The Mysterious Rider

by Zane Grey

  CHAPTER VIII

  Columbine did not leave her room any more that day. What she sufferedthere she did not want any one to know. What it cost her to conquerherself again she had only a faint conception of. She did conquer,however, and that night made up the sleep she had lost the night before.

  Strangely enough, she did not feel afraid to face the rancher and hisson. Recent happenings had not only changed her, but had seemed to giveher strength. When she presented herself at the breakfast-table Jack wasabsent. The old rancher greeted her with more thar usual solicitude.

  "Jack's sick," he remarked, presently.

  "Indeed," replied Columbine.

  "Yes. He said it was the drinkin' he's not accustomed to. Wal, I reckonit was what you called him. He didn't take much store on what I calledhim, which was wuss.... I tell you, lass, Jack's set his heart so hardon you thet it's turrible."

  "Queer way he has of showing the--the affections of his heart," repliedColumbine, shortly.

  "Thet was the drink," remonstrated the old man, pathetic and earnest inhis motive to smooth over the quarrel.

  "But he promised me he would not drink any more."

  Belllounds shook his gray old head sadly.

  "Ahuh! Jack fires up an' promises anythin'. He means it at the time.But the next hankerin' thet comes over him wipes out the promise. Iknow.... But he's had good excuse fer this break. The boys in town begancelebratin' fer October first. Great wonder Jack didn't come homeclean drunk."

  "Dad, you're as good as gold," said Columbine, softening. How could shefeel hard toward him?

  "Collie, then you're not agoin' back on the ole man?"

  "No."

  "I was afeared you'd change your mind about marryin' Jack."

  "When I promised I meant it. I didn't make it on conditions."

  "But, lass, promises can be broke," he said, with the sonorous roll inhis voice.

  "I never yet broke one of mine."

  "Wal, I hev. Not often, mebbe, but I hev.... An', lass, it's reasonable.Thar's times when a man jest can't live up to what he swore by. An' fera girl--why, I can see how easy she'd change an' grow overnight. It'sonly fair fer me to say that no matter what you think you owe me youcouldn't be blamed now fer dislikin' Jack."

  "Dad, if by marrying Jack I can help him to be a better son to you, andmore of a man, I'll be glad," she replied.

  "Lass, I'm beginnin' to see how big an' fine you are," repliedBelllounds, with strong feeling. "An' it's worryin' me.... My neighborshev always accused me of seein' only my son. Only Buster Jack! I wasblind an' deaf as to him!... Wal, I'm not so damn blind as I used to be.The scales are droppin' off my ole eyes.... But I've got one hope leftas far as Jack's concerned. Thet's marryin' him to you. An' I'mstickin' to it."

  "So will I stick to it, dad," she replied. "I'll go through with Octoberfirst!"

  Columbine broke off, vouchsafing no more, and soon left thebreakfast-table, to take up the work she had laid out to do. And sheaccomplished it, though many times her hands dropped idle and her eyespeered out of her window at the drab slides of the old mountain.

  Later, when she went out to ride, she saw the cowboy Lem working in theblacksmith shop.

  "Wal, Miss Collie, air you-all still hangin' round this hyar ranch?" heasked, with welcoming smile.

  "Lem, I'm almost ashamed now to face my good friends, I've neglectedthem so long," she replied.

  "Aw, now, what're friends fer but to go to?... You're lookin' pale, Ireckon. More like thet thar flower I see so much on the hills."

  "Lem, I want to ride Pronto. Do you think he's all right, now?"

  "I reckon some movin' round will do Pronto good. He's eatin' his haidoff."

  The cowboy went with her to the pasture gate and whistled Pronto up. Themustang came trotting, evidently none the worse for his injuries, andeager to resume the old climbs with his mistress. Lem saddled him,paying particular attention to the cinch.

  "Reckon we'd better not cinch him tight," said Lem. "You jest be carefulan' remember your saddle's loose."

  "All right, Lem," replied Columbine, as she mounted. "Where are the boysthis morning?"

