by Zane Grey
“I’ll take her. Joe, will you help me?”
Shefford, even in his agitation, felt the Mormon’s silence to be a consent that need not have been asked. And Shefford had a passionate gratefulness toward his comrade. That stultifying and blinding prejudice which had always seemed to remove a Mormon outside the pale of certain virtue suffered final eclipse; and Joe Lake stood out a man, strange and crude, but with a heart and a soul.
“Joe, tell me what to do,” said Shefford, with a simplicity that meant he needed only to be directed.
“Pull yourself together. Get your nerve back,” replied Joe. “Reckon you’d better show yourself over there. No one saw you come in this morning—your absence from camp isn’t known. It’s better you seem curious and shocked like the rest of us. Come on. We’ll go over. And afterward we’ll get the Indian, and plan.”
They left camp and, crossing the brook, took the shaded path toward the village. Hope of saving Fay, the need of all his strength and nerve and cunning to effect that end, gave Shefford the supreme courage to overcome his horror and fear. On that short walk under the pinyons to Fay’s cabin he had suffered many changes of emotion, but never anything like this change which made him fierce and strong to fight, deep and crafty to plan, hard as iron to endure.
The village appeared very quiet, though groups of women stood at the doors of cabins. If they talked, it was very low. Henninger and Smith, two of the three Mormon men living in the village, were standing before the closed door of the school-house. A tigerish feeling thrilled Shefford when he saw them on guard there. Shefford purposely avoided looking at Fay’s cabin as long as he could keep from it. When he had to look he saw several hooded, whispering women in the yard, and Beal, the other Mormon man, standing in the cabin door. Upon the porch lay the long shape of a man, covered with blankets.
Shefford experienced a horrible curiosity.
“Say, Beal, I’ve fetched Shefford over,” said Lake. “He’s pretty much cut up.”
Beal wagged a solemn head, but said nothing. His mind seemed absent or steeped in gloom, and he looked up as one silently praying.
Joe Lake strode upon the little porch and, reaching down, he stripped the blanket from the shrouded form.
Shefford saw a sharp, cold, ghastly face. “Waggoner!” he whispered.
“Yes,” replied Lake.
Waggoner! Shefford remembered the strange power in his face, and, now that life had gone, that power was stripped of all disguise. Death, in Shefford’s years of ministry, had lain under his gaze many times and in a multiplicity of aspects, but never before had he seen it stamped so strangely. Shefford did not need to be told that here was a man who believed he had conversed with God on earth, who believed he had a divine right to rule women, who had a will that would not yield itself to death utterly. Waggoner, then, was the devil who had come masked to Surprise Valley, had forced a martyrdom upon Fay Larkin. And this was the Mormon who had made Fay Larkin a murderess. Shefford had hated him living, and now he hated him dead. Death here was robbed of all nobility, of pathos, of majesty. It was only retribution. Wild justice! But alas! that it had to be meted out by a white-soled girl whose innocence was as great as the unconscious savagery which she had assimilated from her lonely and wild environment. Shefford laid a despairing curse upon his own head, and a terrible remorse knocked at his heart. He had left her alone, this girl in whom love had made the great change—like a coward he had left her alone. That curse he visited upon himself because he had been the spirit and the motive of this wild justice, and his should have been the deed.
Joe Lake touched Shefford’s arm and pointed at the haft of a knife protruding from Waggoner’s breast. It was a wooden haft. Shefford had seen it before somewhere.
Then he was struck with what perhaps Joe meant him to see—the singular impression the haft gave of one sweeping, accurate, powerful stroke. A strong arm had driven that blade home. The haft was sunk deep; there was a little depression in the cloth; no blood showed; and the weapon looked as if it could not be pulled out. Shefford’s thought went fatally and irresistibly to Fay Larkin’s strong arm. He saw her flash that white arm and lift the heavy bucket from the spring with an ease he wondered at. He felt the strong clasp of her hand as she had given it to him in a flying leap across a crevice upon the walls. Yes, her fine hand and the round, strong arm possessed the strength to have given that blade its singular directness and force. The marvel was not in the physical action. It hid inscrutably in the mystery of deadly passion rising out of a gentle and sad heart.
