Bucky smiled at Frances as he answered his enthusiastic friend:
"That"s right. Not a hitch anywhere."
"And say, Bucky, who do you think is in the other coach dressed as one of the guards?"
"Colonel Roosevelt," the ranger guessed promptly.
"Our friend Chaves. He"s escaping because he thinks we"ll have him a.s.sa.s.sinated in revenge," the big Irishman returned gleefully. "You should have seen his color, me bye, when he caught sight of me. I asked him if he"d been reduced to the ranks, and he begged me not to tell you he was here. Go in and devil him."
Bucky glanced at his lover. "No, I"m so plumb contented I haven"t the heart."
At the Rocking Chair Ranch there was bustle and excitement. Mexicans scrubbed and scoured under the direction of Alice and Mrs. Mackenzie, and vaqueros rode hither and thither on bootless errands devised by their nervous master. For late that morning a telephone call from Aravaipa had brought Webb to the receiver to listen to a telegram. The message was from Bucky, then on the train on his way home.
"The best of news. Reach the Rocking Chair tonight."
That was the message which had disturbed the serenity of big Webb Mackenzie and had given to the motherly heart of his wife an unusual flutter. The best of news it could not be, for the ranger had already written them of the confession of Anderson, which included the statement of the death of their little daughter. But at least he might bring the next best news, information that David Henderson was free at last and his long martyrdom ended.
So all day hurried preparations were being made to receive the honored guests with a fitting welcome. The Rocking Chair was a big ranch, and its hospitality was famous all over the Southwest. It was quite unnecessary to make special efforts to entertain, but Webb and his wife took that means of relieving the strain on them till night.
Higher crept the hot sun of baked Arizona. It pa.s.sed the zenith and began to descend toward the purple hills in the west, went behind them with a great rainbow splash of brilliancy peculiar to that country Dusk came, and died away in the midst of a love-concert of quails. Velvet night, with its myriad stars, entranced the land and made magic of its hills and valleys.
For the fiftieth time Webb dragged out his watch and consulted it.
"I wish that young man had let us know which way he was coming, so I could go and meet them. If they come by the river they should be in the Box canyon by this time. But if I was to ride out, like as not they would come by the mesa," he sputtered.
"What time is it, Webb?" asked his wife, scarcely less excited.
He had to look again, so absent-minded had been his last glance at the watch. "Nine-fifteen. Why didn"t I telephone to Rogers and ask him to find out which way they were coming? Sometimes I"m mighty thick-headed."
As Mackenzie had guessed, the party was winding its way through the Box Canyon at that time of speaking. Bucky and Frances led the way, followed by Henderson and the vaquero whom Mackenzie had telephoned to guide them from Aravaipa.
"I reckon this night was made for us, Curly Haid. Even good old Arizona never turned out such a one before. I expect it was ordered for us ever since it was decided we belonged to each other. That may have been thousands of years ago." Bucky laughed, to relieve the tension, and looked up at the milky way above. "We"re like those stars, honey. All our lives we have been drifting around, but all the time it had been decided by the G.o.d-of-things-as-they-are that our orbits were going to run together and gravitate into the same one when the right time came.
It has come now."
"Yes, Bucky," she answered softly. "We belong, dear."
"h.e.l.lo, here"s the end of the canon. The ranch lies right behind that spur."
"Does it?" Presently she added: "I"m all a-tremble, Bucky. To think I"m going to meet my father and my mother for the first time really, for I don"t count that other time when we didn"t know. Suppose they shouldn"t like me."
"Impossible. Suppose something reasonable," her lover replied.
"But they might not. You think, you silly boy, that because you do everybody must. But I"m so glad I"m clothed and in my right mind again.
I couldn"t have borne to meet my mother with that boys suit on. Do you think I look nice in this? I had to take what I could find ready-made, you know."
Unless his eyes were blinded by the glamour of love, he saw the sweetest vision of loveliness he had known. Such a surpa.s.sing miracle of soft, dainty curves, such surplusage of beauty in bare throat, speaking eye, sweet mouth, and dimpled cheeks! But Bucky was a lover, and perhaps no fair judge, for in that touch of vagueness, of fairy-land, lent by the moonlight, he found the world almost too beautiful to believe. Did she look NICE? How beggarly words were to express feelings, after all.
The vaquero with them rode forward and pointed to the valley below, where the ranch-house huddled in a pellucid sea of moonlight.
"That"s the Rocking Chair, sir."
Presently there came a shout from the ranch, and a man galloped toward them. He pa.s.sed Bucky with a wave of his hand and made directly for Henderson.
"Dave! Dave, old partner," he cried, leaping from his horse and catching the other"s hand. "After all these years you"ve risen from the dead and come back to me." His voice was broken with emotion.
"Come! Let"s canter forward to the ranch," said Bucky to Frances and the vaquero, thinking it best to leave the two old comrades together for a while.
Mrs. Mackenzie and Alice met them at the gate. "Did you bring him? Did you bring Dave?" the older lady asked eagerly.
"Yes, we brought him," answered Bucky, helping Frances to dismount.
He led the girl to her mother. "Mrs. Mackenzie, can you stand good news?"
She caught at the gate. "What news? Who is this lady?"
"Her name is Frances."
"Frances what?"
"Frances Mackenzie. She is your daughter, returned, after all these years, to love and be loved."
The mother gave a little throat cry, steadied herself, and fell into the arms of her daughter. "Oh, my baby! My baby! Found at last."
Quietly Bucky slipped away to the stables with the ponies. As quietly Alice disappeared into the house. This was sacred ground, and not even their feet should rest on it just now.
When Bucky returned to the house, he found his sweetheart sitting between her father and mother, each of whom was holding one of her hands. Henderson had retired to clean himself up. Happy tears were coursing down the cheeks of the mother, and Webb found it necessary to blow his nose frequently. He jumped up at sight of the ranger.
"Young man, you"re to blame for this. You"ve found my friend and you"ve found my daughter. Brought them both back to us on the same day. What do you want? Name it, and it"s yours, if I can give it."
Bucky looked at Frances with a smile in his eyes. He knew very well what he wanted, but he was under bonds not to name it yet.
"I"ll set you up in the cattle business, sir. I"ll buy you sheep, if you prefer. I"ll get you an interest in a mine. Put a name to what you want."
"I"m no robber. You paid the expenses of my trip. That"s all I want right now."
"It"s not all you"ll get. Do you think I"m a cheap piker? No, sir.
You"ve got to let me grub-stake you." Mackenzie thumped a clinched fist down on the table.
"All right, seh. You"re the doctor. Give me an interest in that map and I"ll prospect the mine this summer, if I can locate it."
"Good enough, and I"ll finance the proposition. You and Dave can take half-shares in the property. In the meantime, are you open to an engagement?"
"Depends what it is," replied Bucky cautiously.
"My foreman"s quit on me. Gone into business for himself. I"m looking for a good man. Will you be my major-domo?"
Bucky"s heart leaped. He had been thinking of how he must report almost immediately to HurryUp Millikan, of the rangers. Now, he could resign from that body and stay near his love. Certainly things were coming his way.