  "Blud an' Jim air repairin' fence up the crick."

  "And where's Ben?"

  "Ben? Oh, you mean Wade. Wal, I 'ain't seen him since yestidday. He wasskinnin' a lion then, over hyar on the ridge. Thet was in the mawnin'. Ireckon he's around, fer I seen some of the hounds."

  "Then, Lem--you haven't heard about the fight yesterday between Jack andWilson Moore?"

  Lem straightened up quickly. "Nope, I 'ain't heerd a word."

  "Well, they fought, all right," said Columbine, hurriedly. "I saw it. Iwas the only one there. Wilson was badly used up before dad and Ben gotthere. Ben drove off with him."

  "But, Miss Collie, how'd it come off? I seen Wils the other day. Was upto his homestead. An' the boy jest manages to rustle round on a crutch.He couldn't fight."

  "That was just it. Jack saw his opportunity, and he forced Wilson tofight--accused him of stealing. Wils tried to avoid trouble. Then Jackjumped him. Wilson fought and held his own until Jack began to kick hisinjured foot. Then Wilson fainted and--and Jack beat him."

  Lem dropped his head, evidently to hide his expression. "Wal, dog-goneme!" he ejaculated. "Thet's too bad."

  Columbine left the cowboy and rode up the lane toward Wade's cabin. Shedid not analyze her deliberate desire to tell the truth about thatfight, but she would have liked to proclaim it to the whole range and tothe world. Once clear of the house she felt free, unburdened, and totalk seemed to relieve some congestion of her thoughts.

  The hounds heralded Columbine's approach with a deep and booming chorus.Sampson and Jim lay upon the porch, unleashed. The other hounds werechained separately in the aspen grove a few rods distant. Sampsonthumped the boards with his big tail, but he did not get up, whichlaziness attested to the fact that there had been a lion chase the daybefore and he was weary and stiff. If Wade had been at home he wouldhave come out to see what had occasioned the clamor. As Columbine rodeby she saw another fresh lion-pelt pegged upon the wall of the cabin.

  She followed the brook. It had cleared since the rains and was shiningand sparkling in the rough, swift places, and limpid and green in theeddies. She passed the dam made by the solitary beaver that inhabitedthe valley. Freshly cut willows showed how the beaver was preparing forthe long winter ahead. Columbine remembered then how greatly pleasedWade had been to learn about this old beaver; and more than once Wadehad talked about trapping some younger beavers and bringing them thereto make company for the old fellow.

  The trail led across the brook at a wide, shallow place, where thesplashing made by Pronto sent the trout scurrying for deeper water.Columbine kept to that trail, knowing that it led up into Sage Valley,where Wilson Moore had taken up the homestead property. Fresh horsetracks told her that Wade had ridden along there some time earlier.Pronto shied at the whirring of sage-hens. Presently Columbineascertained they were flushed by the hound Kane, that had broken looseand followed her. He had done so before, and the fact had notdispleased her.

  "Kane! Kane! come here!" she called. He came readily, but halted a rodor so away, and made an attempt at wagging his tail, a functionevidently somewhat difficult for him. When she resumed trotting hefollowed her.

  Old White Slides had lost all but the drabs and dull yellows and greens,and of course those pale, light slopes that had given the mountain itsname. Sage Valley was only one of the valleys at its base. It opened outhalf a mile wide, dominated by the looming peak, and bordered on the farside by an aspen-thicketed slope. The brook babbled along under the edgeof this thicket. Cattle and horses grazed here and there on the rich,grassy levels, Columbine was surprised to see so many cattle andwondered to whom they belonged. All of Belllounds's stock had beendriven lower down for the winter. There among the several horses thatwhistled at her approach she espied the white mustang Belllounds hadgiven to Moore. It thrilled her to see him. And next, she suffered apang to think
that perhaps his owner might never ride him again. ButColumbine held her emotions in abeyance.

