CHAPTER IV
THE WATCHERS AT RODERICK'S
As soon as Molly and Leslie had ridden away, Mattie Roderick disappearedwithin her own room and became deaf to all the inquiries made outsideher door. She was a high-spirited, "wild western" girl, accustomed toobeying little else than her own impulses. She had a fine record as ahorsewoman and had been disappointed that she could not go with thesearching party. This being the case, it was next better to lend herpony to that other lively girl who was so like herself.
But Mrs. Roderick was certain that the missing Molly and Leslie hadfollowed the first party and could give no comfort to anxious Mrs. Fordbeyond the statement:
"Things don't happen often, 'twixt here an' Denver. Been one or twohold-ups, of men known to carry money, but beyond a murder or so, ain'tbeen no excitement this long spell."
"Murder!" cried Helena aghast, and folding her arm a bit more tightlyabout Gray Lady's trembling body.
"Oh! yes'm. A few has been. But nobody'd touch to harm them children.You needn't worry. They've thought it smart to take a hand in thebusiness, that's all. Mattie won't say 'yes' nor 'no' to my askin', butthe 'calico's' out of the corral and Long Jim's Belezebub ain't hitchedno longer. Ha, ha, ha! If either them kids tries to ride Beelzy--Hmm.But Chiquita, now, she's little but she's great. Pa and Matt claim she'sworth her weight in gold. She's likely, anyway. An' don't fret, lady.They'll all be home to breakfast, an' seein's I've got that to cook,I'll hump myself to bed and advisin' you to do the same. If not, makeyourselves comfortable's you can, and good night."
After the landlady's departure the house became strangely quiet. The menwho had been talking outside sought their own rest, and the anxiouswatchers missed the murmur of voices and the sense of protection whichthe presence of even these strangers gave.
While Mrs. Ford was still restlessly pacing the long piazza, Alfyslipped within. With her keen observation of details, she had seen wherethe woodpile was and that the fire on the hearth in the main room of thehouse had about died out. This had been lighted for the guests'enjoyment, the inn folks caring nothing for it and therefore easilyforgetting to replenish it. When she had gathered an armful of wood,Alfy carried it to the fireplace and lustily blew upon the embers till alittle blaze started. Then she heaped the sticks upon this andpresently had a roaring flame. At once the room grew cheerful, itsbareness furnished, as it were, by this open fire.
"Now, dear Lady Gray, please come right inside. You'll get your deathout here in this night air, with not even your cloak on. Come, Helena,you both come in," said Alfaretta, appearing on the porch.
But her first words had started the mother's tears.
"Lady Gray." That had been her son's pet name for her, its use stillmore frequent than "Mother," and with a little cry she murmured:
"Ah! my boy! Shall I ever hear you say that again!"
"I don't see why not," said practical Alfaretta, nodding to Helena tohelp persuade the woman to take a needed rest. "You heard that landladytellin' how 't they'd all be home to breakfast. Well, then, she knows.She's lived here a power o' time and we've only just come. Say, Helena,let's make a pot of coffee and set the table. I can do it right on themcoals, after the fire burns down a mite. If I can't there, 'twon't bethe first cook stove I've tackled in my life, and I know one thing if Idon't any more: that is, when those searchers and Dolly an' Jim do comethey'll be so tearing hungry they could nigh eat ten-penny nails. Comeon. Let's get supper for 'em. You boss the job, Mrs. Ford, and thenit'll be done right. I saw a lot of chickens in a back room, as I comethrough, all fixed to fry. Well now, you both know I can fry chicken tothe queen's taste, and I'll just lay myself out this time!"
Her energy and cheerfulness were not to be resisted. Mrs. Fordfollowed the two girls inside and with a little shiver, from herexposure outside, drew a chair to the hearth and bent to its warmth.Then, as if she had been in her own home, Alfaretta whisked about,dragging small tables from the dining room into this larger one,ordering Helena to do this and that, and all with a haste that wasalmost as cheering as the fire.
"Now, Helena, here's the dish-closet. You set the table. My! Ain'tthese the heaviest plates and cups you ever saw? Ma Babcock'dadmire to get some like 'em; our children break such a lot of things.But Mis' Calvert wouldn't think she could drink tea out of such. Shewants her 'n to be thin as thin! and she's got one set, 't belonged toher grandmother--great-grandma, I guess it was--come over from Englandor somewhere--that she won't let no hands except her own touch to wash.I wish you could see Aunt Betty wash dishes! 'Twould set you laughing,fit to split, first off. It did me till I begun to see the other sideof it, seems if. First, she must have a little porcelain tub, like ababy's wash-tub, sort of--then a tiny mop, doll's mop, I called it, andtowels--Why, her best table napkins aren't finer than them towels be.And dainty! My heart! 'Tis the prettiest picture in the world when that'ristocratic old lady washes her heirloom-china! But this--your hands'dget tired enough if you had to do much of this. Hurry up! Don't you knowhow to set a table yet, great girl like you? Well, do the best you can.I'm going into that kitchen to cook. I can't wait for this fire to getlow. I surely can't, because, you see, they might be here anyminute--any single minute--and nothing done yet, not even the table set.Mrs. Ford, you better cut the bread. Here's a lot of it in a tin box,and a knife with it, sharp enough to cut a feller's head off. You bestnot touch it, Helena, you're so sort of clumsy with things. Now I'm offto boil 'tatoes and fry chicken!"
