by B. M. Bower
CHAPTER XX. LUIS ROJAS TALKS
Three days of hiding by day in sequestered little groves or deep, hiddencanons, with only Luis Rojas to bear her company--Luis Rojas whom shedid not trust and therefore watched always from under her long straightlashes, with oblique glances when she seemed to be gazing straightbefore her; three nights of tramping through rough places where oftenthe horses must pause and feel carefully for space to set their feet.Roads there were, but Luis avoided roads as though they carried theplague. When he must cross one he invariably turned back and brushed outtheir footprints--until he discovered that Annie-Many-Ponies was muchcleverer at this than he was; often he smoked a cigarette while Anniecovered their trail. Three days and three nights, and Ramon was notthere where they stopped for the third day.
"We go slow," Luis explained nervously because of the look in theblack, unreadable eyes of this straight, slim Indian girl who wasso beautiful--and so silent. "They go muy fas', Ramon an' Beel. Pocotiempo--sure, we fin' dem little soon."
Annie-Many-Ponies did not betray by so much as a quiver of an eyelashthat Luis had mentioned Bill unwittingly. But she hid the name away inher memory, and all that day she sat and pondered over the meager factsthat had come her way, and with the needle of her suspicion she wovethem together patiently until the pattern was almost complete.
Ramon and Bill--what Bill, save Bill Holmes, would be with Ramon?Ramon and Bill Holmes--memory pictured them again by the rock in themoonlight, muttering in Spanish mostly, muttering mystery always. Ramonand Bill Holmes she remembered the sly, knowing glances between thesetwo at "location" though they scarcely seemed on speaking terms. Ramonand Bill and this mysterious night-travelling, when there should be notrouble and no mystery at all beyond the house of the priest! So muchtrouble over the marriage of an Indian girl and a young Mexican cattleking? Annie-Many-Ponies was not so stupid as to believe that; she hadseen too much of civilization in her wanderings with the show, and herwork in pictures. She had seen man and maid "make marriage," in picturesand in reality. There should be no trouble, no mysterious following ofRamon by night.
Something evil there was, since Bill Holmes was with Ramon.Annie-Many-Ponies knew that it was so. Perhaps--perhaps the evil wasagainst Wagalexa Conka! Perhaps--her heart forgot to beat when thethought stabbed her brain--perhaps they had killed Wagalexa Conka! Itmight be so, if he had suspected her flight and had followed Ramon, andthey had fought.
In the thick shade of a pinon Luis slept with his face to the ground,his forehead pressed upon his folded arms. Annie-Many-Ponies got upsilently and went and stood beside him, looking down at him as thoughshe meant to wrest the truth from his brain. And Luis, feeling in hissleep the intensity of her gaze, stirred uneasily, yawned and sat up,looking about him bewilderedly. His glance rested on the girl, and hesprang to his feet and faced her.
Annie-Many-Ponies smiled her little, tantalizing, wistfully invitingsmile--the smile which luck bad whimsically called heart-twisting."I awful lonesome," she murmured, and sat down with her back nestlingcomfortably against a grassy bank. "You talk. I not lets you sleep alltime. You think I not good for talk to?"
"Me, I not tell w'at I'm theenk," Luis retorted with a crooning note,and sat down facing her. "Ramon be mad me."
Annie-Many-Ponies looked at him, her eyes soft and heavy with thatlanguorous look which will quickest befuddle the sense of a man. "Youtell; Ramon not hear," she hinted. "Ramon, he got plenty trobles forthinking about." She smiled again. "Ramon plenty long ways off. He gotBill Holmes for talking to. You talk to me."
How he did it, why he did it, Luis Rojas could never explain afterwards.Something there was in her smile, in her voice, that bewitched him.Something there was that made him think she knew and approved ofthe thing Ramon had planned. He made swift, Spanish love toAnnie-Many-Ponies, who smiled upon him but would not let him touch herhand--and so bewitched him the more. He made love--but also he talked.He told Annie-Many-Ponies all that she wished him to tell; and somethings that she had never dreamed and that she shrank from hearing.
For he told her of the gold they had stolen, and how they had made itlook as though Luck Lindsay had planned the theft. He told her thathe loved her--which did not interest her greatly--and he told her thatRamon would never marry her--which was like a knife thrust to her soul.Ramon had many loves, said Luis, and he was true to none; never would hemarry a woman to rule his life and make him trouble--it were easier tomake love and then laugh and ride away. Luis was "muy s'prised"that Annie-Many-Ponies had ever believed that Ramon would marryher, beautiful though she was, charming though she was, altogetherirresistible though she was--Luis became slightly incoherent here andlapsed into swift rolling Spanish words which she did not understand.