  The cabin stood high upon a level terrace, with clusters of aspensbehind it, and was sheltered from winter blasts by a gray cliff,picturesque and crumbling, with its face overgrown by creeping vines andcolorful shrubs, Wilson Moore could not have chosen a more secluded andbeautiful valley for his homesteading adventure. The little gray cabin,with smoke curling from the stone chimney, had lost its look ofdilapidation and disuse, yet there was nothing new that Columbine couldsee. The last quarter of the ascent of the slope, and the few rodsacross the level terrace, seemed extraordinarily long to Columbine. Asshe dismounted and tied Pronto her heart was beating and her breath wascoming fast.

  The door of the cabin was open. Kane trotted past the hesitatingColumbine and went in.

  "You son-of-a-hound-dog!" came to Columbine's listening ears in Wade'swell-known voice. "I'll have to beat you--sure as you're born."

  "I heard a horse," came in a lower voice, that was Wilson's.

  "Darn me if I'm not gettin' deafer every day," was the reply.

  Then Wade appeared in the doorway.

  "It's nobody but Miss Collie," he announced, as he made way for her toenter.

  "Good morning!" said Columbine, in a voice that had more thancheerfulness in it.

  "_Collie!_... Did you come to see me?"

  She heard this incredulous query just an instant before she saw Wilsonat the far end of the room, lying under the light of a window. Theinside of the cabin seemed vague and unfamiliar.

  "I surely did," she replied, advancing. "How are you?"

  "Oh, I'm all right. Tickled to death, right now. Only, I hate to haveyou see this battered mug of mine."

  "You needn't--care," said Columbine, unsteadily. And indeed, in thatfirst glance she did not see him clearly. A mist blurred her sight andthere was a lump in her throat. Then, to recover herself, she lookedaround the cabin.

  "Well--Wils Moore--if this isn't fine!" she ejaculated, in amaze anddelight. Columbine sustained an absolute surprise. A magic hand hadtransformed the interior of that rude old prospector's abode. Acarpenter and a mason and a decorator had been wonderfully at work. Fromone end to the other Columbine gazed; from the big window under whichWilson lay on a blanketed couch to the open fireplace where Wade grinnedshe looked and looked, and then up to the clean, aspen-poled roof anddown to the floor, carpeted with deer hides. The chinks between the logsof the walls were plastered with red clay; the dust and dirt were gone;the place smelled like sage and wood-smoke and fragrant, frying meat.Indeed, there were a glowing bed of embers and a steaming kettle and asmoking pot; and the way the smoke and steam curled up into the gray oldchimney attested to its splendid draught. In each corner hung adeer-head, from the antlers of which depended accoutrements of acowboy--spurs, ropes, belts, scarfs, guns. One corner containedcupboard, ceiling high, with new, clean doors of wood, neatly made; andnext to it stood a table, just as new. On the blank wall beyond thatwere pegs holding saddles, bridles, blankets, clothes.

  "He did it--all this inside," burst out Moore, delighted with herdelight. "Quicker than a flash! Collie, isn't this great? I don't mindbeing down on my back. And he says they call him Hell-Bent Wade. I callhim Heaven-Sent Wade!"

  When Columbine turned to the hunter, bursting with her pleasure andgratitude, he suddenly dropped the forked stick he used as a lift, andshe saw his hand shake when he stooped to recover it. How strangely thatstruck her!

  "Ben, it's perfectly possible that you've been sent by Heaven," sheremarked, with a humor which still held gravity in it.

  "Me! A good angel? That'd be a new job for Bent Wade," he replied, witha queer laugh. "But I reckon I'd try to live up to it."

  There were small sprigs of golden aspen leaves and crimson oak leaves onthe wall above the foot of Wilson's bed. Beneath them, on pegs, hung arifle. And on the window-sill stood a glass jar containing columbines.They were fresh. They had just been picked. They waved gently in thebreeze, sweetly white and blue, strangely significant to the girl.

  Moore laughed defiantly.

  "Wade thought to fetch these flowers in," he explained. "They're hisfavorites as well as mine. It won't be long now till the frost killsthem ... and I want to be happy while I may!"