It was impossible to retain gloomy forebodings while Alfy's cheerfultongue was running on at this rate, and as she left the living-room forthe kitchen at the rear both Lady Gray and Helena were laughing, partlyat their own awkwardness at the tasks assigned them as well as at herglib remarks.
"I never set a table in my life!" cried Helena, in glee.
"And I never sliced a loaf of bread!" said Gray Lady; "though I'll admitit is time I learned. Indeed, I've never had a home, you know, and I'mlooking forward to my housekeeping as eagerly as a child to herplayhouse."
"I'm wondering what the landlady will say, when she finds how we'veinvaded her pantry," continued Helena, carefully arranging the coarsestone-china upon the oilcloth covered tables. She had begun veryreluctantly but found that the labor was a delightful relief from worry,and, with the good sense she possessed, now went on with it aspainstakingly as if she expected a fashionable and critical company.Indeed, her first table-setting, copied, as near as she could remember,from the careful appointments of her own mother's board, was to be anobject lesson to others besides herself.
For presently there was the sound of voices in the kitchen; Alfaretta's,of course, with another equally gay and girlish.
Mattie Roderick had slept lightly. She had been excited over the arrivalof the Ford party in the first place, and doubly so from the laterevents of the night. So as she lay sleepless and listening, she heardthe rattle of cooking things in the kitchen below and soon the odor offrying. With a little grumble she got up and put on the few garments shehad discarded.
"It can't be near morning yet. I don't see what's set Ma to cooking,'less they're on the road back and nigh starved. One thing I know! Ishan't marry no tavern-keeper! It's nothin' but fry, roast, bake, an'bile, the hull endurin' time. I'm goin' to quit and go east fur asDenver, anyhow, soon's I get my age. I'd like to look same's them girlsdo, and they ain't no prettier 'n me. It's only their clothes makes 'emlook it, and as for that Molly, they call her, that's rid off onChiquita, she's just as plain and folksy as get out! So's the red-headedone with the high-falutin' name, out of that song Pa sings about the'blue Juniata' and 'bright Alfaretta,' or some such trash. Themboys--Well, they hain't took no notice o' me yet--but I can show 'em athing or two. I bet I can shoot better than any of 'em. I bet, if theydon't hurry off too early to-morrow, I'll get up a match and teach 'emhow a Colorado girl can hit the bull's-eye every time!"
With these ambitious reflections the inn-keeper's daughter arrived atthe kitchen and the presence of the red-headed girl
in it, instead ofthe portly form of her mother.
"What on earth does it mean?" demanded Mattie, scarcely believing herown eyes.
It didn't take Alfy long to explain, and she added the warning:
"You keep it up! Don't you let on to Mrs. Ford that there's the leastmisdoubt in your mind but what them searchers will be back, right toonce, same's I'm pretending! Oh! I hope they do! I hope they do! I hopeit so much I dassent hardly think and just have to keep talking to stopit. If I had hold that Molly Breckenridge I'd shake her well! The dearflighty little thing! To go addin' another scare to a big enough onebefore, and now about that Leslie. He's a real nice boy--Leslie is--ifyou let him do exactly what he wants and don't try to make himdifferent. His ma just sets all her store by him. I never got the rightsof it, exactly, Aunt Betty Calvert--she 't I've been hired out to--shenever approved of gossip. She said that folks quarrellin' was just plainmakin' fools of themselves, or words to that effect. The Fords had doneit and now, course, they was thicker 'n blueberries again and didn'twant to hear nothing about the time they wasn't. Don't leave them'tatoes in that water so long! Why, child o' grace, don't you know yet,and you keepin' tavern, that soon's a potato is cooked it ought to besnatched out the pot and set to steamin', to get dry? Soggy potatoesgives you the dyspepsy and that's a disease I ain't sufferin' to catch.It makes folks so cross."
By this time Mattie had entered into the spirit of the thing and hadnever been happier in her life. This Alfaretta was so jolly, sofriendly, so full of talk. So wholly satisfied in her conscience, too,now that "one of the family" was beside her to share the risk she hadassumed of using other people's provisions so recklessly.
But in that she had misjudged her genial hosts. Nothing was too goodfor their guests, these or any others, and if the chickens meant forbreakfast were pre-empted for this midnight meal, why there were plentymore in the hennery.
So, secure in her better knowledge of the elder Rodericks, Miss Mattiesped about, flew in and out of the sitting-room, to tend the fire or addsome delicacy to Helena's daintily set table; the same that made herstare at its difference from ordinary. Didn't seem possible that themere arrangement of cups and saucers, of knives and forks, could givesuch an "air" to the whole place.
