That Girl Montana

by Marah Ellis Ryan

  CHAPTER XXI.

  LAVINA AND THE CAPTAIN.

  As the day wore on, 'Tana became more nervous and restless. With the dark,that man was to come for the gold she had promised.

  Lyster brought it to her, part in money, part in free gold, and as he laidit on the couch, she looked at him strangely.

  "How much you trust me when you never even ask what I am to do with allthis!" she said. "Yet it is enough to surprise you."

  "Yes, it is," he agreed. "But when you are ready you will tell me."

  "No, I will not tell you," she answered, "but it is the last thing--Ithink--that I will keep from you, Max. It is a debt that belongs to daysbefore I knew you. What did Overton say?"

  "Not much, maybe he will leave for the upper works this evening orto-morrow morning."

  "Did you--did you tell him--"

  "That you are going to belong to me? Well, no, I did not. You forgot togive me permission."

  Her face flushed shyly at his words.

  "You must think me a queer girl, Max," she said. "And you are so good andpatient with me, in spite of my queer ways. But, never mind; they will notlast always, I hope."

  "Which?--my virtues or your queerness?" he asked.

  She only smiled and pushed the gold under the pillow.

  "Go away now for a little while. I want to rest."

  "Well, rest if you like; but don't think. You have been fretting over somelittle personal troubles until you fancy them heavy enough to overbalancethe world. But they won't. And I'm not going to try and persuade you intoHaydon's house, either, now that you've been good to me; unless, ofcourse, you fall in love with Margaret, and want to be with her, and it islikely to happen. But Uncle Seldon and my aunts will be delighted to haveyou, and you could live as quiet as you please there."

  "So I am likely to fall in love with Margaret, am I?" she asked. "Why?Does everybody? Did you--Max? Now, don't blush like that, or I'll be sureof it. I never saw you blush so pretty before. It made you almost goodlooking. Now go; I want to be alone."

  "Sha'n't I send one of the ladies up?"

  "Not a soul! Go, Max. I am tired."

  So he went, in all obedience, and he and the cousins had a long talk aboutthe girl and the danger of leaving her alone another night. Her suddenillness showed them she was not strong enough yet to be allowed to guideherself.

  "I shall try hard to get her to leave to-morrow, or next day," saidLyster. "Where is Dan? I would like to talk to him about it, but he hasevidently disappeared."

  "I don't know what to think of Dan Overton," confessed Mrs. Huzzard. "Heisn't ever around, chatty and sociable, like he used to be. When we do seehim, he is nearly always busy; and when he isn't busy, he strikes for thewoods."

  "Maybe he is still searching for new gold mines," suggested Miss Lavina."I notice he does seem very much engaged in thought, and is of a rathersolitary nature."

  "Never was before," protested her cousin. "And if these gold finds justtwist a person's nature crosswise, or send them into a fever, then I hopethe good Lord'll keep the rest of them well covered up in future."

  "Lorena Jane," said Miss Lavina, in a reproachful tone, "it is mostessential that you free yourself from those very forcible expressions.They are not a bit genteel."

  "No, I reckon they ain't, Lavina; and the more I try the more I'm afraid Inever will be. Land sakes, if folks would only teach their young ones goodmanners when they are young, what a sight of mortified feelings would besaved after a while!"

  Lyster left them in the midst of the very earnest plea for bettertraining, for he espied a new boat approaching camp. As it came closer, hefound that among the other freight it carried was the autocrat of SinnaFerry--Captain Leek.

  "What a God-forsaken wilderness!" he exclaimed, and looked around with asupercilious air, suggesting that he would have given the Creator of theKootenai country valuable points if he had been consulted. "Well, my dearyoung fellow, how you have managed to exist here for three weeks I don'tknow."

  "Well, we had Mrs. Huzzard," explained Max, with a twinkle in his eye;"and she is a panacea for many ills. She has made our wilderness veryendurable."

  "Yes, yes; excellent woman," agreed the other, with a suspicious look."And 'Tana? How is she--the dear girl! I really have been much grieved tohear of her illness; and at the earliest day I could leave my business Iam here to inquire in person regarding her health."

  "Oh!" and Max struggled with a desire to laugh at the change in thecaptain's attitude since 'Tana was a moneyed individual instead of alittle waif. Poor 'Tana! No wonder she looked with suspicion onlate-coming friends.

  "Yes, she is better--much better," he continued, as they walked up fromthe boat. "I suppose you knew that a cousin of Mrs. Huzzard, a lady fromOhio, has been with us--in fact, came up with our party."

  "So I heard--so I heard. Nice for Mrs. Huzzard. I was not in town, youknow, when you rested at the Ferry. I heard, however, that a white womanhad come up. Who is she?"

