When their train began to pull out of the depot at Chihuahua she drew a deep sigh of relief.
"It"s good to get away from here back to the States. I"m tired of plots and counterplots. For the rest of my life I want to be just a woman,"
she said to Bucky.
The young man smiled. "I reckon I must quit trying to make you a gentleman. Fact is, I don"t want you to be one any more."
She slanted a look at him to see what that might mean and another up the car to make sure that Henderson was out of hearing.
"It was rather hopeless, wasn"t it?" she smiled. "We"ll do pretty well if we succeed in making me a lady in course of time. I"ve a lot to learn, you know."
"Well, you got lots of time to learn it," he replied cheerfully. "And I"ve got a notion tucked away in the back of my haid that you haven"t got such a heap to study up. Mrs. Mackenzie will put you next to the etiquette wrinkles where you are shy."
A shadow fell on the piquant, eager face beside him. "Do you think she will love me?"
"I don"t think. I know. She can"t help it."
"Because she is my mother? Oh, I hope that is true."
"No, not only because she is your mother."
She decided to ask for no more reasons. Henderson, pleased at the wide stretch of plain as only one who had missed the open air for many years could be, was on the observation platform in the rear of the car, one glance at his empty seat showed her. There was no safety for her shyness in the presence of that proverbial three which makes a crowd, and she began to feel her heart again in panic as once before. She took at once the opening she had given.
"I do need a mother so much, after growing up like Topsy all these years. And mine is the dearest woman in the world. I fell in love with her before, and I did not know who she was when I was at he ranch."
"I"ll agree to the second dearest in the world, but I reckon you shoot too high when you say the plumb dearest."
"She is. We"ll quarrel if you don"t agree," trying desperately to divert him from the topic she knew he meant to pursue. For in the past two days he had been so busy helping O"Halloran that he had not even had a glimpse of her. As a consequence of which each felt half-dubious of the other"s love, and Frances felt wholly shy about expressing her own or even listening to his.
"Well, we"re due for a quarrel, I reckon. But we"ll postpone it till we got more time to give it." He drew a watch from his pocket and glanced at it "In less than fifteen minutes Mike and our two friends who are making their getaway will come in that door Henderson just went out of. That means we won"t get a chance to be alone together, for about two days.
I"ve got something to say to you, Curly Haid, that won"t keep that long with out running my temperature clear up. So I"m allowing to say it right now immediate. No, you don"t need to turn them brown appealers on me. It won"t do a mite of good. It"s Bucky to the bat and he"s bound to make a hit or strike out."
"I think I hear Mr. Henderson coming," murmured Frances, for lack of something more effective to say.
"Not him. He"s hogtied to the scenery long enough to do my business.
Now, it won"t take me long if I get off right foot first. You read my letter, you said?"
"Which letter?" She was examining attentively the fringe of the sash she wore.
"Why, honey, that love-letter I wrote you. If there was more than one it must have been wrote in my sleep, for I ce"tainly disremember it."
He could just hear her confused answer: "Oh, yes, I read that. I told you that before."
"What did you think? Tell me again."
"I thought you misspelled feelings."
"You don"t say. Now, ain"t that too bad? But, girl o" mine, I expect you were able to make it out, even if I did get the letters to milling around wrong. I meant them feelings all right. Outside of the spelling, did you have any objections to them,
"How can I remember what you wrote in that letter several days ago?"
"I"ll bet you know it by heart, honey, and, if you don"t, you"ll find it in your inside vest pocket, tucked away right close to your heart."
"It isn"t," she denied, with a blush.
"Sho! Pinned to your shirt then, little pardner. I ain"t particular which. Point is, if you need to refresh that ailin" memory of yours, the doc.u.ment is--right handy. But you don"t need to. It just says one little sentence over and over again. All you have got to do is to say one little word, and you don"t have to say it but once."
"I don"t understand you," her lips voiced.
"You understand me all right. What my letter said was "I love you," and what you have got to say is: "Yes"."
"But that doesn"t mean anything."
"I"ll make out the meaning when you say it."
"Do I have to say it?"
"You have to if you feel it."
Slowly the big brown eyes came up to meet his bravely. "Yes, Bucky."
He caught her hands and looked down into her pure, sweet soul.
"I"m in luck," he breathed deeply. "In golden luck to have you look at me twice. Are you sure?"
"Sure. I loved you that first day I met you. I"ve loved you every day since," she confessed simply.
Full on the lips he kissed her.
"Then we"ll be married as soon as we reach the Rocking Chair."
"But you once said you didn"t want to be my husband," she taunted sweetly. "Don"t you remember? In the days when we were gipsies."
"I"ve changed my mind. I want to, and I"m in a hurry."
She shook her head. "No, dear. We shall have to wait. It wouldn"t be fair to my mother to lose me just as soon as she finds me. It is her right to get acquainted with me just as if I belonged to her alone. You understand what I mean, Bucky. She must not feel as if she never had found me, as if she never had been first with me. We can love each other more simply if she doesn"t know about you. We"ll have it for a secret for a month or two."
She put her little hand on his arm appealingly to win his consent. His eyes rested on it curiously, Then he took it in his big brown one and turned it palm up. Its delicacy and perfect finish moved him, for it seemed to him that in the contrast between the two hands he saw in miniature the difference of s.e.x. His showed strength and competency and the roughness that comes of the struggle of life. But hers was strangely tender and confiding, compact of the qualities that go to make up the strength of the weak. Surely he deserved the worst if he was not good to her, a shield and buckler against the storms that must beat against them in the great adventure they were soon to begin together.
Reverently he raised the little hand and kissed its palm.
"Sure, sweetheart I had forgotten about your mother"s claim. We can wait, I reckon," he added with a smile. "You must always set me straight when I lose the trail of what"s right, Curly Haid. You are to be a guiding-star to me."
"And you to me. Oh, Bucky, isn"t it good?"
He kissed her again hurriedly, for the train was jarring to a halt.
Before he could answer in words, O"Halloran burst into the coach, at the head of his little company.
"All serene, Bucky. This is the last scene, and the show went without a hitch in the performance anywhere."