Of course Laura understood that this was York"s return for catching him at a disadvantage, but she meant to pursue the quest in spite of her brother"s teasing, for she was really concerned.
Only a few days before, the New Eden leak had opened again and some really valuable things, far scattered and hardly enough to be considered separately, had disappeared. Laura by chance had heard that week of two instances on the town side of the river, and on the evening previous of one across the river.
Before she spoke again she saw that Jerry"s eyes were fixed on the buffet, where two silver cups, exactly alike, sat side by side. There was a queer expression about the girl"s mouth as she caught her hostess"s eye.
"Is there any more silver of that pattern in this part of the country?"
she asked, with seeming carelessness, wrestling the while with a little problem of her own.
"Not a pennyweight this side of old "Castle Cluny" in Scotland, so far as I know," York replied. "There"s your other cup, after all, Laura. By the way, Miss Jerry, how would you like to take a horseback ride over "Kingussie"? I must go to the far side of the ranch this morning, and I would like a companion--even yourself."
"Do go, Jerry. I don"t ride any more," Laura urged, with that cheerful smile that told how heroically she bore her affliction. "I used to ride miles with York back in the Winnowoc country."
"And York always misses you whenever he rides," her brother replied, beaming affectionately upon his brave, sweet sister. "Maybe, though, Jerry doesn"t ride on horseback," he added.
At Laura"s words Jerry"s mind was flooded with memories of the Winnowoc country where from childhood she had taken long, exhilarating rides with her father and her cousin Gene Wellington.
"I"ve always ridden on horseback," she said, dreamily, without looking up.
"She"s going to ride with me, not with ghosts of Eastern lovers, if she rides to-day," York resolved, a sudden tenseness catching at his throat.
"What kind of mounts are you afraid of? I can have Ponk send up something easy," he said, in a quiet, fatherly way.
Jerry"s eyes darkened. "I can ride anything your Sage Brush grows that you call a saddle-horse," she declared, with pretty daring. "Why, "I was the pride of the countryside" back in a country where fine horses grew.
Really and seriously, it was Cousin Gene who was afraid of spirited horses, and he looked so splendid on them, too. But he couldn"t manage them any more than he could run an automobile over the bluff road above the big cut this side of the third crossing of the Winnowoc. He preferred to crawl through that cut in the slow old local train while I climbed over the bluffs in our big car. You hadn"t figured on my boasting qualities, had you?" she added, with a smile at her own vaunting words.
"Oh, go on," Laura urged. "I heard your father telling us once that your cousin, on the Darby side, would ride out with you bravely enough, but that you traded horses when you got off the place and you always came back home on the one they were afraid for you to take out and your cousin was afraid to ride back."
"She _climbed_ while Cousin Gene _crawled_. I believe she said something there, but she doesn"t know it yet; and it"s not my business to tell her till she asks me." York shut his lips grimly at the unspoken words.
"We"ll be back, appet.i.te and sundries, for the best meal the scullery-maid can loot from the village," he said, as they rose from the table.
When Jerry came out of the side door, where York was waiting for her, she suggested at once a model for a cover ill.u.s.tration of an outing magazine, an artistic advertis.e.m.e.nt for well-tailored results, and a type of young American beauty. As they rode back toward the barns and cattle-sheds that belonged to the ranch edging the corporation limits of New Eden, neither one noticed the tall, angular form of Mrs. Stellar Bahrr as she came striding across lots toward the driveway.
Stellar lived in a side street. Her back yard bordered a vacant lot on the next side street above her. Crossing this, she could slip over the lawn of a vacant house and down the alley half a block, and on by the United Brethren minister"s parsonage. That let her sidle between a little carpenter-shop and a shoe-shop to the rear gateway into an alley that led out to the open ground at the foot of the Macpherson knoll.
Stellar preferred this corkscrew route to the "Castle." It gave her several back and side views, with "listening-posts" at certain points.
"Oh, good morning, Laury! I"m so glad to find you alone. I"m in a little trouble, an" mebby you can help me out. You are everybody"s friend, just like your brother, exactly. Only his bein" that way"s bound to get him into trouble sooner or before that. Eh! What"s that you"re lookin" at?"
Laura had gone to the buffet after the riders had started away. She had a singular feeling about that cup appearing so suddenly. She remembered now that Jerry had asked twice about those cups, and had looked at them with such a peculiar expression on each occasion. Laura had not remarked upon it to herself the first time, but the trifling incident at the table just now stayed in her mind. Yet why? The housekeeper often rearranged the dining-room features in her endeavor to keep things free from dust. That would not satisfy the query. That cup and Jerry Swaim were dodging about most singularly in Laura"s consciousness, and she could not know that the reason for it lay in the projecting power of the mind of the woman coming across lots at that moment to call on her.
Yet when Mrs. Bahrr thrust herself into the dining-room unannounced, as was her habit, with her insistent greeting, and her query, "What"s that you"re lookin" at?" the mistress of "Castle Cluny" had a feeling of having been caught holding a guilty suspicion; and when Stellar Bahrr ran her through with steely eyes she felt herself blushing with surprise and chagrin.
"How can I help you, Mrs. Bahrr?" she asked, recovering herself in a moment.
It was, however, the loss of the moment that always gave the woman before her the clue she wanted.
"I"m needin" just a little money--only a few dollars. I"m quittin"
hat-trimmin" since them smarties down-town got so busy makin" over, an"
trimmin" over, an" everything. I"m goin" to makin" bread. I"ve got six customers already, an" I"m needin" a gasoliner the worst way. I lack jist five--mebby I could squeeze out with four dollars if I had it right away. You never knowed what it means to be hard up, I reckon; never had no trouble at all; no husband to up an" leave you and not a soul to lean on. You"ve always had York to lean on. I "ain"t got n.o.body."
