"I am not so sure that you have seen the last of him. Such men as he are tenacious and revengeful; he fired our stacks, you remember! Don"t look so surprised, Robbie. It was very nice and thoughtful of you and Grace to try to keep me from knowing, but your mother was born in this valley and is still in full possession of all her faculties. Besides, conversational topics are scarce, and your neighbors like to talk!" Then as an after-thought, "I think Mr. Dougla.s.s is fully able to cope with the situation!"
Later, as she stood by the window of her darkened room looking abstractedly out into the beautiful night, she saw him enter the room where Red lay strumming on his guitar. Approvingly she noted his quick, springy stride, his alert, upright carriage, the whole sinewy grace of him as he bent kindly over his comrade.
"What a splendid young animal it is," she mused smilingly, "one eminently calculated to fill the eye of a romantic young girl. After all, why should I interfere? As he said to-night, "every one has to dree his own weird!" Then again, she has known all kinds of men, and this in all likelihood is merely a transient fancy bred of the novel environment and will doubtlessly pa.s.s in due course." Her face grew serious, however, as she recalled the concern in Grace"s face at her reference to Matlock"s revengefulness. "Propinquity--and youth--and pa.s.sion! A precarious trio, indeed. Everything considered, I think I will take her back with me," concluded this astute woman of the world.
She was, nevertheless, not unduly surprised at Grace"s negation of that proposal when it was broached the week before her mother"s departure.
The young woman urged her very evident physical betterment since coming to the ranch, and her great desire to witness that most spectacular of range functions, the fall round-up. With the imposed condition that her stay would not extend over the holiday season, her mother consented, hesitatingly. But she took occasion, that very evening, to casually bring Dougla.s.s under discussion, concluding a very generous estimation of him with the significant words: "One can trust to an appeal to his honor when every other means fail!" That she directed the remark particularly to Grace, was doubtless without premeditation, and a.s.suredly called for no reply. Yet there was a certain resentment in the girl"s rather constrained answer:
"Do you think it probable that such an exigency will ever arise?"
The world-wise old woman looked thoughtfully at the flushed face, thinking how singularly beautiful it was. Then she scanned the perfectly proportioned figure beneath, its exquisite modeling revealed and accentuated by the clinging silk fabric of the thin evening gown.
"Anything is probable to a man of his temperament," she said calmly.
"Strong natures like his are contemptuous of limitations and laugh at ethical restrictions. That man, if I mistake not, will go straight to his desire as a bullet to the mark, regardless of what stands between."
Robert laughed fatuously, missing entirely the drift of the undercurrent. "You have certainly got him sized up right, Mater. Ken is "sure chain lightin"," as Williams says."
"And if it be evil to stand in the path of a thunderbolt, how inconceivably foolish to invite its stroke!"
The young man stared dubiously at her; all this seemed inconsequential to him, this talk of thunderbolts and bullets. Did these foolish women think that Ken Dougla.s.s was a.s.s enough to expose himself recklessly to either. In some respects the master of the C Bar was as unimaginative and simple-minded as a new-born baby.
"Don"t yuh worrit none about thundeh-strikes," interjected Abbie with crisp a.s.surance, entering the room in pursuit of the too-intrusive Buffo, who every evening persisted in joining the family circle. "They ain"t goin" to be no thundeh-stawms so late in thu yeah; yuh suahly know thet, Mis" Cahtah, yuh was bawn heah!"
The lady addressed smiled indulgently at her old friend. "I am hoping that there will be no storms of any sort which will cause suffering and misery to anybody, Abbie. Life is too short to be spoiled with heartaches."
"Do you know whose property this is?" she asked Grace that night, coming into her bedroom as she was preparing to retire. "One of the men found it this morning just outside the main gate and brought it to me, thinking it belonged to Robert. But the handwriting is not his, I know, and I thought you might recognize it. There is no name on the fly-leaf."
She handed her a thin, long, morocco-covered notebook, which opened of itself, as she laid it in the young lady"s hand, at a place where the leaves were separated by a withered flower. It was a long-dried mountain heart"s-ease, and, despite her efforts, her cheeks reddened consciously.
