Even to his somewhat prejudiced eyes she was not an attractive
creature, for she possessed no clear conception of how to render
apparent those few feminine charms she possessed. Negligence and total
unconsciousness of self, coupled with lack of womanly companionship and
guidance, had left her altogether in the rough. He marked now the
coarse ragged shoes, the cheap patched skirt, the tousled auburn hair,
the sunburnt cheeks with a suggestion of freckles plainly visible
beneath the eyes, and some of the fastidiousness of earlier days caused
him to shrug his shoulders. Yet underneath the tan there was the glow
of perfect young health; the eyes were frank, brave, unflinching; while
the rounded chin held a world of character in its firm contour.
Somehow the sight of this brought back to him that abiding faith in her
"dead gameness" which had first awakened his admiration. "She's got it
in her," he thought, silently, "and, by thunder! I 'm here to help her
get it out."
"Kid," he ventured at last, turning over a broken fragment of rock
between his restless fingers, but without lifting his eyes, "you were
talking while we came up the trail about how we 'd do this and that
after a while.
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