CHAPTER VI.
MRS HUZZARD'S SUSPICIONS.
Overton sat silent and thoughtful for a little while after Mrs. Huzzard'swords. Then he glanced up and smiled at her.
"I've just been getting an idea of the direction your fancies are taking,"he said mockingly, "and they're very pretty, but I reckon you'll changethem to oblige me; what I'm doing for her is what I'd do for any otherchild left alone. But as this child doesn't happen to be a boy, I can'ttake it on the trail, and a ranger like me is not fit to look after her,anyway. I think I told you before, I'm not a marrying man, and she, ofcourse, would not look at me if I was; so what does it matter about herthinking of me? Of course, she won't--it ain't my intention. Even if sheleaves these diggings some day and forgets all about me, just as the youngwolves or wildcats do--well, what difference? I've helped old bums allover the country, and never heard or wanted to hear of them again, and I'msure it's more worth one's while to help a young girl. Now, you're a nicelittle woman, Mrs. Huzzard, and I like you. But if you and I are to keepon being good friends, don't you speak like that about the child and me.It's very foolish. If she should hear it, she'd leave us some fine night,and we'd never learn her address."
Then he put on his hat, nodded to her, and walked out of the door asthough averse to any further discussion of the subject.
"Bums all over the country!" repeated Mrs. Huzzard, looking after himdarkly. "Well, Mr. Dan Overton, it's well for you that ward of yours, asyou call her, wasn't near enough to hear that speech. And you're not amarrying man, are you? Well, well, I guess there's many a man and woman,too, goes through life and don't know what they might be, just becausethey never meet with the right person who could help them to learn, andyou're just of that sort. Not a marrying man! Humph! When there's not abetter favored one along this valley--that there ain't."
She fidgeted about the dinner preparations, filled with a puzzledimpatience as to why Dan Overton should thus decidedly state that he wasnot one of the men to marry, though all the rest of the world might fallinto the popular habit if they chose.
"It's the natural ambition of creation," she declared in confidence to thedried peach-pie she was slipping from the oven. "Of course, being as I'm awidow myself, I can't just make that statement to men folks promiscuouslike. But it's true, and every man ought to know it's true, and why DanOverton--"
She paused in the midst of her soliloquy, and dropped into the nearestchair, while a light of comprehension illuminated her broad face.
"To think it never came in my mind before," she ejaculated. "That's it!Poor boy! he's had a girl somewhere and she's died, I suppose, or marriedsome other fellow; and that's why he's a bachelor at nearly thirty, Iguess," she added, thoughtfully. "She must have died, and that's why henever looks as gay or goes on larks with the other boys. He just goes on alone trail mostly, Dan does. Even his own stepfather don't seem to havemuch knowledge about him. Well, well! I always did feel that he had somesort of trouble lookin' out of them dark eyes of his, and his words to-daymakes it plain to me all at once. Well, well!"
The pensive expression of her face, as it rested on her fat hand, wasevidence that Lorena Jane Huzzard had, after all, found a romance in reallife suited to her fancy, and the unconscious hero was Dan Overton. PoorDan!
The grieving hero to whom her thoughts went out was at that moment walkingin a most prosaic, lazy fashion down the main thoroughfare of thesettlement. The road led down to the Ferry from seemingly nowhere inparticular, for from the Ferry on both sides of the river the roaddwindled into mere trails that slipped away into the wildernesses--trailstraveled by few of the white race until a few short years ago, and thenonly by the most daring of hunters, or the most persevering of thegold-seekers.
In the paths where gold is found the dwellings of man soon follow, and thequickly erected shanties and more pretentious buildings of Sinna Ferry hadgrown there as evidence that the precious metals in that region were nolonger visionary things of the enthusiasts, but veritable facts. The menwho came to it along the water, or over the inland trails, were all insome way connected with the opening up of the new mining fields.
Overton himself had drifted up there as an independent prospector, twoyears before. Then, when works were got under way all along that river andlake region, when a reliable man was needed by the transfer company toget specie to their men for pay-days, it was Overton to whom was given theresponsibility.
Various responsible duties he had little by little shouldered, until, asLyster said, he seemed a necessity to a large area, yet he had not quiteabandoned the dreams with which he had entered those cool Northern lands.Some day, when the country was more settled and transportation easier, itwas his intention to slip again up into the mountains, along some littlestreams he knew, and work out there in quietness his theories as to wherethe gold was to be found.
