the Desert Of Wheat (2001)

by Grey, Zane

  "Who does not?" she flashed back at him, and she rose, feeling as if drawn by a powerful current. She realized then that she must be prepared any moment to be overwhelmed by the inevitable climax of this meeting.

  But she prayed for a little more time. She fought her emotions.

  She saw him tremble. "Lenore, I'd better run off in the night," he said.

  Instinctively, with swift, soft violence, she grasped his hands. Perhaps the moment had come. She was not afraid, but the suddenness of her extremity left her witless.

  "You would not!... That would be unkind--not like you at all.... To run off without giving me a chance--without good-by!... Promise me you will not."

  "I promise," he replied, wearily, as if nonplussed by her attitude. "You said you understood me. But I can't understand you."

  She released his hands and turned away. "I promise--that you shall understand--very soon."

  "You feel sorry for me. You pity me. You think I'll only be cannon-fodder for the Germans. You want to be nice, kind, sweet to me--to send me away with better thoughts.... Isn't that what you think?"

  He was impatient, almost angry. His glance blazed at her. All about him, his tragic face, his sadness, his defeat, his struggle to hold on to his manliness and to keep his faith in nobler thoughts--these challenged Lenore's compassion, her love, and her woman's combative spirit to save and to keep her own. She quivered again on the brink of betraying herself. And it was panic alone that held her back.

  "Kurt--I think--presently I'll give you the surprise of your life," she replied, and summoned a smile.

  How obtuse he was! How blind! Perhaps the stress of his emotion, the terrible sense of his fate, left him no keenness, no outward penetration. He answered her smile, as if she were a child whose determined kindness made him both happy and sad.

  "I dare say you will," he replied. "You Andersons are full of surprises.... But I wish you would not do any more for me. I am like a dog. The kinder you are to me the more I love you.... How dreadful to go away to war--to violence and blood and death--to all that's brutalizing--with my heart and mind full of love for a noble girl like you!--If I come to love you any more I'll not be a man."

  To Lenore he looked very much of a man, so tall and lithe and white-faced, with his eyes of fire, his simplicity, and his tragic refusal of all that was for most men the best of life. Whatever his ideal, it was magnificent. Lenore had her chance then, but she was absolutely unable to grasp it. Her blood beat thick and hot. If she could only have been sure of herself! Or was it that she still cared too much for herself? The moment had not come. And in her tumult there was a fleeting fury at Dorn's blindness, at his reverence of her, that he dare not touch her hand. Did he imagine she was stone?

  "Let us say good night," she said. "You are worn out. And I am--not just myself. To-morrow we'll be--good friends.... Father will take you to your room."

  Dorn pressed the hand she offered, and, saying good-night, he followed her to the hall. Lenore tapped on the door of her father's study, then opened it.

  "Good night, dad. I'm going up," she said. "Will you look after Kurt?"

  "Sure. Come in, son," replied her father.

  Lenore felt Dorn's strange, intent gaze upon her as she passed him.

  Lightly she ran up-stairs and turned at the top. The hall was bright and Dorn stood full in the light, his face upturned. It still wore the softer expression of those last few moments. Lenore waved her hand, and he smiled. The moment was natural. Youth to youth! Lenore felt it. She marveled that he did not. A sweet devil of wilful coquetry possessed her.

  "Oh, did you say you wouldn't go?" she softly called.

  "I said only good night," he replied.

  "If you _don't_ go, then you will never be General Dorn, will you? What a pity!"

  "I'll go. And then it will be--'Private Dorn--missing. No relatives,'" he replied.

  That froze Lenore. Her heart quaked. She gazed down upon him with all her soul in her eyes. She knew it and did not care. But he could not see.

  "Good night, Kurt Dorn," she called, and ran to her room.

  Composure did not come to her until she was ready for bed, with the light out and in her old seat at the window. Night and silence and starlight always lent Lenore strength. She prayed to them now and to the spirit she knew dwelt beyond them. And then she whispered what her intelligence told her was an unalterable fact--Kurt Dorn could never be changed. But her sympathy and love and passion, all that was womanly emotion, stormed at her intelligence and refused to listen to it.

