Desert Gold and the Light of Western Stars

by Zane Grey

  Stillwell paused in the rapid delivery of his narrative; he still retained Madeline’s hand, as if by that he might comfort her.

  “After Pat left we put our haids together,” began the old cattleman, with a long respiration. “We rounded up a lad who hed seen a dozen or so fellers—he wouldn’t say they was Greasers—breakin’ through the shrubbery to the back of the house. That was while Stewart was ridin’ out to the mesa. Then this lad seen your servants all runnin’ down the hill toward the village. Now, heah’s the way Gene figgers. There sure was some deviltry down along the railroad, an’ Pat Hawe trailed bandits up to the ranch. He hunts hard an’ then all to onct he quits. Stewart says Pat Hawe wasn’t scared, but he discovered signs or somethin’, or got wind in some strange way, that there was in the gang of bandits some fellers he didn’t want to ketch. Sabe? Then Gene, quicker’n a flash, springs his plan on me. He’d go down to Padre Marcos an’ hev him help to find out all possible from your Mexican servants. I was to hurry up hyar an’ tell you—give you orders, Miss Majesty. Ain’t that amazin’ strange? Wal, you’re to assemble all your guests in the kitchen. Make a grand bluff an’ pretend, as your help has left, that it’ll be great fun fer your guests to cook dinner. The kitchen is the safest room in the house. While you’re joshin’ your party along, makin’ a kind of picnic out of it, I’ll place cowboys in the long corridor, an’ also outside in the corner where the kitchen joins on to the main house. It’s pretty sure the bandits think no one’s wise to where they’re hid. Stewart says they’re in that end room where the alfalfa is, an’ they’ll slope in the night. Of course, with me an’ the boys watchin’, you-all will be safe to go to bed. An’ we’re to rouse your guests early before daylight, to hit the trail up into the mountains. Tell them to pack outfits before goin’ to bed. Say as your servants hev sloped, you might as well go campin’ with the cowboys. That’s all. If we hev any luck your friends’ll never know they’ve been sittin’ on a powder-mine.”

  “Stillwell, do you advise that’ trip up into the mountains?” asked Madeline.

  “I reckon I do, considerin’ everythin’. Now, Miss Majesty, I’ve used up a lot of time explainin’. You’ll sure keep your nerve?”

  “Yes,” Madeline replied, and was surprised at herself.

  “Better tell Florence. She’ll be a power of comfort to you. I’m goin’ now to fetch up the boys.”

  Instead of returning to her room Madeline went through the office into the long corridor. It was almost as dark as night. She fancied she saw a slow-gliding figure darker than the surrounding gloom; and she entered upon the fulfilment of her part of the plan in something like trepidation. Her footsteps were noiseless. Finding the door to the kitchen, and going in, she struck lights. Upon passing out again she made certain she discerned a dark shape, now motionless, crouching along the wall. But she mistrusted her vivid imagination. It took all her boldness to enable her unconcernedly and naturally to strike the corridor light. Then she went on through her own rooms and thence into the patio.

  Her guests laughingly and gladly entered into the spirit of the occasion. Madeline fancied her deceit must have been perfect, seeing that it deceived even Florence. They trooped merrily into the kitchen. Madeline, delaying at the door, took a sharp but unobtrusive glance down the great, barn-like hall. She saw nothing but blank dark space. Suddenly from one side, not a rod distant, protruded a pale, gleaming face breaking the even blackness. Instantly it flashed back out of sight. Yet that time was long enough for Madeline to see a pair of glittering eyes, and to recognize them as Don Carlos’s.

  Without betraying either hurry or alarm, she closed the door. It had a heavy bolt which she slowly, noiselessly shot. Then the cold amaze that had all but stunned her into inaction throbbed into wrath. How dared that Mexican steal into her home! What did he mean? Was he one of the bandits supposed to be hidden in her house? She was thinking herself into greater anger and excitement, and probably would have betrayed herself had not Florence, who had evidently seen her bolt the door and now read her thoughts, come toward her with a bright, intent, questioning look. Madeline caught herself in time.

