"Oh, dear!" exclaimed the girl. "That sounds fine, but the reality isn"t up to my antic.i.p.ation of it."
Wade laughed in his hearty way.
"That"s only because you haven"t been here long enough, Helen."
"There are things that are splendid about the West," she generously admitted. "Its vastness and wholesomeness, and especially its men. I"m sure that"s why I first liked you, Gordon, because you were _different_--not like the general run of young men in the East."
"Oh, there are lots of good men East, too."
"Not so very many. At least, I have seen very few who were at all worth while. There"s one, Maxwell Frayne, who has been plaguing me for months; but I don"t care for him--much." She was closely watching him as she spoke, and she smiled when he started.
"You"d better not."
"But if I really thought you meant to stay here all the time, I"m sure I"d love him devotedly. Now"--she eyed him mischievously--"I think this would be a nice place to call home, don"t you know, just for fun, and then spend most of the time in New York and London. See that man staring at me!"
"How, staring at you?"
Wade turned and looked in the direction she indicated, surprised at the suggestion that she was being annoyed in Crawling Water, where chivalry to women ran high.
"Oh, he didn"t mean anything, I daresay."
"They"re friends of mine, and curious, perhaps." He referred to a group of cattlemen across the street, who did seem to be staring and talking, with some indecision in their att.i.tude. "I wonder if anything can have happened? Oh, I guess not. Well, what would I do in London?"
"I didn"t say anything about _you_ being in London, did I?"
"Well, it"s safe to say that where you were, I"d want to be, at any rate. Haven"t I made two trips to Chicago for no real reason except to see you?" he demanded, fast slipping into the thralldom of her fascination.
She viewed him through half-closed eyes, knowing that the pose has always allured him.
"Don"t you think you"d be kept busy looking after me?" she playfully asked. "Seriously, I hate an idle man, but I don"t know what you"d find to do there. What a question. You"d have to have investments that would take you over every year or two."
"Now you"re trying to make a city man of me," he said, half in jest.
"Besides,"--a dogged note crept into his voice--"I"d have the right to expect something of you, wouldn"t I?"
"Not the right, but the privilege," she answered softly.
"This is where the Purnells live." He turned her into the pathway to the door. "This is what I"d like, a neat little home like this, with a couple of kiddies and some dogs. Then I could spend my out-door time at the ranch."
Before Helen could reply to this, Mrs. Purnell appeared on the threshold to welcome them, but to Wade"s surprise, she told them that Dorothy was not there.
"Oh, I"m so sorry," said Helen, with intense relief.
"I don"t know where she went either," the mother went on. "She was out for a few minutes soon after you left, Gordon. Then she came back and called out something to me, but I didn"t catch what she said. Before I knew what she was doing she had saddled her pony and ridden off. But come right in. I don"t think she"ll be gone long."
They entered and Helen, graciously choosing to overlook the fact that this was evidently Wade"s second visit there within a very short time, sought to impress him with her tactfulness to Mrs. Purnell. She would have been amazed could she have guessed that she was actually arousing him to resentment. He felt, somehow, that she was patronizing their hostess, who was a woman of refinement, even if she lacked the artificiality of manner that Helen affected. He was sincerely glad when the visit came to an end.
"You must come again," said Mrs. Purnell, in a spirit of friendliness.
"So glad to have met you," Helen replied. "I hope to have the pleasure of meeting your daughter, too, before we leave Crawling Water."
"They"re splendid women, both of them," Wade remarked, as they walked back toward the center of the town.
"Oh, yes," Helen agreed, without much spirit. "Nice, comfortable home people, I suppose."
"Best kind in the world."
"Gordon!" Helen laughed good-naturedly, facing him as she walked. "What in the world has been the matter with you to-day? We usually get on so well together, and to-day, if I do say it, only my unwillingness to quarrel has kept us from it."
"Oh, no!" He smiled, too. "Maybe that New York and London business rubbed me the wrong way; that"s all. I have plenty of faults, but I"m loyal to my friends. I don"t like even hints that they aren"t the best friends a man could have."
"Surely, I haven"t...."
"Maybe not. Maybe I imagined it. But Crawling Water is a lot more real than London, to my way of thinking."
"You haven"t been to London."
"I"m not likely to go, either," he retorted.
Her red lips curled in a way that seemed to indicate that she thought he would go. Already, she was planning to get him out of Crawling Water and beyond the influence of Dorothy Purnell.
As they turned into the main street again, a man leaving a group near the livery stable, and mounting a horse, rode toward them.
"I wonder what"s up now?" Wade muttered, recognizing the horseman as one of the Trowbridge outfit.
"Mr. Wade. Just a minute." With the grace of a Centaur, the rider swung his mount in beside them and doffed his hat. "Two of Jensen"s herders have been shot. I thought you ought to know about it."
"What?" The ranch owner"s jaw dropped at the news.
"It"s true, sir. Word just came in."
"Thanks, Barker." Wade pulled himself together, as the restless pony raced back to the barn. "I must go, Helen," he went on, turning to the girl at his side. "There"s been fighting--murder, perhaps--out near the ranch. Santry will need me." He was uneasy lest the old plainsman should have been concerned in the shooting.
"You"ll take me to the hotel?"
"Of course, yes! Would you mind walking a little faster?" They quickened their pace. "I"m sorry, Helen; but I must hurry to the ranch." Even at that moment he could not but reflect that there would have been no need to take Dorothy home. Somehow, the ways of the East seemed to fit less and less aptly into the life of Crawling Water.
On his way to the livery stable after his horse, Wade did some rapid thinking. Santry might have been concerned in the shooting, but his employer thought not. The old fellow had promised to stay at home, and his word was as good as another man"s bond. It was too bad, certainly, that the thing should have happened just when Senator Rexhill"s promised aid had seemed in a fair way to settle the controversy. Now, the whole thing was more upset than ever, for Moran and Rexhill could hardly be blamed if they backed up their own men, especially if the herders had been blameless, as was probably the case. Yet if the Senator did this, Wade knew that a b.l.o.o.d.y little war would be the outcome.
"Where"s Trowbridge, Barker?" he asked of the cowpuncher, whom he found waiting at the stable.
"At the ranch, I think."
Wade nodded. Ten minutes later he was in the saddle and headed for the mountains, just as dusk began to fall. The cool night air, blowing against his face as he reached the higher levels, was delightfully refreshing after the heat of the day. He took off his hat and opened the neck of his shirt to the breeze, which revived his energies like wine.
He knew that as he felt, so his horse felt, and he was glad, for the animal would have to make a fast, hard trip. At the crest of the first hills, before dipping into the valley, he turned for an instant in his saddle to look backward over his trail toward the twinkling lights of Crawling Water in the distance below.
He had covered some five miles of his journey, to no other sound than the occasional note of some bird, when his quick ears caught the thud of a horse"s feet on the trail ahead, with now and then a sharp clatter as the animal slipped on the stones. Wade slowed his own horse down to a walk, and eased his Colt in its holster. He expected to meet some harmless wayfarer, but, under the circ.u.mstances, it was just as well to be prepared for trouble. Soon, however, he smiled to himself, for whoever rode toward him made too much noise for any but a peaceful mission. The other horse, too, had been slowed down and the two riders approached each other with such caution that the rancher finally became impatient and pressed forward recklessly.
Out of the night the stranger came on, still slowly, until a turn in the trail brought them face to face.