The writing on the pages was in verse and she recognized the bold, free style at a glance. She had commented frequently on his firm, legible script when auditing his accounts in company with her brother. And once he had sent her a little formal note, asking if she had any commissions for him to execute in Denver, where he had gone on some private business shortly after her overtures at reconciliation. She had eagerly grasped the olive branch so chillingly extended, and his matching of the silk floss samples she sent him in reply was entirely to her satisfaction. It is a question if she would have appreciated the grim humor of her commission had she known his real mission to the capital city. He had been informed, on more or less reliable authority, that Matlock had been seen there a few days previously! The report proved to be false, and the note was now enveloping a cl.u.s.ter of withered heart"s-ease in her sandalwood jewel case.
Without hesitation she identified the handwriting. "I think it must belong to Mr. Dougla.s.s;" she said frankly, meeting her mother"s eyes without a particle of indecision. "I am quite familiar with his writing, having helped Bobbie in auditing his accounts. And this flower, I think, is one I gave him some months ago."
Mrs. Carter"s eyes snapped with a fierce pride. She put her arm tenderly about the velvety neck.
"Kiss me, dearie! You are very like your father, and he was the bravest man G.o.d ever made!" At the threshold she turned; "I think it entirely permissible--indeed, I much desire that you read that verse."
For the first time since her coming to the ranch, Grace Carter turned the key in the door lock; then she laid the notebook on her dressing table and completed her preparations for rest. Finally, she sat down on the edge of the bed and opened the book. Carefully she removed the flower and laid it on a silk handkerchief, folded for its reception. For a time she sat looking at it reminiscently; then with a visible effort she turned to the clearly-written pages.
She read with great deliberation, a second and then a third time, a hymn to love, boyishly crude, but charged to the full with youth and longing; no better and no worse, perhaps, than the average effusion of twenty-six in love, not with woman but with love; authentic, and for that reason sacred; overwrought, as became the heedless pa.s.sion which inspired it; self-revealing, but of s.e.x and temper rather than of mind.
A few years back it would have shocked her; now, it made her think.
She replaced the flower, closed the book and thrust it under her pillow.
Far into the night she sat there, her arms clasped about her knees, her eyes luminous but unseeing. Finally the night chill aroused her and she slipped into bed.
CHAPTER VIII
THE Pa.s.sING OF A CLOUD
But that was a week ago and now she was riding homeward with him in the moonlight. She had the notebook in the inside pocket of her riding jacket, having decided to return it to him in person, and this had been her first opportunity, he having been away for the whole of the previous week on some range matter requiring his personal attention.
He had evidently dropped the book from his shirt pocket during his struggle with the refractory gate, and on his return had interrogated everyone on the ranch about it except the actual finder, that worthy being absent at the time of his return on some errand for Miss Carter.
He was very anxious for its recovery for more reasons than one. It contained some valuable memoranda about his range work; and then, again, he had private reasons why none of the men should chance to fall afoul of his metrical effusion. He was familiar with the coa.r.s.e badinage of the camp, a humor that respects no personage, however high his official position, and the possibilities worried him.
He felt a great chagrin that he had as yet not been able to locate Matlock. In his supersensitiveness he was obsessed with an entirely unfounded impression that he was losing prestige among his men because of the unavoidable delay. If they were to learn that he had been farther guilty of the inexcusable weakness of writing verse of that sentimental character, his cup of bitterness would be running over!
Imagine his unbounded relief when she handed it to him with the simple remark: "I have something here belonging to you, I think." But almost instantly he was filled with consternation. Had she by any miserable chance read that verse! Intuitively she felt what was pa.s.sing in his mind and demurely fibbed for his rea.s.surance: "Mamma recovered it--I think she said it was found at the gate--and brought it to me. I knew it was yours from the memoranda on the first page, but forgot to return it before. I sincerely hope I have not caused you any inconvenience?"
He was almost vehement in his eagerness to a.s.sure her that it was altogether a matter of no moment, but her eyes twinkled mischievously as she noted the care with which he bestowed it in a safe place. "After all, men are only boys grown up," she thought, and her regard for him was ludicrously maternal. She felt an almost irresistible desire to lecture him on the folly of his ways and the dangerous possibilities attendant on the writing of erotic verse; she actually began a homily on the uncertainty of life and one"s logical duty of the enjoyment of things actually in possession rather than the pitiable craving for the unattainable. She had cleverly led up to it by enthusiastically admiring the beauty of the perfect night and the understandable attraction that these glorious surroundings had for everyone who came into intimate contact with them.