  They had reached the tent, and Mrs. Huzzard, after a frantic dive towardtheir very small looking glass, appeared at the door with a smileenchanting, and a courtesy so nicely managed that it nearly took thecaptain's breath away. It was the very latest of Lavina's teachings.

  "Well, now, I'm mighty--hem!--I'm extremely pleased that you have called.Have a nice trip?"

  But the society tone of Mrs. Huzzard was so unlike the one he had beenaccustomed to hearing her use, that the captain could only stare, andbefore he recovered enough to reply, she turned and beckoned Miss Slocum,with the idea of completing the impression made, and showing with whatgrace she could present him to her cousin.

  But the lately acquired style was lost on him this time, overtopped by thepresence of Miss Lavina, who gazed at him with a prolonged and steadystare.

  "And this is your friend, Captain Leek, of the Northern Army, is it?" sheasked, in her very sharpest voice--a voice she tried to temper with asmile about her lips, though none shone in her eyes. "I have no doubt youwill be very welcome to the camp, Captain Leek."

  Mrs. Huzzard had surely expected of Lavina a much more gracious reception.But Mrs. Huzzard was a bit of a philosopher, and if Lavina chose to besomewhat cold and unresponsive to the presence of a cultured gentleman,well, it gave Lorena Jane so much better chance, and she was not going toslight it.

  "Come right in; you must be dead tired," she said, cordially. "Mr. Max,you'll let Dan know he's here, won't you--that is, when he does show upagain, but no one knows how long that will be."

  "Yes, I am tired," agreed the captain, meekly, and not quite at his easewith the speculative eyes of Miss Slocum on him. "I--I brought up a fewletters that arrived at the Ferry. I can't make up my mind to trust mailwith these Indian boatmen Dan employs."

  "They are a trial," agreed Mrs. Huzzard, "though they haven't the badeffect on our nerves that one or two of the camp Indians have--an awfulsquaw, who helps around, and an ugly old man, who only smokes and lookshorrible. Now, Lavina--she ain't used to no such, and she just shivers atthem."

  "Yes--ah--yes," murmured the captain.

  "Lavina says she knew folks of your name back in Ohio," continued Mrs.Huzzard, cheerfully, in order to get the two strangers better acquainted."I thought at first maybe you'd turn out to know each other; but she saysthey was Democrats," and she turned a sharp glance toward him, as if toread his political tendencies.

  "No, I never knew any Captain Leek," said Miss Slocum, "and the ones Iknew hadn't any one in the Union Army. Their principles, if they had any,were against it, and there wasn't a Republican in the family."

  "Then, of course, that would settle Captain Leek belonging to them,"decided Mrs. Huzzard, promptly. "I don't know much about politics, but asall our men folks wore the blue clothes, and fought in them, I was alwaysglad I come from a Republican State. And I guess all the Republicans thatcarried guns against the Union could be counted without much arithmetic."

  "I--I think I will go and look for Dan myself," observed the captain,rising
and looking around a little uncertainly at Miss Slocum. "I broughtsome letters he may want."

  He made his bow and placed the picturesque corded hat on his head as hewent out. But Mrs. Huzzard looked after him somewhat anxiously.

  "He's sick," she decided as he vanished from her view; "I never did seehim walk so draggy like. And don't you judge his manners, either, Lavina,from this first sight of him, for he ain't himself to-day."

  "He didn't look to me as though he knew who he was," remarked Lavina; andafter a little she looked up from the tidy she was knitting. "So, LorenaJane, that is the man you've been trying to educate yourself up to morethan for anybody else--now, tell the truth!"

  "Well, I don't mind saying that it was his good manners made me see howbad mine were," she confessed; "but as for training for him--"

  "I see," said Miss Lavina, grimly, "and it is all right; but I justthought I'd ask."

  Then she relapsed into deep thought, and made the needles click withimpatience all that afternoon.

  The captain came near the tent once, but retreated at the vision of theknitter. He talked with Mrs. Huzzard in the cabin of Harris, but did notvisit her again in her own tent; and the poor woman began to wonder if theair of the Kootenai woods had an erratic influence on people. Dan waschanged, 'Tana was changed, and now the captain seemed unlike himself fromthe very moment of his arrival. Even Lavina was a bit curt andindifferent, and Lorena Jane wondered where it would end.

  In the midst of her perplexity, 'Tana added to it by appearing before herin the Indian dress Overton had presented her with. Since her sickness ithad hung unused in her cabin, and the two women had fashioned garmentsmore suitable, they thought, to a young girl who could wear real laces nowif she chose. But there she was again, dressed like any little squaw, andalthough rather pale to suit the outfit, she said she wanted a few more"Indian hours" before departing for the far-off Eastern city that was toher as a new world.

  She received Captain Leek with an unconcern that was discouraging to thepretty speeches he had prepared to utter.

