He had
evidently been afraid to tell and invented the explanation of dragged
picket pins. She did not know whether the men believed it, but she saw
by their faces they were in no mood to admit extenuating circumstances.
The oath had been Courant's. When he heard her voice he shut his lips
on others, but they welled up in his eyes, glowering furiously on the
culprit from the jut of drawn brows.
"What am I to do?" said the unfortunate young man, sending a despairing
glance over the prospect. Under his weak misery, rebellious ill humor
was visible.
"Go after them and bring them back."
Susan saw the leader had difficulty in confining himself to such brief
phrases. Dragging a blanket round her shoulders she leaned over the
seat. She felt like a woman who enters a quarrel to protect a child.
"Couldn't we let them go?" she cried. "We've still my father's horse.
David can ride it and we can put his things in the wagon."
"Not another ounce in the wagon," said Daddy John. "The mules are
doing their limit now." The wagon was his kingdom over which he ruled
an absolute monarch.
Courant looked at her and spoke curtly, ignoring David.
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