CHAPTER XXVII
EMOLUMENTS AND REWARDS
Lambert took off his hat at the door and smoothed his hair with hispalm, tightened up his necktie, looked himself over from chest to toes.He drew a deep breath then, like a man fortifying himself for a trialthat called for the best that was in him to come forward. He knocked onthe door.
He was wearing a brown duck coat with a sheepskin collar, the wool ofwhich had been dyed a mottled saffron, and corduroy breeches as roomy ofleg as Taterleg's state pair. These were laced within the tall bootswhich he had bought in Chicago, and in which he took a singular pride onaccount of their novelty on the range.
It was not a very handsome outfit, but there was a ruggedpicturesqueness in it that the pistol belt and chafed scabbard enhanced,and he carried it like a man who was not ashamed of it, and graced itby the worth that it contained.
The Duke's hair had grown long; shears had not touched his head sincehis fight with Kerr's men. Jim Wilder's old scar was blue on his thincheek that day, for the wind had been cold to face. He was so solemn andsevere as he stood waiting at the door that it would seem to be atriumph to make him smile.
Vesta came to the door herself, with such promptness that seemed to tellshe must have been near it from the moment his foot fell on the porch.
"I've come to settle up with you on our last deal, Vesta," he said.
She took him to the room in which they always transacted business, whichwas a library in fact as well as name. It had been Philbrook's office inhis day. Lambert once had expressed his admiration for the room, a longand narrow chamber with antlers on the walls above the bookcases, abroad fireplace flanked by leaded casement windows. It was furnishedwith deep leather chairs and a great, dark oak table, which looked as ifit had stood in some English manor in the days of other kings. Thewindows looked out upon the river.
A pleasant place on a winter night, Lambert thought, with a log fire onthe dogs, somebody sitting near enough that one could reach out and findher hand without turning his eyes from the book, the last warm touch tocrown the comfort of his happy hour.
"You mean our latest deal, not our last, I hope, Duke," she said,sitting at the table, with him at the head of it like a baron returnedto his fireside after a foray in the field.
"I'm afraid it will be our last; there's nothing left to sell but thefence."
She glanced at him with relief in her eyes, a quick smile coming happilyto her lips. He was busy with the account of calves and grown stockwhich he had drawn from his wallet, the check lying by his hand. Hisface taken as an index to it, there was not much lightness in his heart.Soon he had acquitted himself of his stewardship and given the checkinto her hand. Then he rose to leave her. For a moment he stood silent,as if turning his thoughts.
"I'm going away," he said, looking out of the window down upon the topsof the naked cottonwoods along the river.
Just around the corner of the table she was standing, half facing him,looking at him with what seemed almost compassionate tenderness, sosympathetic were her eyes. She touched his hand where it lay withfingers on his hat-brim.
"Is it so hard for you to forget her, Duke?"
He looked at her frankly, no deceit in his eyes, but a mild surprise tohear her chide him so.
"If I could forget of her what no forgiving soul should remember, I'dfeel more like a man," he said.
"I thought--I thought--" she stammered, bending her head, her voice softand low, "you were grieving for her, Duke. Forgive me."
"Taterleg is leaving tonight," he said, overlooking her soft appeal. "Ithought I'd go at the same time."
"It will be so lonesome here on the ranch without you, Duke--lonesome asit never was lonesome before."
"Even if there was anything I could do around the ranch any longer, withthe cattle all gone and nobody left to cut the fence, I wouldn't be anyuse, dodging in for every blizzard that came along, as the doctor says Imust."
"I've come to depend on you as I never depended on anybody in my life."
"And I couldn't do that, you know, any more than I'd be content to liearound doing nothing."
"You've been square with me on everything, from the biggest to theleast. I never knew before what it was to lie down in security and getup in peace. You've fought and suffered for me here in a measure far inexcess of anything that common loyalty demanded of you, and I've givenyou nothing in return. It will be like losing my right hand, Duke, tosee you go."
