by Zane Grey
“If you’d do thet—wal, I’d never forgit it,” replied the rancher, slowly. “Jack’s been away fer three years. Only got back a week or so ago. I calkilated he’d be sobered, steadied, by—thet—thet work I put him to. But I’m not sure. He’s changed. When he gits his own way he’s all I could ask. But thet way he wants ain’t always what it ought to be. An’ so thar’s been clashes. But Jack’s a fine young man. An’ he’ll outgrow his temper an’ crazy notions. Work’ll do it.”
“Boys will be boys,” replied Wade, philosophically. “I’ve not forgotten when I was a boy.”
“Neither hev I. Wal, I’ll be goin’, Wade. I reckon Columbine will be up to call on you. Bein’ the only woman-folk in my house, she sort of runs it. An’ she’s sure interested in thet pack of hounds.”
Bellounds trudged away, his fine old head erect, his gray hair shining in the sun.
Wade sat down upon the step of his cabin, pondering over the rancher’s remarks about his son. Recalling the young man’s physiognomy, Wade began to feel that it was familiar to him. He had seen Jack Bellounds before. Wade never made mistakes in faces, though he often had a task to recall names. And he began to go over the recent past, recalling all that he could remember of Meeker, and Cripple Creek, where he had worked for several months, and so on, until he had gone back as far as his last trip to Denver.
“Must have been there,” mused Wade, thoughtfully, and he tried to recall all the faces he had seen. This was impossible, of course, yet he remembered many. Then he visualized the places in Denver that for one reason or another had struck him particularly. Suddenly into one of these flashed the pale, sullen, bold face of Jack Bellounds.
“It was there!” he exclaimed, incredulously. “Well!… If thet’s not the strangest yet! Could I be mistaken? No. I saw him.… Bellounds must have known it—must have let him stay there.… Maybe put him there! He’s just the kind of a man to go to extremes to reform his son.”
Singular as was this circumstance, Wade dwelt only momentarily on it. He dismissed it with the conviction that it was another strange happening in the string of events that had turned his steps toward White Slides Ranch. Wade’s mind stirred to the probability of an early sight of Columbine Bellounds. He would welcome it, both as interesting and pleasurable, and surely as a relief. The sooner a meeting with her was over the better. His life had been one long succession of shocks, so that it seemed nothing the future held could thrill him, amaze him, torment him. And yet how well he knew that his heart was only the more responsive for all it had withstood! Perhaps here at White Slides he might meet with an experience dwarfing all others. It was possible; it was in the nature of events. And though he repudiated such a possibility, he fortified himself against a subtle divination that he might at last have reached the end of his long trail, where anything might happen.
Three of the hounds lay down at Wade’s feet. Kane, the bloodhound, stood watching this new master, after the manner of a dog who was a judge of men. He sniffed at Wade. He grew a little less surly.
Wade’s gaze, however, was on the path that led down along the border of the brook to disappear in the willows. Above this clump of yellowing trees could be seen the ranch-house. A girl with fair hair stepped off the porch. She appeared to be carrying something in her arms, and shortly disappeared behind the willows. Wade saw her and surmised that she was coming to his cabin. He did not expect any more or think any more. His faculties condensed to the objective one of sight.
The girl, when she reappeared, was perhaps a hundred yards distant. Wade bent on her one keen, clear glance. Then his brain and his blood beat wildly. He saw a slender girl in riding-costume, lithe and strong, with the free step of one used to the open. It was this form, this step that struck Wade. “My—God! how like Lucy!” he whispered, and he tried to pierce the distance to see her face. It gleamed in the sunshine. Her fair hair waved in the wind. She was coming, but so slowly! All of Wade that was physical and emotional seemed to wait—clamped. The moment was age-long, with nothing beyond it. While she was still at a distance her face became distinct. And Wade sustained a terrible shock.… Then, as one in a dream, as in a blur of strained peering into a maze, he saw the face of his sweetheart, his wife, the Lucy of his early manhood. It moved him out of the past. Closer! Pang on pang quivered in his heart. Was this only a nightmare? Or had he at last gone mad! This girl raised her head. She was looking—she saw him. Terror mounted upon Wade’s consciousness.
