by Zane Grey
As he rode around a corner of the stone house his horse snorted and stopped. A lean, shaggy pony jumped at sight of him, almost displacing a red long-haired blanket that covered an Indian saddle. Quick thuds of hoofs in sand drew Shefford’s attention to a corral made of peeled poles, and here he saw another pony.
Shefford heard subdued voices. He dismounted and walked to an open door. In the dark interior he dimly descried a high counter, a stairway, a pile of bags of flour, blankets, and silver-ornamented objects, but the persons he had heard were not in that part of the house. Around another corner of the octagon-shaped wall he found another open door, and through it saw goat-skins and a mound of dirty sheep-wool, black and brown and white. It was light in this part of the building. When he crossed the threshold he was astounded to see a man struggling with a girl — an Indian girl. She was straining back from him, panting, and uttering low guttural sounds. The man’s face was corded and dark with passion. This scene affected Shefford strangely. Primitive emotions were new to him.
Before Shefford could speak the girl broke loose and turned to flee. She was an Indian and this place was the uncivilized desert, but Shefford knew terror when he saw it. Like a dog the man rushed after her. It was instinct that made Shefford strike, and his blow laid the man flat. He lay stunned a moment, then raised himself to a sitting posture, his hand to his face, and the gaze he fixed upon Shefford seemed to combine astonishment and rage.
“I hope you’re not Presbrey,” said Shefford, slowly. He felt awkward, not sure of himself.
The man appeared about to burst into speech, but repressed it. There was blood on his mouth and his hand. Hastily he scrambled to his feet. Shefford saw this man’s amaze and rage change to shame. He was tall and rather stout; he had a smooth tanned face, soft of outline, with a weak chin; his eyes were dark. The look of him and his corduroys and his soft shoes gave Shefford an impression that he was not a man who worked hard. By contrast with the few other worn and rugged desert men Shefford had met this stranger stood out strikingly. He stooped to pick up a soft felt hat and, jamming it on his head, he hurried out. Shefford followed him and watched him from the door. He went directly to the corral, mounted the pony, and rode out, to turn down the slope toward the south. When he reached the level of the basin, where evidently the sand was hard, he put the pony to a lope and gradually drew away.
“Well!” ejaculated Shefford. He did not know what to make of this adventure. Presently he became aware that the Indian girl was sitting on a roll of blankets near the wall. With curious interest Shefford studied her appearance. She had long, raven-black hair, tangled and disheveled, and she wore a soiled white band of cord above her brow. The color of her face struck him; it was dark, but not red nor bronzed; it almost had a tinge of gold. Her profile was clear-cut, bold, almost stern. Long black eyelashes hid her eyes. She wore a tight-fitting waist garment of material resembling velveteen. It was ripped along her side, exposing a skin still more richly gold than that of her face. A string of silver ornaments and turquoise-and-white beads encircled her neck, and it moved gently up and down with the heaving of her full bosom. Her skirt was some gaudy print goods, torn and stained and dusty. She had little feet, incased in brown moccasins, fitting like gloves and buttoning over the ankles with silver coins.
“Who was that man? Did he hurt you?” inquired Shefford, turning to gaze down the valley where a moving black object showed on the bare sand.
“No savvy,” replied the Indian girl.
“Where’s the trader Presbrey?” asked Shefford.
She pointed straight down into the red valley.
“Toh,” she said.
In the center of the basin lay a small pool of water shining brightly in the sunset glow. Small objects moved around it, so small that Shefford thought he saw several dogs led by a child. But it was the distance that deceived him. There was a man down there watering his horses. That reminded Shefford of the duty owing to his own tired and thirsty beast. Whereupon he untied his pack, took off the saddle, and was about ready to start down when the Indian girl grasped the bridle from his hand.
“Me go,” she said.
He saw her eyes then, and they made her look different. They were as black as her hair. He was puzzled to decide whether or not he thought her handsome.
