"But the black dress?"
"I"m only a novice. I"ve sworn no vows."
"And you don"t hate me--you hold no grudge against me for the sake of your mother?"
Pierre took the heavy hand.
"Are you not my father? And my mother was happy with you. For her sake I love you."
"The good Father Victor. He sent you to me."
"I came of my own will. He would not have let me go."
"He--he would have kept my flesh and blood away from me?"
"Do not reproach him. He would have kept me from a sin."
"Sin? By G.o.d, boy, no matter what I"ve done, is it sin for my son to come to me? What sin?"
"The sin of murder!"
"Ha!"
"I have come to find McGurk."
CHAPTER 4
Like some old father-bear watching his cub flash teeth against a stalking lynx, half proud and half fearful of such courage, so the dying cattleman looked at his son. Excitement set a high and dangerous color in his cheek. "Pierre--brave boy! Look at me. I ain"t no imitation man, even now, but I ain"t a ghost of what I was. There wasn"t no man I wouldn"t of met fair and square with bare hands or with a gun. Maybe my hands was big, but they were fast on the draw.
I"ve lived all my life with iron on the hip, and my six-gun has seven notches.
"But McGurk downed me fair and square. There wasn"t no murder. I was out for his hide, and he knew it. I done the provokin", an" he jest done the finishin", that was all. It hurts me a lot to say it, but he"s a better man than I was. A kid like you, why, he"d jest eat you, Pierre."
Pierre le Rouge smiled again. He felt a stern pride to be the son of this man.
"So that"s settled," went on Martin Ryder, "an" a d.a.m.ned good thing it is. Son, you didn"t come none too soon. I"m goin" out fast. There ain"t enough light left in me so"s I can see my own way. Here"s all I ask: When I die touch my eyelids soft an" draw "em shut--I"ve seen the look in a dead man"s eyes. Close "em, and I know I"ll go to sleep an"
have good dreams. And down in the middle of Morgantown is the buryin"-ground. I"ve ridden past it a thousand times an" watched a corner plot, where the gra.s.s grows quicker than it does anywheres else in the cemetery. Pierre, I"d die plumb easy if I knew I was goin" to sleep the rest of time in that place."
"It shall be done."
"But that corner plot, it would cost a pile, son. And I"ve no money. I gave what I had to them wolf-eyed boys, Bill an" Bert. Money was what they wanted, an" after I had Irene"s son with me, money was the cheapest way of gettin" rid of "em."
"I"ll buy the plot."
"Have you got that much money, lad?"
"Yes," lied Pierre calmly.
The bright eyes grew dimmer and then fluttered close. Pierre started to his feet, thinking that the end had come. But the voice began again, fainter, slowly.
"No light left inside of me, but dyin" this way is easy. There ain"t no wind will blow on me after I"m dead, but I"ll be blanketed safe from head to foot in cool, sweet-smellin" sod--the kind that has tangles of the roots of gra.s.s. There ain"t no snow will reach to me where I lie. There ain"t no sun will burn down to me. Dyin" like that is jest--goin" to sleep."
After that he said nothing for a time, and the late afternoon darkened slowly through the room.
As for Pierre, he did not move, and his mind went back. He did not see the bearded wreck who lay dying before him, but a picture of Irene, with the sun lighting her copper hair with places of burning gold, and a handsome young giant beside her. They rode together on some upland trail at sunset time, sharply framed against the bright sky.
There was a whisper below him: "Irene!"
And Pierre looked down to blankly staring eyes. He groaned, and dropped to his knees.
"I have come for you," said the whisper, "because the time has come, Irene. We have to ride out together. We have a long ways to go. Are you ready?"
"Yes," said Pierre.
"Thank G.o.d! It"s a wonderful night. The stars are asking us out.
Quick! Into your saddle. Now the spurs. So! We are alone and free, with the winds around us, and all that we have been forgotten behind us."
The eyes opened wide and stared up; without a stir in the great, gaunt body, he was dead. Pierre reverently drew the eyes shut. There were no tears in his eyes, but a feeling of hollowness about his heart. He straightened and looked about him and found that the room was quite dark.
So in the dimness Pierre fumbled, by force of habit, at his throat, and found the cross which he wore by a silver chain about his throat.
He held it in a great grip and closed his eyes and prayed. When he opened his eyes again it was almost deep night in the room, and Pierre had pa.s.sed from youth to manhood. Through the gloom nothing stood out distinctly save the white face of the dead man, and from that Pierre looked quickly away.
One by one he numbered his obligations to Martin Ryder, and first and last he remembered the lie which had soothed his father. The money for that corner plot where the gra.s.s grew first in the spring of the year--where was he to find it? He fumbled in his pocket and found only a single coin.
He leaned back against the wall and strove to concentrate on the problem, but his thoughts wandered in spite of himself. Looking backward, he remembered all things much more clearly than when he had actually seen them. For instance, he recalled now that as he walked through the door the two figures which had started up to block his way had left behind them some playing-cards at the corner table. One of these cards had slipped from the edge of the board and flickered slowly to the floor.
With that memory the thoughts of Pierre le Rouge stopped. The picture of the falling card remained; all else went out in his mind like the snuffing of the candle. Then, as if he heard a voice directing him through the utter blackness of the room, he knew what he must do.
All his wealth was the single half-dollar piece in his pocket, and there was only one way in which that coin could be increased to the sum he would need to buy that corner plot, where the soul of old Martin Ryder could sleep long and deep.
From his brothers he would get no help. The least memory of those sallow, hungry faces convinced him of that.
There remained the gaming table. In the north country he had watched men sit in a silent circle, smoking, drinking, with the flare of an oil-lamp against deep, seamed faces, and only the slip and whisper of card against card.
Cold conscience tapped the shoulder of Pierre, remembering the lessons of Father Victor, but a moment later his head went up and his eyes were shining through the dark. After all, the end justified the means.
A moment later he was laughing softly as a boy in the midst of a prank, and busily throwing off the robe of serge. Fumbling through the night he located the shirt and trousers he had seen hanging from a nail on the wall. Into these he slipped, and then went out under the open sky.
The rest had revived the strength of the tough little cow-pony, and he drove on at a gallop toward the twinkling lights of Morgantown. There was a new consciousness about Pierre as if he had changed his whole nature with his clothes. The sober sense of duty which had kept him in awe all his life like a lifted finger, was almost gone, and in its place was a joyous freedom.
For the first time he faintly realized what an existence other than that of a priest might be. Now for a brief moment he could forget the part of the subdued novice and become merely a man with nothing about him to distinguish him from other men, nothing to make heads turn at his approach and raise whispers as he pa.s.sed.
It was a game, but he rejoiced in it as a girl does in her first masquerade. Tomorrow he must be grave and sober-footed and an example to other men; tonight he could frolic as he pleased.
So Pierre le Rouge tossed back his head and laughed up to the frosty stars. The loose sleeves and the skirts of the robe no longer entangled his limbs. He threw up his arms and shouted. A hillside caught the sound and echoed it back to him with a wonderful clearness, and up and down the long ravine beat the clatter of the flying hoofs.
The whole world shouted and laughed and rode with him on Morgantown.