He glanced around the room. "I haven't seen young Riley in town lately." "No." Just then Dan Shattuck opened the door for Marie and they entered the room, speaking to first one and then another. McCarty, who was at heart a romantic, noted the quick look around by Marie, and her evident disappointment. "Somebody else," he commented to Larsen, "misses our friend Riley." Larsen did not reply, and McCarty's eyes followed the sheriff's toward Spooner, who was staring at Marie. The expression in his eyes was both insolent and somehow possessive. Dan Shattuck looked up and Spooner's eyes swung away, but not so quickly that Shattuck did not notice. McCarty saw the rancher's face darken with anger, but at a whispered word from Marie he turned his attention to her. McCarty reviewed the situation in his mind and liked none of it. News there would be, and he was interested in news, but this situation looked like news . Of a kind he could do without. There were too many elements, too many threads .