“Thanks, but I’ll go,” he replied, and, taking the bridle again, he started down the slope. At every step he sank into the deep, soft sand. Down a little way he came upon a pile of tin cans; they were everywhere, buried, half buried, and lying loose; and these gave evidence of how the trader lived. Presently Shefford discovered that the Indian girl was following him with her own pony. Looking upward at her against the light, he thought her slender, lithe, picturesque. At a distance he liked her.
He plodded on, at length glad to get out of the drifts of sand to the hard level floor of the valley. This, too, was sand, but dried and baked hard, and red in color. At some season of the year this immense flat must be covered with water. How wide it was, and empty! Shefford experienced again a feeling that had been novel to him — and it was that he was loose, free, unanchored, ready to veer with the wind. From the foot of the slope the water hole had appeared to be a few hundred rods out in the valley. But the small size of the figures made Shefford doubt; and he had to travel many times a few hundred rods before those figures began to grow. Then Shefford made out that they were approaching him.
Thereafter they rapidly increased to normal proportions of man and beast. When Shefford met them he saw a powerful, heavily built young man leading two ponies.
“You’re Mr. Presbrey, the trader?” inquired Shefford.
“Yes, I’m Presbrey, without the Mister,” he replied.
“My name’s Shefford. I’m knocking about on the desert. Rode from beyond Tuba to-day.”
“Glad to see you,” said Presbrey. He offered his hand. He was a stalwart man, clad in gray shirt, overalls, and boots. A shock of tumbled light hair covered his massive head; he was tanned, but not darkly, and there was red in his cheeks; under his shaggy eyebrows were deep, keen eyes; his lips were hard and set, as if occasion for smiles or words was rare; and his big, strong jaw seemed locked.
“Wish more travelers came knocking around Red Lake,” he added. “Reckon here’s the jumping-off place.”
“It’s pretty — lonesome,” said Shefford, hesitating as if at a loss for words.
Then the Indian girl came up. Presbrey addressed her in her own language, which Shefford did not understand. She seemed shy and would not answer; she stood with downcast face and eyes. Presbrey spoke again, at which she pointed down the valley, and then moved on with her pony toward the water-hole.
Presbrey’s keen eyes fixed on the receding black dot far down that oval expanse.
“That fellow left — rather abruptly,” said Shefford, constrainedly. “Who was he?”
“His name’s Willetts. He’s a missionary. He rode in to-day with this Navajo girl. He was taking her to Blue canyon, where he lives and teaches the Indians. I’ve met him only a few times. You see, not many white men ride in here. He’s the first white man I’ve seen in six months, and you’re the second. Both the same day!... Red Lake’s getting popular! It’s queer, though, his leaving. He expected to stay all night. There’s no other place to stay. Blue canyon is fifty miles away.”
“I’m sorry to say — no, I’m not sorry, either — but I must tell you I was the cause of Mr. Willetts leaving,” replied Shefford.
“How so?” inquired the other.
Then Shefford related the incident following his arrival.
“Perhaps my action was hasty,” he concluded, apologetically. “I didn’t think. Indeed, I’m surprised at myself.”
Presbrey made no comment and his face was as hard to read as one of the distant bluffs.
“But what did the man mean?” asked Shefford, conscious of a little heat. “I’m a stranger out here. I’m ignorant of Indians — how they’re controlled. Still I’m no fool.... If Wil
letts didn’t mean evil, at least he was brutal.”
“He was teaching her religion,” replied Presbrey. His tone held faint scorn and implied a joke, but his face did not change in the slightest.
Without understanding just why, Shefford felt his conviction justified and his action approved. Then he was sensible of a slight shock of wonder and disgust.
“I am — I was a minister of the Gospel,” he said to Presbrey. “What you hint seems impossible. I can’t believe it.”
“I didn’t hint,” replied Presbrey, bluntly, and it was evident that he was a sincere, but close-mouthed, man. “Shefford, so you’re a preacher?... Did you come out here to try to convert the Indians?”
“No. I said I WAS a minister. I am no longer. I’m just a — a wanderer.”