  Thereupon she gave each of her guests a duty to perform. Leading Florence into the pantry, she unburdened herself of the secret in one brief whisper. Florence’s reply was to point out of the little open window, passing which was a file of stealthily moving cowboys. Then Madeline lost both anger and fear, retaining only the glow of excitement.

  Madeline could be gay, and she initiated the abandonment of dignity by calling Castleton into the pantry, and, while interesting him in some pretext or other, imprinting the outlines of her flour-covered hands upon the back of his black coat. Castleton innocently returned to the kitchen to be greeted with a roar. That surprising act of the hostess set the pace, and there followed a merry noisy time. Everybody helped. The miscellaneous collection of dishes so confusingly contrived made up a dinner which they all heartily enjoyed. Madeline enjoyed it herself, even with the feeling of a sword hanging suspended over her.

  The hour was late when she rose from the table and told her guests to go to their rooms, don their riding-clothes, pack what they needed for the long and adventurous camping trip that she hoped would be the climax of their Western experience, and to snatch a little sleep before the cowboys roused them for the early start.

  Madeline went immediately to her room, and was getting out her camping apparel when a knock interrupted her. She thought Florence had come to help her pack. But this knock was upon the door opening out in the porch. It was repeated.

  “Who’s there?” she questioned.

  “Stewart,” came the reply.

  She opened the door. He stood on the threshold. Beyond him, indistinct in the gloom, were several cowboys.

  “May I speak to you?” he asked.

  “Certainly.” She hesitated a moment, then asked him in and closed the door. “Is—is everything all right?”

  “No. These bandits stick to cover pretty close. They must have found out we’re on the watch. But I’m sure we’ll get you and your friends away before anything starts. I wanted to tell you that I’ve talked with your servants. They were just scared. They’ll come back to-morrow, soon as Bill gets rid of this gang. You need not worry about them or your property.”

  “Do you have any idea who is hiding in the house?”

  “I was worried some at first. Pat Hawe acted queer. I imagined he’d discovered he was trailing bandits who might turn out to be his smuggling guerrilla cronies. But talking with your servants, finding a bunch of horses hidden down in the mesquite behind the pond—several things have changed my mind. My idea is that a cowardly handful of riffraff outcasts from the border have hidden in your house, more by accident than design. We’ll let them go—get rid of them without even a shot. If I didn’t think so—well, I’d be considerably worried. It would make a different state of affairs.”

  “Stewart, you are wrong,” she said.

  He started, but his reply did not follow swiftly. The expression of his eyes altered. Presently he spoke:

  “How so?”

  “I saw one of these bandits. I distinctly recognized him.”

  One long step brought him close to her.

  “Who was he?” demanded Stewart.

  “Don Carlos.”

  He muttered low and deep, then said: “Are you sure?”

  “Absolutely. I saw his figure twice in the hall, then his face in the light. I could never mistake his eyes.”

  “Did he know you saw him?”

  “I am not positive, but I think so. Oh, he must have known! I was standing full in the light. I had entered the door, then purposely stepped out. His face showed from around a corner, and swiftly flashed out of sight.”

  Madeline was tremblingly conscious that Stewart underwent a transformation. She saw as well as felt the leaping passion that changed him.

  “Call your friends—get them in here!” he ordered, tersely, and wheeled toward the door.

&nbs
p; “Stewart, wait!” she said.

  He turned. His white face, his burning eyes, his presence now charged with definite, fearful meaning, influenced her strangely, weakened her.

  “What will you do?” she asked.

  “That needn’t concern you. Get your party in here. Bar the windows and lock the doors. You’ll be safe.”

  “Stewart! Tell me what you intend to do.”

  “I won’t tell you,” he replied, and turned away again.