Once, in the emphasizing of some vital point in issue, she impulsively laid her gloved hand on his arm; the man started as if he had been stung and she recoiled from the hunger in his eyes. The mothering of a lion cub has its disadvantages, and thereafter her milk of human kindness overflowed no more.
There was an evident suspicion evinced in the keen attention he was paying to her words as she trenched on the delicate topic of logical content with one"s militant blessings, and she ingeniously proceeded to disarm it.
"Why is it that among the thousands of susceptible and impressionable souls that have reveled in these delights, not one has had the moral courage to depict them in print? The labor would surely be one of love and the inspiration never lacks."
"Possibly," he suggested, "it is a matter of sheer mental and literary inability. But few have been endowed with the gift of Genius. And then, again, authorship is necessarily an affair of leisure, and life is apt to be strenuous in these hills." He turned in his saddle and laughingly asked her: "How much time could your cowpunchers afford to devote to the Muses, Miss Grace?"
"Genius knows no paltry restrictions of time and place," she said, with some acerbity, "and I know of at least one of the men you mention who has the ability if not the courage."
He winced a little at that and the cloud of suspicion grew denser. But it was partly dissipated at her earnest inquiry: "Why do not you, a man of keen discernment and liberal education, essay the task? I am certain that you would achieve a great success."
"I have other work to do," he said, gruffly. "And I am not sure that I find your suggestion at all complimentary. Am I to infer that in your estimation I am blessed with an inordinate amount of leisure time?"
She shrugged her shoulders with wrathful impatience; he was a bigger baby than she had thought. "That was gratuitous," she said, with a fine show of indignation; "and you are not at all nice when you are insolent." To her disgust he chuckled audibly, leaning over his pommel in simulated humility.
"Lesson number three. I"m getting that "liberal education" fast," he murmured; "by and by I"ll know enough to put into a book."
For the life of her she could not resist the temptation. "If you do, don"t write it in verse."
Instantly she regretted her temerity. "There are so few people who write verse acceptably," she explained hurriedly, "and there are too many ambitious things that die "abornin"," as Abbie would say, from that very reason. Prose has much more potentiality and is more acceptable to the ma.s.ses. Of course"--the tone was that of innocence personified--"if you can do verse, that would be another matter. The essential thing is that you do write the book. Will you? Please."
The voice was almost tenderly imploring; his brow cleared. He was almost ashamed of his momentary distrust of her. In polite society people do not read private doc.u.ments; evidently this young woman had come dangerously close to his rash misjudgment and he was properly penitent.
Still he was tormented by an insistent doubt. Why had she particularized that first page of memoranda? With a fatuous attempt at diplomacy he put his foot into it.
"Why should you a.s.sume so flatteringly that I have any literary ability?" He thought the question almost Machiavelian in its adroitness.
She had her cue, now. "Well, your aptness at quotation from obscure sources presupposes a wide range of reading, a retentive memory, and a love for literature. Then, again, you have rare constructiveness and--and--" her simulation of modest distress would have deceived even a wiser man--"a horribly clever knack of impromptu rhyme, as I have regretful reasons for knowing."
Poor Machiavelli! He was at her feet figuratively in an instant. "That Buffo business! It was abominable of me! Don"t judge me by a thing like that. I can do better things. Will you let bygones be bygones, if I plead guilty to the gentle impeachment and promise to let you criticise my future efforts?"
She took his extended hand frankly. "Everything begins right here." She gave thanks for a timely cloud"s momentary obscuration of the moon as he laid his lips on the tiny gauntlet. Then she impulsively urged her horse into a gallop, and before the moon had emerged from behind the cloud, they had crossed the ridge and the ranch lights twinkled in view though still a good five miles away.
Up on the hillside above, behind a bowlder which commanded in easy range the point where their compact had been sealed, a man lay fumbling a rifle and fluently cursing the cloud which had so inopportunely spoiled his aim. His vicious face was distorted with rage and fury, his mouth foaming with pa.s.sion.
"d.a.m.n you," he raved, shaking his clenched fist at the offending white billow; "I"d got him if you had waited a second longer or crossed a second sooner. Everything goes against me, and he"s got all the luck.