"Like brook trout, Mis' Ford?" asked the girl, upon one entrance. "Youmen-folks like 'em, too?"
Assured that they were considered a great treat, Mattie advised:
"Well, you just wait! I know where there's a lot, in a basket in thepool. Pa catched 'em to have 'em ready and I'll hike after 'em to onct.You like to go along, Helena?"
Stately Helena smiled at the free masonry of the westerner and glancedat Mrs. Ford, in inquiry:
"Yes, dear, go with her. I shan't be lonely, with Alfaretta left, flyingin and out busily. I declare, those kitchen odors _are_ savory! I hopethe wanderers will soon be here, that this new meal won't be kept tillspoiled, as Mrs. Roderick complained of the other."
Helena noticed that the lady expressed no further doubt about the safetyof the absentees and thus encouraged she gladly accepted Mattie'sinvitation. Indeed, this whole trip was full of delightful novelty andall the affectations which had once made Helena Montaigne disagreeableto sensible people had been discarded, or outgrown.
Mattie's first preparation was to take off her shoes and stockings andshe advised the other girl to do the same. "Else you'll get 'em all dirtgoing through the swamp to the pool. We don't have none too much waterhereabouts but what we have got is _wet_!"
"I couldn't go barefooted. My feet would hurt so. I'll have to risk theshoes. I have others in my suit-case, wherever it is."
"Well, come on then. You can step light through the ma'sh and 'twon't beso bad. Wait till I fetch a lantern."
"A lantern, in this moonlight?"
"Sure. 'Twon't shine into the woods. The trees are awful thick andthough I could go straight there and back, without stumbling once,you're new to the way an' the light's for you. I don't want you to gethurt just goin' for a mess o' fish!"
"Thank you, Mattie. That is very considerate of you. Shall I carry it?"
Mattie was pleased by the other girl's "thank you." Such smallcourtesies were almost unknown to her, but she determined to rememberhow "good" it had made her feel and to experiment with it upon somebodyelse, sometime. Even as Helena's table-setting had also been a lesson inneatness; and with her eagerness to learn she felt that she had beenamply repaid for giving up her sleep. Chattering as if she had alwaysknown the stranger she led the way safely to the pool, deep in thewoods; and Helena never forgot that scene. Except for the slightillumination of the lantern the blackness of the forest was intense, andthe rustling of wild things among the tree-tops startled her.
Mattie looked up and saw her fear, then laughed hilariously:
"Two 'fraid-cats together, you an' the birds! Likely, they never saw alantern before and hate to be disturbed even more 'n I did, listenin' toAlfaretta in the kitchen. But don't you like it? Ain't it awful solemnin such woods in the night-time? Makes a body think of all the hatefulthings she's done and sort of wish she hadn't done 'em. But there ain'tno livin' thing in these woods'll hurt you, nowadays, though onct theywas chock full o' grizzlies an' such. Now I guess that's enough. Don'tsuppose your folks'd eat a bigger mess 'n that, do you? 'Cause I couldtake a few more if you say so."
Helena looked at the big basket of trout and laughed, then shivered atthe echo of her own laughter in that place, which seemed full as"solemn" to her as it did to the more accustomed Mattie.
They were soon back at the inn, Mattie at once proceeding to showAlfaretta that she could do some fine cooking herself; and between themthey made Mrs. Roderick's larder suffer, so eager was each to outdo theother and to suggest some further delicacy for that wonderful meal.
Mrs. Ford paced in and out of the living-room, watchful and stillanxious, though greatly amused at the doings of the three girls, andwondering, as well, how the landlady could sleep through all that dinand chatter. For Helena, too, had gone into the kitchen and seizing apitcher of cream Mattie was carrying to the table, demanded a chance to"whip" it.
"It's such an improvement, or will be for that good coffee you've made,and Herbert likes it so much."
Mattie put her arms akimbo and stared; then demanded, in turn:
"Can't you do anything sensibler than 'whip' cream? As if it was bad.You make me laugh, though I don't know what you mean."
Helena soon showed her, even with a two-tined steel fork beating therich cream into a heaped-up, foamy mass, which Mattie declared was the"wonderfulest thing" she had ever seen. They were still discussing thematter, and each sampling the delicacy with relish, when Mrs. Ford'sexcited voice was heard, calling:
"They're coming! Oh! they're coming at last! Away down the road! I canhear them--beyond the turn of the road. Only it seems that they comeslowly. Is it so? Or is it my own impatience?"
Only Alfaretta stopped to push the pans and pots to the cool, safe endof the great stove, now glowing red in front from the hot fire they hadmade. The other girls rushed outward to see for themselves, and Alfyreached the piazza just in time to hear Mattie remark:
"Yes, they do travel powerful slow. They ain't in no hurry to get here.Somethin's happened. You can just believe me--somethin's happened!"
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