"I"ve been blind all these years, Lee," he told her. "It"s you I love."
She stole a little look at him with shy, incredulous eyes. "Have you forgotten--Polly?"
"I haven"t been in love with her for years, but I didn"t know it till about the Christmas holidays. She was a habit with me. There never was a sweeter girl than Polly Roubideau. I"ll always think a heap of her.
But--well, she had more sense than I had--knew all the time we weren"t cut out for each other." He laughed a little, flushing with embarra.s.sment. It is not the easiest thing in the world to explain to a girl why you have neglected her in favor of another.
Lee trembled. The desire was strong in her to seize her happiness while she could. Surely she had waited long enough for it. But some impulse of fair play to him or of justice to herself held back the tide of love she longed to release.
"I think ... you are impulsive," she said at last. "If you have anything you want to tell me, better wait until ..."
"Not another moment!" he cried. "I"ve been in torment all night. I ... I thought I"d lost you forever. You don"t care for me, of course. You never have liked me very well, but--"
"Haven"t I?" she breathed softly, not looking at him.
Love irradiated and warmed her. She forgot all she had suffered during the years she had waited for him to know his mind. She forgot the privations of the past two days. Her eyes were tender with the mist of unshed tears.
"It"s going to be the biggest thing in my life. If there"s any chance at all I"ll wait as long as you like. Of course, the idea"s new to you because you haven"t ever thought of me that way--"
"You know so much about it," she replied, a faint smile in her dark eyes that had in it something of wistfulness, something of self-mockery.
She looked directly at him and let him have it full in the face. "I ought to be ashamed of it, I suppose, but I"m not. I"ve thought of you--that way--lots of times. All girls do, when they meet a man they like."
"You like me?"
She might have told him that her heart had been his ever since that first week when she had met him and Clanton on the river. She might have added that all he had needed to do was to whisper "Come" and she would have galloped across New Mexico to meet him. But she made no such confession.
"Yes, I ... like you," she said, a little tremor in her voice.
He noticed that she did not look at him. Her eyes had fallen to the fingers laced together on her lap. Under compulsion of his steady gaze she lifted her lashes at last. What he read there was beyond belief.
The wonder of it lifted his feet from the earth.
"Lee!" he cried, joy and fear in the balance.
She answered his unspoken question with a little nod.
His hand shook. "I"ve been a blind idiot, dear. I never guessed such a thing."
"You were thinking about Polly all the time. I don"t blame you. She"s the sweetest thing I ever knew."
Billie sat down on the spar of rock beside her. His hand slipped down her arm till it covered hers. With the contact there came to him a flood of courage. He took her in his arms and kissed her with infinite tenderness.
Still unstrung from her adventures, she wept a little into his shoulder out of a full heart.
"D--don"t mind me," she urged. "It"s just because I"m so happy."
If Clanton, when he found them together a few minutes afterward, guessed what had happened, he gave no evidence of it but a grin, unless his later comment had a cryptic meaning. "I"ll bet Billie is the glad lad at findin" you. He always was a lucky guy."
"I think I"m a little lucky too," Lee said with a grave smile.
Before starting, Prince examined the soles of the girl"s boots. Out of his hat he fashioned a pair of overshoes and fastened them with strings to her feet.
"They"ll help some," he promised. "I reckon you"re not goin" to do much walkin" anyhow with three husky men along."
By this time the searcher on the other flank had joined them. The return trip was a long, hard one, but with Billie on one side of her, and Jim on the other, Lee found it easy travelling. They aided her over the sharp rocks and lifted her across the rougher stretches of lava.
At the edge of the lava bed a buggy was waiting to take Lee to Live-Oaks in case she should be found. Prince helped Lee in and took the place of the boy who had driven it out.
Clanton put his foot on the hub of the wheel. "Just a minute, Billie. I"m wanted for the killin" of Homer Webb. I didn"t shoot him an" I don"t know who did. Somebody must have been lyin" there in the chaparral waitin" for him. I"ll give myself up an" stand trial if you"ll guarantee me fair play. No lynchin" bee. No packed jury. All the cards dealt fair an" honest above the table."
The sheriff had smiled at Pauline Roubideau"s implicit faith in Jim Clanton"s word. But now, face to face with his friend, he too believed and felt a load lift from his heart.
"That"s a deal, Jim. You won"t have to reckon with any mob or any hand-picked jury, I"ll tell you the truth. I thought you did it. But if you say you didn"t, that goes with me. I"ll see you through."
"Good enough. I"ll drop in to-morrow an" we can fix things up. I"d like to be tried outside of Washington County. There"s too much prejudice here one way an" another. Well, take this little lady home an" scold her good for the way she"s been actin". She"d ought to get married to a man that will look after her an" not let her go buckin" into cyclones."
Billie smiled. "I"ll talk to her about that, old scout."
Miss Snaith blushed furiously, but the best she could do was a bit of weak repartee. "I used to have hopes that you would ask me, Jim."
Jimmie-Go-Get-"Em laughed with friendly malice. "I used to have hopes, too, in that direction, Lee, but I haven"t any more. You be good to her or we also-rans will boil you in oil, Billie."
Chapter XXVIII
Sheriff Prince Functions
"Yippy yip yip yip!"
Old Reb, Quantrell"s ex-guerrilla, now boss of mule-skinners for Prince, galloped down the street waving an old dusty white hat. Women and children and old men dribbled out from the houses, all eager for the news.
"Billie he found Miss Lee in the Mal-Pais. That boy sure had his lucky pants on to-day. She"s all right too. I done seen her myself--just a mite tuckered out, as you might say," explained the former cowpuncher.
Live-Oaks shook hands with itself in exuberant joy. For an hour the school bell pealed out the good news. A big bonfire blazed in the court-house square. Wise dames busied themselves baking bread and frying doughnuts and roasting beef for the rescue party now homeward bound. It was a certainty that their men-folks would all be hungry and ready for a big feed.
By noon most of the searchers were back in town and the saloons were doing big business. When Prince drove down the main street of Live-Oaks an hour later, the road was jammed as for a Fourth-of-July celebration.
Tired though she was, Lee had not the heart to disappoint these good friends. She went to the picnic ground at Fremont"s Grove and was hugged and kissed by all the woman at the dinner. She wept and was wept over till her lover decided she had had all the emotion that was good for her, whereupon he took her back to the home of her aunt and with all the newborn authority of his position ordered her to bed.
"But it"s only three o"clock in the afternoon," Lee protested.
"Good-night," answered Billie inexorably.
She surrendered meekly. "If you say I must, my lord. I _am_ awf"lly tired." Little globes of gladness welled up in her eyes. "Everybody"s so good to me, Billie. I didn"t know folks were so kind. I can"t think what I can ever do to pay them back."
"I"ll tell you how. You be good to yourself, honey," he told her with a sudden wave of emotion as he caught and held her tight in his arms. "You quit takin" chances with blizzards an" crazy gunmen an"--"
"--And horsethieves hidden in the chaparral?" she asked with a flash of demure eyes.