  Dan returned and looked sharply at her as she sat whittling a stick ofwhich she said she meant to make a cane--a staff for mountain climbing.

  "Where do you intend climbing?" he asked.

  She waved the stick toward the hill back of them, the first step of themountain.

  "It is only a few hours since I picked you up down there, looking as ifyou were dead," he said, impatiently; "and you know you are not fit totramp."

  "Well, I'm not dead yet, anyway," she answered, with a shrug of hershoulders; "and as I'm going to break away from this camp about to-morrow,I thought I'd like to see a bit of the woods first."

  "You--are going--to-morrow?"

  "I reckon so."

  "'Tana! And you have not said a word to me of it? That was not veryfriendly, little girl."

  She did not reply, but bent her head low over her work.

  After observing her for a while in silence, he arose and put on his hat.

  "Here is my knife," he remarked. "You had better use it, if you aredetermined to haggle at that stick. Your own knife is too dull for anyuse. You can leave it here in the cabin when you are done with it."

  She accepted it without a word, but flushed red when he had gone, and shefound the eyes of Harris regarding her sadly.

  "'Not very friendly,'" she said, going over Overton's words--"you thinkthat, too--don't you? You think I'm ugly, and saucy, and awful, I know!You look scoldings at me; but if you knew all, maybe you wouldn't--if youknew that my heart is just about breaking. I'm going out where there is noone to talk to, or I'll be crying next."

  The two cousins and the captain were in 'Tana's cabin. Mrs. Huzzard wasdetermined that Miss Slocum and the captain should become acquainted, and,getting sight of the girl, who was walking alone across the level, she atonce followed her, thinking that the two left behind would perhaps becomemore social if left entirely to themselves. And they did; that is, theytalked, and the captain spoke first.

  "So you--you bear a grudge--don't you, Lavina?"

  "Well, I guess if I owed you a very heavy one, I've got a good chance topay it off now," she remarked, grimly.

  He twirled his hat in a dejected way, and did not speak.

  "You an officer in the Union Army?" she continued, derisively. "You apattern of what a gentleman should be; you to set up as superior to theserough-handed miners; you to act as if this Government owes you a pension!Why, how would it be with you, Alf Leek, if I'd tell this camp the truthof how you went away, engaged to me, twenty-five years ago, and never letme set eyes on you since--of how I wore black for you, thinking you werekilled in the war, till I heard that you had deserted. I took off thatmourning quick, I can tell you! I thought you were fighting on the wrongside; yet if you had a good reason for being there, you should have staidand fought so long as there was breath in you. And if I was to tell themhere that you haven't a particle of right to wear that blue suit thatlooks like a uniform, and that you were no more 'captain' of anything thanI am--well, I guess Lorena Jane wouldn't have much to say to you, thoughmaybe Mr. Overton would."

  He grew actually pale as he listened. His fear of some one overhearing herwas as great as his own mortification.

  "But you--you won't tell--will you, Lavina?" he said pleadingly. "Ihaven't done any harm! I--"

  "Harm! Alf Leek, you never had enough backbone to do either harm or helpto any one in this world. But don't you suppose you did me harm when youspoiled me for ever trusting any other man?"

  "I--I would have come back, but I thought you'd be married," he said, in afeeble, hopeless way.

  "Likely that is now, ain't it?" she demanded. And, woman-like, now thatshe had reduced him to meekness and humiliation, she grew a shade lesssevere, as if pretty well satisfied. "I had other things to think ofbesides a husband."

  "You won't tell--will you, Lavina? I'll tell you how it all happened, someday. Then I'll leave this country."

  "You'll not," she contradicted. "You'll stay right here as long as I do,and I won't tell just so long as you keep from trying to make Lorena Janebelieve how great you are. But at the first word of your heroic actions,or the cultured society you were always used to--"

  "You'll never hear of them," he said eagerly, "never. I knew you wouldn'tmake trouble, Lavina, for you always were such a good, kind-heartedgirl."

  He offered his hand to her, sheepishly, and she gave it a vixenish slap.

  "Don't try any of your skim-milk praise on me," she said, tartly. "Huh!You, that Lorena thought was a pillar of cultured society! When, the Lordknows, you wouldn't have known how to read the addresses on your ownletters if I hadn't taught you!"

  He moved to the door in a crestfallen manner, and stood there a moment,moistening his lips, and apparently swallowing words that could not beuttered.

  "That's so, Lavina," he said, at last, and went out.

  "There!" she muttered aggrievedly--"that's Alf Leek, just as he alwayswas. Give him a chance, and he'd ride over any one; but get the upper handof him, and he is meeker than Moses. Not that much meekness is needed tocome up to Moses, either." Then, after an impatient tattoo, sheexclaimed:

  "Gracious me! I do wish he hadn't looked so crushed, and had talked back alittle."