Meantime, he was contented enough with his lot. No vaulting ambitiontouched him. He was merely a ranger of the Kootenai country, and was aswelcome in the scattered lodges of the Indians as he was in the camps ofthe miners. He even wore clothes of Indian make, perhaps for the noveltyof them, or perhaps because the buckskin was better suited than cloth tothe wild trails over which he rode. And if, at times, he drifted into talkof existence beyond the frontier, and gave one an idea that he had drunkof worldly life deep enough to be tired of it, those times were rare; evenLyster had but once known him to make reference to it--that one eveningafter their ride along the falls of the Kootenai.
But however tired he might at some time have grown of the life of cities,he was not at all too _blase_ to accommodate himself to Sinna Ferry. Ifpoor Mrs. Huzzard had seen the very hearty drink of whisky with which herefreshed himself after his talk with her, she would not have been so aptto think of him with such pensive sympathy.
The largest and most popular saloon was next door to the postoffice, thecare of which Dan had secured for his stepfather, as the duties of it werejust about as arduous as any that gentleman would deign to accept. Themail came every two weeks, and its magnitude was of the fourth-classorder. No one else wanted it, for a man would have to possess some othermeans of livelihood before he could undertake it, but the captain acceptedit with the attitude of a veteran who was a martyr to his country. As tothe other means of livelihood, that did not cause him much troubledthought, since he had chanced to fall in Dan's way just as Dan wasstarting up to the Kootenai country, and Dan had been the "other means"ever since.
The captain watched Overton gulp down the "fire-water," while he himselfsipped his with the appreciation of a gentleman of leisure.
"You didn't use to drink so early in the day," the captain remarked, witha certain watchful malice in his face. "Are your cares as a guardianwearing on your nerves, and bringing a need of stimulants?"
Overton wheeled about as though to fling the whisky-glass across at thespeaker; but the gallant captain, perceiving that he had overreached hisstepson's patience, promptly dodged around the end of the bar, squattingclose to the floor. Overton, leaning over to look at him, only laughedcontemptuously, and set the glass down again.
"You're not worth the price of the glass," he decided, amused in spite ofhimself at the fear in the pale-blue eyes. Even the flowing side-whiskersbetrayed a sort of alarm in their bristling alertness. "And if it wasn'tthat one good woman fancied you were true metal instead of slag, I'd--"
He did not complete the sentence, leaving the captain in doubt as to hishalf-expressed threat.
"Get up there!" Dan suddenly exclaimed. "Now, you think you will annoy meabout that guardianship until I'll give it up, don't you?" he said, morequietly, as the captain once more stood erect, but in a wavering,uncertain way. "Well, you're mightily mistaken, and you might as well endyour childish interference right here. The girl is as much entitled to myconsideration as you are--more! So if any one is dropped out of the familycircle, it will not be her. Do you understand? And if I hear another wordof your insinuations about her amusements, I'll break your neck! Two,Jim."
> This last was to the barkeeper, and had reference to a half-dollar hetossed on the counter as payment for his own drink and that of thecaptain; and again he stalked into the street with his temper even morerumpled than when he left Mrs. Huzzard's.
Assuredly it was not a good morning for Mr. Overton's peace of mind.
Down along the river he came in sight of the cause of his discontent, themost innocent-looking cause in the world. She was teaching Lyster topaddle the canoe with but one paddle, as the Indians do, and was laughingderisively at his ineffectual attempts to navigate in a straight line.
"You--promised--Mrs. Huzzard--you'd--take--care--of--me," she said, slowlyand emphatically, "and a pretty way you're doing it. Suppose I depended onyou getting me in to shore for my dinner, how many hours do you think I'dhave to go without eating? Just about sixteen. Give me that paddle, anddon't upset the canoe when you move."
These commands Mr. Lyster obeyed with alacrity.
"What a clever little girl you are!" he said, admiringly, as she sent thecanoe skimming straight as a swallow for the shore. "Now, Overton wouldappreciate your skill at this sort of work"--and then he laughed alittle--"much more than he would your modeling in clay."
A dark flush crept over her face, and her lips straightened.
"Why shouldn't he look down on that sort of pottering around?" shedemanded. "_He_ isn't the sort of man who has time to waste on trifles."
"Why that emphasis on the _he_?" asked her tormentor. "Do you mean toinsinuate that I do waste time on trifles? Well, well! is that the way Iget snubbed, because I grow enthusiastic over your artistic modeling andyour most charming voice, Miss 'Tana?"
She flashed one sulky, suspicious look at him, and paddled on in silence.
