by B. M. Bower
CHAPTER XII
THE LITTLE DEVILS OF DOUBT
Wolverine canyon, with the sun shining down aslant into its depths, wasa picturesque gash in the hills, wild enough in all conscience, but tothe normal person not in the least degree gloomy. The jutting cragswere sunlit and warm. The cherry thickets whispered in a light breezeand sheltered birds that sang in perfect content. The service berrieswere ripening and hung heavy-laden branches down over the trail totempt a rider into loitering. The creek leaped over rocks, slid thinblades of swift current between the higher bowlders, and creptstealthily down into shady pools, where speckled trout lay motionlessexcept for the gently-moving tail and fins that held them stationary insome deeper shadow. Not a gloomy place, surely, when the peace of asunny morning laid its spell upon the land.
Billy Louise, however, did not respond to the canyon's enticements.She brooded over her own discouragements and the tantalizing littlepuzzles which somehow would not lend themselves to any convincingsolution. She was in that condition of nervous depression where shesaw her finest cows dead of bloat in the alfalfa meadows--and how wouldshe pay that machinery note, then? She saw John Pringle callingunexpectedly and insistently for his "time"--and where would she findanother man whom she could trust out of her sight? John Pringle wasslow, and he was stupid and growled at poor Phoebe till Billy Louisewanted to shake him, but he was "steady," and that one virtue coversmany a man's faults and keeps him drawing wages regularly.
Her mother had been more and more inclined to worry as the hot weathercame on; lately her anxiety over small things had rather gotten uponthe nerves of Billy Louise. She felt ill-used and down-hearted and asif nothing mattered much, anyway. She passed her cave with a mereglance and scowl for the memories of golden days in her lonelychildhood that clung around it. She passed Minervy's cave, and herlips quivered with self-pity because that childhood was gone, and shemust not waste time or energy upon romantic "pretends," but mustmeasure haystacks and allow so much for "settling," and then add andmultiply and divide all over two sheets of tablet paper to find out howmuch hay she had to winter the stock on. She must hold herself rigidlyto facts, and tend fences and watch irrigating ditches, and payinterest on notes three or four years old, and ride the hills and workher way through rocky canyons, keeping watch over the cattle that meantso much. She had meant to talk over things with Ward and ask hisadvice about certain details that required experienced judgment. ButWard had precipitated her thoughts into strange channels and so hadunconsciously thwarted her counsel-seeking intentions. She had wantedto talk things over with Marthy, and Marthy had also unconsciouslyprevented her doing so and had filled Billy Louise with uneasiness anddoubt which in no way concerned herself.
These doubts persisted, and so did the tantalizing little puzzles.They weaned Billy Louise's thoughts from her own ranch worries andnagged at her with the persistence of a swarm of buffalo gnats.
"Well, if he doesn't use poison, for goodness' sake, what does he use?"she asked indignantly aloud, after a period of deep thought. "I don'tsee why he wants to be so terribly secretive. He might be human enoughto tell a person what he means. I'm sure I'd tell him, all right. Idon't believe it's wolves at all. I don't see how--and still--I don'tbelieve Ward would really lie to me."
She was in this particularly dissatisfied mood when she rode out of thecanyon at its upper end, where the hills folded softly down into grassyvalleys where her cattle loved best to graze. Since the grass hadstarted in the spring, she had kept her little herd up here among thelower hills; and by riding along the higher ridges every day or so andturning back a wandering animal now and then, she had held them in acomparatively small area, where they would be easily gathered in thefall. A few head of Seabeck's stock had wandered in amongst hers, andsome of Marthy's. And there was a big, roan steer that bore the brandof Johnson, over on Snake River. Billy Louise knew them all, as ahousewife knows her flock of chickens, and if she missed seeing certainleaders in the scattered groups, she rode until she found them. Twoold cows and one big, red steer that seemed always to have a followingwore bells that tinkled pleasant little sounds in the alder thicketsalong the creek, as she passed by.
She rode up the long ridge which gave her a wide view of thesurrounding hills and stopped Blue, while she stared moodily at thefamiliar, shadow-splotched expanse of high-piled ridges, with deepgreen valleys and deeper-hued canyons between. She loved them, everyone; but to-day they failed to steep her senses in that deep contentwith life which only the great outdoors can give to one who has learnedhow satisfying is the draught and how soothing.
Far over to the eastward a black dot moved up a green slope and slidout of sight beyond. That might be Ward, taking a short-cut across thehill to his claim beyond the pine-dotted ridge that looked purple inthe distance. Billy Louise sighed with a vague disquiet and turned tolook away to the north, where the jumble of high hills grew morerugged, with the valleys narrower and deeper.
