Twelve miles out he came to a fork in the road. Which trail? One led up a steep hill, the other down into the river valley, soft-veiled in the late sunshine. Which trail? He could seem to see Roberta choosing the hill and putting her horse up it, while Ruth called out that the valley road was better. With a sense of exhilaration he sent the car up the hill, remembering that from the top was a broad view sure to be worth while on a day like this. Besides, up here he might be able to see far ahead and discern the party somewhere in the distance.
Just over the brow he came upon them where they had camped by the roadside. It was a road quite off the line of travel and they were a hundred feet back among a clump of pine trees, their horses tied to the fence-rail. A bonfire sent up a pungent smoke half veiling the figures.
But the car had come roaring up the hill, and they were all looking his way. Two of the horses had plunged a little at the sudden noise, and Ted ran forward. Richard stopped his engine, triumphant, his pulses quickening with a bound.
"Oh, hullo!" cried Ted in joyful excitement. "Where"d you come from, Mr.
Kendrick? Isn"t this luck!"
"This is certainly luck," responded Richard, doffing his hat as the figures by the fire moved his way, the one in brown coming quickly, the one in green rather more slowly. "Your uncle released me at three and I rushed for the open. What a day!"
"Isn"t it wonderful?" Ruth came up to the brown mare, which was eying the big car with some resentment. She patted the velvet nose as she spoke. "Don"t you mind, Bess," she reproached the mare. "It"s nothing but a puffing, noisy car. It"s not half so nice as you."
She smiled up at Richard and he smiled back. "I rather think you"re right," he admitted. "I used to think myself there was nothing like a good horse. I"d like to exchange the car for one just now; I"m sure of that."
"It wouldn"t buy any one of ours." Roberta, coming up, glanced from the big machine to the trio of interested animals, all of which were keeping watchful eyes on the intruder. "Nonsense, Colonel,--stand still!"
"I don"t want to buy one of yours; I want one of my own, to ride back with you--if you"d let me."
"Anyhow, you can stop and have a bite with us," said Ted, with a sudden thought. "Can"t he, Rob?"
Roberta smiled. "If he is as hungry as he looks."
"Do I look hungry?"
"Starving. So do we, no doubt. Come and have some sandwiches."
"We"re going to toast them," explained Ruth, walking back to the fire with Richard when he had leaped with alacrity over the fence, his hat left behind, his brown head shining in the sun, his face happier than any of his fellow-clubmen had seen it in a year, as they would have been quick to notice if any of them had come upon him now. "We have ginger ale, too; do you like ginger ale?"
"Immensely!" Richard eyed the preparations with interest. "How do you toast your sandwiches?"
"On forks of wood; Ted"s going to cut them."
"Please let me." And the guest fell to work. He found a keen enjoyment in preparing these implements, and afterward in the process of toasting, which was done every-one-for-himself, with varying degrees of success.
The sandwiches were filled with a rich cheese mixture, and the result of toasting them was a toothsome morsel most gratifying to the hungry palate.
"One more?" urged Ruth, offering Richard the nearly empty box which had contained a good supply.
"Thank you--no; I"ve had seven," he refused, laughing. "Nothing ever tasted quite so good. And I"m an interloper."
"Here"s to the interloper!" Ruth raised her gla.s.s and drank the last of her ginger ale. "We always provide for one. Usually it"s a small boy."
"More often a pair of them. And always there are Bess, Colonel, and Sheik." Roberta rose to her feet, the last three sandwiches in hand, and walked away to the horses tied to the fence-rail.
Richard"s eyes followed her. In the austere lines of her riding-habit he could see more clearly than he had yet done what a superb young image of health and energy she was.
"Rob adores horses," Ruth remarked, looking after her sister also. "You ought to see her ride cross-country. My Bess can"t jump, but her Colonel can. I don"t believe there"s anything in sight Rob and Colonel couldn"t jump. But I can never get used to seeing her; I have to shut my eyes when Colonel rises, and I don"t open them till I hear him land. But he"s never fallen with her, and she says he never will."
"He won"t."
"Why not? Any horse might, you know, if he slipped on wet ground or something."
"He never will with her on his back. He"s more likely to jump so high he"ll never come down."
Ruth laughed. "Look at Colonel rub his nose against her, now he"s had the sandwich. Don"t you wish you had a picture of them?"
"Indeed I do!" The tone was fervent. Then a thought struck him and he jumped to his feet. "By all luck, I believe there"s a little camera in the car. If there is we"ll have it."
He ran to the fence, took a flying leap over, and fell to searching. In a moment he produced something which he waved at Ruth. She and Ted went to meet him as he returned. Roberta, busy with the horses, had not seen.
"There are only two exposures left on the film, but they"ll do, if she"ll be good. Will she mind if I snap her, or must I ask her permission?"
"I think you"d better ask it," counselled Ruth doubtfully. "If it were one of us she wouldn"t mind--"
"I see." He set the little instrument with a skilled touch and rapidly, then walked toward Roberta and the horses. He aimed it with care, then he called: "You won"t mind if I take a picture of the horses, will you?"
Roberta turned quickly, her hand on Colonel"s snuggling nose. "Not at all," she answered, and took a quick step to one side. But before she had taken it the sharp-eyed little lens of the camera had caught her, her att.i.tude at the instant one of action, the expression of her face that of vivacious response. She flew out of range and before she could speak the camera clicked again, this time the lens so obviously pointed at the animals, and not at herself, that the intent of the operator could not be called in question.
She looked at him with indignant suspicion, but his glance in return was innocent, though his eyes sparkled.
"They"ll make the prettiest kind of a picture, won"t they?" he observed, sliding the small black box back into its case. "I wish I had another film; I"d take a lot of pictures about this place. I mean always to be loaded, but November isn"t usually the time for photographs, and I"d forgotten all about it."
"If you find you have a picture of me on one of those shots I can trust you not to keep it?"
"I may have caught you on that first shot. I"ll bring it to you to see.
If your hat is tilted too much or you don"t like your own expression--"
"I shall not like it, whatever it is. You stole it. That wasn"t fair--and when you had just been treated to sandwiches and ginger ale!"
He looked into her brilliant face and could not tell what he saw there.
He opened the camera box again and took out the instrument. He removed the roll of films carefully from its position, sealed it, and held it out to her. His manner was the perfection of courtesy.
"There are other pictures on the roll, I suppose?" she said doubtfully, without accepting it.
"Certainly. I forget what they are. But it doesn"t matter."
"Of course it matters. Have them developed--and give me back my own."
"If I develop them I shall be obliged to see yours--if you are on it. If I once see it I may not have the force of character to give it back.
Your only safe course is to take it now."
Ted burst into the affair with a derisive shout. "Oh, Rob! What a silly to care about that little bit of a picture! Let him have it. It was only the horses he wanted anyway!"
The two pairs of eyes met. His were full of deference, yet compelling.
Hers brimmed with restrained laughter. With a gesture she waved back the roll and walked away toward the fire.
"Thank you," said he behind her. "I"ll try to prove myself worthy of the trust."
"Rufus! Dare you to run down the hill to that big tree with me!" Ted, no longer interested in this tame conclusion of what had promised to be an exciting encounter, challenged his sister. Ruth accepted, and the pair were off down a long, inviting slope none too smooth, with a stiff stubble, but not the less attractive for that.