“That’s Lucy’s face!” he gasped. “So help—me, God!… It’s for this—I wandered here! She’s my flesh an’ blood—my Lucy’s child—my own!”
Fear and presentiment and blank amaze and stricken consciousness left him in the lightning-flash of divination that was recognition as well. A shuddering cataclysm enveloped him, a passion so stupendous that it almost brought oblivion.
The three hounds leaped up with barks and wagging tails. They welcomed this visitor. Kane lost still more of his canine aloofness.
Wade’s breast heaved. The blue sky, the gray hills, the green willows, all blurred in his sight, that seemed to hold clear only the face floating closer.
“I’m Columbine Bellounds,” said a voice.
It stilled the storm in Wade. It was real. It was a voice of twenty years ago. The burden on his breast lifted. Then flashed the spirit, the old self-control of a man whose life had held many terrible moments.
“Mornin’, miss. I’m glad to meet you,” he replied, and there was no break, no tone unnatural in his greeting.
So they gazed at each other, she with that instinctive look peculiar to women in its intuitive powers, but common to all persons who had lived far from crowds and to whom a new-comer was an event. Wade’s gaze, intense and all-embracing, found that face now closer in resemblance to the imagined Lucy’s—a pretty face, rather than beautiful, but strong and sweet—its striking qualities being a colorless fairness of skin that yet held a rose and golden tint, and the eyes of a rare and exquisite shade of blue.
“Oh! Are you feeling ill?” she asked. “You look so—so pale.”
“No. I’m only tuckered out,” replied Wade, easily, as he wiped the clammy drops from his brow. “It was a long ride to get here.”
“I’m the lady of the house,” she said, with a smile. “I’m glad to welcome you to White Slides, and hope you’ll like it.”
“Well, Miss Columbine, I reckon I will,” he replied, returning the smile. “Now if I was younger I’d like it powerful much.”
She laughed at that. “Men are all alike, young or old.”
“Don’t ever think so,” said Wade, earnestly.
“No? I guess you’re right about that. I’ve fetched you up some things for your cabin. May I peep in?”
“Come in,” replied Wade, rising. “You must excuse my manners. It’s long indeed since I had a lady caller.”
She went in, and Wade, standing on the threshold, saw her survey the room with a woman’s sweeping glance.
“I told dad to put some—”
“Miss, your dad told me to go get them, an’ I’ve not done it yet. But I will presently.”
“Very well. I’ll leave these things and come back later,” she replied, depositing a bundle upon the floor. “You won’t mind if I try to—to make you a little comfortable. It’s dreadful the way outdoor men live when they do get indoors.”
“I reckon I’ll be slow in lettin’ you see what a good housekeeper I am,” he replied. “Because then, maybe, I’ll see more of you.”
“Weren’t you a sad flatterer in your day?” she queried, archly.
Her intonation, the tilt of her head, gave Wade such a pang that he could not answer. And to hide his momentary restraint he turned back to the hounds. Then she came out upon the porch.
“I love hounds,” she said, patting Denver, which caress immediately made Jim and Sampson jealous. “I’ve gotten on pretty well with these, but that Kane won’t make up. Isn’t he splendid? But he’s afraid—no, not afraid of me, but
he doesn’t like me.”
“It’s mistrust. He’s been hurt. I reckon he’ll get over that after a while.”
“You don’t beat dogs?” she asked, eagerly.
“No, miss. That’s not the way to get on with hounds or horses.”
Her glance was a blue flash of pleasure.
“How glad that makes me! Why, I quit coming here to see and feed the dogs because somebody was always kicking them around.”
Wade handed the rope to her. “You hold them, so when I come out with some meat they won’t pile over me.” He went inside, took all that was left of the deer haunch out of his pack, and, picking up his knife, returned to the porch. The hounds saw the meat and yelped. They pulled on the rope.
“You hounds behave,” ordered Wade, as he sat down on the step and began to cut the meat. “Jim, you’re the oldest an’ hungriest. Here.… Now you, Sampson. Here!”… The big hound snapped at the meat. Whereupon Wade slapped him. “Are you a pup or a wolf that you grab for it? Here.” Sampson was slower to act, but he snapped again. Whereupon Wade hit him again, with open hand, not with violence or rancor, but a blow that meant Sampson must obey.
