The Taming of Red Butte Western

by Francis Lynde

  XV

  ELEANOR INTERVENES

  The president's private car was side-tracked on the short spur at theeastern end of the Crow's Nest, and when Lidgerwood reached it he foundthe observation platform fully occupied. The night was no more thanpleasantly cool, and the half-grown moon, which was already dipping toits early extinguishment behind the upreared bulk of the Timanyonis,struck out stark etchings in silver and blackest shadow upon a ground offallow dun and vanishing grays. On such nights the mountain desert hidesits forbidding face, and the potent spell of the silent wilderness haddrawn the young people of the _Nadia's_ party to the out-doortrysting-place.

  "Hello, Mr. Lidgerwood, is that you?" called Van Lew, when thesuperintendent came across to the spur track. "I thought you said thiswas a bad man's country. We have been out here for a solid hour, andnobody has shot up the town or even whooped a single lonesome war-whoop;in fact, I think your village with the heavenly name has goneingloriously to bed. We're defrauded."

  "It does go to bed pretty early--that part of it which doesn't stay uppretty late," laughed Lidgerwood. Then he came closer and spoke to MissBrewster. "I am going west in my car, and I don't know just when I shallreturn. Please tell your father that everything we have here is entirelyat his service. If you don't see what you want, you are to ask for it."

  "Will there be any one to ask when you are gone?" she inquired, neithersorrowing nor rejoicing, so far as he could determine.

  "Oh, yes; McCloskey, my trainmaster, will be in from the wreck beforemorning, and he will turn flip-flaps trying to make things pleasant foryou, if you will give him the chance."

  She made the adorable little grimace which always carried him swiftlyback to a certain summer of ecstatic memories; to a time when herkeenest retort had been no more than a playful love-thrust and there hadbeen no bitterness in her mockery.

  "Will he make dreadful faces at me, as he did at you this morning whenyou went down among the smashed cars at the wreck to speak to him?" sheasked.

  "So you were looking out of the window, too, were you? You are a closeobserver and a good guesser. That was Mac, and--yes, he will probablymake faces at you. He can't help it any more than he can helpbreathing."

  Miss Brewster was running her fingers along the hand-rail as if it werethe key-board of a piano. "You say you don't know how long you will beaway?" she asked.

  "No; but probably not more than the night. I was only providing for theunexpected, which some people say is what always happens."

  "Will your run take you as far as the Timanyoni Canyon?"

  "Yes; through it, and some little distance beyond."

  "You have just said that we are to ask for what we want. Did you meanit?"

  "Surely," he replied unguardedly.

  "Then we may as well begin at once," she said coolly; and turningquickly to the others: "O all you people; listen a minute, will you?Hush, Carolyn! What do you say to a moonlight ride through one of thegrandest canyons in the West in Mr. Lidgerwood's car? It will besomething to talk about as long as you live. Don't all speak at once,please."

  But they did. There was an instant and enthusiastic chorus of approval,winding up rather dolefully, however, with Miss Doty's, "But your motherwill never consent to it, Eleanor!"

  "Mr. Lidgerwood will never consent, you mean," put in Miriam Holcombequietly.

  Lidgerwood said what he might without being too crudely inhospitable.His car was entirely at the service of the president's party, of course,but it was not very commodious compared with the _Nadia_. Moreover, hewas going on a business trip, and at the end of it he would have toleave them for an hour or two, or maybe longer. Moreover, again, if theygot tired they would have to sleep as they could, though possibly hisstate-room in the service-car might be made to accommodate the threeyoung women. All this he said, hoping and believing that Mrs. Brewsterwould not only refuse to go herself but would promptly veto anunchaperoned excursion.

  But this was one time when his distantly related kinswoman disappointedhim. Mrs. Brewster, cajoled by her daughter, yielded a reluctantconsent, going to the car door to tell Lidgerwood that she would holdhim responsible for the safe return of the trippers.

  "See, now, how fatally easy it is for one to promise more--oh, so verymuch more!--than one has any idea of performing," murmured thepresident's daughter, dropping out to walk beside the victim when theparty trooped down the long platform of the Crow's Nest to theservice-car. And when he did not reply: "Please don't be grumpy."

  "It was the maddest notion!" he protested. "Whatever made you suggestit?"

  "More churlishness?" she said reproachfully. And then, with ironicalsentiment: "There was a time when you would have moved heaven and earthfor a chance to take me somewhere with you, Howard."

  "To be with you; yes, that is true. But----"

  Her rippling laugh was too sweet to be shrill; none the less it held init a little flick of the whip of malice.

  "Listen," she said. "I did it out of pure hatefulness. You showed soplainly this afternoon that you wished to be quit of me--of the entireparty--that I couldn't resist the temptation to pay you back with good,liberal interest. Possibly you will think twice before you snub meagain, Howard, dear."

  Quickly he stopped and faced her. The others were a few steps inadvance; were already boarding the service-car.