  Again Columbine felt that deep surge within her, beyond her control,beyond her understanding, but now gathering and swelling, soon to bereckoned with. She did not look at Wilson's face then. Her downcast gazesaw that his right hand was bandaged, and she touched it with anunconscious tenderness.

  "Your hand! Why is it all wrapped up?"

  The cowboy laughed with grim humor.

  "Have you seen Jack this morning?"

  "No," she replied, shortly.

  "Well, if you had, you'd know what happened to my fist."

  "Did you hurt it on him?" she asked, with a queer little shudder thatwas not unpleasant.

  "Collie, I busted that fist on his handsome face."

  "Oh, it was dreadful!" she murmured. "Wilson, he meant to kill you."

  "Sure. And I'd cheerfully have killed him."

  "You two must never meet again," she went on.

  "I hope to Heaven we never do," replied Moore, with a dark earnestnessthat meant more than his actual words.

  "Wilson, will you avoid him--for my sake?" implored Columbine,unconsciously clasping the bandaged hand.

  "I will. I'll take the back trails. I'll sneak like a coyote. I'll hideand I'll watch.... But, Columbine Belllounds, if he ever cornersme again--"

  "Why, you'll leave him to Hell-Bent Wade," interrupted the hunter, andhe looked up from where he knelt, fixing those great, inscrutable eyesupon the cowboy. Columbine saw something beyond his face, deeper thanthe gloom, a passion and a spirit that drew her like a magnet. "An' now,Miss Collie," he went on, "I reckon you'll want to wait on our invalid.He's got to be fed."

  "I surely will," replied Columbine, gladly, and she sat down on theedge of the bed. "Ben, you fetch that box and put his dinner on it."

  While Wade complied, Columbine, shyly aware of her nearness to thecowboy, sought to keep up conversation. "Couldn't you help yourself withyour left hand?" she inquired.

  "That's one worse," he answered, taking it from under the blanket, whereit had been concealed.

  "Oh!" cried Columbine, in dismay.

  "Broke two bones in this one," said Wilson, with animation. "Say,Collie, our friend Wade is a doctor, too. Never saw his beat!"

  "And a cook, too, for here's your dinner. You must sit up," orderedColumbine.

  "Fold that blanket and help me up on it," replied Moore.

  How strange and disturbing for Columbine to bend over him, to slip herarms under him and lift him! It recalled a long-forgotten motherlinessof her doll-playing days. And her face flushed hot.

  "Can't you move?" she asked, suddenly becoming aware of how dead aweight the cowboy appeared.

  "Not--very much," he replied. Drops of sweat appeared on his bruisedbrow. It must have hurt him to move.

  "You said your foot was all right."

  "It is," he returned. "It's still on my leg, as I know darned well."

  "Oh!" exclaimed Columbine, dubiously. Without further comment she beganto feed him.

  "It's worth getting licked to have this treat," he said.

  "Nonsense!" she rejoined.

  "I'd stand it again--to have you come here and feed me.... But not from_him_."

  "Wilson, I never knew you to be facetious before. Here, take this."

  Apparently he did not see her outstretched hand.

  "Collie, you've changed. You're older. You're a woman, now--and theprettiest--"

  "Are you going to eat?" demanded Columbine.

  "Huh!" exclaimed the cowboy, blankly. "Eat? Oh yes, sure. I'm powerfulhungry. And maybe Heaven-Sent Wade can't cook!"

  But Columbine had trouble in feeding him. What with his helplessness,and his propensity to watch her face instead of her hands, and her ownmounting sensations of a swe
et, natural joy and fitness in her proximityto him, she was hard put to it to show some dexterity as a nurse. Andall the time she was aware of Wade, with his quiet, forceful presence,hovering near. Could he not see her hands trembling? And would he notthink that weakness strange? Then driftingly came the thought that shewould not shrink from Wade's reading her mind. Perhaps even now heunderstood her better than she understood herself.

  "I can't--eat any more," declared Moore, at last.

  "You've done very well for an invalid," observed Columbine. Then,changing the subject, she asked, "Wilson, you're going to stayhere--winter here, dad would call it?"

