Larry was outside in a moment, and a smile crept into the fraulein"s blue eyes. "He is of the one thing at the time alone enabled to think," she said. "It is so with the man, but a dress with the water soaked is not convenient to ride at night in."
She led Hetty into her own room, and when Larry, who had spent some time changing one of the saddles, came back, he stared in astonishment at Hetty, who sat at the table. She now wore, among other garments that were too big for her, a fur cap and coa.r.s.e, serge skirt. There was a steaming cup of coffee in front of her.
"Now, that shows how foolish one can be," he said. "I was clean forgetting about the clothes; but we must start again."
Hetty rose up, and with a little blush held out the cup. "You are wet to the neck, Larry, and it will do you good," she said. "If you don"t mind--we needn"t wait until Miss Muller gets another cup."
Larry"s eyes gleamed. "I have run over most of Europe, but they grow no wine there that was half as nice as the tea we made in the black can back there in the bluff. Quite often in those days we hadn"t a cup at all."
He drank, and forthwith turned his head away, while a quiver seemed to run through him; but when Hetty moved towards him the fraulein laughed.
"It nothing is," she said. "It is, perhaps, the effect tobacco have, but the mouth is soft in a man."
Then, as Larry turned towards them she laid her hands on Hetty"s shoulders, and kissed her gravely. "You have trust in him," she said. "It is of no use afraid to be. I quick take a man like Mr. Grant when he ask me."
The next moment they were outside, and when he helped her to the saddle, Hetty glanced shyly at her companion. "The fraulein is right," she said.
"But, Larry, will you tell me--where we are going?"
"To Windsor. I have still good friends there. That is the prosaic fact, but there is ever so much behind it. We can"t see the trail just now, dear, but we are riding out into the future that has all kinds of brightness in store."
A silvery gleam fell on the girl as a billow of cloud rolled slowly from a rift of blue, and she laughed almost exultantly.
"Larry," she said, "it is coming true. Of course, it"s a portent. There"s the darkness going and the moon shining through. Oh, I have done with misgiving now!"
She shook the bridle, and swept from him at a gallop, and the thaw-softened sod was whirling in clods behind them when Larry drew level with her. He knew it was not prudent, but the fever in his blood mastered his reason, and he sent the stockrider"s cry ringing across the levels as they sped on through the night. The damp wind screamed by them, lashing their hot cheeks, the beat of hoofs swelled into a roar as they swept through a shadowy bluff, and driving cloud and rift of indigo flitted past above. Beneath, the long, frost-bleached levels, gleaming silvery grey now under the moon, flitted back to the drumming hoofs, while willow clump and straggling birches rose up, and rushed by, blurred and shadowy.
They were young, and the cares that must be faced again on the morrow had, for a brief s.p.a.ce, fallen from them. They had bent to the strain to the breaking point, and now it had gone, everything was forgotten but the love each bore the other. All senses were merged in it, and while the exaltation lasted there was no room for thought or fear. It was, however, the man who remembered first, for a few dark patches caught his eye when they went at a headlong gallop down the slope.
"Pull him!" he cried hoa.r.s.ely. ""Ware badger holes! Swing to the right-wide!"
The girl swerved, but she still held on with loose bridle, until Larry, swaying in his saddle, clutched at it. Then, as he swung upright, half a length ahead, with empty hands, she flung herself a trifle backwards and there was a brief struggle; but it was at a trot they climbed the opposite slope.
"Now," she said, with a happy little laugh, "we are sensible once more; but, while I knew it couldn"t last, I wanted to gallop on for ever. Larry, I wonder if we will ever feel just the same again? There are enjoyments that can"t come to anyone more than once."
"There are others one can have all the time, and we"ll think of them to-night," said the man. "There are bright days before us, and we can wait until they come."
Hetty smiled, almost sadly. "Of course!" she said, "but no bright day can be quite the same as this moonlight to me. It shone down on us when I rode out into the night and darkness without knowing where I was going, and only that you were beside me. You will stay there always now."
They held on across the empty waste while the hours of darkness slipped by, and the sun was rising red above the great levels" rim when the roofs of a wooden town rose in front of them. As the frame houses slowly grew into form, Hetty painfully straightened herself. Her face was white and weary and it was by a strenuous effort she held herself upright, the big horse limped a little, and the mire was spattered thick upon her; but she met the man"s eyes, and, though her lips trembled, smiled bravely.
