Riders of the Purple Sage (Leisure Historical Fiction)

by Zane Grey

  Jane Withersteen waited on the ridge with full and grateful heart. Lassiter appeared, making his weary way toward her through the sage. Up on the slope, Judkins rode into sight with his troop of boys. For the present, at least, the white herd would be looked after.

  When Lassiter reached her and laid his hand on Black Star's mane, Jane could not find speech.

  "Killed... my... hoss," he panted.

  "Oh! I'm sorry," cried Jane. "Lassiter! I know you can't replace him, but I'll give you any one of my racers... Bells, or Night, even Black Star."

  "I'll take a fast hoss, Jane, but not one of your favorites," he replied. "Only... will you let me have Black Star now an' ride him over there to head off them fellers who stampeded the herd?"

  He pointed to several moving specks of black and puffs of dust in the purple sage.

  "I can head them off with this hoss, an' then....

  "Then, Lassiter?"

  "They'll never stampede no more cattle."

  "Oh! No! No! Lassiter, I won't let you go!"

  But a flush of fire flamed in her cheeks, and her trembling hands shook Black Star's bridle, and her eyes fell before Lassiter's.

  "Lassiter, will you be my rider?" Jane had asked him.

  "I reckon so," he had replied.

  Few as the words were, Jane knew how infinitely much they implied. She wanted him to take charge of her cattle and horses and ranges, and save them if that were possible. Yet, although she could not have spoken aloud all she meant, she was perfectly honest with herself. Whatever the price to be paid, she must keep Lassiter close to her; she must shield from him the name of the man who had lured Milly Erne from her home in Illinois to the fate that led to her pregnancy and her later arrival in Cottonwoods with the child conceived during the time of her imprisonment. In her, fear so controlled her mind that she did not whisper this Mormon's name to her own soul; she did not even think it. Besides, beyond this thing she regarded as a sacred obligation thrust upon her was the need of a helper, of a friend, of a champion in this critical time. If she could rule this gunman, as Venters had called him, if she could even keep him from shedding blood, what strat egy to play his name and his presence against the game of oppression her churchmen were waging against her? Never would she forget the effect upon Tull and his men when Venters shouted Lassiter's name. If she could not wholly control Lassiter, then what she could do might put off that fatal day.

  One of her safe racers was a dark bay, and she called him Bells because of the way he struck his iron shoes on the stones. When Jerd led out this slender, beautifully built horse, Lassiter suddenly became all eyes. A rider's love of a thoroughbred shone in them. Around and around Bells he walked, plainly weakening all the time in his determination not to take one of Jane's favorite racers.

  "Lassiter, you're half horse, and Bells sees it already," said Jane, laughing. "Look at his eyes. He likes you. He'll love you, too. How can you resist him? Oh, Lassiter, but Bells can run! It's nip and tuck between him and Wrangle, and only Black Star can beat him. He's too spirited a horse for a woman. Take him. He's yours."

  "I jest am weak where a hoss's concerned," said Lassiter. "I'll take him, an' I'll take your orders, ma'am."

  "Well, I'm glad, but never mind the ma'am. Let it still be Jane."

  From that hour, it seemed, Lassiter was always in the saddle, riding early and late, and coincident with his part in Jane's affairs the days assumed their old tranquility. Her intelligence told her this was only the lull before the storm, but her faith would not have it so.

  She resumed her visits to the village, and upon one of these she encountered Tull. He greeted her as he had before any trouble came between them, and she, responsive to peace if not quick to forget, met him halfway with manner almost cheerful. He regretted the loss of her cattle; he assured her that the vigilantes which had been organized would soon rout the rustlers; when that had been accomplished, her riders would likely return to her.

  "You've done a headstrong thing to hire this man, Lassiter," Tull went on severely. "He came to Cottonwoods with evil intent."

  "I had to have somebody. And perhaps making him my rider may turn out best in the end for the Mormons of Cottonwoods."

  "You mean to stay his hand?"

  "I do... if I can."

  "A woman like you can do anything with a man. That would be well, and would atone in some measure for the errors you have made."