  "Yes."

  "Are those your cattle down in the valley?"

  "Sure. I've got near a hundred head. I saved my money and boughtcattle."

  "That's a good start for you. I'm glad. But who's going to take care ofyou and your stock until you can work again?"

  "Why, my friend there, Heaven-Sent Wade," replied Moore, indicating thelittle man busy with the utensils on the table, and apparentlyhearing nothing.

  "Can I fetch you anything to eat--or read?" she inquired.

  "Fetch yourself," he replied, softly.

  "But, boy, how could I fetch you anything without fetching myself?"

  "Sure, that's right. Then fetch me some jam and a book--to-morrow. Willyou?"

  "I surely will."

  "That's a promise. I know your promises of old."

  "Then good-by till to-morrow. I must go. I hope you'll be better."

  "I'll stay sick in bed till you stop coming."

  Columbine left rather precipitously, and when she got outdoors it seemedthat the hills had never been so softly, dreamily gray, nor theirloneliness so sweet, nor the sky so richly and deeply blue. As sheuntied Pronto the hunter came out with Kane at his heels.

  "Miss Collie, if you'll go easy I'll ketch my horse an' ride down withyou," he said.

  She mounted, and walked Pronto out to the trail, and slowly faced thegradual descent. It was really higher up there than she had surmised.And the view was beautiful. The gray, rolling foothills, so exquisitelycolored at that hour, and the black-fringed ranges, one above the other,and the distant peaks, sunset-flushed across the purple, all rose openand clear to her sight, so wildly and splendidly expressive of theColorado she loved.

  At the foot of the slope Wade joined her.

  "Lass, I'm askin' you not to tell Belllounds that I'm carin' for Wils,"he said, in his gentle, persuasive way.

  "I won't. But why not tell dad? He wouldn't mind. He'd do that sort ofthing himself."

  "Reckon he would. But this deal's out of the ordinary. An' Wils's not inas good shape as he thinks. I'm not takin' any chances. I don't want tolose my job, an' I don't want to be hindered from attendin' tothis boy."

  They had ridden as far as the first aspen grove when Wade concluded thisremark. Columbine halted her horse, causing her companion to dolikewise. Her former misgivings were augmented by the intelligence ofWade's sad, lined face.

  "Ben, tell me," she whispered, with a hand going to his arm.

  "Miss Collie, I'm a sort of doctor in my way. I studied some medicinean' surgery. An' I know. I wouldn't tell you this if it wasn't that I'vegot to rely on you to help me."

  "I will--but go on--tell me," interposed Columbine trying to fortifyherself.

  "Wils's foot is all messed up. Buster Jack kicked it all out of shape.An' it's a hundred times worse than ever. I'm afraid of blood-poisonin'an' gangrene. You know gangrene is a dyin' an' rottin' of the flesh....I told the boy straight out that he'd better let me cut his foot off.An' he swore he'd keep his foot or die! Well, if gangrene does set in wecan't save his leg, an' maybe not his life."

  "Oh, it can't be as bad as all that!" cried Columbine. "Oh, I knew--Iknew there was something.... Ben, you mean even at best now--he'll bea--" She broke off, unable to finish.

  "Miss Collie, in any case Wils'll never ride again--not like a cowboy."

  That for Columbine seemed the worst and the last straw. Hot tearsblinded her, hot blood gushed over her, hot heart-beats throbbed inher throat.

  "Poor boy! That'll--ruin him," she cried. "He loved--a horse. He lovedto ride. He was the--best rider of them all. And now he's ruined! He'llbe lame--a cripple--club-footed!... All because of that Jack Belllounds!The brute--the coward! I hate him! Oh, I _hate_ him!... And I've got tomarry him--on October first! Oh, God pity me!"

  Blindly Columbine reeled out of her saddle and slowly dropped to thegrass, where she burst into a violent storm of sobs and tears. It shookher every fiber. It was hopeless, terrible grief. The dry grass receivedher flood of tears and her incoherent words.