  "One word, Eleanor--and for Heaven's sake let us make it final. Thereare some things that I can endure and some others that I cannot--willnot. I love you; what you said to me the last time we were together madeno difference; nothing you can ever say will make any difference. Youmust take that fact into consideration while you are here and we areobliged to meet."

  "Well?" she said, and there was nothing in her tone to indicate that shefelt more than a passing interest in his declaration.

  "That is all," he ended shortly. "I am, as I told you this afternoon,the same man that I was a year ago last spring, as deeply infatuatedand, unhappily, just as far below your ideal of what your lover shouldbe. In justice to me, in justice to Van Lew--"

  "I think your conductor is waiting to speak to you," she broke insweetly, and he gave it up, putting her on the car and turning toconfront the man with the green-shaded lantern who proved to beBradford.

  "Any special orders, Mr. Lidgerwood?" inquired the reformedcattle-herder, looking stiff and uncomfortable in his new serviceuniform--one of Lidgerwood's earliest requirements for men on duty inthe train service.

  "Yes. Run without stop to Little Butte, unless the despatcher calls youdown. Time yourself to make Little Butte by eleven o'clock, or a littlelater. Who is on the engine?"

  "Williams."

  "Williams? How does it come that he is doubling out with me? He has justmade the run over the Desert Division with the president's car."

  "So have I, for that matter," said Bradford calmly; "but we both got ahurry call about fifteen minutes ago."

  Lidgerwood held his watch to the light of the green-shaded lantern. Ifhe meant to keep the wire appointment with Flemister, there was no timeto call out another crew.

  "I don't like to ask you and Williams to double out of your turn,especially when I know of no necessity for it. But I'm in a rush. Canyou two stand it?"

  "Sure," said the ex-cow-man. Then he ventured a word of his own. "I'llride up ahead with Williams--you're pretty full up, back here in thecar, anyway--and then you'll know that two of your own men are keepin'tab on the run. With the wrecks we're enjoying----"

  Lidgerwood was impatient of mysteries.

  "What do you mean, Andy?" he broke in. "Anything new?"

  "Oh, nothing you could put your finger on. Same old rag-chewin' going onup at Cat Biggs's and the other waterin' troughs about how you've got tobe done up, if it costs money."

  "That isn't new," objected Lidgerwood irritably.

  "Tumble-weeds," said Bradford, "rollin' round over the short-grass. Butthey show which way the wind's comin' from, and give you the jumps whenyou wouldn't have 'em natural. Williams had a spell
of 'em a few minutesago when he went over to take the 266 out o' the roundhouse and foundone of the back-shop men down under her tinkerin' with her trucks."

  "What's that?" was the sharp query.

  "That's all there was to it," Bradford went on imperturbably. "Williamsasked the shopman politely what in hell he was doing under there, andthe fellow crawled out and said he was just lookin' her over to see ifshe was all right for the night run. Now, you wouldn't think there wasany tumble-weed in that to give a man the jumps, but Williams had 'em,all the same. Says he to me, tellin' me about it just now: 'That's allright, Andy, but how in blue blazes did he, or anybody else exceptMatthews and the caller, know that the 266 was goin' out? that's whatI'd like to know.' And I had to pass it up."

  Lidgerwood asked a single question.

  "Did Williams find that anything had been tampered with?"

  "Nothing that you could shoot up the back-shop man for. One of the trucksafety-chains--the one on the left side, back--was loose. But itcouldn't have hurt anything if it had been taken off. We ain't runnin'on safety-chains these days."

  "Safety-chain loose, you say?--so if the truck should jump and swing itwould keep on swinging? You tell Williams when you go up ahead that Iwant that machinist's name."

  "H'm," said Bradford; "reckon it was meant to do that?"

  "God only knows what isn't meant, these times, Andy. Hold on a minutebefore you give Williams the word to go." Then he turned to youngJefferis, who had come out on the car platform to light a cigarette."Will you ask Miss Brewster to step out here for a moment?"

  Eleanor came at the summons, and Jefferis gave the superintendent aclear field by dropping off to ask Bradford for a match.

  "You sent for me, Howard?" said the president's daughter, and honeycould not have matched her tone for sweetness.

  "Yes. I shall have to anticipate the Angels gossips a little by tellingyou that we are in the midst of a pretty bitter labor fight. That is whypeople go gunning for me. I can't take you and your friends over theroad to-night."

  "Why not?" she inquired.

  "Because it may not be entirely safe."

  "Nonsense!" she flashed back. "What could happen to us on a littleexcursion like this?"

  "I don't know, but I wish you would reconsider and go back to the_Nadia_."

  "I shall do nothing of the sort," she said, wilfully. And then, withtotally unnecessary cruelty, she added: "Is it a return of the oldmalady? Are you afraid again, Howard?"

  The taunt was too much. Wheeling suddenly, Lidgerwood snapped out asummons to Jefferis: "Get aboard, Mr. Jefferis; we are going."

  At the word Bradford ran forward, swinging his lantern, and a momentlater the special train shot away from the Crow's Nest platform and outover the yard switches, and began to bore its way into the westwardnight.