“Teddy!” she squealed joyfully, and jumped up. “I was just wondering
when you’d come back. Come in and tell me about it. Where did you go and
what happened? You’ve got a swell sunburn.”
He stepped inside and kissed her perfunctorily. “I want some lemonade,”
he said. “Have you got any? If you haven’t I’m going down to the plaza,
and I wish you’d tell Blake when he comes——”
“I can make some in a minute,” she said. “Sit down and cool off. How did
you know I wasn’t out of town?”
“Passed by La Fonda and Margaret told me. Where are the cigarettes?”
“On the mantel,” she called from the kitchen, and began to chop ice
vigorously. “Now tell me about the Navajo country. What happened?”
“Not much. Blake can tell you when he comes: I’m meeting him here. We
got home late last night—Mrs. Saville-Sanders wanted to stop overnight
in Albuquerque and they were having the Masonic Convention and all the
hotels were full. You should have seen her!” He giggled. “She stood up
and insisted on having rooms for all of us, and it didn’t do the
slightest bit of good, naturally. So then she was crushed and wouldn’t
speak for two hours on the way up, and we were all very tactful and
didn’t say anything.” She could hear him roaming about the room,
stopping here and there to pick things up and put them down again. When
she came back with a pitcher and glasses, he was staring disgustedly at
a small oil painting on the wall.
“Why do you keep that kind of stuff around?” he asked.
“It’s Flo, and she said it’s worth a lot of money. Here’s your
lemonade.”
“Well, here’s to luck.”
“Is there any left for me?” Blake came in and sat down, panting from the
heat. He held out his hand pleadingly for a glass.
“Did you like it?” Gin asked him. “The Reservation, I mean.”
“It was grand,” said Teddy. “We took a private jaunt into the country
and learned how to trade. We made plans to take out a license and start
a post of our own. Oh, but the really important plan....”
“Look here,” Blake interrupted, “you’re _not_ going around talking about
that, are you?”
“Gin’s safe,” Teddy argued.
“She’s not. Nobody’s safe. Are you trying to ruin it? We promised we
weren’t going to speak of it at all, to anyone. He’s been in town four
hours,” he added despairingly to Gin, “and everybody has heard all about
it!”
“No, they haven’t. I swear they haven’t, Blake,” Teddy said. “Don’t get
all worked up. I just thought she’d be interested: she’s perfectly safe,
honestly.”
“Go on, Blake,” said Gin. “I won’t tell. I never tell anything.”
Sulkily, he answered, “Well, it isn’t very much. We’re running away.”
She had a sudden pang of fear. “Running away? Where? When?”
“We’re not sure about anything: it’s all very nebulous,” Teddy
explained. “That’s why we’re not telling. It will probably be after
Fiesta, just before Blake has to go back to school. We’re aiming for
Mexico, and of course Mrs. Lennard mustn’t have any idea of it. You will
be careful, won’t you?”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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