Joe Lake drew up the blanket and shut from Shefford’s fascinated gaze that spare form, that accusing knife, that face of strange, cruel power.
“Anybody been sent for?” asked Lake of Beal.
“Yes. An Indian boy went for the Piute. We’ll send him to Stonebridge,” replied the Mormon.
“How soon do you expect anyone here from Stonebridge?”
“Tomorrow, mebbe by noon.”
“Meantime what’s to be done with—this?”
“Elder Smith thinks the body should stay right here where it fell till they come from Stonebridge.”
“Waggoner was found here, then?”
“Right here.”
“Who found him?”
“Mother Smith. She came over early. An’ the sight made her scream. The women all came runnin’. Mother Smith had to be put to bed.”
“Who found—Mary?”
“See here, Joe, I told you all I knowed once before,” replied the Mormon, testily.
“I’ve forgotten. Was sort of bewildered. Tell me again.… Who found—her?”
“The women folks. She laid right inside the door, in a dead faint. She hadn’t undressed. There was blood on her hands an’ a cut or scratch. The women fetched her to. But she wouldn’t talk. Then Elder Smith come an’ took her. They’ve got her locked up.”
Then Joe led Shefford away from the cabin farther on into the village. When they were halted by the somber, grieving women it was Joe who did the talking. They passed the school-house, and here Shefford quickened his step. He could scarcely bear the feeling that rushed over him. And the Mormon gripped his arm as if he understood.
“Shefford, which one of these younger women do you reckon your best friend? Ruth?” asked Lake, earnestly.
“Ruth, by all means. Just lately I haven’t seen her often. But we’ve been close friends. I think she’d do much for me.”
“Maybe there’ll be a chance to find out. Maybe we’ll need Ruth. Let’s have a word with her. I haven’t seen her out among the women.”
They stopped at the door of Ruth’s cabin. It was closed. When Joe knocked there came a sound of footsteps inside, a hand drew aside the window-blind, and presently the door opened. Ruth stood there, dressed in somber hue. She was a pretty, slender, blue-eyed, brown-haired young woman.
Shefford imagined from her pallor and the set look of shock upon her face, that the tragedy had affected her more powerfully than it had the other women. When he remembered that she had been more friendly with Fay Larkin than any other neighbor, he made sure he was right in his conjecture.
“Come in,” was Ruth’s greeting.
“No. We just wanted to say a word. I noticed you’ve not been out. Do you know—all about it?”
She gave them a strange glance.
“Any of the women folks been in?” added Joe.
“Hester ran over. She told me through the window. Then I barred my door to keep the other women out.”
“What for?” asked Joe, curiously.
“Please come in,” she said, in reply.
They entered, and she closed the door after them. The change that came over her then was the loosing of restraint.
“Joe—what will they do with Mary?” she queried, tensely.
The Mormon studied her with dark, speculative eyes. “Hang her!” he rejoined in brutal harshness.
“O Mother of Saints!” she cried, and her hands went up.
“You’r
e sorry for Mary, then?” asked Joe, bluntly.
“My heart is breaking for her.”
“Well, so’s Shefford’s,” said the Mormon, huskily. “And mine’s kind of damn shaky.”
Ruth glided to Shefford with a woman’s swift softness.
“You’ve been my good—my best friend. You were hers, too. Oh, I know!… Can’t you do something for her?”
“I hope to God I can,” replied Shefford.
Then the three stood looking from one to the other, in a strong and subtly realizing moment drawn together.
“Ruth,” whispered Joe, hoarsely, and then he glanced fearfully around, at the window and door, as if listeners were there. It was certain that his dark face had paled. He tried to whisper more, only to fail. Shefford divined the weight of Mormonism that burdened Joe Lake then. Joe was faithful to a love for Fay Larkin, noble in friendship to Shefford, desperate in a bitter strait with his own manliness, but the power of that creed by which he had been raised struck his lips mute. For to speak on meant to be false to that creed. Already in his heart he had decided, yet he could not voice the thing.
“Ruth”—Shefford took up the Mormon’s unfinished whisper—“if we plan to save her—if we need you—will you help?”