"What a stormy shadow lurks somewhere back of your eyes," he continued,lazily. "One moment you are all sugar and cream to a fellow, and the nextyou are an incipient tornado. I think you might distribute your frowns alittle among the people you know, and not give them all to me. Now,there's Overton--"
"Don't you talk about him," she commanded, sharply. "You do a lot ofmaking fun about folks, but don't you go on making fun of him, if that'swhat you're trying to do. If it's _me_--pooh!" and she looked at him,saucily. "I don't care much what you think about me; but Dan--"
"Oh! Dan, then, happens to-day to be one of the saints in your calendar,and plain mortals like myself must not take his name in vain--is thatit? What a change from this time yesterday!--for I don't think you senthim to the hills in a very angelic mood. And you!--well, I found you witha clay Indian crumbled to pieces in your destroying hands; so I don'timagine Dan's talk to you left a very peaceful impression."
He laughed at her teasingly, expecting to see her show temper again, butshe did not. She only bent her head a little lower, and when she liftedit, she looked at him with a certain daring.
"He was right, and I was silly, I guess. He was good--so good, and I'mmostly bad. I was bad to him, anyway, but I ain't too much of a baby tosay so. And if he's mad at me when he comes back, I'll just pack my trapsand take another trail."
"Back to Akkomi?" he asked, gaily. "Now, you know we would not hear tothat."
"It ain't your affair, only Dan's."
"Oh, excuse me for living on the same earth with you and Dan! It is not myfault, you know. I suppose now, if you did desert us, it would be to actas a sort of guardian angel to the tribes along the river, turn into awhole life-saving service yourself, and pick up the superfluous reds whotumble into the rivers. I wondered for a whole day why you made so stronga swim for so unimportant an article."
"His mother thought he was important," she answered. "But I didn't know hehad a mother just then; all I thought as I started for him was that he wasso plucky. He tried his little best to save himself, and he never said oneword; that was what I liked about him. It would have been a pity to letthat sort of a boy be lost."
"You think a heap of that--of personal bravery--don't you? I notice yougauge every one by that."
"Maybe I do. I know I hate a coward," she said, indifferently.
Then, as the canoe ran in to the shore, she for the first time sawOverton, who was standing there waiting for them. She looked at him withstartled alertness as his eyes met hers. He looked like a statue--afrontier sentinel standing tall and muscular with folded arms and gazingwith curious intentness from one to the other of the canoeists.
In the bottom of the boat a string of fish lay, fine speckled fellows, todelight the palate of an epicure. She stooped and picking up the fish,walked across the sands to him.
"Look, Dan!" she said, with unwonted humility. "They're the best I couldfind, and--and I'm sorry enough for being ugly yesterday. I'll try not tobe any more. I'll do anything you want--yes, I will!" she added,snappishly, as he smiled dubiously, she thought unbelievingly. "I'd--dresslike a boy, and go on the trails with you, paddle your canoe, or feed yourhorse--I would, if you like."
Lyster, who was following, heard her words, and glanced at Overton withcurious meaning. Overton met the look with something like a threat in hisown eyes--a sort of "laugh if you dare!"
"But I don't like," Dan said, briefly, to poor 'Tana, who had made such agreat effort to atone for ugly words spoken to him the day before.
She said no more; and Lyster, walking beside her, pulled one of her unrulycurls teasingly, to make her look at him.
"Didn't I tell you it was better to give your smiles to me instead of toOverton?" he asked, in a bantering way, as he took the string of fish. "Icare a great deal more about your good opinion than he does."
"Oh--you--" she began, and shrugged her shoulders for a silent finish toher thought, as though words were useless.
"Oh, _me_! Of course, me. Now, if you had offered to paddle a canoe forme, I'd--"
"You'd loll in the bottom of the boat and let me," she flashed out. "Ofcourse you would; you're made just that way."
"Sh--h, 'Tana," said Overton, while to himself he smiled in an indulgentway, and thought: "That is like youth; they only quarrel when there is alistener." Then turning to the girl, he said aloud:
"You know, 'Tana, I want you to learn other things besides paddling acanoe. Such things are all right for a boy; but--"
"I know," she agreed; but there was a resentful tone in her voice. "And Iguess I'll never trouble you to do squaw's work for you again."
She looked squaw-like, but for her brown, curly hair, for she still worethe dress Overton had presented to her at the Kootenai village; and verybecoming it was with its fancy fringes and dots of yellow, green, andblack beads. Only the hat was a civilized affair--the work of Mrs.Huzzard, and was a wide, pretty "flat" of brown straw, while from itscrown some bunches of yellow rosebuds nodded--the very last "artificial"blossoms left of Sinna Ferry's first millinery store. The young facelooked very piquant above the beaded collar; not so pinched or worn a faceas when the men had first seen her. The one week of sheltered contenthad given her cheeks a fullness and color remarkable. She was prettierthan either man had imagined she would be. But it was not a joyous,girlish face even yet. There was too much of something like suspicion init, a certain watchful attention given to the people with whom she came incontact; and this did not seem to abate in the least. Overton had noticedit, and decided that first night that she must have been treated badly bypeople to have distrust come so readily to her. He noticed, also, that anyhonest show of kindness soon won her over; and that to Lyster, with hisgraceful little attentions and his amused interest, she turned from thefirst hour of their acquaintance as to some chum who was in the very innercircle of those to whom her favor was extended. Overton, hearing theirwordy wars and noting their many remarks of friendship, felt old, asthough their light enjoyment of little things made him realize the weightof his own years, for he could no longer laugh with them.
