She simply couldn't stand it to go through such a horror again.
The plane was circling around once more and flew straight northeast.

They watched it until they could not hear the humming; until it looked like a bird against the glow of sunrise.
"Hm-mm, I wonder where--" Sudden began, but Mary V did not stay to hear the rest of the sentence.
She went back and crept into her bed, sick at heart with an unnamed fear and a hurt that went deep into her soul.

She gave a little, dry sob or two and lay very still, her face crushed into a pillow.
But Mary V was not born to take life's hurts passively.

Presently she dressed and went straight down to the bunk house, where she knew the boys would be at their breakfast--unless they had finished and gone to the corral.

She walked into the old-fashioned, low-ceiled living room where she had first learned to walk, and stood just inside the door, smiling a little.
Bud had just finished eating, and was rolling a cigarette before he got up from the long table.