  He bowed, and passed on. Jane resumed her walk with conflicting thoughts. She resented Elder Tull's cold, impassive manner that looked down upon her as one who had incurred his just displeasure. Otherwise he would have been the same calm, dark-browed, impenetrable man she had known for ten years. In fact, except when he had revealed his passion in the matter of the seizing of Venters, she had never dreamed he could be other than the grave, reproving preacher. He stood out now a strange, secretive man. She would have thought better of him if he had picked up the threads of their quarrel where they had parted. Was Tull what he appeared to be? The question flung itself involuntarily over Jane Withersteen's inhibitive habit of faith without question, and she refused to answer it. Tull could not fight in the open. Venters had said, Lassiter had said, that her elder shirked fight and worked in the dark. Just now in this meeting Tull had ignored the fact that he had sued, exhorted, demanded that she marry him. He made no mention of Venters. His manner was that of the minister who had been outraged but who overlooked the frailties of a woman. Beyond question he seemed utterly aloof from all knowledge of pressure being brought to bear upon her, absolutely guiltless of any connection with secret power over riders, with night journeys, with rustlers and stampedes of cattle. But it was conviction through an obstinate faith. She shuddered as she accepted it, and that shudder was the nucleus of a terrible revolt.

  Jane turned into one of the wide lanes leading from the main street and entered a huge, shady yard. Here were sweet-smelling clover, alfalfa, flowers, and vegetables, all growing in happy confusion. Like these fresh green things were the dozens of babies, tots, toddlers, noisy urchins, laughing girls, a whole multitude of children of one family. For Collier Brandt, the father of all this numerous progeny, was a Mormon with four wives.

  The big house where they lived was old, solid, picturesque, the lower part built of logs, the upper of rough clapboards, with vines growing up the outside stone chimneys. There were many wooden-shuttered windows, and one pretentious window of glass, proudly curtained in white. As this house had four mistresses, it likewise had four separate sections, not one of which communicated with another, and all had to be entered from the outside. In the shade of a wide, low, vineroofed porch Jane found Brandt's four wives entertaining Bishop Dyer. They were motherly women, of comparatively similar ages and plain-featured, and just at this moment anything but grave. The bishop was rather tall, of stout build, with iron-gray hair and beard, and eyes of light blue. They were merry now, but Jane had seen them when they were not, and then she feared him as she had feared her father.

  The women flocked around her in welcome.

  "Daughter of Withersteen," said the bishop gaily, as he took her hand, "you have not been prodigal of your gracious self of late. A Sabbath without you at service! I shall reprove Elder Tull."

  "Bishop, the guilt is mine. I'll come to you and confess," Jane replied lightly, but she felt the undercurrent of her words.

  "Mormon lovemaking!" exclaimed the bishop, rubbing his hands. "Tull keeps you all to himself."

  "No. He is not courting me."

  "What? The laggard! If he does not make haste, I shall go a-courting myself up to Withersteen House."

  There was laughter and further bantering by the bishop and then mild talk of village affairs, after which he took his leave, and Jane was left with her friend, Mary Brandt.

  "Jane, you're not yourself. Are you sad about the rustling of the cattle? But you have so many, you are so rich."

  Then Jane confided in her, telling much, yet holding back her doubts and fears.

/>   "Oh, why don't you marry Tull and be one of us?"

  "But, Mary, I don't love Tull," said Jane stubbornly.

  "I don't blame you for that. But, Jane Withersteen, you've got to choose between the love of man and love of God. Often we Mormon women have to do that. It's not easy. The kind of happiness you want I wanted once. I never got it, nor will you, unless you throw away your soul. We've all watched your affair with Venters in fear and trembling. Some dreadful thing will come of it. You don't want him hanged or shot... or treated worse, as that Gentile boy was treated in Glaze for fooling around a Mormon woman. Marry Tull. It's your duty as a Mormon. You'll feel no rapture as his wife... but think of heaven! Mormon women don't marry for what they expect on earth. Take up the cross, Jane. Remember your father found Amber Spring, built those old houses, brought Mormons here, and fathered them. You are the daughter of Withersteen!"