The drooping figure and wrinkled face were pitiful enough to keep Laura Macpherson from reminding her that she was older than her brother and once the leaning had been the other way. Here was a needy, lonely, friendless woman. What matter that her greatest enemy was herself? All of us are in that boat.
"Of course I"ll help you, Mrs. Bahrr. I"ll get the money right away."
She rose to leave the room, then sat down again hastily.
"I"m afraid I can"t help you right now, either. I have mislaid my purse.
But when I find it I"ll let you have the money. When York comes back maybe I can get it of him. Could you come over this afternoon?"
"Mebby York won"t let you have it to loan where there ain"t no big interest comin". I"d ruther he didn"t know it if you wasn"t sure."
Laura recalled what her brother had said about not becoming entangled with Stellar Bahrr, and she knew he would oppose the loan. She knew, too, that in the end he would consent to it, because he himself was continually befriending the poor, no matter how shiftless they might be.
"I think I can bring York round, all right," Laura a.s.sured her caller.
"He"s not unreasonable."
"I"d ruther he didn"t know. Men are so different from women, you know.
You say you lost your purse. Ain"t that funny? Where?"
"The funny thing is I don"t know where," Laura replied.
Mrs. Bahrr had settled down, and, having accomplished her open purpose, began to train her batteries for her hidden motive.
"Things gits lost funny ways, queer ways, and sometimes ornery ways.
Ever" now an" then things is simply missin" here in this burg--just missin". But again there"s such queer folks even in what you call the best s"ciety. Now ain"t that so?"
Laura agreed amiably. In truth, she wanted to get her mind away from its substratum of unpleasant and unusual thought for which she could not account. Nothing could take her farther from it than Mrs. Bahrr"s small talk about people and things. She knew better than to accept the gossip for facts, but there was no courteous way of stopping Stellar now, anyhow. One had to meet her on the threshold for that.
""Tain"t always the little, petty thievin" sneak gits the things, even if they do git the blame of it. No, "tain"t." Mrs. Bahrr rambled on, fixing her hook eyes square into her hostess at just the right moment for emphasis. "I knowed the same thing happen twice. Once back in Indiany, where I come from--jist a little town on White River. There was a girl come to that town from"--hesitatingly--"from Californy; said to be rich, an" dressed it all right; had every man there crazy about her, an" her spendin" money like water pours over a mill-wheel in March. Tell you who she looked like--jist a mite like this Miss Swim stayin" at your house now--big eyes an" innocent-lookin" like her, but this Californy girl was a lot the best-lookin" of the two--a lot. An" she was rich--or so everybody thought. This un ain"t. I got that out of Ponk "fore he knowed it. An"--well, to make a story end somewhere this side of eternity, I never could bear them ramblin" kind of folks--first thing folks knowed a rich old bachelor got animated with her, just clear _animated_, an" literally swore by her. An"--well, things got to missin"
a little an" a little more, an", sir--well"--slowly and impressively--"it turned out at last that this girl who they said was so rich was a _thief_, takin" whatever she could get, "cause she was hard up an" too proud to go back to Oregon to tell her folks. An" that rich bachelor jist defended her ever" way--"d say he took things accidental, an" then help her to git "em back, or git away with them--it was like a real drammy jist like they acted out in the picture show t"other night down-town. There was lots of talk, an" it nearly broke his sister"s--I mean his mother"s--heart. But, pshaw! that all happened years ago down in Indiany on the White River. It"s all forgot long "go. Guess I"d never thought of it again if this Swim girl hadn"t come here with her big eyes, remindin" me of that old forgot eppisode, an" your losin"
your purse mysterious. How things happen, year in an" year out, place after place, the same kind of things; good folks everywhere, though--everywhere. I was in York"s office late yistyday afternoon, an"
this girl comes in. Too bad she"s so poor an" so pretty."
There was a venomous twist of the hooks at that word "pretty."
"But she"s in trouble some way, all right, I know, an" York "ll help her out. _I_ wouldn"t ask him. Men take more int"rist naturally in young an"
pretty women. But it"s different with older women. I hope York never gits caught sometime like that man I knowed back in Indiany. He"s too smart for that. Miss Swim must have told York about her money shortage yistyday. The postmaster said she"d been waitin" for a check considerable. I couldn"t get nothin" out of _him_, whether it had come yet or not. But I guess not. But la! la! she"s your guest; you wouldn"t let her suffer; an" I ain"t tellin" a soul what I know about things. I do know what they say, of course. York won"t let her suffer. But I"m so much obliged to you. Four dollars will be all I need, an" I"ll pay you with the first bakin"s. I guess I"ll set some folks thinkin" when they see I can make my own way--"
Laura Macpherson was on her feet and it was her eyes now that were holding the woman of the steel hooks.
"Miss Swaim is our guest, the daughter of an old friend of the Macphersons. Of course we--"
Oh what was the use? Laura"s anger fell away. It was too ridiculous to engage in a quarrel with the town long-tongue. York was right. The only way to get along with Stellar Bahrr was not to traffic with her. Mrs.
Bahrr rose also, gripping at the chance for escape uninjured.
"I"ll see you this afternoon if you still feel like helpin" me, an" York is willin". I clear forgot to put out my ice-card. Good day. Good day."
The woman shuffled away, leaving the mistress of "Cluny Castle" in the grip of many evil spirits. The demon of anger, of doubt, of contempt, of incipient distrust, of self-accusation for even listening--these and others contended with the angel of the sense of humor and the natural courtesy of a well-bred woman.
And then the lost purse came up again.