Next time the hound did not snap. Denver had to be cuffed several times before he showed deference to this new master. But the bloodhound Kane refused to take any meat out of Wade’s hand. He growled and showed his teeth, and sniffed hungrily.
“Kane will have to be handled carefully,” observed Wade. “He’d bite pretty quick.”
“But, he’s so splendid,” said the girl. “I don’t like to think he’s mean. You’ll be good to him—try to win him?”
“I’ll do my best with him.”
“Dad’s full of glee that he has a real hunter at White Slides at last. Now I’m glad, and sorry, too. I hate to think of little calves being torn and killed by lions and wolves. And it’s dreadful to know bears eat grown-up cattle. But I love the mourn of a wolf and the yelp of a coyote. I can’t help hoping you don’t kill them all—quite.”
“It’s not likely, miss,” he replied. “I’ll be pretty sure to clean out the lions an’ drive off the bears. But the wolf family can’t be exterminated. No animal so cunnin’ as a wolf!… I’ll tell you.… Some years ago I went to cook on a ranch north of Denver, on the edge of the plains. An’ right off I began to hear stories about a big lobo—a wolf that was an old residenter. He’d been known for long, an’ he got meaner an’ wiser as he was hunted. His specialty got to be yearlings, an’ the ranchers all over rose up in arms against him. They hired all the old hunters an’ trappers in the country to kill him. No good! Old Lobo went right on pullin’ down yearlings. Every night he’d get one or more. An’ he was so cute an’ so swift that he’d work on different ranches on different nights. Finally he killed eleven yearlings for my boss on one night. Eleven! Think of that. An’ then I said to my boss, ‘I reckon you’d better let me go kill that gray butcher.’ An’ my boss laughed at me. But he let me go. He’d have tried anythin’. I took a hunk of meat, a blanket, my gun, an’ a pair of snow-shoes, an’ I set out on old Lobo’s tracks.… An’, Miss Columbine, I walked old Lobo to death in the snow!”
“Why, how wonderful!” exclaimed the girl, breathless and glowing with interest. “Oh, it seems a pity such a splendid brute should be killed. Wild animals are cruel. I wish it were different.”
“Life is cruel, miss, an’ I echo your wish,” replied Wade, sadly.
“You have had great experiences. Dad said to me, ‘Collie, here at last is a man who can tell you enough stories!’… But I don’t believe you ever could.”
“You like stories?” asked Wade, curiously.
“Love them. All kinds, but I like adventure best. I should have been a boy. Isn’t it strange, I can’t hurt anything myself or bear to see even a steer slaughtered? But you can’t tell too bloody and terrible stories for me. Except I hate Indian stories. The very thought of Indians makes me shudder.… Some day I’ll tell you a story.”
Wade could not find his tongue readily.
“I must go now,” she continued, and moved off the porch. Then she hesitated, and turned with a smile that was wistful and impulsive. “I—I believe we’ll be good friends.”
“Miss Columbine, we sure will, if I can live up to my part,” replied Wade.
Her smile deepened, even while her gaze grew unconsciously penetrating. Wade felt how subtly they were drawn to each other. But she had no inkling of that.
“It takes two to make a bargain,” she replied, seriously. “I’ve my part. Good-by.”
Wade watched her lithe stride, and as she drew away the restraint he had put upon himself loosened. When she disappeared his feeling burst all bounds. Dragging the dogs inside, he closed the door. Then, like one broken and spent, he fell face against the wall, with the hoarsely whispered words, “I’m thankin’ God!”
THE MYSTERIOUS RIDER [Part 2]
CHAPTER VI
September’s glory of gold and red and purple began to fade with the autumnal equinox. It rained enough to soak the frost-bitten leaves, and then the mountain winds sent them flying and fluttering and scurrying to carpet the dells and spot the pools in the brooks and color the trails. When the weather cleared and the sun rose bright again many of the aspen thickets were leafless and bare, and the willows showed stark against the gray sage hills, and the vines had lost their fire. Hills and valleys had sobered with subtle change that left them none the less beautiful.
