"Care! I shall care all my life," he said, with strong feeling. "I shall never forget you."
"It"s not likely I"ll forget you.... Good-by, John!"
Shefford took her in his arms and held her close. "Ruth--good-by!" he said, huskily.
Then he released her. She adjusted the hood and, taking up a little tray which held food covered with a napkin, she turned to the door. He opened it and they went out.
They did not speak another word.
It was not a long walk from Ruth"s home to the school-house, yet if it were to be measured by Shefford"s emotion the distance would have been unending. The sacrifice offered by Ruth and Joe would have been n.o.ble under any circ.u.mstances had they been Gentiles or persons with no particular religion, but, considering that they were Mormons, that Ruth had been a sealed-wife, that Joe had been brought up under the strange, secret, and binding creed, their action was no less than tremendous in its import. Shefford took it to mean vastly more than loyalty to him and pity for Fay Larkin. As Ruth and Joe had arisen to this height, so perhaps would other young Mormons, have arisen. It needed only the situation, the climax, to focus these long-insulated, slow-developing and inquiring minds upon the truth--that one wife, one mother of children, for one man at one time as a law of nature, love, and righteousness. Shefford felt as if he were marching with the whole younger generation of Mormons, as if somehow he had been a humble instrument in the working out of their destiny, in the awakening that was to eliminate from their religion the only thing which kept it from being as good for man, and perhaps as true, as any other religion.
And then suddenly he turned the corner of school-house to encounter Joe talking with the Mormon Henninger. Elder Smith was not present.
"Why, h.e.l.lo, Ruth!" greeted Joe. "You"ve fetched Mary some dinner. Now that"s good of you."
"May I go in?" asked Ruth.
"Reckon so," replied Henninger, scratching his head. He appeared to be tractable, and probably was good-natured under pleasant conditions. "She ought to have somethin" to eat. An" n.o.body "pears--to have remembered that--we"re so set up."
He unbarred the huge, clumsy door and allowed Ruth to pa.s.s in.
"Joe, you can go in if you want," he said. "But hurry out before Elder Smith comes back from his dinner."
Joe mumbled something, gave a husky cough, and then went in.
Shefford experienced great difficulty in presenting to this mild Mormon a natural and unagitated front. When all his internal structure seemed to be in a state of turmoil he did not see how it was possible to keep the fact from showing in his face. So he turned away and took aimless steps here and there.
""Pears like we"d hev rain," observed Henninger. "It"s right warm an"
them clouds are onseasonable."
"Yes," replied Shefford. "Hope so. A little rain would be good for the gra.s.s."
"Joe tells me Shadd rode in, an" some of his fellers."
"So I see. About eight in the party."
Shefford was gritting his teeth and preparing to endure the ordeal of controlling his mind and expression when the door opened and Joe stalked out. He had his sombrero pulled down so that it hid the upper half of his face. His lips were a shade off healthy color. He stood there with his back to the door.
"Say, what Mary needs is quiet--to be left alone," he said. "Ruth says if she rests, sleeps a little, she won"t get fever.... Henninger, don"t let anybody disturb her till night."
"All right, Joe," replied the Mormon. "An" I take it good of Ruth an"
you to concern yourselves."
A slight tap on the inside of the door sent Shefford"s pulses to throbbing. Joe opened it with a strong and vigorous sweep that meant more than the mere action.
"Ruth--reckon you didn"t stay long," he said, and his voice rang clear.
"Sure you feel sick and weak. Why, seeing her fl.u.s.tered even me!"
A slender, dark-garbed woman wearing a long black hood stepped uncertainly out. She appeared to be Ruth. Shefford"s heart stood still because she looked so like Ruth. But she did not step steadily, she seemed dazed, she did not raise the hooded head.
"Go home," said Joe, and his voice rang a little louder. "Take her home, Shefford. Or, better, walk her round some. She"s faintish .... And see here, Henninger--"
Shefford led the girl away with a hand in apparent carelessness on her arm. After a few rods she walked with a freer step and then a swifter.
He found it necessary to make that hold on her arm a real one, so as to keep her from walking too fast. No one, however, appeared to observe them. When they pa.s.sed Ruth"s house then Shefford began to lose his fear that this was not Fay Larkin. He was far from being calm or clear-sighted. He thought he recognized that free step; nevertheless, he could not make sure. When they pa.s.sed under the trees, crossed the brook, and turned down along the west wall, then doubt ceased in Shefford"s mind. He knew this was not Ruth. Still, so strange was his agitation, so keen his suspense, that he needed confirmation of ear, of eye. He wanted to hear her voice, to see her face. Yet just as strangely there was a twist of feeling, a reluctance, a sadness that kept off the moment.