  Nothing short of a great shock would divert Dorn from his tragic headlong rush toward the fate he believed unalterable. Lenore sensed a terrible, sinister earnestness in him. She could not divine its meaning.

  But it was such a driving passion that no man possessing it and free to the violence of war could ever escape death. Even if by superhuman strife, and the guidance of Providence, he did escape death, he would have lost something as precious as life. If Dorn went to war at all--if he ever reached those blood-red trenches, in the thick of fire and shriek and ferocity--there to express in horrible earnestness what she vaguely felt yet could not define--then so far as she was concerned she imagined that she would not want him to come back.

  That was the strength of spirit that breathed out of the night and the silence to her. Dorn would go to war as no ordinary soldier, to obey, to fight, to do his duty; but for some strange, unfathomable obsession of his own. And, therefore, if he went at all he was lost. War, in its inexplicable horror, killed the souls of endless hordes of men.

  Therefore, if he went at all she, too, was lost to the happiness that might have been hers. She would never love another man. She could never marry. She would never have a child.

  So his soul and her happiness were in the balance weighed against a woman's power. It seemed to Lenore that she felt hopelessly unable to carry the issue to victory; and yet, on the other hand, a tumultuous and wonderful sweetness of sensation called to her, insidiously, of the infallible potency of love. What could she do to save Dorn's life and his soul? There was only one answer to that. She would do anything. She must make him love her to the extent that he would have no will to carry out this desperate intent. There was little time to do that. The gradual growth of affection through intimacy and understanding was not possible here. It must come as a flash of lightning. She must bewilder him with the revelation of her love, and then by all its incalculable power hold him there.

  It was her father's wish; it would be the salvation of Dorn; it meant all to her. But if to keep him there would make him a slacker, Lenore swore she would die before lifting her lips to his. The government would rather he stayed to raise wheat than go out and fight men. Lenore saw the sanity, the cardinal importance of that, as her father saw it. So from all sides she was justified. And sitting there in the darkness and silence, with the cool wind in her face, she vowed she would be all woman, all sweetness, all love, all passion, all that was feminine and terrible, to keep Dorn from going to war.

  Chapter XIX

  Lenore awakened early. The morning seemed golden. Birds were singing at her window. What did that day hold in store for her? She pressed a hand hard on her heart as if to hold it still. But her heart went right on, swift, exultant, throbbing with a fullness that was almost pain.

  Early as she awakened, it was, nevertheless, late when she could direct her reluctant steps down-stairs. She had welcomed every little suggestion and task to delay the facing of her ordeal.

  There was merriment in the sitting-room, and Dorn's laugh made her glad.

  The girls were at him, and her father's pleasant, deep voice chimed in.

  Evidently there was a controversy as to who should have the society of the guest. They had all been to breakfast. Mrs. Anderson expressed surprise at Lenore's tardiness, and said she had been called twice.

  Lenore had heard nothing except the birds and the music of her thoughts.

  She peeped into the sitting-room.
<
br />   "Didn't you bring me anything?" Kathleen was inquiring of Dorn.

  Dorn was flushed and smiling. Anderson stood beaming upon them, and Rose appeared to be inclined toward jealousy.

  "Why--you see--I didn't even know Lenore had a little sister," Dorn explained.

  "Oh!" exclaimed Kathleen, evidently satisfied. "All Lenorry's beaux bring me things. But I believe I'm going to like you best."

  Lenore had intended to say good morning. She changed her mind, however, at Kathleen's naive speech, and darted back lest she be seen. She felt the blood hot in her cheeks. That awful, irrepressible Kathleen! If she liked Dorn she would take possession of him. And Kathleen was lovable, irresistible. Lenore had a sudden thought that Kathleen would aid the good cause if she could be enlisted. While Lenore ate her breakfast she listened to the animated conversation in the sitting-room. Presently her father came in.

  "Hello, Lenore! Did you get up?" he greeted her, cheerily.

  "I hardly ever did, it seems.... Dad, the day was something to face," she said.

  "Ah-huh! It's like getting up to work. Lenore, the biggest duty of life is to hide your troubles.... Dorn looks like a human bein' this mornin'.