A mile or more down the road from White Slides, in a protected nook, nestled two cabins belonging to a cattleman named Andrews, who had formerly worked for Bellounds and had recently gone into the stock business for himself. He had a rather young wife, and several children, and a brother who rode for him. These people were the only neighbors of Bellounds for some ten miles on the road toward Kremmling.
Columbine liked Mrs. Andrews and often rode or walked down there for a little visit and a chat with her friend and a romp with the children.
Toward the end of September Columbine found herself combating a strong desire to go down to the Andrews ranch and try to learn some news about Wilson Moore. If anything had been heard at White Slides it certainly had not been told her. Jack Bellounds had ridden to Kremmling and back in one day, but Columbine would have endured much before asking him for information.
She did, however, inquire of the freighter who hauled Bellounds’s supplies, and the answer she got was awkwardly evasive. That nettled Columbine. Also it raised a suspicion which she strove to subdue. Finally it seemed apparent that Wilson Moore’s name was not to be mentioned to her.
First, in her growing resentment, she had an impulse to go to her new friend, the hunter Wade, and confide in him not only her longing to learn about Wilson, but also other matters that were growing daily more burdensome. How strange for her to feel that in some way Jack Bellounds had come between her and the old man she loved and called father! Columbine had not divined that until lately. She felt it now in the fact that she no longer sought the rancher as she used to, and he had apparently avoided her. But then, Columbine reflected, she might be entirely wrong, for when Bellounds did meet her at meal-times, or anywhere, he seemed just as affectionate as of old. Still he was not the same man. A chill, an atmosphere of shadow, had pervaded the once wholesome ranch. And so, feeling not yet well enough acquainted with Wade to confide so intimately in him, she stifled her impulses and resolved to make some effort herself to find out what she wanted to know.
As luck would have it, when she started out to walk down to the Andrews ranch she encountered Jack Bellounds.
“Where are you going?” he inquired, inquisitively.
“I’m going to see Mrs. Andrews,” she replied.
“No, you’re not!” he declared, quickly, with a flash.
Columbine felt a queer sensation deep within her, a hot little gathering that seemed foreign to her physical being, and ready to burst out. Of late it had stirred in her at words or acts of Jack Bellounds. She gazed steadily at him, and he r
eturned her look with interest. What he was thinking she had no idea of, but for herself it was a recurrence and an emphasis of the fact that she seemed growing farther away from this young man she had to marry. The weeks since his arrival had been the most worrisome she could remember.
“I am going,” she replied, slowly.
“No!” he replied, violently. “I won’t have you running off down there to—to gossip with that Andrews woman.”
“Oh, you won’t?” inquired Columbine, very quietly. How little he understood her!
“That’s what I said.”
“You’re not my boss yet, Mister Jack Bellounds,” she flashed, her spirit rising. He could irritate her as no one else.
“I soon will be. And what’s a matter of a week or a month?” he went on, calming down a little.
“I’ve promised, yes,” she said, feeling her face blanch, “and I keep my promises.… But I didn’t say when. If you talk like that to me it might be a good many weeks—or—or months before I name the day.”
“Columbine!” he cried, as she turned away. There was genuine distress in his voice. Columbine felt again an assurance that had troubled her. No matter how she was reacting to this new relation, it seemed a fearful truth that Jack was really falling in love with her. This time she did not soften.
“I’ll call dad to make you stay home,” he burst out again, his temper rising.
Columbine wheeled as on a pivot.
“If you do you’ve got less sense than I thought.”
Passion claimed him then.
“I know why you’re going. It’s to see that club-footed cowboy Moore!… Don’t let me catch you with him!”
Columbine turned her back upon Bellounds and swung away, every pulse in her throbbing and smarting. She hurried on into the road. She wanted to run, not to get out of sight or hearing, but to fly from something, she knew not what.
“Oh! it’s more than his temper!” she cried, hot tears in her eyes. “He’s mean—mean—mean! What’s the use of me denying that—any more—just because I love dad?… My life will be wretched.… It is wretched!”