She shuddered, turned away from the ruins, and set off at a
gallop till she came upon brick pavement. She rarely trotted upon
pavement, but this morning she had no thought for the horse; she
burned to be at work. She trotted rapidly into town, across the
principal thoroughfares, this way being the short cut. By this time
men were on the way to work. Many of them turned their heads to stare
at her. There was only one woman in town who sat a horse like this
one, and it could be no less a person than Patty Bennington. All the
men recognized her instantly. She had their good wishes, for all that
her brother had taken away the bread and butter of some of them. Many
touched their hats from mere force of habit.
There was one man, however, who glared evilly at her from the curb.
She recognized him in spite of his discolored face, the result of a
long, uninterrupted debauch. It was Bolles. As he caught her eye he
smiled evilly and leered at her.
"Wait, my beauty; wait. I'll kill that brother of yours one of these
fine days, damn him!" Bolles gave one more look at the swiftly-moving
figure on the horse, and shuffled away toward McQuade's office, to
await the arrival of that gentleman.
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