"Gentlemen," Dan Anderson suggested, "let us go in and watch Tom Osby gettin" his savage breast soothed."
Tom Osby started as he saw shadows on the floor; but it was too late.
He was discovered sitting on the bed, in rapt attention to the machine industriously grinding away upon the table. Dan Anderson, with great gravity, took up a collection of four pins from each of the newcomers and handed them to Tom. "No bent ones," said he. "It"s a good show; but, tell us, what are you doin"? This is worse than croquet. And we asked you in on our game, too. Ain"t you playin" it just a little bit lonesome this way?"
Tom frowned in perturbation. "Well, I was goin" to spring her on you about to-night, up at the Lone Star," said he; "but I couldn"t wait.
Ain"t she a yaller flower? Say, I played her every night from Vegas down for five nights--Pecos Crossin", Salt Wells, Maxwell"s, Hocradle Canon, Jack"s Peak--all the way. After I"d get my horses hobbled out and get my bed made down, I"d set her up on the front seat and turn her loose. Coyotes--you"d ought to heard "em! When you wind her up plumb tight and turn the horn the right direction, you can hear her about a mile."
"That," said Dan Anderson, "must have been a gladsome journey."
"For sure," said Tom Osby. "Look at the reecords--whole box of "em.
Some of the stylishest singers in the business are in here. Some of "em"s Dago, I reckon. Here"s one, "Ah, no Ginger.""
"That, probably," said Dan Anderson, "is "Ah, non Giunge." Yes, it"s Dago, but not bad for a lady with a four-story voice."
"Here"s another," said Tom; ""Down Mobile.""
"I know that one," said Curly.
"Let me see it," said the impresario in charge. "Ah, as I thought; it"s "La Donna e Mobile." This, bein" translated, means that any lady can change her mind occasionally, whether she comes from Mobile or not."
"That"s no dream," said Curly. "Onct on the Brazos--"
"Never mind, Curly. Just feed that "Donna" into the machine, Tom, and let"s hear how it sounds once more."
And so Tom Osby, proud in his new possession, played for his audience, there in the adobe by the _arroyo_; played all his records, or nearly all; played them over and over again. It was nearly night when we left the place.
"Excuse me," said Dan Anderson to me, with a motion as though adjusting a cravat upon my neck, "but your white tie is slipping around under your ear again." And as we walked, I was sure that I saw an opera hat under his arm, though sober reason convinced me that we both were wearing overalls, and not evening clothes.
"But did you notice," said Curly, after a while, "Tom, he"s holdin" out on us. That there music, it"s all tangled up in my hair." He removed his hat and ran a questioning hand through the matted tangle on his curly front. "But," he resumed, "there was one piece he didn"t play.
I seen him slip it under the blankets on the bed."
"How could he!" said Dan Anderson. But memories sufficient came trooping upon him to cause him to forget. He fell to whistling "La Donna e Mobile" dreamily.
CHAPTER X
ART AT HEART"S DESIRE
_How Tom Osby, Common Carrier, caused Trouble with a Portable Annie Laurie_
The shadows of night had fallen when at length Tom Osby crept stealthily to his door and looked around. The street seemed deserted and silent, as usual. Tom Osby stepped to the side of the bed and withdrew from under the blankets the bit of gutta-percha which Curly had noticed him conceal. He adjusted the record in the machine and sprung the catch. Then he sat and listened, intent, absorbed, hearkening to the wonderful voice of one of the world"s great contraltos. It was an old, old melody she sang,--the song of "Annie Laurie."
Tom Osby played it over again. He sat and listened, as he had, night after night, in the moonlight on the long trail from Las Vegas down.
The face of a strong and self-repressed man is difficult to read. It does not change lightly under any pa.s.sing emotion. Tom Osby"s face perhaps looked even harder than usual, as he sat there listening, his unlit pipe clenched hard between his hands. Truant to his trusts, forgetful of the box of candy which regularly he brought down from Vegas to the Littlest Girl, Curly"s wife; forgetful of many messages, commercial and social,--forgetful even of us, his sworn cronies,--Tom Osby sat and listened to a voice which sang of a Face that was the Fairest, and of a Dark blue Eye.
[Ill.u.s.tration: "A voice which sang of a Face that was the Fairest, and of a Dark blue Eye."]
The voice sang and sang again, until finally four conspirators once more approached Tom Osby"s cabin. He had forgotten his supper. Dinner was done, in Heart"s Desire, soon after noon. Dan Anderson stood thoughtful for a time.