Looking down now at the clouded young face under the hat, he feltremorsefully like a "kill-joy;" for she had been cheery enough until shecaught sight of him.
"And you will never do squaw
work for me again, little squaw?" Danquestioned, banteringly. "Not even if I asked you?"
"You never will ask me," she answered, promptly.
"Well, then, not even if I should get sick and need a nurse?"
"You!" and she surveyed him from head to foot with pronounced unbelief."_You'll_ never be sick. You're strong as a mountain lion, or an old kingbuffalo."
"Maybe," he agreed, and smiled slightly at the dubious compliment. "Butyou know even the old king buffaloes die sometime."
"Die? Oh, yes, in a fight, or something of that sort; but they don't needmuch medicine!"
"And even if you did," said Lyster, addressing Overton, "I'm going to giveyou fair warning you can't depend on 'Tana, unless you mend your ways. Shethreatened to-day to leave us, if you allow the shadow of your anger tofall on her again. So take heed, or she will swim back to Akkomi."
Overton looked at her sharply, and saw that back of Lyster's badinagethere was something of truth.
"You did?" he asked, reproachfully. "I did not know I had been so bad afriend to you as that."
But no answer was made to him. She was ashamed, and she looked it. She wasalso angry at Lyster, and he was made aware of it by a withering glance.
"Now _I'm_ in her bad books," he complained; "but it was only my fear oflosing her that urged me to give you warning. I hope she does not takerevenge by refusing me all the dances I am looking forward to to-night.I'd like to get you, as her guardian, on my side, Overton."
The girl looked up, expectantly, and rested her slim fingers on the armsof the two men.
"I could not be of much use, unless I had an invitation myself to thedance," Dan remarked, dryly; "mine has evidently been delayed in themail."
"You don't like it?" said the girl, detecting the fact in his slightchange of tone. "You don't want me to go to dances?"
"What an idea!" exclaimed Lyster. "Of course, he is not going to spoil ourgood time by objecting--are you, Dan? I never thought of that. You see,you were away; but, of course, I fancied you would like it, too. I'llwrite you out a flourishing request for your presence, if that's all."
"It isn't necessary; I'll be there, I reckon. But why should you think Imean to keep you from jollifications?" he asked, looking kindly at 'Tana."Don't get the idea in your head that I'm a sort of 'Bad Man from RoaringRiver,' who eats a man or so for breakfast every day, and all the littlegirls he comes across. No, indeed! I'll whistle for you to dance any time;so get on your war-paint and feathers when it pleases you."
The prospect seemed to please her, for she walked closer to him and lookedup at him with more content.
"Anyway, you ain't like Captain Leek," she decided. "He's the worst oldbaby! Why, he just said all sorts of things about dances. Guess he must bea heavy swell where he comes from, and where all the fandangoes are got upin gilt-edged style. I'd like to spoil the gilt for him a little. I will,too, if he preaches any more of his la-de-da society rules to me. I'llshow him I'm a different boy from Mrs. Huzzard."
"Now, what would you do?" asked Lyster. "He wouldn't trust himself in aboat with you, so you can't drown him."
"Don't want to. Huh! I wouldn't want to be lynched for _him_. All I'd liketo hit hard would be his good opinion of himself. I could, too, if Danwouldn't object."
"If you can, you're a wonder," remarked Dan. "And I'll give you license todo what I confess I can't. But I think you might take us into yourconfidence."
This she would not do, and escaped all their questions, by taking refugein Mrs. Huzzard's best room, and much of her afternoon was spent thereunder that lady's surveillance, fashioning a party gown with which toastonish the natives. For Mrs. Huzzard would not consent to her appearingin the savageness of an Indian dress, when the occasion was one ofimportance--namely, the first dance in the settlement held in the house ofa respectable woman.
And as 'Tana stitched, and gathered, and fashioned the dress, according toMrs. Huzzard's orders, she fashioned at the same time a little plan of herown in which the personality of Captain Leek was to figure.
If Mrs. Huzzard fancied that her silent smiles were in anticipation of thedancing festivities, she was much mistaken.
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