Gunman's Reckoning, page 99 by Max Brand
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and the red-headed chap were interested in each other.
As a matter of fact they did not speak a single syllable until they had gone around the floor one complete turn and the dance was coming toward an end.
It was he who spoke first, gloomily: "I shouldn't have done it; I shouldn't have tagged him!"
At this she drew back a little so that she could meet his eyes.
"Why not?"
"The whole crew will be on my trail."
"What crew?"
"Beginning with Lord Nick!"
This shook her completely out of the thrall of the dance.
"Lord Nick? What makes you think that?"
"I know he's thick with Landis. It'll mean trouble."
He was so simple about it that she began to laugh. It was not such a voice as Lou Macon's. It was high and light, and one could suspect that it might become shrill under a stress.
"And yet it looks as though you've been hunting trouble," she said.
"I couldn't help it," said Donnegan na•vely.
It was a very subtle flattery, this frankness from a man who had puzzled all The Corner. Nelly Lebrun felt that she was about to look behind the scenes and she tingled with delight.
"Tell me," she said. "Why not?"
"Well," said Donnegan. "I had to make a noise because I wanted to be noticed."
She glanced about her; every eye was upon them.
"You've made your point," she murmured. "The whole town is talking of nothing else."
"I don't care an ounce of lead about the rest of the town."
"Then--"
She stopped abruptly, seeing toward what he was tending. And the heart of Nelly Lebrun fluttered for the first time in many a month. She believed him implicitly. It was for her sake that he had made all this commotion; to draw her attention. For every lovely girl, no matter how cool-headed, has a foolish belief in the power of her beauty. As a matter of fact Donnegan had told her the truth. It had all been to win her attention, from the fight for the mint to the tagging for the dance. How could s