Tish turned and eyed him. "True love is a very beautiful thing," she rebuked him. "Although a single woman myself, I believe in it. "Come live with me and be my love,"" she quoted, sitting down to shake a stone out of her riding-boot.
Bill looked startled. "I might say," he said hastily, "that I may have misled you, ladies. I"m married."
"You said you had never been in love," Tish said sharply.
"Well, not to say real love," he replied. "She was the cook of an outfit I was with and it just came about natural. She was going to leave, which meant that I"d have to do the cooking, which I ain"t much at, especially pastry. So I married her."
Tish gave him a scornful glance but said nothing and we went on.
We camped late that afternoon beside Two Medicine Lake, and while Bill put up the tents the three of us sat on a log and soaked our aching feet in the water which was melted glacier, and naturally cold.
What was our surprise, on turning somewhat, to see the angry lover fishing on a point near by. While we stared he pulled out a large trout, and stalked away without a glance in our direction. As Tish, with her usual forethought, had brought a trout rod, she hastily procured it, but without result.
"Of course," Aggie said, "no fish! I could eat a piece of broiled fish.
I dare say I shall be skin and bone at the end of this trip--and not much skin."
Bill had set up the sleeping-tent and built a fire, and it looked cozy and comfortable. But Tish had the young man on her mind, and after supper she put on a skirt which she had brought along and went to see him.
"I"d take him some supper, Bill," she said, "but you are correct: you are no cook."
She disappeared among the bushes, only to return in a short time, jerking off her skirt as she came.
"He says all he wants is to be let alone," she said briefly. "I must say I"m disappointed in him. He was very agreeable before."
I pa.s.s without comment over the night. Bill had put up the tent over the root of a large tree, and we disposed ourselves about it as well as we could. In the course of the night one of the horses broke loose and put its head inside the tent. Owing to Aggie"s thinking it was a bear, Tish shot at it, fortunately missing it.
But the frightened animal ran away, and Bill was until noon the next day finding it. We cooked our own breakfast, and Tish made some gems, having brought the pan along. But the morning dragged, although the scenery was lovely.
At twelve Bill brought the horse back and came over to us.
"If you don"t mind my saying it, Miss Carberry," he observed, "you"re a bit too ready with that gun. First thing you know you"ll put a hole through me, and then where will you be?"
"I"ve got along without men most of my life," Tish said sharply. "I reckon we"d manage."
"Well," he said, "there"s another angle to it. Where would I be?"
"That"s between you and your Creator," Tish retorted.
We went on again that afternoon, and climbed another precipice. We saw no human being except a mountain goat, although Bill claimed to have seen a bear. Tish was quite calm at all times, and had got so that she could look down into eternity without a shudder. But Aggie and I were still nervous, and at the steepest places we got off and walked.
The unfortunate part was that the exercise and the mountain air made Aggie hungry, and there was little that she could eat.
"If any one had told me a month ago," she said, mopping her forehead, "that I would be scaling the peaks of my country on crackers and tea, I wouldn"t have believed it. I"m done out, Lizzie. I can"t climb another inch."
Bill was ahead with the pack horse, and Tish, overhearing her, called back some advice.
"Take your horse"s tail and let him pull you up, Aggie," she said. "I"ve read it somewhere."
Aggie, although frequently complaining, always does as Tish suggests. So she took the horse"s tail, when a totally unexpected thing happened.
Docile as the creature generally was, it objected at once, and kicked out with both rear feet. In a moment, it seemed to me, Aggie was gone, and her horse was moving on alone.
"Aggie!" I called in a panic.
Tish stopped, and we both looked about. Then we saw her, lying on a ledge about ten feet below the trail. She was flat on her back, and her riding-hat was gone. But she was uninjured, although shaken, for as we looked she sat up, and an agonized expression came over her face.
"Aggie!" I cried. "Is anything broken?"
"d.a.m.nation!" said Aggie in an awful voice. "The upper set is gone!"
I have set down exactly what Aggie said. I admit that the provocation was great. But Tish was not one to make allowances, and she turned and went on, leaving us alone. She is not without feeling, however, for from the top of the pa.s.s she sent Bill down with a rope, and we dragged poor Aggie to the trail again. Her nerves were shaken and she was repentant also, for when she found that her hat was gone she said nothing, although her eyes took on a hunted look.
At the top of the pa.s.s Tish was sitting on a stone. She had taken her mending-box from the saddle, where she always kept it handy, and was drawing up a hole in her stocking. I observed to her pleasantly that it was a sign of scandal to mend clothing while still on, but she ignored me, although, as I reflected bitterly, I had not been kicked over the cliff.
It was a subdued and speechless Aggie who followed us that afternoon along the trail. As her hat was gone, I took the spare dish towel and made a turban for her, with an end hanging down to protect the back of her neck. But she expressed little grat.i.tude, beyond observing that as she was going over the edge piecemeal, she"d better have done it all at once and be through with it.
The afternoon wore away slowly. It seemed a long time until we reached our camping-place, partly because, although a small eater ordinarily, the air and exercise had made me feel famished. But the disagreement between Tish and Aggie, owing to the latter"s unfortunate exclamation while kicked over the cliff, made the time seem longer. There was not the usual exchange of pleasant nothings between us.
But by six o"clock Tish was more amiable, having seen bear scratches on trees near the camp, and antic.i.p.ating the sight of a bear. She mixed up a small cup cake while Bill was putting up our tent, and then, taking her rod, proceeded to fish, while Aggie and I searched for gra.s.shoppers.
These were few, owing to the alt.i.tude, but we caught four, which we imprisoned in a match-box.
With them Tish caught four trout and, broiling them nicely, she offered one to poor Aggie. It was a peace offering, and taken as such, so that we were soon on our former agreeable footing, and all forgotten.
The next day it rained, and we were obliged to sit in the tent. Bill sat with us, and talked mainly of desperadoes.
"As I observed before," he said, "there hasn"t been any tourist holdup yet. But it"s bound to come. Take the Yellowstone, now,--one holdup a year"s the average, and it"s full of soldiers at that."
"It"s a wonder people keep on going," I observed moving out of a puddle.
"Oh, I don"t know," he said. "In one way it"s good business. I take it this way: When folks come West they want the West they"ve read about.
What do they care for irrigation and apple orchards? What they like is danger and a little gunplay, the sort of thing they see in these here moving pictures."
"I"m sure I don"t," Aggie remarked. It was growing dusk, and she peered out into the forest round us. "There is something crackling out there now," she said.
"Only a bear, likely," Bill a.s.sured her. "We have a sight of bears here.
No, ma"am, they want danger. And every holdup"s an advertis.e.m.e.nt. You see, the Government can"t advertise these here parks; not the way it should, anyhow. But a holdup"s news, so the papers print it, and it sets people to thinking about the park. Maybe they never thought of the place and are arranging to go elsewhere. Then along comes a gang and raises h--, raises trouble, and the park"s in every one"s mouth, so to speak.
We"d get considerable business if there was one this summer."
At that moment the crackling outside increased, and a shadowy form emerged from the bushes. Even Bill stood up, and Aggie screamed.
It was, however, only poor Mr. Bell.
"Mind if I borrow some matches?" he said gruffly.
"We can"t lend matches," Tish replied. "At least, I don"t see the use of sending them back after they"ve been lighted. We can give you some."
"My mistake," he said.
That was all he said, except the word "Thanks" when I reached him a box.