew my filly could do the whole half-mile
in that. Comet's second dam was a bronco, an' that will tell! But I
wanted to make your grandfather bet his wad. He never could resist a
sure-shot bet, never. That's all."
Amanda looked deep into his laughing eyes.
"He was willing to sell me, his own flesh and blood," she murmured
dreamily. "I think, Nal, you served him just about right, but I wish,
don't get mad, Nal, I wish that--er--someone else had pulled up the
post!"
XVII
MINTIE
Mintie stood upon the porch of the old adobe, shading her brown eyes
from the sun, now declining out of stainless skies into the brush-
hills to the west of the ranch. The hand shading the eyes trembled;
the red lips were pressed together; faint lines upon the brow and
about the mouth indicated anxiety, and possibly fear. A trapper would
have recognised in the expression of the face a watchful intensity or
apprehension common to all animals who have reason to know themselves
to be the prey of others.
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