“I see. Well, the desert’s no place for missionaries, but it’s good for wanderers.... Go water your horse and take him up to the corral. You’ll find some hay for him. I’ll get grub ready.”
Shefford went on with his horse to the pool. The water appeared thick, green, murky, and there was a line of salty crust extending around the margin of the pool. The thirsty horse splashed in and eagerly bent his head. But he did not like the taste. Many times he refused to drink, yet always lowered his nose again. Finally he drank, though not his fill. Shefford saw the Indian girl drink from her hand. He scooped up a handful and found it too sour to swallow. When he turned to retrace his steps she mounted her pony and followed him.
A golden flare lit up the western sky, and silhouetted dark and lonely against it stood the trading-post. Upon his return Shefford found the wind rising, and it chilled him. When he reached the slope thin gray sheets of sand were blowing low, rising, whipping, falling, sweeping along with soft silken rustle. Sometimes the gray veils hid his boots. It was a long, toilsome climb up that yielding, dragging ascent, and he had already been lame and tired. By the time he had put his horse away twilight was everywhere except in the west. The Indian girl left her pony in the corral and came like a shadow toward the house.
Shefford had difficulty in finding the foot of the stairway. He climbed to enter a large loft, lighted by two lamps. Presbrey was there, kneading biscuit dough in a pan.
“Make yourself comfortable,” he said.
The huge loft was the shape of a half-octagon. A door opened upon the valley side, and here, too, there were windows. How attractive the place was in comparison with the impressions gained from the outside! The furnishings consisted of Indian blankets on the floor, two beds, a desk and table, several chairs and a couch, a gun-rack full of rifles, innumerable silver-ornamented belts, bridles, and other Indian articles upon the walls, and in one corner a wood-burning stove with teakettle steaming, and a great cupboard with shelves packed full of canned foods.
Shefford leaned in the doorway and looked out. Beneath him on a roll of blankets sat the Indian girl, silent and motionless. He wondered what was in her mind, what she would do, how the trader would treat her. The slope now was a long slant of sheeted moving shadows of sand. Dusk had gathered in the valley. The bluffs loomed beyond. A pale star twinkled above. Shefford suddenly became aware of the intense nature of the stillness about him. Yet, as he listened to this silence, he heard an intermittent and immeasurably low moan, a fitful, mournful murmur. Assuredly it was only the wind. Nevertheless, it made his blood run cold. It was a different wind from that which had made music under the eaves of his Illinois home. This was a lonely, haunting wind, with desert hunger in it, and more which he could not name. Shefford listened to this spirit-brooding sound while he watched night envelop the valley. How black, how thick the mantle! Yet it brought no comforting sense of close-folded protection, of walls of soft sleep, of a home. Instead there was the feeling of space, of emptiness, of an infinite hall down which a mournful wind swept streams of murmuring sand.
“Well, grub’s about ready,” said Presbrey.
“Got any water?” asked Shefford.
“Sure. There in the bucket. It’s rain-water. I have a tank here.”
Shefford’s sore and blistered face felt better after he had washed off the sand and alkali dust.
“Better not wash your face often while you’re in the desert. Bad plan,” went on Presbrey, noting how gingerly his visitor had gone about his ablutions. “Well, come and eat.”
Shefford marked that if the trader did live a lonely life he fared well. There was more on the table than twice two men could have eaten. It was the first time in four days that Shefford had sat at a table, and he made up for lost opportunity.
His host’s actions indicated pleasure, yet the strange, hard face never relaxed, never changed. When the meal was finished Presbrey declined assistance, had a generous thought of the Indian girl, who, he said, could have a place to eat and sleep down-stairs, and then with the skill and despatch of an accomplished housewife cleared the table, after which work he filled a pipe and evidently prepared to listen.
It took only one question for Shefford to find that the trader was starved for news of the outside world; and for an hour Shefford fed that appetite, even as he had been done by. But when he had talked himself out there seemed indication of Presbrey being more than a good listener.
