第74章 LITE COMES OUT OF THE BACKGROUND(1)

For hours Jean had sat staring out at the drear stretches of desert dripping under the dismal rain that streaked the car windows.The clouds hung leaden and gray close over the earth;the smoke from the engine trailed a funereal plume across the grease-wood covered plain.Away in the distance a low line of hills stretched vaguely,as though they were placed there to hold up the sky that was so heavy and dank.Alongside the track every ditch ran full of clay-colored water that wrapped little,ragged wreaths of dirty foam around every obstruction,like the tawdry finery of the slums.

From the smoking-room where he had been for the past two hours with Art Osgood,Lite came unsteadily down the aisle,heralded as it were by the muffled scream of the whistle at a country crossing.Jean turned toward him a face as depressed as the desert out there under the rain.Lite,looking at her keenly,saw on her cheeks the traces of tears.He let himself down wearily into the seat beside her,reached over calmly,and took her hand from off her lap and held it snugly in his own.

"This is likely a snowstorm,up home,"he said in his quiet,matter-of-fact way."I guess we'll have to make our headquarters in town till I get things hauled out to the ranch.That's it,when you can't look ahead and see what's coming.I could have had everything ready to go right on out,only I thought there wouldn't be any use,before spring,anyway.But if this storm ain't a blizzard up there,a couple of days will straighten things out."Jean turned her head and regarded him attentively.

"Out where?"she asked him bluntly."What are you talking about?Have you and Art been celebrating?"She knew better than that.Lite never indulged in liquid celebrations,and Jean knew it.

Lite reached into his pocket with the hand that was free,and drew forth a telegram envelope.He released her hand while he drew out the message,but he did not hand it to her immediately."I wired Rossman from Los Angeles,"he informed her,"and told him what was up,and asked him to put me up to date on that end of the line.So he did.I got this back there at that last town."He laid his hand over hers again,and looked down at her sidelong.

"Ever since the trouble,"he began abruptly,but still in that quiet,matter-of-fact way,"I've been playing a lone hand and kinda holding back and waiting for something to drop.I had that idea all along that you've had this summer:getting hold of the Lazy A and fixing it up so your dad would have a place to come back to.I never said anything,because talking don't come natural to me like it does to some,and I'd rather do a thing first and then talk about it afterwards if I have to.

"So I hung on to what money I had saved up along;I was going to get me a bunch of cattle and fix up that homestead of mine some day,and maybe have a little home."His eyes went surreptitiously to her face,and lingered there wistfully."So after the trouble Ibuckled down to work and saved a little faster,if anything.It looked to me like there wasn't much hope of doing anything for your dad till his sentence ran out,so I never said anything about it.Long as Carl didn't try to sell it to anybody else,I just waited and got together all the money I could.I didn't see as there was anything else to do."Jean was chewing a corner of her lip,and was staring out of the window."I didn't know I was stealing your thunder,Lite,"she said dispiritedly."Why didn't you tell me?"`Wasn't anything to tell--till there was something to tell.Now,this telegram here,--this is what I started out to talk about.It'll be just as well if you know it before we get to Helena.I showed it to Art,and he thought the same as I did.You know,--or I reckon you don't,because I never said anything,--away last summer,along about the time you went to work for Burns,I got to thinking things over,and Iwondered if Carl didn't have something on his mind about that killing.So I wrote to Rossman.I didn't much like the way he handled your dad's case,but he knew all the ins and outs,so I could talk to him without going away back at the beginning.He knew Carl,too,so that made it easier.