Luis, before the sun went down and it was time to eat supper and go on,became so thoroughly bewitched that he professed himself eager to lethis share of the gold go, and to take Annie-Many-Ponies to a priest andmarry her--if she wished very much to be married by a priest. In themiddle of his exaltation, Annie-Many-Ponies chilled him with the lookshe gave him.
"You big fool," she told him bluntly. "I not so fool like that. I go toRamon--and plenty gold! I think you awful fool. You make me tired!"
Luis was furious enough for a minute to do her violence--butAnnie-Many-Ponies killed that impulse also with the cold contempt in hereyes. She was not afraid of him, and like an animal he dared not strikewhere he could not inspire fear. He muttered a Mexican oath or two andwent mortifiedly away to lead the horses down to the little stream wherethey might drink. The girl was right--he was a fool, he told himselfangrily; and sulked for hours.
Fool or not, he had told Annie-Many-Ponies what she wanted to know. Hehad given food to her brooding thoughts--food that revived swiftly andnourished certain traits lying dormant in her nature, buried alive underthe veneer of white man's civilization--as we are proud to call it.
The two ate in silence, and in silence they saddled the horses andfared forth again in their quest of Ramon--who had the gold whichAnnie-Many-Ponies boldly asserted was an added lure. "The monee--alwaysthe man wins that has muchos monee." Luis muttered often to himself ashe rode into the dusk. Behind him Annie-Many-Ponies walked and led theblack horse that bore all her worldly possessions bound to the saddle.The little black dog padded patiently along at his heels.
CHAPTER XXI. "WAGALEXA CONKA--COLA!"
"So good little girl yoh are to true' Ramon! Now I knows for sure yohlov' me moch as I lov' yoh! Now we go little ride more to my house highup in the pinons--then we be so happy like two birds in nes'. Firs' werest ourselves, querida mia. This good place for res', my sweetheartthat comes so far to be with Ramon. To-morrow we go to my house--tones' of my loved one. Thees cabin, she's very good little nes' ontiltomorrow--yoh theenk so?"
Annie-Many-Ponies, sitting beside the doorway of the primitive littlelog cabin where the night-journeys with Luis had ended, looked up intoRamon's flushed face with her slow smile. But her eyes were two deep,black wells whose depths he could not fathom.
"Where them priest you promise?" she asked, her voice lowered to itssoftest Indian tone. "Now I think we make plenty marriage; then we gofor live in your house."
Ramon turned and caught her unexpectedly in his arms. "Ah, now you spikfoolish talk. Yoh not trus' Ramon! Why yoh talk pries', pries' all time?Lov', she's plenty pries' for us. Pries' she don' make us more lov'each other--pries' don' make us happy--we like birds that make nes'in tree-tops. Yoh think they mus' have pries' for help them be happy?Lov'--that's plenty for me."
Annie-Many-Ponies drew herself away from his embrace, but she did itgently. Bill Holmes, coming up from the spring, furnished excuse enough,and Ramon let her go.
"You promise me priest for making us marriage," she persisted in hersoft voice.
Ramon twisted the points of his black mustache and regarded her askance,smiling crookedly. "Yoh 'fraid for trus' me, that's why I promise,"he said at last. "Me, I don' need padre to mumble-mumble foolishwords before I can be happy.
Yoh 'fraid of Luck Leen'sey, that's why Ipromise. Now yoh come way up here, so luck don' matter no more. Yoh behappy weeth me."
"You promise," Annie-Many-Ponies repeated, a sullen note creeping intoher voice.
Bill Holmes, lounging up to the doorway, glanced from one to the otherand laughed. "What's the matter, Ramon?" he bantered. "Can't you squareit with your squaw? Go after her with a club, why don't you? That's whatthey're used to."
Ramon did not make any reply whatever, and Bill gave another chucklinglaugh and joined Luis, who was going to take the gaunt horses to a tinymeadow beyond the hill. As he went he said something that made Luis lookback over his shoulder and laugh.
Annie-Many-Ponies lifted her head and stared straight at Ramon. Hedid not meet her eyes, nor did he show any resentment of Bill Holmes'speech; yet he had sworn that he loved her, that he would be proud tohave her for his wife. She, the daughter of a chief, had been insultedin his presence, and he had made no protest, shown no indignation.
"You promise priest for making us marriage," she reiterated coldly, asif she meant to force his real self into the open. "You promise you putring of gold for wedding on my finger, like white woman's got."