“How’d you come in?” he asked, presently.
“By Flagstaff — across the Little Colorado — and through Moencopie.”
“Did you stop at Moen Ave?”
“No. What place is that?”
“A missionary lives there. Did you stop at Tuba?”
“Only long enough to drink and water my horse. That was a wonderful spring for the desert.”
“You said you were a wanderer.... Do you want a job? I’ll give you one.”
“No, thank you, Presbrey.”
“I saw your pack. That’s no pack to travel with in this country. Your horse won’t last, either. Have you any money?”
“Yes, plenty of money.”
“Well, that’s good. Not that a white man out here would ever take a dollar from you. But you can buy from the Indians as you go. Where are you making for, anyhow?”
Shefford hesitated, debating in mind whether to tell his purpose or not. His host did not press the question.
“I see. Just foot-loose and wandering around,” went on Presbrey. “I can understand how the desert appeals to you. Preachers lead easy, safe, crowded, bound lives. They’re shut up in a church with a Bible and good people. When once in a lifetime they get loose — they break out.”
“Yes, I’ve broken out — beyond all bounds,” replied Shefford, sadly. He seemed retrospective for a moment, unaware of the trader’s keen and sympathetic glance, and then he caught himself. “I want to see some wild life. Do you know the country north of here?”
“Only what the Navajos tell me. And they’re not much to talk. There’s a trail goes north, but I’ve never traveled it. It’s a new trail every time an Indian goes that way, for here the sand blows and covers old tracks. But few Navajos ride in from the north. My trade is mostly with Indians up and down the valley.”
“How about water and grass?”
“We’ve had rain and snow. There’s sure to be, water. Can’t say about grass, though the sheep and ponies from the north are always fat.... But, say, Shefford, if you’ll excuse me for advising you — don’t go north.”
“Why?” asked Shefford, and it was certain that he thrilled.
“It’s unknown country, terribly broken, as you can see from here, and there are bad Indians biding in the canyon. I’ve never met a man who had been over the pass between here and Kayenta. The trip’s been made, so there must be a trail. But it’s a dangerous trip for any man, let alone a tenderfoot. You’re not even packing a gun.”
“What’s this place Kayenta?” asked Shefford.
“It’s a spring. Kayenta means Bottomless Spring. There’s a little trading-post, the last and the wildest in northern Arizona. Withers, the trader who keeps it, hauls his supplies in from Colorado and New Mexico. He’s never come down this way. I
never saw him. Know nothing of him except hearsay. Reckon he’s a nervy and strong man to hold that post. If you want to go there, better go by way of Keams canyon, and then around the foot of Black Mesa. It’ll be a long ride — maybe two hundred miles.”
“How far straight north over the pass?”
“Can’t say. Upward of seventy-five miles over rough trails, if there are trails at all.... I’ve heard rumors of a fine tribe of Navajos living in there, rich in sheep and horses. It may be true and it may not. But I do know there are bad Indians, half-breeds and outcasts, hiding in there. Some of them have visited me here. Bad customers! More than that, you’ll be going close to the Utah line, and the Mormons over there are unfriendly these days.”
“Why?” queried Shefford, again with that curious thrill.
“They are being persecuted by the government.”
Shefford asked no more questions and his host vouchsafed no more information on that score. The conversation lagged. Then Shefford inquired about the Indian girl and learned that she lived up the valley somewhere. Presbrey had never seen her before Willetts came with her to Red Lake. And this query brought out the fact that Presbrey was comparatively new to Red Lake and vicinity. Shefford wondered why a lonely six months there had not made the trader old in experience. Probably the desert did not readily give up its secrets. Moreover, this Red Lake house was only an occasionally used branch of Presbrey’s main trading-post, which was situated at Willow Springs, fifty miles westward over the mesa.
“I’m closing up here soon for a spell,” said Presbrey, and now his face lost its set hardness and seemed singularly changed. It was a difference, of light and softness. “Won’t be so lonesome over at Willow Springs.... I’m being married soon.”