Ruth turned white, but an instant and splendid fire shone in her eyes.
“Try me,” she whispered back. “I’ll change places with her—so you can get her away. They can’t do much to me.”
Shefford wrung her hands. Joe licked his lips and found his voice: “We’ll come back later.” Then he led the way out and Shefford followed. They were silent all the way back to camp.
Nas Ta Bega sat in repose where they had left him, a thoughtful, somber figure. Shefford went directly to the Indian, and Joe tarried at the camp-fire, where he raked out some red embers and put one upon the bowl of his pipe. He puffed clouds of white smoke, then found a seat beside the others.
“Shefford, go ahead. Talk. It’ll take a deal of talk. I’ll listen. Then I’ll talk. It’ll be Nas Ta Bega who makes the plan out of it all.”
Shefford launched himself so swiftly that he scarcely talked coherently. But he made clear the points that he must save Fay, get her away from the village, let her lead him to Surprise Valley, rescue Lassiter and Jane Withersteen, and take them all out of the country.
Joe Lake dubiously shook his head. Manifestly the Surprise Valley part of the situation presented a new and serious obstacle. It changed the whole thing. To try to take the three out by way of Kayenta and Durango was not to be thought of, for reasons he briefly stated. The Red Lake trail was the only one left, and if that were taken the chances were against Shefford. It was five days over sand to Red Lake—impossible to hide a trail—and even with a day’s start Shefford could not escape the hard-riding men who would come from Stonebridge. Besides, after reaching Red Lake, there were days and days of desert-travel needful to avoid places like Blue canyon, Tuba, Moencopie, and the Indian villages.
“We’ll have to risk all that,” declared Shefford, desperately.
“It’s a fool risk,” retorted Joe. “Listen. By tomorrow noon all of Stonebridge, more or less, will be riding in here. You’ve got to get away tonight with the girl—or never! And tomorrow you’ve got to find that Lassiter and the woman in Surprise Valley. This valley must be back, deep in the canyon country. Well, you’ve got to come out this way again. No trail through here would be safe. Why, you’d put all your heads in a rope!… You mustn’t come through this way. It’ll have to be tried across country, off the trails, and that means hell—day-and-night travel, no camp, no feed for horses—maybe no water. Then you’ll have the best trackers in Utah like hounds on your trail.”
When the Mormon ceased his forceful speech there was a silence fraught with hopeless meaning. He bowed his head in gloom. Shefford, growing sick again to his marrow, fought a cold, hateful sense of despair.
“Bi Nai!” In his extremity he called to the Indian.
“The Navajo has heard,” replied Nas Ta Bega, strangely speaking in his own language.
With a long, slow heave of breast Shefford felt his despair leave him. In the Indian lay his salvation. He knew it. Joe Lake caught the subtle spirit of the moment and looked up eagerly.
Nas Ta Bega stretched an arm toward the east, and spoke in Navajo. But Shefford, owing to the hurry and excitement of his mind, could not translate. Joe Lake listened, gave a violent start, leaped up with all his big frame quivering, and then fired question after question at the Indian. When the Navajo had replied to all, Joe drew himself up as if facing an irrevocable decision which would wring his very soul. What did he cast off in that moment? What did he grapple with? Shefford had no means to tell, except by the instinct which baffled him. But whether the Mormon’s trial was one of spiritual rending or the natural physical fear of a perilous, virtually impossible venture, the fact was he was magnificent in his acceptance of it. He turned to Shefford, white, cold, yet glowing.
“Nas Ta Bega believes he can take you down a canyon to the big river—the Colorado. He knows the head of this canyon. Nonnezoshe Boco it’s called—canyon of the rainbow bridge. He has never been down it. Only two or three living Indians have ever seen the great stone bridge. But all have heard of it. They worship it as a god. There’s water runs down this canyon and water runs to the river. Nas Ta Bega thinks he can take you down to the river.”
“Go on,” cried Shefford breathlessly, as Joe paused.
