Now he caught himself leaning a little closer to study the purple stain of weariness in her eyelids. Even exhaustion was attractive in her. It showed something new, and newly appealing. Weariness gave merely a new edge to her beauty. What if her eyes, opening slowly now, were to look upon him not with the gentleness of friendship, but with something more--the little shade of difference in a girl"s wide eyes that admits a man to her secrets--and traps him in so doing.
Ben Connor drew himself up with a shake of the shoulders. He felt that he must keep careful guard from now on. What a power she was. What a power! If she set herself to the task who could deal with her? What man could keep from her? Then the picture of David jumped into his mind out of nothingness. And on the heels of that picture the inspiration came with a sudden uplifting of the heart, surety, intoxicating insight. He wanted to jump to his feet and shout until the great ravine beneath them echoed. With an effort he remained quiet. But he was thinking rapidly--rapidly. He had intended to use her merely to arrange for shipping Shakra away from Lukin Junction. For he dared not linger about the town where expert horse thieves might see the mare. But now something new, something more came to him. The girl was a power? Why not use her?
What he said was: "Do you know why you close your eyes?"
Still without looking up she answered: "Why?"
"All of these mountains--you see?" She did not see, so he went on to describe them. "There"s that big peak opposite us. Looks a hundred yards away, but it"s two miles. Comes down in big jags and walks up into the sky--Lord knows how many thousand feet. And behind it the other ranges stepping off into the horizon with purple in the gorges and mist at the tops. Fine picture, eh? But hard to look at, Ruth. Mighty hard to look at. First thing you know you get to squinting to make out whether that"s a cactus on the side of that mountain or a hundred-foot pine tree. Might be either. Can"t tell the distance in this air. Well, you begin to squint. That"s how the people around here get that long-distance look behind their eyes and the long-distance wrinkles around the corners of their eyes. All the men have those wrinkles. But the women have them, too, after a while. You"ll get them after a while, Ruth. Wrinkles around the eyes and wrinkles in the mind to match, eh?"
Her eyes opened at last, slowly, slowly. She smiled at him plaintively.
"Don"t I know, Ben? It"s a man"s country. It isn"t made for woman."
"Ah, there you"ve hit the nail on the head. Exactly! A man"s country. Do you know what it does to the women?"
"Tell me."
"Makes "em like the men. Hardens their hands after a while. Roughens their voices. Takes time, but that"s what comes after a while.
Understand?"
"Oh, don"t I understand!"
And he knew how the fear had haunted her, then, for the first time.
"What does this dry, hot wind do to you in the mountains? What does it do to your skin? Takes the velvet off, after a while; makes it dry and hard. Lord, girl, I"d hate to see the change it"s going to make in you!"
All at once she sat up, wide awake.
"What are you trying to do to me, Ben Connor?"
"I"m trying to wake you up."
"I _am_ awake. But what can I do?"
"You think you"re awake, but you"re not. Tell you what a girl needs, a stage--just like an actor. Think they can put on a play with these mountains for a setting? Never in the world. Make the actors look too small. Make everything they say sound too thin.
"Same way with a girl. She needs a setting. A room, a rug, a picture, a comfortable chair, and a dress that goes with it. Shuts out the rest of the world and gives her a chance to make a man focus on her--see her behind the footlights. See?"
"Yes," she whispered.
"Do you know what I"ve been doing while I watched you just now?"
"Tell me."
He was fighting for a great purpose now, and a quality of earnest emotion crept into his voice. "Around your throat I"ve been running an edging of yellow old lace. Under your hand that was lying there I put a deep blue velvet; I had your shoulders as white as snow, with a flash to "em like snow when you turned in the light; I had you proud as a queen, Ruth, with a blur of violets at your breast. I took out the tired look in your face. Instead, I put in happiness."
He stopped and drew a long breath.
"You"re pretty now, but you could be--beautiful. Lord, what a flame of a beauty you could be, girl!"
Instead of flushing and smiling under the praise, he saw tears well into her eyes and her mouth grow tremulous. She winked the tears away.
"What are you trying to do, Ben? Make everything still harder for me?
Don"t you see I"m helpless--helpless?"
And instead of rising to a wail her voice sank away at the end in despair.
"Oh, you"re trapped well enough," he said. "I"m going to bust the trap!
I"m going to give you your setting. I"m going to make you what you ought to be--beautiful!"
She smiled as at any unreal fairy tale.
"How?"
"I can show you better than I can tell you! Come here!" He rose, and she was on her feet in a flash. He led the way to the door of the shack, and as the shadows fell inside, Shakra tossed up her head.
The girl"s bewildered joy was as great as if the horse were a present to her.
"Oh, you beauty, you beauty," she cried.
"Watch yourself," he warned. "She"s as wild as a mountain lion."
"But she knows a friend!"
Shakra sniffed the outstretched hand, and then with a shake of her head accepted the stranger and looked over Ruth"s shoulder at Connor as though for an explanation. Connor himself was smiling and excited; he drew her back and forgot to release her hand, so that they stood like two happy children together. He spoke very softly and rapidly, as though he feared to embarra.s.s the mare.
"Look at the head first--then the bone in the foreleg, then the length above her back--see how she stands! See how she stands! And those black hoofs, hard as iron, I tell you--put the four of "em in my double hands, almost--ever see such a nick? But she"s no six furlong flash! That chest, eh? Run your finger-tips down that shoulder!"
She turned with tears of pleasure in her eyes. "Ben Connor, you"ve been in the valley of the grays!"
"I have. And do you know what it means to us?"
"To _us_?"
"I said it. I mean it. You"re going to share."
"I--"
"Look at that mare again!"
She obeyed.
"Say something, Ruth!"
"I can"t say what I feel!"
"Then try to understand this: you"re looking at the fastest horse that ever stepped into a race track. You understand? I"m not speaking in comparisons. I"m talking the cold dope! Here"s a pony that could have given Salvator twenty pounds, run him sick in six furlongs, and walked away to the finish by herself. Here"s a mare that could pick up a hundred and fifty pounds and beat the finest horse that ever faced a barrier with a fly-weight jockey in the saddle. You"re looking at history, girl! Look again! You"re looking at a cold million dollars.
You"re looking at the blood that"s going to change the history of the turf. That"s what Shakra means!"