You left early, you know. Anyway,
Warden, if she's in town she'll stay there till the storm is over--snug
an' warm. And if she didn't go to town there wouldn't be no use lookin'
for her. Why, man, look out there! you can't see your hand before you!"
Warden raged insanely, stalking back and forth through the stable; and
finally to the ranchhouse again, where he bitterly arraigned Aunt
Hannah. But in the end he stayed in the ranchhouse, close beside a
window, out of which he watched until the night came to shut off his
view of the great, white world.
Over at the Circle L ranchhouse were other anxious watchers--men whose
steady eyes held a haunting gleam of worry, and whose rugged faces grew
grim and long as the days passed and the storm did not abate. From their
bunkhouse they watched, day and night, for the end; their horses ready,
heavy clothing at hand for a plunge into the white waste that stretched
on all sides of them. Had they known which way Lawler had gone when he
left the Circle L they would have searched for him despite the frigid
danger that gripped the world. But Lawler had gone, leaving no word;
and there was nothing the men could do.
Through a window in the Circle L ranchhouse anxious eyes peered
also--those of a gray-haired woman with a kindly, gentle face into
which, as the long days passed, came lines that had not been there
before.
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