  Jane left Mary Brandt and went to call upon other friends. They received her with the same glad welcome as had Mary, lavished upon her the pent-up affection of Mormon women, and let her go with her ears ringing of Tull, Venters, Lassiter, of duty to God and glory in heaven.

  "Verily," murmured Jane, "I don't know myself why, through all this, I remain unchanged... nay, more fixed of purpose."

  She returned to the main street and bent her thoughtful steps toward the center of the village. A string of wagons drawn by oxen was lumbering along. These sage freighters, as they were called, hauled grain and flour and merchandise from Sterling, and Jane laughed suddenly in the midst of her humility at the thought that they were her property, as was one of the three stores for which they freighted goods. The water that flowed along the path at her feet and turned into each cottage yard to nourish garden and orchard, also, was hers, no less her private property because she chose to give it freely. Yet in this village of Cottonwoods, which her father had founded and which she maintained, she was not her own mistress; she was not able to abide by her own choice of a husband. She was the daughter of Withersteen. Suppose she proved it imperiously! But she quelled that proud temptation at its birth.

  Nothing could have replaced the affection that the village people had for her; no power could have made her happy as the pleasure her presence gave them. As she went down the street, past the stores with their rude platform entrances, and the saloons where tired horses stood with bridles dragging, she was again assured of what was the bread and wine of life to her-that she was loved. Dirty boys playing in the ditch, clerks, teamsters, riders, loungers on the corners, ranchers on dusty horses, little girls running errands, and women hurrying to the stores all looked up at her coming with glad eyes.

  Jane's various calls and wandering steps at length led her to the Gentile quarter of the village. This was at the extreme southern end, and here some thirty Gentile families lived in huts and shacks and log cabins and several dilapidated cottages. The fortunes of those inhabitants of Cottonwoods could be read in their abodes. Water they had in abundance and, therefore, grass and fruit trees and patches of alfalfa and vegetable gardens. Some of the men and boys had a few stray cattle; others obtained such intermittent employment as the Mormons reluctantly tendered them. But none of the families were prosperous, many were very poor, and some lived only by Jane Withersteen's beneficence.

  As it made Jane happy to go among her own people, so it saddened her to come in contact with these Gentiles. Yet that was not because she was unwelcome; here she was gratefully received by the women, passionately by the children. But poverty and idleness, with their attendant wretchedness and sorrow, always hurt her. That she would alleviate this distress more now than ever before proved the adage that it was an ill wind that blew nobody good. While her Mormon riders were in her employ, she had found few Gentiles who would stay with her, but now she was able to offer employment for all the men and boys. No little shock was it, then, to have man after man tell her that he dare not accept her kind offer.

  "It won't do," said Carson, an intelligent man who had seen better days. "We've had our warning. Plain and to the point! Now there's Judkins. He packs guns, and he can use them, and so can the daredevil boys he's hired. But they've little responsibility. Can we risk having our homes burned in our absence?"

  Jane felt the stretching and chilling of the skin of her face as the blood left it. "Carson, you and the others rent these houses?" she asked.

  "You ought to know, Miss Withersteen. Some of them are yours."

  "I know? Carson, I never in my life took a day's labor for rent or a yearling calf or a bunch of grass, let alone gold."

  "Givens, your storekeeper, sees to that."

  "Look here, Carson," went on Jane hurriedly, and now her cheeks were burning. "You and Black and Willet pack your goods and move your families up to my cabins in the grove. They're far more comfortable than these. Then go to work for me. And if aught happens to you there, I'll give you money... gold enough to leave Utah!"

  The man choked and stammered, and then, as tears welled into his eyes, he found the use of his tongue and cursed. No gentle speech could ever have equaled that curse in eloquent expression of what he felt for Jane Withersteen. How strangely his look and tone reminded her of Lassiter!

  "No, it won't do," he said, when he had somewhat recovered himself. "Miss Withersteen, there are things that you don't know, and there's not a soul among us who can tell you."

  "I seem to be learning many things, Carson. Well, then, will you let me aid you... say till better times?"

