"Do you doubt my--my good intentions toward you--my love for you?" he asked, in gentle and husky voice.
"Oh, Ben! No! No! It"s that I"m afraid of your love for me! I can"t bear--what I have to bear--if I see you, if I listen to you."
"Then you"ve weakened? You"re no proud, high-strung, thoroughbred girl any more? You"re showin" yellow?"
"Ben Wade, I deny that," she answered, spiritedly, with an uplift of her head. "It"s not weakness, but strength I"ve found."
"Ahuh! Well, I reckon I understand. Collie, listen. Wils let me read your last letter to him."
"I expected that. I think I told him to. Anyway, I wanted you to know--what--what ailed me."
"La.s.s, it was a fine, brave letter--written by a girl facin" an upheaval of conscience an" soul. But in your own trouble you forget the effect that letter might have on Wils Moore."
"Ben!... I--I"ve lain awake at night--Oh, was he hurt?"
"Collie, I reckon if you don"t see Wils he"ll kill himself or kill Buster Jack," replied Wade, gravely.
"I"ll see--him!" she faltered. "But oh, Ben--you don"t mean that Wilson would be so base--so cowardly?"
"Collie, you"re a child. You don"t realize the depths to which a man can sink. Wils has had a long, hard pull this winter. My nursin" an" your letters have saved his life. He"s well, now, but that long, dark spell of mind left its shadow on him. He"s morbid."
"What does he--want to see me--for?" asked Columbine, tremulously.
There were tears in her eyes. "It"ll only cause more pain--make matters worse."
"Reckon I don"t agree with you. Wils just wants an" needs to _see_ you.
Why, he appreciated your position. I"ve heard him cry like a woman over it an" our helplessness. What ails him is lovesickness, the awful feelin" which comes to a man who believes he has lost his sweetheart"s love."
"Poor boy! So he imagines I don"t love him any more? Good Heavens! How stupid men are!... I"ll see him, Ben. Take me to him."
For answer, Wade grasped the bridle of her horse and, turning him, took a course leading away behind the hill that lay between them and the ranch-house. The trail was narrow and brushy, making it necessary for him to walk ahead of the horse. So the hunter did not speak to her or look at her for some time. He plodded on with his eyes downcast.
Something tugged at Wade"s mind, an old, familiar, beckoning thing, vague and mysterious and black, a presage of catastrophe. But it was only an opening wedge into his mind. It had not entered. Gravity and unhappiness occupied him. His senses, nevertheless, were alert. He heard the low roar of the flooded brook, the whir of rising grouse ahead, the hoofs of deer on stones, the song of spring birds. He had an eye also for the wan wild flowers in the shaded corners. Presently he led the horse out of the willows into the open and up a low-swelling, long slope of fragrant sage. Here he dropped back to Columbine"s side and put his hand upon the pommel of her saddle. It was not long until her own hand softly fell upon his and clasped it. Wade thrilled under the warm touch.
How well he knew her heart! When she ceased to love any one to whom she had given her love then she would have ceased to breathe.
"La.s.s, this isn"t the first mornin" I"ve waited for you," he said, presently. "An" when I had to go back to Wils without you--well, it was hard."
"Then he wants to see me--so badly?" she asked.
"Reckon you"ve not thought much about him or me lately," said Wade.
"No. I"ve tried to put you out of my mind. I"ve had so much to think of--why, even the sleepless nights have flown!"
"Are you goin" to confide in me--as you used to?"
"Ben, there"s nothing to confide. I"m just where I left off in that letter to Wilson. And the more I think the more muddled I get."
Wade greeted this reply with a long silence. It was enough to feel her hand upon his and to have the glad comfort and charm of her presence once more. He seemed to have grown older lately. The fragrant breath of the sage slopes came to him as something precious he must feel and love more. A haunting transience mocked him from these rolling gray hills.
Old White Slides loomed gray and dark up into the blue, grim and stern reminder of age and of fleeting time. There was a cloud on Wade"s horizon.
"Wils is waitin" down there," said Wade, pointing to a grove of aspens below. "Reckon it"s pretty close to the house, an" a trail runs along there. But Wils can"t ride very well yet, an" this appeared to be the best place."
"Ben, I don"t care if dad or Jack know I"ve met Wilson. I"ll tell them,"
said Columbine.
"Ahuh! Well, if I were you I wouldn"t," he replied.
They went down the slope and entered the grove. It was an open, pretty spot, with gra.s.s and wild flowers, and old, bleached logs, half sunny and half shady under the new-born, fluttering aspen leaves. Wade saw Moore sitting on his horse. And it struck the hunter significantly that the cowboy should be mounted when an hour back he had left him sitting disconsolately on a log. Moore wanted Columbine to see him first, after all these months of fear and dread, mounted upon his horse. Wade heard Columbine"s glad little cry, but he did not turn to look at her then.
But when they reached the spot where Moore stood Wade could not resist the desire to see the meeting between the lovers.
Columbine, being a woman, and therefore capable of hiding agitation, except in moments of stress, met that trying situation with more apparent composure than the cowboy. Moore"s long, piercing gaze took the rose out of Columbine"s cheeks.
"Oh, Wilson! I"m so happy to see you on your horse again!" she exclaimed. "It"s too good to be true. I"ve prayed for that more than anything else. Can you get up into your saddle like you used to? Can you ride well again?... Let me see your foot."
Moore held out a bulky foot. He wore a shoe, and it was slashed.
"I can"t wear a boot," he explained.
"Oh, I see!" exclaimed Columbine, slowly, with her glad smile fading.
"You can"t put that--that foot in a stirrup, can you?"
"No."
"But--it--it will--you"ll be able to wear a boot soon," she implored.
"Never again, Collie," he said, sadly.
And then Wade perceived that, like a flash, the old spirit leaped up in Columbine. It was all he wanted to see.
"Now, folks," he said, "I reckon two"s company an" three"s a crowd. I"ll go off a little ways an" keep watch."
"Ben, you stay here," replied Columbine, hurriedly.
"Why, Collie? Are you afraid--or ashamed to be with me alone?" asked Moore, bitterly.
Columbine"s eyes flashed. It was seldom they lost their sweet tranquillity. But now they had depth and fire.
"No, Wilson, I"m neither afraid nor ashamed to be with you alone," she declared. "But I can be as natural--as much myself with Ben here as I could be alone. Why can"t you be? If dad and Jack heard of our meeting the fact of Ben"s presence might make it look different to them. And why should I heap trouble upon my shoulders?"
"I beg pardon, Collie," said the cowboy. "I"ve just been afraid of--of things."
"My horse is restless," returned Columbine. "Let"s get off and talk."
So they dismounted. It warmed Wade"s gloomy heart to see the woman-look in Columbine"s eyes as she watched the cowboy get off and walk. For a crippled man he did very well. But that moment was fraught with meaning for Wade. These unfortunate lovers, brave and fine in their suffering, did not realize the peril they invited by proximity. But Wade knew. He pitied them, he thrilled for them, he lived their torture with them.
"Tell me--everything," said Columbine, impulsively.
Moore, with dragging step, approached an aspen log that lay off the ground, propped by the stump, and here he leaned for support. Columbine laid her gloves on the log.
"There"s nothing to tell that you don"t know," replied Moore. "I wrote you all there was to write, except"--here he dropped his head--"except that the last three weeks have been h.e.l.l."