They reached the low, slow-swelling slant of wall and started to ascend.
How impossible not to recognize Fay Larkin now in that swift grace and skill on the steep wall! Still, though he knew her, he perversely clung to the unreality of the moment. But when a long braid of dead-gold hair tumbled from under the hood, then his heart leaped. That identified Fay Larkin. He had freed her. He was taking her away. Then a sadness embittered his joy.
As always before, she distanced him in the ascent to the top. She went on without looking back. But Shefford had an irresistible desire to took again and the last time at this valley where he had suffered and loved so much.
XVI. SURPRISE VALLEY
From the summit of the wall the plateau waved away in red and yellow ridges, with here and there little valleys green with cedar and pinyon.
Upon one of these ridges, silhouetted against the sky, appeared the stalking figure of the Indian. He had espied the fugitives. He disappeared in a niche, and presently came again into view round a corner of cliff. Here he waited, and soon Shefford and Fay joined him.
"Bi Nai, it is well," he said.
Shefford eagerly asked for the horses, and Nas Ta Bega silently pointed down the niche, which was evidently an opening into one of the shallow canon. Then he led the way, walking swiftly. It was Shefford, and not Fay, who had difficulty in keeping close to him. This speed caused Shefford to become more alive to the business, instead of the feeling, of the flight. The Indian entered a crack between low cliffs--a very narrow canon full of rocks and clumps of cedars--and in a half-hour or less he came to where the mustangs were halted among some cedars. Three of the mustangs, including Nack-yal, were saddled; one bore a small pack, and the remaining two had blankets strapped on their backs.
"Fay, can you ride in that long skirt?" asked Shefford. How strange it seemed that his first words to her were practical when all his impa.s.sioned thought had been only mute! But the instant he spoke he experienced a relief, a relaxation.
"I"ll take it off," replied Fay, just as practically. And in a twinkling she slipped out of both waist and skirt. She had worn them over the short white-flannel dress with which Shefford had grown familiar.
As Nack-yal appeared to be the safest mustang for her to ride, Shefford helped her upon him and then attended to the stirrups. When he had adjusted them to the proper length he drew the bridle over Nack-yal"s head and, upon handing it to her, found himself suddenly looking into her face. She had taken off the hood, too. The instant there eyes met he realized that she was strangely afraid to meet his glance, as he was to meet hers. That seemed natural. But her face was flushed and there were unmistakable signs upon it of growing excitement, of mounting happiness.
Save for that fugitive glance she would have been the Fay Larkin of yesterday. How he had expected her to look he did not know, but it was not like this. And never had he felt her strange quality of simplicity so powerfully.
"Have you ever been here--through this little canon?" he asked.
"Oh yes, lots of times."
"You"ll be able to lead us to Surprise Valley, you think?"
"I know it. I shall see Uncle Jim and Mother Jane before sunset!"
"I hope--you do," he replied, a little shakily. "Perhaps we"d better not tell them of the--the--about what happened last night."
Her beautiful, grave, and troubled glance returned to meet his, and he received a shock that he considered was amaze. And after more swift consideration he believed he was amazed because that look, instead of betraying fear or gloom or any haunting shadow of darkness, betrayed apprehension for him--grave, sweet, troubled love for him. She was not thinking of herself at all--of what he might think of her, of a possible gulf between them, of a vast and terrible change in the relation of soul to soul. He experienced a profound gladness. Though he could not understand her, he was happy that the horror of Waggoner"s death had escaped her. He loved her, he meant to give his life to her, and right then and there he accepted the burden of her deed and meant to bear it without ever letting her know of the shadow between them.
"Fay, we"ll forget--what"s behind us," he said. "Now to find Surprise Valley. Lead on. Nack-yal is gentle. Pull him the way you want to go.
We"ll follow."
Shefford mounted the other saddled mustang, and they set off, Fay in advance. Presently they rode out of this canon up to level cedar-patched, solid rock, and here Fay turned straight west. Evidently she had been over the ground before. The heights to which he had climbed with her were up to the left, great slopes and looming promontories. And the course she chose was as level and easy as any he could have picked out in that direction.
When a mile or more of this up-and-down travel had been traversed Fay halted and appeared to be at fault. The plateau was losing its rounded, smooth, wavy characteristics, and to the west grew bolder, more rugged, more cut up into low crags and b.u.t.tes. After a long, sweeping glance Fay headed straight for this rougher country. Thereafter from time to time she repeated this action.