The Heart of Canyon Pass
Page 17
CHAPTER XVII--A BATTLE IN A GIRL'S HEART
"Betty, I want to tell you something," he said, unconsciously urgingBouncer nearer to the girl's mount. "These weeks you have been here atCanyon Pass have been the greatest in my life."
The girl looked at him in a startled way.
"This is a big country, it is true. Big things are done out here--greataccomplishments achieved--fortunes won. And I have always meant to do mypart in it--both as to making money and winning the better things of lifefor myself. I want to see things that are already started, developed, towatch Canyon Pass grow--in a spiritual as well as a material sense.
"But something else has got hold of me, Betty. I was living a prettywild life before you and Willie came out here. I wrote him I was. I kindof gloried in being a roughneck, I reckon," he added with a wry smile."But all that's changed with me now, Betty--since you came."
"Mr. Hurley--Joe!" gasped the girl.
But he raised his hand gently in protest. The gesture asked her towait--to hear him through.
"I've got another object in life--another reason for working andstriving. I reckon a man never does know quite what he's aimin' to dountil he sets a mark before him that isn't altogether selfish. I want toget ahead just as much as ever--more so. But I want to accomplish whatI'm aimin' at for something higher than just the satisfaction of seeingthe Great Hope pay big and know that folks say Joe Hurley has made aten-strike!"
"You--you will be successful, Joe," she murmured.
"That's up to you, I reckon," the man said abruptly. "I'm aimin' toaccomplish all this--winning a fortune, helping to put Canyon Pass on themap, and all--for you, Betty. Just for you."
"Mr. Hurley! Joe! Don't!" the girl suddenly exclaimed.
Her face had grown rosy when she began to understand fully what he wascoming to, and then it paled. As she listened to his final outburst thegrieved expression that contracted her lips and dimmed her eyes shockedhim. Before she could speak he knew what answer he was to receive.
"Don't say anything more--please!" she begged. "It's all wrong. I neverthought this--this would happen. Why, I thought we were just friends."
"Betty!" ejaculated the man in a tone that wrung the girl's heart."Betty, haven't I got a chance with you? I know I'm not worthy----"
"Oh! Oh! Don't put it that way, Joe," she pleaded. "It really isn'tthat!"
"What's the matter with me then?" he demanded. "Do you want time tothink it over? Or--wait! Betty, is--is it because you left some one backEast?"
The girl was silent. She turned her head so that he might not see herface. But Hurley waited. She had to answer--and the halting word wasuttered as though it were wrenched from her.
"Yes."
Hurley drew in his breath sharply, and then he was likewise silent. Aminute dragged by. She stole a glance at him at last. He was staringsteadily at her left hand. She had removed her glove, and the handrested bare upon her pony's neck. Suddenly her face flamed again.
"Oh! I do not wear his--his ring," she said hoarsely. "There--there is areason. I----"
"I am not prying into your private affairs, Miss Betty," Hurley saidquickly. "Only--I am sorry I did not know before. Willie never said aword to warn me."
"He does not know!" ejaculated the girl. "I--I do not want him to know."
"He won't learn it from me. Don't fear," said Hurley rather roughly.
"Oh, Mr. Hurley! I am so--so sorry," whispered the girl.
The man, with drooping shoulders and hanging head, sat his horse, astatue of disappointment. He did not move or look at her, as she wheeledher own mount.
"I--I think I would like to ride back alone, Mr. Hurley. You--you won'tmind? Afterward I hope we may be quite as good friends as heretofore. Ido appreciate your friendship--Joe."
Betty could not easily miss the way back. The trail was perfectly plain.She rode fast at first, for with all her sorrow for Joe Hurley'sdisappointment, she could not bear him near her now.
Because she had no thought of ever considering him other than a friend,the girl, who was after all quite inexperienced, had not dreamed Hurleywould come to regard her warmly. She could not understand how it hadhappened. It seemed unbelievable!
Love--romance; a lover--happiness; these things were not for Betty Hunt.She had long ago told herself this. She was devoted to one man only, herbrother. And when he would no longer need her, if that time ever came,she expected to follow a lonely trail.
It was not merely Joe Hurley that she could not marry. She could notmarry any man.