Larry saw and understood, and his face grew grave. "I have a good deal to make up to you, Hetty, and I will try to do it faithfully," he said.
"Still, we will look forward with hope and courage now--it is our wedding day."
Hetty glanced away from him across the prairie, and the man fancied he saw her fingers tremble on the bridle.
"It is hard to ask you, Larry--though I know it shouldn"t be--but have you a few dollars that you could give me?"
The man smiled happily. "All that is mine is yours, and, as it happens, I have two or three bills in my wallet. Is there anything you wish to buy?"
Hetty glanced down, flushing, at the bedraggled dress. "Larry," she said softly. "I couldn"t marry you like this. I haven"t one dollar in my pocket--and I am coming to you with nothing, dear."
The smile faded out of Larry"s eyes. "I scarcely dare remember all that you have given up for me! And if you had taken Clavering or one of the others you would have ridden to your wedding with a hundred men behind you, as rich as a princess."
Hetty, sitting, jaded and bespattered, on the limping horse, flashed a swift glance at him, and smiled out of slightly misty eyes.
"It happened," she said, "that I was particular, or fanciful, and there was only one man--the one that would take me without a dollar, in borrowed clothes--who seemed good enough for me."
They rode on past a stockyard, and into a rutted street of bare frame houses, and Hetty was glad they scarcely met anybody. Then, Larry helped her down, and, thrusting a wallet into her hands, knocked at the door of a house beside a store. The man who opened it stared at them, and when Larry had drawn him aside called his wife. She took Hetty"s chilled hand in both her own, and the storekeeper smiled at Larry.
"You come right along and put some of my things on," he said. "Then, you are going with me to have breakfast at the hotel, and talk to the judge. I guess the women aren"t going to have any use for us."
It was some time later when they came back to the store, and for just a minute Grant saw Hetty alone. She was dressed very plainly in new garments, and blushed when he looked gravely down on her.
"That dress is not good enough for you," he said. "It is very different from what you have been accustomed to."
Hetty glanced at him shyly. "You will have very few dollars to spare, Larry, until the trouble"s through," she said, "and you will be my husband in an hour or two."
x.x.x
LARRY"S WEDDING DAY
Hetty was married in haste, without benefit of clergy, while several men, with resolute faces, kept watch outside the judge"s door, and two who were mounted sat gazing across the prairie on a rise outside the town. After the declarations were made and signed, the judge turned to Hetty, who stood smiling bravely, though her eyes were a trifle misty, by Larry"s side.
"Now I have something to tell your husband, Mrs. Grant," he said. "You will have to spare him for about five minutes."
Hetty"s lips quivered, for she recognized the gravity of his tone, and it was not astonishing that for a moment or two she turned her face aside.
She had endeavoured to look forward hopefully and banish regrets; but the prosaic sordidness of the little dusty office, and the absence of anything that might have imparted significance or dignity to the hurried ceremony, had not been without their effect. She had seen other weddings in New York as well as in the cattle country, and knew what pomp and festivities would have attended hers had she married with her father"s goodwill. After all, it was the greatest day in most women"s lives, and she felt the unseemliness of the rite that had made her and Larry man and wife. Still, the fact remained, and, brushing her misgivings away, she glanced up at her husband.
"It must concern us both now," she said. "May I hear?"
"Well," said the judge, who looked a trifle embarra.s.sed, "I guess you are right, and Larry would have to tell you; but it"s not a pleasant task to me. It is just this--we can"t keep you and your husband any longer in this town."
"Are you against us, too?" Hetty asked, with a flash in her eyes. "I am not afraid."
The judge made her a little respectful inclination. "You are Torrance of Cedar"s daughter, and everyone knows the kind of grit there is in that family. While I knew the cattle-men would raise a good deal of unpleasantness when I married you, I did it out of friendliness for Larry; but it is my duty to uphold the law, and I can"t have your husband"s friends and your father"s cow-boys making trouble here."
"Larry," said the girl tremulously, "we must go on again."
Grant"s face grew stern. "No," he said. "You shall stay here in spite of them until you feel fit to ride for the railroad."
Just then a man came in. "Battersly saw Torrance with the Sheriff and Clavering and quite a band of cow-boys ride by the trail forks an hour ago," he said. "They were heading for Hamlin"s, but they"d make this place in two hours when they didn"t find Larry there."
There was an impressive silence. Hetty shuddered, and the fear in her eyes was unmistakable when she laid her hand on her husband"s arm.
"We must go," she said. "It would be too horrible if you should meet him."