Furthermore, those old
worn shirts hanging on the wall were much too large for the throat and
shoulders of Jack.
Apparently, he lived there with some companion, and a companion of
such a nature that he did not wish him to be seen by visitors. This
explained the lad's coldness in receiving a guest; it also stimulated
Mary to linger about a few more minutes.
CHAPTER 29
Not that she stayed there without a growing fear, but she still felt
about her, like the protection of some invisible cloak, the presence
of the strange guide who had followed her up the valley of the
Old Crow.
It seemed as if the boy were reading her mind.
"See you got two horses. Come up alone?"
"Most of the way," said Mary, and tingled with a rather feline
pleasure to see that her curtness merely sharpened the interest
of Jack.
The boy puffed on his cigarette, not with long, slow breaths of
inhalation like a practiced smoker, but with a puckered face as though
he feared that the fumes might drift into his eyes.
"Why," thought Mary, "he's only a child!"
Her heart warmed a little as she adopted this view of her surly host.
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