"Oh, I"m so tired of these bare hills," she said wistfully. "I wish I could go East again, back to our old home in Missouri."
"I wish now I"d stayed here and sent you," said Mose.
She turned in surprise. "Why so, Mose?"
"Because I had so little fun out of it, while to you it would have been a picnic."
"You"re mighty good, Mose," was all she said in reply, but her eyes lingered upon his face, which seemed handsomer than ever before, for it was softened by his love, his good friends, and the cheerful home.
In the days that followed Cora took on new youth and beauty. Her head lifted, and the swell of her bosom had more of pride and grace than ever before in her life. She no longer shrank from the gaze of men, even of strangers, for Mose seemed her lover and protector. Before his visit to the East she had doubted, but now she let her starved heart feed on dreams of him.
Mose had little time to give to her, for (at his own request) Reynolds was making the highest use of his power. "I want to earn every cent I can for the next three months," Mose explained, and he often did double duty. He was very expert now with the rope and could throw and tie a steer with the best of the men. His muscles seemed never to tire nor his nerves to fail him. Rain, all-night rides, sleeping on the ground beneath frosty blankets, nothing seemed to trouble him. He was never cheery, but he was never sullen.
One day in November he rode up to the home ranch leading a mule with a pack saddle fully rigged.
"What are you doing with that mule?" asked Reynolds as he came out of the house, followed by Pink.
"I"m going to pack him."
"Pack him? What do you mean?"
"I"m going to hit "the long trail.""
Cora came hurrying forward. "Good evening, Mose."
"Good evening, Cory. How"s my little Pink?"
"What did you say about hittin" the trail, Mose?"
"Now I reckon you"ll give an account of yourself," said Reynolds with a wink.
Mose was anxious to avoid an emotional moment; he cautiously replied: "Oh, I"m off on a little hunting excursion; don"t get excited about it.
I"m hungry as a coyote; can I eat?"
Cora was silenced but not convinced, and after supper, when the old people withdrew from the kitchen, she returned to the subject again.
"How long are you going to be gone this time?"
Mose saw the storm coming, but would not lie to avoid it.
"I don"t know; mebbe all winter."
She dropped into a chair facing him, white and still. When she spoke her voice was a wail. "O Mose! I can"t live here all winter without you."
"Oh, yes, you can; you"ve got Pink and the old folks."
"But I want _you_! I"ll die here without you, Mose. I can"t endure it."
His face darkened. "You"d better forget me; I"m a hoodoo, Cory; n.o.body is ever in luck when I"m around. I make everybody miserable."
"I was never really happy till you come," she softly replied.
"There are a lot of better men than I am jest a-hone"in to marry you,"
he interrupted her to say.
"I don"t want them--I don"t want anybody but you, and now you go off and leave me----"
The situation was beyond any subtlety of the man, and he sat in silence while she wept. When he could command himself he said:
"I"m mighty sorry, Cory, but I reckon the best way out of it is to just take myself off in the hills where I can"t interfere with any one"s fun but my own. Seems to me I"m fated to make trouble all along the line, and I"m going to pull out where there"s n.o.body but wolves and grizzlies, and fight it out with them."
She was filled with a new terror: "What do you mean? I don"t believe you intend to come back at all!" She looked at him piteously, the tears on her cheeks.
"Oh, yes, I"ll round the circle some time."
She flung herself down on the chair arm and sobbed unrestrainedly.
"Don"t go--please!"
Mose felt a sudden touch of the same disgust which came upon him in the presence of his father"s enforcing affection. He arose. "Now, Cory, see here; don"t you waste any time on me. I"m no good under the sun. I like you and I like Pinkie, but I don"t want you to cry over me. I ain"t worth it. Now that"s the G.o.d"s truth. I"m a black hoodoo, and you"ll never prosper till I skip; I"m not fit to marry any woman."
Singularly enough, this gave the girl almost instant comfort, and she lifted her head and dried her eyes, and before he left she smiled a little, though her face was haggard and tear stained.
Mose was up early and had his packs ready and Kintuck saddled when Mrs.
Reynolds called him to breakfast. Cora"s pale face and piteous eyes moved him more deeply than her sobbing the night before, but there was a certain inexorable fixedness in his resolution, and he did not falter.
At bottom the deciding cause was Mary. She had pa.s.sed out of his life, but no other woman could take her place--therefore he was ready to cut loose from all things feminine.
"Well, Mose, I"m sorry to see you go, I certainly am so," said Reynolds.
"_But_, you ah you" own master. All I can say is, this old ranch is open to you, and shall be so long as we stay hyer--though I am mighty uncertain how long we shall be able to hold out agin this new land-boom.
You had better not stay away too long, or you may miss us. I reckon we ah all to be driven to the mountains very soon."
"I may be back in the spring. I"m likely to need money, and be obliged to come back to you for a job."
On this tiny crumb of comfort Cora"s hungry heart seized greedily. The little pink-cheeked one helped out the sad meal. She knew nothing of the long trail upon which her hero was about to set foot, and took possession of the conversation by telling of a little antelope which one of the cowboys had brought her.
The mule was packed and Mose was about to say good-by. The sun was still low in the eastern sky. Frost was on the gra.s.s, but the air was crisp and pleasant. All the family stood beside him as he packed his outfit on the mule and threw over it the diamond hitch. As he straightened up he turned to the waiting ones and said: "Do you see that gap in the range?"
They all looked where he pointed. Down in the West, but lighted into unearthly splendor by the morning light, arose the great range of snowy peaks. In the midst of this impa.s.sable wall a purple notch could be seen.
"Ever sence I"ve been here," said Mose, with singular emotion, "I"ve looked away at that range and I"ve been waiting my chance to see what that canon is like. There runs my trail--good-by."
He shook hands hastily with Cora, heartily with Mrs. Reynolds, and kissed Pink, who said: "Bring me a little bear or a fox."
"All right, honey, you shall have a grizzly."
He swung into the saddle. "Here I hit the trail for yon blue notch and the land where the sun goes down. So long."
"Take care o" yourself, boy."
"Come back soon," called Cora, and covered her face with her shawl in a world-old gesture of grief.