  “But I will know,” she said. With a hand on his arm she detained him. She saw how he halted—felt the shock in him as she touched him. “Oh, I do know. You mean to fight!”

  “Well, Miss Hammond, isn’t it about time?” he asked. Evidently, he overcame a violent passion for instant action. There was weariness, dignity, even reproof in his question. “The fact of that Mexican’s presence here in your house ought to prove to you the nature of the case. These vaqueros, these guerrillas, have found out you won’t stand for any fighting on the part of your men. Don Carlos is a sneak, a coward, yet he’s not afraid to hide in your own house. He has learned you won’t let your cowboys hurt anybody. He’s taking advantage of it. He’ll rob, burn, and make off with you. He’ll murder, too, if it falls his way. These Greasers use knives in the dark. So I ask—isn’t it about time we stop him?”

  “Stewart, I forbid you to fight, unless in self-defense. I forbid you.”

  “What I mean to do is self-defense. Haven’t I tried to explain to you that just now we’ve wild times along this stretch of border? Must I tell you again that Don Carlos is hand and glove with the revolution? The rebels are crazy to stir up the United States. You are a woman of prominence. Don Carlos would make off with you. If he got you, what little matter to cross the border with you! Well, where would the hue and cry go? Through the troops along the border! To New York! To Washington! Why, it would mean what the rebels are working for—United States intervention. In other words, war!”

  “Oh, surely you exaggerate!” she cried.

  “Maybe so. But I’m beginning to see the Don’s game. And, Miss Hammond, I—it’s awful for me to think what you’d suffer if Don Carlos got you over the line. I know these low-caste Mexicans. I’ve been among the peons—the slaves.”

  “Stewart, don’t let Don Carlos get me,” replied Madeline, in sweet directness.

  She saw him shake, saw his throat swell as he swallowed hard, saw the hard fierceness return to his face.

  “I won’t. That’s why I’m going after him.”

  “But I forbade you to start a fight deliberately.”

  “Then I’ll go ahead and start one without your permission,” he replied, shortly, and again he wheeled.

  This time, when Madeline caught his arm, she held to it, even after he stopped.

  “No,” she said, imperiously.

  He shook off her hand and strode forward.

  “Please don’t go!” she called, beseechingly. But he kept on. “Stewart!”

  She ran ahead of him, intercepted him, faced him with her back against the door. He swept out a long arm as if to brush her aside. But it wavered and fell. Haggard, troubled, with working face, he stood before her.

  “It’s for your sake,” he expostulated.

  “If it is for my sake, then do what pleases me.”

  “These guerrillas will knife somebody. They’ll burn the house. They’ll make off with you. They’ll do something bad unless we stop them.”

  “Let us risk all that,” she importuned.

  “But it’s a terrible risk, and it oughtn’t be run,” he exclaimed, passionately. “I know best here. Stillwell upholds me. Let me out, Miss Hammond. I’m going to take the boys and go after these guerrillas.”

  “No!”

  “Good Heavens!” exclaimed Stewart. “Why not let me go? It’s the thing to do. I’m sorry to distress you and your guests. Why not put an end to Don Carlos’s badgering? Is it because you’re afraid a rumpus will spoil your friends’ visit?”

  “It isn’t—not this time.”

  “Then it’s the idea of a little shooting at these Greasers?”

  “No.”

  “You’re sick to think of a little Greaser blood staining the halls of your home?”

  “No!”

  “Well, then, why keep me from doing what I know is best?”

  “Stewart, I—I—” she faltered, in growing agitation. “I’m frightened—confused. All this is too—too much for me. I’m not a coward. If you have to fight you’ll see I’m not a coward. But your way seems so reckless—that hall is so dark—the guerrillas would shoot from behind doors. You’re so wild, so daring, you’d rush right into peril. Is that necessary? I think—I mean—I don’t know just why I feel so—so about you doing it. But I believe it’s because I’m afraid you—you might be hurt.”

  “You’re afraid I—I might be hurt?” he echoed, wonderingly, the hard whiteness of his face warming, flushing, glowing.