  "Yes, I will," he replied with his face lighting up. "I see what it means to you, and you know what it means to you, and you know what it means to me. Thank you! And if better times ever come, I'll be only too happy to work for you."

  "Better times will come. I trust God and have faith in man. Good day, Carson."

  The lane opened out upon the sage-enclosed alfalfa fields, and the last habitation, at the end of that lane of hovels was the meanest. Formerly it had been a shed; now it was a home. The broad leaves of a wide-spreading cottonwood sheltered the sunken roof of weathered boards. Like an Indian hut, it had one floor. Around it were a few scanty rows of vegetables, such as the hand of a weak woman had time and strength to cultivate. This little dwelling place was just outside the village limits, and the widow who lived there had to carry her water from the nearest irrigation ditch. As Jane Withersteen entered the unfenced yard, a child saw her, shrieked with joy, and came tearing toward her with curls flying. This child was a little girl of four called Fay. Her name suited her, for she was an elf, a sprite, a creature so fairy-like and beautiful that she seemed unearthly.

  "Muvver sended for oo," cried Fay, as Jane kissed her, "an' oo never tome."

  "I didn't know, Fay, but I've come now."

  Fay was a child of the outdoors, of the garden and ditch and field, and she was dirty and ragged. But rags and dirt did not hide her beauty. The one little, thin, bedraggled garment she wore half covered her fine, slim body. Red as cherries were her cheeks and lips; her eyes were violet blue, and the crown of her childish loveliness was the curling golden hair. All the children of Cottonwoods were Jane Withersteen's friends; she loved them all. But Fay was dearest to her. Fay had few playmates, for among the Gentile children there were none near her age, and the Mormon children were forbidden to play with her. So she was a shy, wild, lonely child.

  "Muvver's sick," said Fay, leading Jane toward the door of the hut.

  Jane went in. There was only one room, rather dark and bare, but it was clean and neat. A woman lay upon a bed.

  "Missus Larkin, how are you?" asked Jane anxiously.

  "I've been pretty bad for a week, but I'm better now."

  "You haven't been here all alone... with no one to wait on you?"

  "Oh, no! My woman neighbors are kind. They take turns coming in."

  "Did you send for me?"

  "Yes, several times."

  "But I had no word... no messages ever got to me."

  "I sent the boys, and they left word with your women that I
was ill and would you please come."

  A sudden, deadly sickness seized Jane. She fought the weakness, as she fought to be above suspicious thoughts, and it passed, leaving her conscious of her utter impotence. That, too, passed as her spirit rebounded. But she had again caught a glimpse of dark, underhand domination, running its secret lines this time into her own household. Like a spider in the blackness of night an unseen hand had begun to run these dark lines, to turn and twist them about her life, to plait and weave a web. Jane Withersteen knew it now, and in the realization further coolness and sureness came to her, and the fighting courage of her ancestors.

  "Missus Larkin, you're better, and I'm so glad," said Jane. "But may I not do something for you... a turn at nursing, or send you things, or take care of Fay?"

  "You're so good. What would have become of Fay and me but for you? It was about Fay that I wanted to speak to you. This time I thought surely I'd die, and I was worried about Fay. Well, I'll be around all right shortly, but my strength's gone and I won't live long. So I may as well speak now. You remember you've been asking me to let you take Fay and bring her up as your daughter?"

  "Indeed, yes, I remember. I'll be happy to have her. But I hope the day...."

  "Never mind that. The day'll come... sooner or later. I refused your offer, and now I'll tell you why."

  "I know why," interposed Jane. "It's because you don't want her brought up as a Mormon."

  "No, it wasn't altogether that." Mrs. Larkin raised her thin hand, and laid it appealingly on Jane's. "I don't like to tell you. But... it's this. I told all my friends what you wanted. They know you, care for you, and they said for me to trust Fay to you. Women will talk, you know. It got to the ears of Mormons... gossip of your love for Fay and your wanting her. And it came straight back to me, in jealousy, perhaps, that you wouldn't take Fay as much for love of her as because of your religious duty to bring up another girl for some Mormon to marry."