Ramon's laugh was not pleasant. "Yoh theenk marry squaw?" he sneered."Luck Leen'sey, he don't marry yoh. Why yoh theenk I marry yoh? You begood, Ramon lov' yoh. Buy yoh lots pretty theengs, me treat yoh fine.Yoh lucky girl, yoh bet. Yoh don't be foolish no more. Yoh run away, bemy womans. W'at yoh theenk? Go back, perhaps? Yoh theenk Luck Leen'seytake yoh back? You gone off with Ramon Chavez, he say; yoh stay weethRamon then. Yoh Ramon's woman now. Yoh not be foolish like yoh too goodfor be kees. Luck, be kees yoh many times, I bet! Yoh don' playgood girl no more for Ramon--oh-h, no! That joke she's w'at yoh callches'nut. We don' want no more soch foolish talk, or else maybe I dow'at Bill Holmes says she's good for squaw!"
"You awful big liar," Annie-Many-Ponies stated with a calm, terrificfrankness. "You plenty big thief. You fool me plenty--now I don't befool no more. You so mean yoh think all mens like you. You think allgirls bad girls. You awful big fool, you think I stay for you. I go."
Ramon twisted his mustache and laughed at her. "Now yoh so pretty,when yoh mad," he teased. "How yoh go? All yoh theengs in cabin--monee,clothes, grob--how yoh go? Yoh mad now--pretty soon Ramon he makes yohglad! Shame for soch cross words--soch cross looks! Now I don't talktill yoh be good girl, and says yoh lov' Ramon. I don't let yoh go,neither. Yoh don't get far way--I promise yoh for true. I breeng yohback, sweetheart, I promise I breeng yoh back I Yoh don't want to go nomore w'en I'm through weeth yoh--I promise yoh! Yoh theenk I let yoh go?O-oh-h, no! Ramon not let yoh get far away!"
In her heart she knew that he spoke at last the truth; that this wasthe real Ramon whom she had never before seen. To every woman must comesometime the bitter awakening from her dreamworld to the real world inall its sordidness and selfishness. Annie-Many-Ponies, standing therelooking at Ramon--Ramon who laughed at her goodness--knew now what thefuture that had lain behind the mountains held in store for her. Nothappiness, surely; not the wide ring of gold that would say she wasRamon's wife. Luis was right. He had spoken the truth, though she hadbelieved that he lied when he said Ramon would never marry a woman. Hewould love and laugh and ride away, Luis had told her. Well, then--
"Shunka Chistala!" she called softly to the little black dog, that cameeagerly, wagging his burr-matted tail. She laid her hand on its headwhen the dog jumped up to greet her. She smiled faintly while shefondled its silky, flapping ears.
"Why you all time pat that dam-dog?" Ramon flashed out jealously. "Youdon't pet yoh man what lov' yoh!"
"Dogs don't lie," said Annie-Many-Ponies coldly, and walked away. Shedid not look back, she did not hurry, though she must have known thatRamon in one bound could have stopped her with his man's strength. Herhead was high, her shoulders were straight, her eyes were so black thepupils did not show at all, and a film of inscrutability veiled whatbitter thoughts were behind them.
As it had been with Luis so it was now with Ramon. Her utter disregardof him held him back from touching her. He stood with wrath in his eyesand let her go--and to hide his weakness from her strength he sent afterher a sneering laugh and words that were like a whip.
"All right--jus' for now I let you ron," he jeered. "Bimeby she'sdifferent. Bimeby I show yoh who's boss. I make yoh cry for Ramon begood to yoh!"
Annie-Many-Ponies did not betray by so much as a glance that she beardhim. But had he seen her face he would have been startled at the lookhis words brought there. He would have been startled and perhapshe would have been warned. For never bad she carried so clearly thefighting look of her forefathers who went out to battle. With the littleblack dog at her heels she climbed a small, round-topped hill that had asingle pine like a cockade growing from the top.
For ten minutes she stood there on the top and stared away to thesoutheast, whence she had come to keep her promise to Ramon. Never, itseemed to her, had a girl been so alone. In all the world there couldnot be a soul so bitter. Liar--thief--betrayer of women--and she hadleft the clean, steadfast friendship of her brother Wagalexa Conkafor such human vermin as Ramon Chavez! She sat down, and with her facehidden in her shawl and her slim body rocking back and forth in weirdrhythm to her wailing, she crooned the mourning song of the Omaha.Death of her past, death of her place among good people, death of herfriendship, death of hope--she sat there with her face turned toward thefar-away, smiling mesa where she had been happy, and wailed softly toherself as the women of her tribe had wailed when sorrow came to them inthe days that were gone.
All through the afternoon she sat there with her back to the lone pinetree and her face turned toward the southeast, while the little blackdog lay at her feet and slept. From the cabin Ramon watched her,stubbornly waiting until she would come down to him of her own accord.She would come--of that he was sure. She would come if he convinced herthat he would not go up and coax her to come. Ramon had known manygirls who were given to sulking over what he considered their imaginarywrongs, and he was very sure that he knew women better than they knewthemselves. She would come, give her time enough, and she could notfling at him then any taunt that he had been over-eager. Certainly shewould come--she was a woman!