  The kids have won him. I reckon he needs that sort of cheer. Let them have him. Then after a while you fetch him out to the wheat-field.

  Lenore, our harvestin' is half done. Every day I've expected some trick or deviltry. But it hasn't come yet."

  "Are any of the other ranchers having trouble?" she inquired.

  "I hear rumors of bad work. But facts told by ranchers an' men who were here only yesterday make little of the rumors. All that burnin' of wheat an' timber, an' the destruction of machines an' strikin' of farm-hands, haven't hit Golden Valley yet. We won't need any militia here, you can bet on that."

  "Father, it won't do to be over-confident," she said, earnestly. "You know you are the mark for the I. W. W. sabotage. If you are not careful--any moment--"

  Lenore paused with a shudder.

  "Lass, I'm just like I was in the old rustlin' days. An' I've surrounded myself with cowboys like Jake an' Bill, an' old hands who pack guns an' keep still, as in the good old Western days. We're just waitin' for the I. W. W.'s to break loose."

  "Then what?" queried Lenore.

  "Wal, we'll chase that outfit so fast it'll be lost in dust," he replied.

  "But if you chase them away, it 'll only be into another state, where they'll make trouble for other farmers. You don't do any real good."

  "My dear, I reckon you've said somethin' strong," he replied, soberly, and went out.

  Then Kathleen came bouncing in. Her beautiful eyes were full of mischief and excitement. "Lenorry, your new beau has all the others skinned to a frazzle," she said.

  For once Lenore did not scold Kathleen, but drew her close and whispered: "Do you want to please me? Do you want me to do _everything_ for you?"

  "I sure do," replied Kathleen, with wonderful eyes.

  "Then be nice, sweet, good to him.... make him love you.... Don't tease him about my other beaux. Think how you can make him like 'Many Waters.'"

  "Will you promise--_everything_?" whispered Kathleen, solemnly.

  Evidently Lenore's promises were rare and reliable.

  "Yes. Cross my heart. There! And you must not tell."

  Kathleen was a precocious child, with all the potentialities of youth.

  She could not divine Lenore's motive, but she sensed a new and fascinating mode of conduct for herself. She seemed puzzled a little at Lenore's earnestness.

  "It's a bargain," she said, soberly, as if she had accepted no slight gauge.

  "Now, Kathleen, take him all over the gardens, the orchards, the corrals and barns," directed Lenore. "Be sure to show him the horses--my horses, especially. Take him round the reservoir--and everywhere except the wheat-fields. I want to take him there myself. Besides, father does not want you girls to go out to the harvest."

  Kathleen nodded and ran back to the sitting-room. Lenore heard them all go out together. Before she finished breakfast her mother came in again.

  "Lenore, I like Mr. Dorn," she said, meditatively. "He has an old-fashioned manner that reminds me of my boy friends when I was a girl. I mean he's more courteous and dignified than boys are nowadays. A splendid-looking boy, too. Only his face is so sad. When he smiles he seems another person."

  "No wonder he's sad," replied Lenore, and briefly told Kurt Dorn's story.

  "Ah!" sighed Mrs. Anderson. "We have fallen upon evil days.... Poor boy!... Your father seems much interested in him. And you are too, my daughter?"

  "Yes, I am," replied Lenore, softly.

  Two hours later she heard Kathleen's gay laughter and pattering feet.

  Lenore took her wide-brimmed hat and went out on the porch. Dorn was indeed not the same somber young man he had been.

  "Good morning, Kurt," said Lenore, extending her hand.

  The instant he greeted her she saw the stiffness, the aloofness had gone from him. Kathleen had made him feel at home. He looked younger. There was color in his face.

  "Kathleen, I'll take charge of Mr. Dorn now, if you will allow me that pleasure."

  "Lenorry, I sure hate to give him up. We sure had a fine time."

  "Did he like 'Many Waters'?"

  "Well, if he didn't he's a grand fibber," replied Kathleen. "But he did.

  You can't fool me. I thought I'd never get him back to the house." Then, as she tripped up the porch steps, she shook a finger at Dorn.

  "Remember!"

  "I'll never forget," said Dorn, and he was as earnest as he was amiable.

