XXI
"GOOD-BY, LITTLE RIVERS!"
It was the thing thrilling him with the ardor of a soldier preparing fora siege that sent Jack to the Ewolds' later in the morning. He had comedetermined to finish the speech that he had called up to Mary from thecanyon. As he crossed the cement bridge, Ignacio appeared on the path andtook his position there obdurately, instead of standing to one side witha nod, as usual, to let the caller pass.
"Senorita Ewold is not at home!" he announced, before Jack had spoken.
"Not even in the garden?"
"No, senor."
"But she will be back soon?"
"I do not think so."
Ignacio's face was as blank as a wall, but knowingly, authoritativelyblank. His brown eyes glistened with cold assurance. He seemed to havebecome the interpreter of a message in keeping with Mary's flight fromthe pass and her withdrawal from the porch when she had seen Jackapproaching. Here was a new barrier which did not permit even banteracross the crest. She must know that he was going, for the news of hisapproaching departure had already spread through the town. She had chosennot to see him again, even for a farewell.
For a little time he stood in thought, while Ignacio remained steadfaston the path, watchful, perhaps, for the devil in Senor Don't Care toappear. Suddenly Jack's features glowed with action; he took a step as ifhe would sweep by Ignacio on into the garden. But the impulse instantlypassed. He stopped, his face drawn as it had been when he fell limpagainst the hedge stricken by the horror of his seeming brutality toPedro Nogales, and turned away into the street with a mask of smiles forthe greetings and regrets of the friends whom he met.
Worth twenty millions or twenty cents, he was still Jack to LittleRivers; still the knight who had come over the range to vanquish PeteLeddy; still a fellow-rancher in the full freemasonry of callousedhands; still the joyous teller of stories. The thought of losing him settendrils in the ranchers' hearts twitching in sympathy with tendrils inhis own, which he found rooted very deep now that he must tear them out.
That afternoon at the appointed hour for his departure every man, woman,and child had assembled at the end of the main street, where it brokeinto the desert trail. The principal found an excuse for dismissingschool an hour earlier than usual. That is, everyone was present exceptMary. The Doge came, if a little late, to fulfil his function as chosenspokesman for all in bidding Jack Godspeed on his journey.
"Senor Don't Care, you are a part of the history of Little Rivers!" hesaid, airily. "You have brought us something which we lacked in oursingularly peaceful beginning. Without romance, sir, no community iscomplete. I have found you a felicitous disputant whom I shall miss; foryou leave me to provide the arguments on both sides of a subject on thesame evening. Our people have found you a neighbor of infinite resourcesof humor and cheer. We wish you a pleasant trail. We wish you warmsunshine when the weather is chill and shade when the weather is hot, andthat you shall ever travel with a singing heart, while old age neverovertakes the fancy of youth."
Every one of the familiar faces grouped around the fine, cultured oldface of the Doge expressed the thoughts to which he had given form.
"May your arguments be as thick as fireflies, O Doge!" Jack answered,"everyone bearing a torch to illumine the outer darkness of ignorance!May every happy thought I have for Little Rivers spring up in adate-tree wonderful! Then, before the year is out, you will have aforest of date-trees stretching from foothills to foothills, across thewhole valley."
"And one more about the giant with the little voice and the dwarf withthe big voice and the cat with the stripes down her back!" cried BelvySmith, spokeswoman for the children. "Are they just going on foreverhaving adventures and us never knowing about them?"
"No. I have been holding back the last story," Jack said. "Both the giantand the dwarf were getting old, as you all know, and they were prettybadly battered up from their continual warfare. Why, the scar which thegiant got on his forehead in their last battle was so big that if thedwarf had had it there would have been no top left to his head. After thecat had lost that precious black tip to her tail she became more and morethoughtful. She made up her mind to retire and reform and have apermanent home. And you know what a gift she had for planning out thingsand how clever she was about getting her own way. Now she sat in a hedgecorner thinking and thinking and looking at the stubby end of her tail,and suddenly she cried, 'Eureka!' And what do you think she did? She wentto a paint shop and had her left ear painted yellow and her right earpainted green. So, now you can see her any day sunning herself on thesteps of the cottage where the giant and the dwarf live in peace.Whenever they have an inclination to quarrel she jumps between them andwiggles the yellow ear at the giant and the green ear at the dwarf, whichfusses them both so that they promise to be good and rush off to get hera saucer of milk."
"A green ear and a yellow ear! What a funny looking cat she must be!"exclaimed Belvy.
"So she says to herself between purrs," concluded Jack. "But she is aphilosopher and knows that she would look still funnier if she had losther ears as Jag Ear has. Good-by, children! Good-by, everybody! Good-by,Little Rivers!"
Jack gave P.D. a signal and the crowd broke into a cheer, which waspunctuated by the music of Jag Ear's bells as his burrohood got inmotion. The Doge, who had brought his horse, mounted.
"I will ride a little distance with you," he said.
He appeared like a man who had a great deal on his mind and yet was at aloss for words. There was the unprecedented situation of silence betweenthe two exponents of persiflage in Little Rivers.
"I--" he began, and paused as if the subject were too big for him and itwere better not to begin at all. Then he drew rein.
"Luck, Jack!" he said, simply, and there was something like pityin his tone.
"And Mary--you will say good-by to her and thank her!" said Jack.
"I think you may meet her," answered the Doge. "She went away earlytaking her luncheon, before she knew that you were going."
So Ignacio had been acting on his own authority! The thrill of the newssinging in Jack's veins was too overwhelming for him to notice thechallenge and apprehension in the Doge's glance. The Doge saw the glow ofa thousand happy, eager thoughts in Jack's face. He hesitated again onthe brink of speech, before, with a toss of his leonine head as if hewere veritably leaving fate's affairs to fate, he turned to go; and Jackmechanically touched P.D.'s rein, while he gazed toward the pass. P.D.had not gone many steps when Jack heard the same sonorous call that hadgreeted him that first night when he stopped before the door of theEwolds; the call of a great, infectious fellowship between men:
"Luck, Sir Chaps! I defy you to wear your spurs up the Avenue! Give mylove to that new Campanile in Babylon, the Metropolitan tower! Get it inthe mist! Get it under the sun! Kiss your hand to golden Diana, huntressof Manhattan's winds! Say ahoy to old Farragut! And on gray days have alook for me at the new Sorollas in the Museum! Luck, Sir Chaps!"
"Good crops and a generous mail, O Doge!"
Jack rode fast, in the gladness of a hope this side of the pass and inthe face of shadows on the other side which he did not attempt to define.To Firio he seemed to have grown taller and older.
Over the Pass Page 21