But the shadow of the pines lengthened until they lay like long fingersacross the earth; and still she did not come. Bill Holmes and Luis,secure in the knowledge that Ramon was on guard against any unlooked-forvisitors, slept heavily on the crude bunks in the cabin. Birds begantwittering animatedly as the beat of the day cooled and they came forthfrom their shady retreats--and still Annie-Many-Ponies sat on the littlehilltop, within easy calling distance of the cabin, and never oncelooked down that way. Still the little black dog curled at her feetand slept. For all the movement these two made, they might have been ofstone; the pine above was more unquiet than they.
Ramon, watching her while he smoked many cigarettes, became filled witha vague uneasiness What was she thinking? What did she mean to do? Hebegan to have faint doubts of her coming down to him. He began to beaware of something in her nature that was unlike those other women;something more inflexible, more silent, something that troubled him evenwhile he told himself that she was like all the rest and he would be hermaster.
"Bah! She thinks to play with me, Ramon! Then I will go up and I willshow her--she will follow weeping at my heels--like that dog of hersthat some day I shall kill!"
He got up and threw away his cigarette, glanced within and saw that Billand Luis still slept, and started up the hill to where that motionlessfigure sat beneath the pine and kept her face turned from him. It wouldbe better, thought Ramon, to come upon her unawares, and so he wentsoftly and very slowly, placing each foot as carefully as though he werestalking a wild thing of the woods.
Annie-Many-Ponies did not hear him coming. All her heart was yearningtoward that far away mesa. "Wagalexa Conka--cola!" she whispered, for"cola" is the Sioux word for friend. Aloud she dared not speak theword, lest some tricksy bree
ze carry it to him and fill him with; angerbecause she had betrayed his friendship. "Wagalexa Conka--cola! cola!"
Friendship that was dead--but she yearned for it the more. And it seemedto her as she whispered, that Wagalexa Conka was very, very near. Herheart felt his nearness, and her eyes softened. The Indian look--thelook of her fighting forefathers--drifted slowly from her face as fog,drifts away before the sun. He was near--perhaps he was dead andhis spirit had come to take her spirit by the hand and call hercola--friend. If that were so, then she wished that her spirit might gowith his spirit, up through all that limitless blue, away and awayand away, and never stop, and never tire and never feel anything butfriendship like warm, bright sunshine!
Down at the cabin a sound--a cry, a shout--startled her. She brushed herhand across her eyes and looked down. There, surrounding the cabin, werethe Happy Family, and old Applehead whom she hated because he hated her.And in their midst stood Bill Holmes and Luis, and the setting sun shoneon something bright--like great silver rings--that clasped their wrists.
Coming up the hill toward her was Wagalexa Conka, climbing swiftly,looking up as he came. Annie-Many-Ponies sprang to her feet, startlingthe little black dog that gave a yelp of astonishment. Came he in peace?She hesitated, watching him unwinkingly. Something swelled in her chestuntil she could hardly breathe, and then fluttered there like a prisonedbird. "COLA!" she gasped, just under her breath, and raised her hand inthe outward, sweeping gesture that spoke peace.
"You theenk to fix trap, you--!"
She whirled and faced Ramon, whose eyes blazed bate and murder and whosetongue spoke the foulness of his soul. He flung out his arm fiercely andthrust her aside. "Me, I kill that dam--"
He did not say any more, and the six-shooter he had levelled at Luckdropped from his nerveless hand like a coiled adder, Annie-Many-Ponieshad struck. Like an avenging spirit she pulled the knife free and heldit high over her head, facing Luck who stared up at her from below.He thought the look in her eyes was fear of him and of the law, and helifted his hand and gave back the peace-sign. It was for him she hadkilled and she should not be punished if he could save her. But Luckfailed to read her look aright; it was not fear he saw, but farewell.
For with her free hand she made the sign of peace and farewell--and thenthe knife descended straight as a plummet to her heart. But even asshe fell she spurned the dead Ramon with her feet, so that he rolled alittle way while the black dog growled at him with bared teeth; even indeath she would not touch him who had been so foul.
Luck ran the last few, steep steps, and took her in his arms. His eyeswere blurred so that he could not see her face, and his voice shook sothat he could scarcely form the words that brushed back death from hersoul and brought a smile to her eyes.
"Annie--little sister!"
Annie-Many-Ponies raised one creeping hand, groping until her fingerstouched his face.
"Wagalexa Conka--cola!"
He took her fingers and for an instant, while she yet could feel, helaid them against his lips.