  “Yes.”

  The single word, with all it might mean, with all it might not mean, softened him as if by magic, made him gentle, amazed, shy as a boy, stifling under a torrent of emotions.

  Madeline thought she had persuaded him—worked her will with him. Then another of his startlingly sudden moves told her that she had reckoned too quickly. This move was to put her firmly aside so he could pass; and Madeline, seeing he would not hesitate to lift her out of the way, surrendered the door. He turned on the threshold. His face was still working, but the flame-pointed gleam of his eyes indicated the return of that cowboy ruthlessness.

  “I’m going to drive Don Carlos and his gang out of the house,” declared Stewart. “I think I may promise you to do it without a fight. But if it takes a fight, off he goes!”

  CHAPTER 15

  THE MOUNTAIN TRAIL

  As Stewart departed from one door Florence knocked upon another; and Madeline, far shaken out of her usual serenity, admitted the cool Western girl with more than gladness. Just to have her near helped Madeline to get back her balance. She was conscious of Florence’s sharp scrutiny, then of a sweet, deliberate change of manner. Florence might have been burning with curiosity to know more about the bandits hidden in the house, the plans of the cowboys, the reason for Madeline’s suppressed emotion; but instead of asking Madeline questions she introduced the important subject of what to take on the camping trip. For an hour they discussed the need of this and that article, selected those things most needful, and then packed them in Madeline’s duffle-bags.

  That done, they decided to lie down, fully dressed as they were in riding-costume, and sleep, or at least rest, the little remaining time left before the call to saddle. Madeline turned out the light and, peeping through her window, saw dark forms standing sentinel-like in the gloom. When she lay down she heard soft steps on the path. This fidelity to her swelled her heart, while the need of it presaged that fearful something which, since Stewart’s passionate appeal to her, haunted her as inevitable.

  Madeline did not expect to sleep, yet she did sleep, and it seemed to have been only a moment until Florence called her. She followed Florence outside. It was the dark hour before dawn. She could discern saddled horses being held by cowboys. There was an air of hurry and mystery about the departure. Helen, who came tiptoeing out with Madeline’s other guests, whispered that it was like an escape. She was delighted. The others were amused. To Madeline it was indeed an escape.

  In the darkness Madeline could not see how many escorts her party was to have. She heard low voices, the champing of bits and thumping of hoofs, and she recognized Stewart when he led up Majesty for her to mount. Then came a pattering of soft feet and the whining of dogs. Cold noses touched her hands, and she saw the long, gray, shaggy shapes of her pack of Russian wolfhounds. That Stewart meant to let them go with her was indicative of how he studied her pleasure. She loved to be out with the hounds and her horse.

  Stewart led Majesty out into the darkness past a line of mounted horses.

  “Guess
we’re ready,” he said. “I’ll make the count.” He went back along the line, and on the return Madeline heard him say several times: “Now, everybody ride close to the horse in front, and keep quiet till daylight.” Then the snorting and pounding of the big black horse in front of her told Madeline that Stewart had mounted.

  “All right, we’re off,” he called.

  Madeline lifted Majesty’s bridle and let the roan go. There was a crack and crunch of gravel, fire struck from stone, a low whinny, a snort, and then steady, short, clip-clop of iron hoofs on hard ground. Madeline could just discern Stewart and his black outlined in shadowy gray before her. Yet they were almost within touching distance. Once or twice one of the huge stag-hounds leaped up at her and whined joyously. A thick belt of darkness lay low, and seemed to thin out above to a gray fog, through which a few wan stars showed. It was altogether an unusual departure from the ranch; and Madeline, always susceptible even to ordinary incident that promised well, now found herself thrillingly sensitive to the soft beat of hoofs, the feel of cool, moist air, the dim sight of Stewart’s dark figure. The caution, the early start before dawn, the enforced silence—these lent the occasion all that was needful to make it stirring.