She came out of the majestic forest and reached the open stretch of thetrail from Hoskins. This she followed toward the wagon track which edgedthe brink of the Overhang. She had brought her pony to a quieter paceand jogged along, deep in her unhappy thoughts. Suddenly, turning aclump of brush, she quite involuntarily drew in her pony and halted.There was a rider on the trail ahead of her, a stranger.
It was for only a moment that Betty saw him. Horse and rider wereplunging down a steep declivity beside the trail into a thick copse. Hadhe heard her pony and was he seeking to escape observation? The girl wasimpressed with this possibility.
She rode on again, but very cautiously. She held a firm grip upon herpony's rein. Suppose the stranger should suddenly spur his horse intothe trail again and halt her? From the moment her brother had decided tocome West, and she knew she must attend him, Betty had been fearful ofjust such a meeting as she visualized now.
She half turned her mount, tempted to fly back toward the river and Joe.There was something very comforting in the thought of Joe's nearness.Perhaps, if she waited here, he would overtake her. At least, he mightcome into sight.
Then the thought entered her disturbed mind that possibly Hurley hadgone home another way. He knew the country well. He might not follow theonly trail she knew by which to reach Canyon Pass.
With this to spur her, the girl urged her mount forward. No use inwaiting. The place must be passed. She could see no movement of thebrush where the stranger and his horse had disappeared. But she feltthat he was there!
Again she gathered up the pony's reins and held them firmly. She grippedher whip, too, and prepared for a dash. But she continued to walk herhorse.
She was on the _qui vive_ for a quick start. Her eyes searched the brushin the little ravine. Suddenly she saw something that was notvegetation.
She rode on, but she was more and more disturbed by this object at theedge of the brush. Then, of a sudden, she realized what it was. It wasthe upper part of a man's face. The hatbrim covered all his hair and cutoff much of his forehead; a branch hid all below the point of his nose.
And yet this patch of face shocked Betty. It seemed that she recognizedit! Was it--could it be----
The blood pounded in her temples; her eyes were suffused. At that momentshe could not have spurred her pony had the lurker in the brush sprungforth into her path!
Then he moved. She gained a clear glimpse of his entire face before hedodged again out of sight. His hair rolled upon the collar of his shirtand he wore a mustache, but no beard. Betty felt sudden relief.
"It is never Wilkenson--never!" she murmured. "Never him!"
She knew that her terror had been born in her own mind rather than ofany external danger. The man was nothing to her--no one she had everseen. She rode on finally with a sudden access of courage--a feeling thatoften comes to one when a peril has been successfully surmounted.
Indeed when, a little later and in sight of the broader wagon-track, sheheard the pattering hoofs behind her she was not startled. At first shethought it was Joe Hurley. Then she recognized the fact that there wasmore than one horse coming. Even at that she felt confidence.
She turned to look, and saw three roughly dressed fellows pounding alongthe trail on tired and sweating steeds. One of the men had anauthoritative air. It was he who addressed her, sweeping off his hat inthe same way that Joe Hurley was wont to offer greeting.
"I say, miss," said the man, "have you seen a feller riding this
yereway--couldn't be long ago? Mebbe an hour?"
"What--what man?" she hesitated. "I rode along here some time ago withMr. Joe Hurley----"
"Shucks, ma'am! I ain't after him," replied the man. "I know Joe mightywell. And if you are a friend of his, you pass. I'm the sheriff ofCactus County, and me and my deputies are after a yaller hound thatbamfoozled some honest men out of their hard earnings. He's got thegold, and we want both him and it! We been trailing him two days."
Betty trembled so inwardly that she could say nothing; but luckily thesheriff did not consider there was anything she could say.
"If you and Joe Hurley come along from Canyon Pass, you'd have seen thisfeller, if he'd gone that way. And I'm mighty sure he wouldn't aim forthe Pass. I reckon, boys, Lamberton is our best bet. Good-day to ye,ma'am."
He removed his hat again, and the other two did the same. But they didnot ride south at the fork of the trail without casting back more thanone admiring glance at the trim figure and quietly beautiful face ofBetty Hunt.
She cantered away on the Canyon Pass trail. She had something else tothink of now. By keeping silent had she aided a thief to escape thehands of justice? But, then, perhaps she had saved a man's life as well!