"Well, you go back and tell him that you have given me his card, and I should like to know what he wishes to see me about, that I am very busy this morning and unless it is a matter of importance--you understand?"
"Yes, sir."
"I suppose now I shall have the whole west unloaded upon me; every vagabond friend of Robert"s and people who meet Enid," he thought, but his reveries were shortly interrupted by the return of the man.
"If you please, sir," began James hesitatingly, as he re-entered the room, "he says his business is about the young lady, sir."
"Confound his impudence!" exclaimed Mr. Maitland, more and more annoyed at what he was pleased to characterize mentally as western a.s.surance.
"Where is he?"
"In the hall, sir."
"Show him into the library and say I shall be down in a moment."
"Very good, sir."
It was a decidedly wrathful individual who confronted Stephen Maitland a few moments afterwards in the library, for Armstrong was not accustomed to such cavalier treatment, and had Maitland been other than Enid"s father he would have given more outward expression of his indignation over the discourtesy in his reception.
"Mr. James Armstrong, I believe," began Mr. Maitland, looking at the card in his hand.
"Yes, sir."
"Er--from Colorado?"
"And proud of it."
"Ah, I dare say. I believe you wished to see me about--"
"Your daughter, sir."
"And in what way are you concerned about her, sir?"
"I wish to make her my wife."
"What!" exclaimed the older man in a voice equally divided between horror and astonishment. "How dare you, sir? You amaze, me beyond measure with your infernal impudence."
"Excuse me, Mr. Maitland," interposed Armstrong quickly and with great spirit and determination, "but where I come from we don"t allow anybody to talk to us in this way. You are Enid"s father and a much older man than I, but I can"t permit you to--"
"Sir," said the astounded Maitland, drawing himself up at this bold flouting, "you may be a very worthy young man, I have no doubt of it, but it is out of the question. My daughter--"
Again a less excited hearer might have noticed the emphasis on the p.r.o.noun.
"Why, she is half way engaged to me now," interrupted the younger man with a certain contemptuous amus.e.m.e.nt in his voice. "Look here, Mr.
Maitland, I"ve knocked around the world a good deal, I know what"s what, I know all about you Eastern people, and I don"t fancy you any more than you fancy me. Miss Enid is quite unspoiled yet and that is why I want her. I"m well able to take care of her too; I don"t know what you"ve got or how you got it, but I can come near laying down dollar for dollar with you and mine"s all clean money, mines, cattle, lumber, and it"s all good money. I made it myself. I left her in the mountains three weeks ago with her promise that she would think very seriously of my suit. After I came back to Denver--I was called east--I made up my mind that I"d come here when I"d finished my business and have it out with you. Now you can treat me like a dog if you want to, but if you expect to keep peace in the family you"d better not, for I tell you plainly whether you give your consent or not I mean to win her. All I want is her consent, and I"ve pretty nearly got that."
Mr. Stephen Maitland was black with wrath at this clear, unequivocal, determined statement of the case from Armstrong"s point of view.
"I would rather see her dead," he exclaimed with angry stubbornness, "than married to a man like you. How dare you force yourself into my house and insult me in this way? Were I not so old a man I would show you, I would give you a taste of your own manner."
The old man"s white mustache fairly quivered with what he believed to be righteous indignation. He stepped over to the other and looked hard at him, his eyes blazing, his ruddy cheeks redder than ever. The two men confronted each other unblenchingly for a moment, then Mr. Maitland touched a bell b.u.t.ton in the wall by his side. Instantly the footman made his appearance.
"James," said the old man, his voice shaking and his knees trembling with pa.s.sion, which he did not quite succeed in controlling despite a desperate effort, "show this--er--gentleman the door. Good morning, sir, our first and last interview is over."
He bowed with ceremonious politeness as he spoke, becoming more and more composed as he felt himself mastering the situation. And Armstrong, to do him justice, knew a gentleman when he saw him, and secretly admired the older man and began to feel a touch of shame at his own rude way of putting things.
"Beg pardon, sir," said the footman, breaking the awkward silence, "but here is a telegram that has just come, sir."
There was nothing for Armstrong to do or say. Indeed, having expressed himself so unrestrainedly to his rapidly increasing regret, as the old man took the telegram he turned away in considerable discomfiture, James bowing before him at the door opening into the hall and following him as he slowly pa.s.sed out. Mr. Stephen Maitland mechanically and with great deliberation and with no premonition of evil tidings, tore open the yellow envelope and glanced at the dispatch. Neither the visitor nor the footman had got out of sight or hearing when they heard the old man groan and fall back helplessly into a chair. Both men turned and ran back to the door, for there was that in the exclamation which gave rise to instant apprehension. Stephen Maitland now as white as death sat collapsed in the chair gasping for breath, his hand on his heart. The telegram lay open on the floor. Armstrong recognized the seriousness of the situation, and in three steps was by the other"s side.
"What is it?" he asked eagerly, his hatred and resentment vanished at the sight of the old man"s ghastly, stricken countenance.
"Enid!" gasped her father. "I said I would rather see her--dead, but--it is not true--I--"
James Armstrong was a man of prompt decision. Without a moment"s hesitation he picked up the telegram; it was full and explicit, thus it read:
"We were encamped last week in the mountains. Enid went down the canon for a day"s fishing alone. A sudden cloud burst filled the canon, washed away the camp. Enid undoubtedly got caught in the torrent and was drowned. We have found some of her clothing but not her body. Have searched every foot of the canon. Think body has got into the lake now frozen. Snow falling, mountains impa.s.sable, will search for her in the spring when the winter breaks. I am following this telegram in person by first train. Would rather have died a thousand deaths than had this happen. G.o.d help us."
"ROBERT MAITLAND."
Armstrong read it, stared at it a moment frowning heavily, pa.s.sed it over to the footman and turned to the stricken father.
"Old man, I loved her," he said simply. "I love her still, I believe that she loves me. They haven"t found her body, clothes mean nothing, I"ll find her, I"ll search the mountains until I do. Don"t give way, something tells me that she"s alive, and I"ll find her."
"If you do," said the broken old man, crushed by the swift and awful response to his thoughtless exclamation, "and she loves you, you shall have her for your wife."
"It doesn"t need that to make me find her," answered Armstrong grimly.
"She is a woman, lost in the mountains in the winter, alone. They shouldn"t have given up the search; I"ll find her as there is a G.o.d above me whether she"s for me or not."
A good deal of a man this James Armstrong of Colorado, in spite of many things in his past of which he thought so little that he lacked the grace to be ashamed of them. Stephen Maitland looked at him with a certain respect and a growing hope, as he stood there in the library stern, resolute, strong.
Perhaps--
CHAPTER XI
"OVER THE HILLS AND FAR AWAY"
Recognition--or some other more potent instantaneous force--brought the woman to a sitting position. The man drew back to give her freedom of action, as she lifted herself on her hands. It was moments before complete consciousness of her situation came to her; the surprise was yet too great. She saw things dimly through a whirl of driving rain, of a rushing mighty wind, of a seething sea of water, but presently it was all plain to her again. She had caught no fair view of the man who had shot the bear as he splashed through the creek and tramped, across the rocks and trees down the canon, at least she had not seen his front face, but she recognized him immediately. The thought tinged with color for a moment, her pallid cheek.
"I fell into the torrent," she said feebly, putting her hand to her head and striving by speech to put aside that awful remembrance.
"You didn"t fall in," was the answer. "It was a cloud burst, you were caught in it."
"I didn"t know."
"Of course not, how should you."