"Let him alone, fellows," said he. "I savvy. That fellow"s in love!
He"s in love with a Voice! Ain"t it awful?"
Silence met this remark. Dan Anderson seated himself on a stone, and we others followed his example, going into a committee of the whole, there in the night-time, on the bank of the _arroyo_.
"Did you notice, Curly," asked Dan Anderson--"did you get a chance to see the name on the record of the singer who--who perpetrated this?"
"No," said Curly. "I couldn"t get a clean look at the brand, owin" to Tom"s cuttin" out the thing so sudden from the bunch. It was somethin"
like Doughnuts--"
"Exactly--Madame Donatelli! I thought I rather recognized that voice my own self."
"Dago!" said McKinney with scorn.
"By trainin", though not by birth," admitted Dan Anderson. "Georgia girl originally, they tell me, and Dagoized proper, subsequent. All Yankee girls have to be Dagoized before they can learn to sing right good and strong, you know. They frequent learn a heap of things besides "Annie Laurie"--and besides singin". Oh, I can see the Yankee Dago lady right now. Fancy works installed in the roof of her mouth, adjacent and adjoinin" to her tongue, teeth, and other vocal outfit.
"Now, this here Georgia girl, accordin" to all stories, has sung herself into about a quarter of a million dollars and four or five different husbands with that voice of hers; and that same "Annie Laurie" song was largely responsible. Now, why, _why_, couldn"t she have taken a fellow of her size, and not gone and made trouble for Tom Osby? It wasn"t fair play.
"Now, Tom, he sits humped over in there, a-lookin" in that horn. What does he see? Madame Donatelli? Does he see her show her teeth and bat her eyes when she"s fetchin" one of them hand-curled trills of hers?
Nay, nay. What he sees is a girl just like the one he used to know--"
"Whoa! Hold on there; that"ll about do," said McKinney. "This country"s just as good as--"
"No, let him go on," said Curly to McKinney. "Onct over on the Brazos--"
"Sometimes I think you fellows are inclined to be provincial," said Dan Anderson, calmly. "Now, I"m not goin" to talk if you don"t leave me alone. Listen. What does Tom Osby see in that horn that he"s lookin"
into? I"ll tell you. He sees a plumb angel in white clothes and a blue sash. She"s got gray eyes and brown hair, and she"s just a little bit shorter than will go right under my arm here when I stretch it out level."
"That"s about right!" said McKinney.
"She"s got on white," resumed Dan Anderson, casting a glance about him in the dusk of the evening. "The girl"s got to have on white. There ain"t no man can hold out when they come in white and have on a blue sash--it"s no use tryin" then.
"Now, there she is, a-settin" at the piano in there in the front parlor; daddy"s gone out into the country after a load of wood, like enough; old lady"s gone to bed, after a hard day"s labor. Honeysuckles bloomin" all around, because in New Jersey--"
"It wasn"t in New Jersey," said Learned Counsel, hastily, before he thought.
"No, it was in New York," said McKinney, boldly.
"You"re all liars," said Curly, calmly; "it was onct on the Brazos."
"Gentlemen," said Dan Anderson, "you are right. It was once on the Brazos, and in Iowa, and in New York, and in New Jersey, and in Georgia. Thank G.o.d, it was there, once upon a time, in all those places. . . . And, as I was sayin", the birds was just twitterin" in the evergreen trees along the front walk, some sleepy, because it was just gettin" right dark. Vines, you know, hangin" over the edge of the front porch, like. Few chairs settin" around on the porch. Just a little band of moonlight layin" there on the front steps, leadin" up like a heavenly walk, like a white path to Paradise--which was there in the front parlor, with the best angel there at home.
"The high angel of this here Heaven, like I told you, she"s a settin"
there in white," he went on; "and with a blue sash--it was blue, now, wasn"t it, fellows? And she"s lettin" her fingers, G.o.d bless "em, just tra-la-loo-loo, loo-loo-la-la, up and down the keys of the piano her dad gave her when she graduated. And now she"s sort of singin" to herself--half whisperin", soft and deep--I hate a thin-voiced woman, or a bad-tempered one, same as you do--she"s just singin" about as loud as you can hear easy down as far as the front gate. And--why, she"s a singin" that same tune there, of "Annie Laurie"! . . . And in your heart you know it"s true, every word of it, all the time, and at any station!" said Dan Anderson.
"At any station!" said Curly.
"At any station!" said McKinney,