"But you did know Io?" she persisted, feeling, as she afterward
confessed, that she was putting her head into the mouth of a lion
concerning whose habits her knowledge was regrettably insufficient.
The lion did not bite her head off. He did not even roar. He merely
said, "Yes."
"In a railroad wreck or something of that sort?"
"Something of that sort."
"Are you awfully bored and wishing I'd go away and let you alone?" she
said, on a note that pleaded for forbearance. "Because if you are, don't
make such heroic efforts to conceal it."
At this an almost imperceptible twist at the corners of his lips
manifested itself to the watchful eye and cheered the enterprising soul
of Miss Forbes. "No," he said equably, "I'm interested to discover how
far you'll go."
The snub left Miss Forbes unembarrassed.
"Oh, as far as you'll let me," she answered. "Did you ride in from your
ranch and drag Io out of the tangled wreckage at the end of your lasso?"
"My ranch? I wasn't on a ranch."
"Please, sir," she smiled up at him like a beseeching angel, "what did
you do that kept us all talking and speculating about you for a whole
week, though we didn't know your name?"
"I sat right on my job as station-agent at Manzanita and made up lists
of the killed and injured," answered Banneker dryly.
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