"Taterleg's going to Wyoming to marry a girl he used to know back inKansas. We can travel together part of the way."
"If it hadn't been for you they'd have robbed me of everything bynow--killed me, maybe--for I couldn't have fought them alone, and therewas no other help."
"I thought maybe in California an old half-invalid might pick up and getsome blood put into him again."
"You came out of the desert, as if God sent you, when my load washeavier than I could bear. It will be like losing my right eye, Duke, tosee you go."
"A man that's a fool for only a little while, even, is bound to leavefalse impressions and misunderstandings of himself, no matter how widehis own eyes have been opened, or how long. So I've resigned my job onthe ranch here with you, Vesta, and I'm going away."
"There's no misunderstanding, Duke--it's all clear to me now. When Ilook in your eyes and hear you speak I know you better than you knowyourself. It will be like losing the whole world to have you go!"
"A man couldn't sit around and eat out of a woman's hand in idleness andever respect himself any more. My work's finished----"
"All I've got is yours--you saved it to me, you brought it home."
"The world expects a man that hasn't got anything to go out and make itbefore he turns around and looks--before he lets his tongue betray hisheart and maybe be misunderstood by those he holds most dear."
"It's none of the world's business--there isn't any world but ours!"
"I thought with you gone away, Vesta, and the house dark nights, and menot hearing you around any more, it would be so lonesome and bleak herefor an old half-invalid----"
"I wasn't going, I couldn't have been driven away! I'd have stayed aslong as you stayed, till you found--till you knew! Oh, it willtear--tear--my heart--my heart out of--my breast--to see you go!"
* * * * *
Taterleg was singing his old-time steamboat song when Lambert went downto the bunkhouse an hour before sunset. There was an aroma of coffeemingling with the strain:
Oh, I bet my money on a bob-tailed hoss, An' a hoo-dah, an' a hoo-dah; I bet my money on a bob-tailed hoss, An' a hoo-dah bet on the bay.
Lambert smiled, standing beside the door until Taterleg had finished.Taterleg came out with his few possessions in a bran sack, givingLambert a questioning look up and down.
"It took you a long time to settle up," he said.
"Yes. There was considerable to dispose of and settle," Lambert replied.
"Well, we'll have to be hittin' the breeze for the depot in a littlewhile. Are you ready?"
"No. Changed my mind; I'm going to stay."
"Goin' in pardners with Vesta?"
"Pardners."
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=KINDRED OF THE DUST=
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=OH, MONEY! MONEY!=
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=DAWN=
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>
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=TO THE LAST MAN==THE MYSTERIOUS RIDER==THE MAN OF THE FOREST==THE DESERT OF WHEAT==THE U. P. TRAIL==WILDFIRE==THE BORDER LEGION==THE RAINBOW TRAIL==THE HERITAGE OF THE DESERT==RIDERS OF THE PURPLE SAGE==THE LIGHT OF WESTERN STARS==THE LAST OF THE PLAINSMEN==THE LONE STAR RANGER==DESERT GOLD==BETTY ZANE=
* * * * *
=LAST OF THE GREAT SCOUTS=
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ZANE GREY'S BOOKS FOR BOYS
=KEN WARD IN THE JUNGLE==THE YOUNG LION HUNTER==THE YOUNG FORESTER==THE YOUNG PITCHER==THE SHORT STOP==THE RED-HEADED OUTFIELD AND OTHER BASEBALL STORIES=
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=BACK TO GOD'S COUNTRY=
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GROSSET & DUNLAP, PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK
+-----------------------------------------------+ | Transcriber's Note: | | | | Typographical errors corrected in the text: | | | | Page 120 tight changed to right | | Page 177 new changed to anew | | Page 352 let changed to lit | | Page 385 wierdest changed to weirdest | +-----------------------------------------------+
The Duke Of Chimney Butte Page 27