“The Indian plans this way. God, it’s great!… If only I can do my end!… He plans to take mustangs today and wait with them for you tonight or tomorrow till you come with the girl. You’ll go get Lassiter and the woman out of Surprise Valley. Then you’ll strike east for Nonnezoshe Boco. If possible, you must take a pack of grub. You may be days going down—and waiting for me at the mouth of the canyon, at the river.”
“Joe! Where will you be?”
“I’ll ride like hell for Kayenta, get another horse there, and ride like hell for the San Juan River. There’s a big flatboat at the Durango crossing. I’ll go down the San Juan in that—into the big river. I’ll drift down by day, tie up by night, and watch for you at the mouth of every canyon till I come to Nonnezoshe Boco.”
Shefford could not believe the evidence of his ears. He knew the treacherous San Juan River. He had heard of the great, sweeping, terrible red Colorado and its roaring rapids.
“Oh, it seems impossible!” he gasped. “You’ll just lose your life for nothing.”
“The Indian will turn the trick, I tell you. Take my hunch. It’s nothing for me to drift down a swift river. I worked a ferry-boat once.”
Shefford, to whom flying straws would have seemed stable, caught the inflection of defiance and daring and hope of the Mormon’s spirit.
“What then—after you meet us at the mouth of Nonnezoshe Boco?” he queried.
“We’ll all drift down to Lee’s Ferry. That’s at the head of Marble canyon. We’ll get out on the south side of the river, thus avoiding any Mormons at the ferry. Nas Ta Bega knows the country. It’s open desert—on the other side of these plateaus. He can get horses from Navajos. Then you’ll strike south for Willow Springs.”
“Willow Springs? That’s Presbrey’s trading-post,” said Shefford.
“Never met him. But he’ll see you safe out of the Painted Desert.… The thing that worries me most is how not to miss you all at the mouth of Nonnezoshe. You must have sharp eyes. But I forget the Indian. A bird couldn’t pass him.… And suppose Nonnezoshe Boco has a steep-walled, narrow mouth opening into a rapids!… Whew! Well, the Indian will figure that, too. Now, let’s put our heads together and plan how to turn this end of the trick here. Getting the girl!”
After a short colloquy it was arranged that Shefford would go to Ruth and talk to her of the aid she had promised. Joe averred that this aid could be best given by Ruth going in her somber gown and hood to the school-house, and there, while Joe and Shefford engaged the guards outside, she would change apparel
and places with Fay and let her come forth.
“What’ll they do to Ruth?” demanded Shefford. “We can’t accept her sacrifice if she’s to suffer—or be punished.”
“Reckon Ruth has a strong hunch that she can get away with it. Did you notice how strange she said that? Well, they can’t do much to her. The bishop may damn her soul. But—Ruth—”
Here Lake hesitated and broke off. Not improbably he had meant to say that of all the Mormon women in the valley Ruth was the least likely to suffer from punishment inflicted upon her soul.
“Anyway, it’s our only chance,” went on Joe, “unless we kill a couple of men. Ruth will gladly take what comes to help you.”
“All right; I consent,” replied Shefford, with emotion. “And now after she comes out—the supposed Ruth—what then?”
“You can be natural-like. Go with her back to Ruth’s cabin. Then stroll off into the cedars. Then climb the west wall. Meanwhile Nas Ta Bega will ride off with a pack of grub and Nack-yal and several other mustangs. He’ll wait for you or you’ll wait for him, as the case may be, at some appointed place. When you’re gone I’ll jump my horse and hit the trail for Kayenta and the San Juan.”
“Very well; that’s settled,” said Shefford, soberly. “I’ll go at once to see Ruth. You and Nas Ta Bega decide on where I’m to meet him.”
“Reckon you’d do just as well to walk round and come up to Ruth’s from the other side—instead of going through the village,” suggested Joe.
Shefford approached Ruth’s cabin in a roundabout way; nevertheless, she saw him coming before he got there and, opening the door, stood pale, composed, and quietly bade him enter. Briefly, in low and earnest voice, Shefford acquainted her with the plan.
“You love her so much,” she said, wistfully, wonderingly.
“Indeed I do. Is it too much to ask of you to do this thing?” he asked.
“Do it?” she queried, with a flash of spirit. “Of course I’ll do it.”