  Then, as she disappeared, he exclaimed to Lenore, "What an adorable little girl!"

  "Do you like Kathleen?"

  "Like her!" Dorn laughed in a way to make light of such words. "My life has been empty. I see that."

  "Come, we'll go out to the wheat-fields," said Lenore. "What do you think of 'Many Waters'? This is harvest-time. You see 'Many Waters' at its very best."

  "I can hardly tell you," he replied. "All my life I've lived on my barren hills. I seem to have come to another world. 'Many Waters' is such a ranch as I never dreamed of. The orchards, the fruit, the gardens--and everywhere running water! It all smells so fresh and sweet.

  And then the green and red and purple against that background of blazing gold!... 'Many Waters' is verdant and fruitful. The Bend is desert."

  "Now that you've been here, do you like it better than your barren hills?" asked Lenore.

  Kurt hesitated. "I don't know," he answered, slowly. "But maybe that desert I've lived in accounts for much I lack."

  "Would you like to stay at 'Many Waters'--if you weren't going to war?"

  "I might prefer 'Many Waters' to any place on earth. It's a paradise.

  But I would not chose to stay here."

  "Why? When you return--you know--my father will need you here. And if anything should happen to him I will have to run the ranch. Then _I_ would need you."

  Dorn stopped in his tracks and gazed at her as if there were slight misgivings in his mind.

  "Lenore, if you owned this ranch would you want me--_me_ for your manager?" he asked, bluntly.

  "Yes," she replied.

  "You would? Knowing I was in love with you?"

  "Well, I had forgotten that," she replied, with a little laugh. "It would be rather embarrassing--and funny, wouldn't it?"

  "Yes, it would," he said, grimly, and walked on again. He made a gesture of keen discomfiture. "I knew you hadn't taken me seriously."

  "I believed you, but I could not take you _very_ seriously," she murmured.

  "Why not?" he demanded, as if stung, and his eyes flashed on her.

  "Because your declaration was not accompanied by the usual--question--that a girl naturally expects under such circumstances."

  "Good Heaven! You say that?... Lenore Anderson, you think me insincere because I did not ask you to marry me," he asserted, with bitter pathos.

  "No. I
merely said you were not--_very_ serious," she replied. It was fascination to torment him this way, yet it hurt her, too. She was playing on the verge of a precipice, not afraid of a misstep, but glorying in the prospect of a leap into the abyss. Something deep and strange in her bade her make him show her how much he loved her. If she drove him to desperation she would reward him.

  "I am going to war," he began, passionately, "to fight for you and your sisters.... I am ruined.... The only noble and holy feeling left to me--that I can have with me in the dark hours--is my love for you. If you do not believe that, I am indeed the most miserable of beggars! Most boys going to the front leave many behind whom they love. I have no one but you.... don't make me a coward."

  "I believe you. Forgive me," she said.

  "If I had asked you to marry me--_me_--why, I'd have been a selfish, egotistical fool. You are far above me. And I want you to know I know it.... But even if I had not--had the blood I have--even if I had been prosperous instead of ruined, I'd never have asked you, unless I came back whole from the war."

  They had been walking out the lane during this conversation and had come close to the wheat-field. The day was hot, but pleasant, the dry wind being laden with harvest odors. The hum of the machines was like the roar in a flour-mill.

  "If you go to war--and come back whole--?" began Lenore, tantalizingly.

  She meant to have no mercy upon him. It was incredible how blind he was.

  Yet how glad that made her. He resembled his desert hills, barren of many little things, but rich in hidden strength, heroic of mold.

  "Then just to add one more to the conquests girls love I'll--I'll propose to you," he declared, banteringly.

  "Beware, boy! I might accept you," she exclaimed.

  His play was short-lived. He could not be gay, even under her influence.

  "Please don't jest," he said, frowning. "Can't we talk of something besides love and war?"

  "They seem to be popular just now," she replied, audaciously. "Anyway, all's fair--you know."

  "No, it is not fair," he returned, low-voiced and earnest. "So once for all let me beg of you, don't jest. Oh, I know you're sweet. You're full of so many wonderful, surprising words and looks. I can't understand you.... But I beg of you, don't make me a fool!"