  Wade dismounted and, kneeling beside her, placed a gentle hand upon herheaving shoulder, but he spoke no word. By and by, when the storm hadbegun to subside, he raised her head.

  "Lass, nothin' is ever so bad as it seems," he said, softly. "Come, situp. Let me talk to you."

  "Oh, Ben, something terrible _has_ happened," she cried. "It's in _me_!I don't know what it is. But it'll kill me."

  "I know," he replied, as her head fell upon his shoulder. "Miss Collie,I'm an old fellow that's had everythin' happen to him, an' I'm livin'yet, tryin' to help people along. No one dies so easy. Why, you're afine, strong girl--an' somethin' tells me you was made for happiness. Iknow how things turn out. Listen--"

  "But, Ben--you don't know--about me," she sobbed. "I've toldyou--I--hate Jack Belllounds. But I've--got to marry him!... His fatherraised me--from a baby. He brought me up. I owe him--my life.... I've norelation--no mother--no father! No one loves me--for myself!"

  "Nobody loves you!" echoed Wade, with an exquisite tone of repudiation."Strange how people fool themselves! Lass, you're huggin' your troublestoo hard. An' you're wrong. Why, everybody loves you! Lem an' Jim--whyyou just brighten the hard world they live in. An' that poor, hot-headedJack--he loves you as well as he can love anythin'. An' the old man--nodaughter could be loved more.... An' I--I love you, lass, just like--asif you--might have been my own. I'm goin' to be the friend--the brotheryou need. An' I reckon I can come somewheres near bein' a mother, ifyou'll let me."

  Something, some subtle power or charm, stole over Columbine, assuagingher terrible sense of loss, of grief. There was tenderness in this man'shands, in his voice, and through them throbbed strong and passionatelife and spirit.

  "Do you really love me--_love_ me?" she whispered, somehow comforted,somehow feeling that what he offered was what she had missed as a child."And you want to be all that for me?"

  "Yes, lass, an' I reckon you'd better try me."

  "Oh, how good you are! I felt that--the very first time I was with you.I've wanted to come to you--to tell you my troubles. I love dad and heloves me, but he doesn't understand. Dad is wrapped up in his son. I'vehad no one. I never had any one."

  "You have some one now," returned Wade, with a rich, deep mellowness inhis voice that soothed Columbine and made her wonder. "An' because I'vebeen through so much I can tell you what'll help you.... Lass, if awoman isn't big an' brave, how will a man ever be? There's more in womenthan in men. Life has given you a hard knock, placin' you here--no realparents--an' makin' you responsible to a man whose only fault is blindedlove for his son. Well, you've got to meet it, face it, with what awoman has more of than any man. Courage! Suppose you do hate thisBuster Jack. Suppose you do love this poor, crippled Wilson Moore....Lass, don't look like that! Don't deny. You do love that boy.... Well,it's hell. But you can never tell what'll happen when you're honest andsquare. If you feel it your duty to pay your debt to the old man youcall dad--to pay it by marryin' his son, why do it, an' be a woman.There's nothin' as great as a woman can be. There's happiness that comesin strange, unheard-of ways. There's more in this life than what youwant most. _You_ didn't place yourself in this fix. So if you meet itwith courage an' faithfulness to yourself, why, it'll not turn out asyou dread.... Some day, if you ever think you're broken-hearted, I'lltell you my story. An' then you'll not think your lot so hard. Fo
r I'vehad a broken heart an' ruined life, an' yet I've lived on an' on,findin' happiness I never dreamed would come, fightin' or workin'. An'how I found the world beautiful, an' how I love the flowers an' hillsan' wild things so well--that, just that would be enough to live for!...An' think, lass, of what a wonderful happiness will come to me inshowin' all this to you. That'll be the crownin' glory. An' if it's thatmuch to me, then you be sure there's nothin' on earth I won't dofor you."

  Columbine lifted her tear-stained face with a light of inspiration.

  "Oh, Wilson was right!" she murmured. "You are Heaven-sent! And I'mgoing to love you!"