Here came two other dots, larger and more clearly defined as horsemen.From mere objects that stood higher than any animal and moved with apurposeful directness, they presently became men who rode with the easyswing of habit which has become a second nature. They must have seenher sitting still upon her horse in the midst of that high, sunnyplateau, for they turned and rode up the slope toward her.
Billy Louise waited, too depressed to wonder greatly who they were.Seabeck riders, probably; and so they proved. At least one of them wasa Seabeck man--Floyd Carson, who had talked with her at her own gateand had told her of the suspected cattle-stealing. The other man was astranger whom Floyd introduced as Mr. Birken.
They had been "prowling around," according to Floyd, trying to see whatthey could see. Floyd was one of these round-faced, round-eyed, youngfellows who does not believe much in secrecy and therefore talks freelywhenever and wherever he dares. He said that Seabeck had turned themloose to keep cases and see if they couldn't pick up the trail of theserustlers who were trying to get rich off a running iron and a longrope. (If you are of the West, you know what that means; and if youare not, you ought to guess that it means stealing cattle and let it goat that.) It was not until he had talked for ten minutes or so thatBilly Louise became more than mildly interested in the conversation.
"Say, Miss MacDonald," Floyd asked, by way of beginning a newparagraph, "how about that fellow over on Mill Creek? He worked foryou folks a year or so ago, didn't he? What does he do?"
"He has a ranch," said Billy Louise with careful calm. "He's beenworking on it this summer, I believe."
"Uh-huh--we were over there this morning. Them Y6 cattle up above hisplace are his, I reckon?"
"Yes," said Billy Louise. "He's been putting his wages into cattle fora year or so. He worked for Junkins last winter. Why?"
"Oh, nothing, I guess! Only he's the only stranger in the country, andhis prosperity ain't accounted for--"
"Oh, but it is!" laughed Billy Louise. "I only wish I had half asclear a ticket. When he isn't working out, he's wolfing; and everydollar he gets hold of he puts into that ranch. We've known him a longtime. He doesn't blow his money, you see, like most fellows do."
Floyd found occasion to have a slight argument with his horse, justthen. He happened to be one of the "most" fellows, and the occasion ofhis last "blow-out" was fresh in his mind.
"Well, of course, if you know he's all straight, that settles it. Butit sure seems queer--"
"That fellow is straight as a string. Don't you suppose it's some gangover on the river, Floyd? I'd look around over there, I believe, andtry to get a line on the unaccountables. There's a lot of new settlerscome in, just in the last year or two, and there might be some toughones scattered through the bunch. Better see if there has been anycattle shipped or driven through that way, don't you think?"
"We can try," Floyd assented without eagerness. "But as near as we canfigure, it's too much of a drib-drab proposition for that. A cow andcalf here and there, and so on. We
got wind of it first when we wentout to bring in a gentle cow that the deacon wanted on the ranch. Weknew where she was, only she wasn't there when we went after her. Wehunted the hills for a week and couldn't find a sign of her or hercalf. And she had stuck down in the creek bottom all the spring, so itlooked kinda funny." He twisted in the saddle and looked back at thepine-clotted ridge.
"There's a Y6 calf up there that's a dead ringer for the one we've beenhunting," he observed. "But it's running with a cow that carriesJunkins' old brand, So--" He looked apologetically into the calm eyesof Billy Louise. "Of course, I don't mean to say there's anythingwrong up there," he hastily assured her. "But that's the reason Ithought I'd ask you about that fellow."
"Oh, it's perfectly right to make sure of everybody," smiled BillyLouise. "I'd do the same thing myself. But you'll find everything'sall straight up there. We know all about him, and how and where he gothis few head of stock, and everything. But of course you could askJunkins, if you have any doubt--"
"Oh, we'll take your word for it. I just wanted to know; he's astranger to our outfit. I've seen him a few times; what's his name?Us boys call him Noisy. It's like pulling a wisdom tooth to get anykinda talk out of him."
"He is awful quiet," assented Billy Louise carelessly. "But he's realsteady to work."
"Them quiet fellows generally are," put in Mr. Birken. "You run stockin here too, do you, Miss MacDonald?"
"The big Ds," answered Billy Louise and smiled faintly. "I've beenrange-herding them back here in these foothills this summer. Do youwant to look through the bunch?"
Mr. Birkin blushed. "Oh, no, not at all! I was wondering if you hadlost any."
"Nobody would rustle cattle from a lady, I hope? At any rate, Ihaven't missed any yet. The folks down in the Cove have, though."
"Yes, I heard they had. That breed rode over to see if he could get aline on them. It's hard luck; that Charlie Fox seems a fine,hard-working boy, don't you think?"
"Yes-s," said Billy Louise shyly, "he seems real nice." She lookedaway and bit her lip self-consciously as she spoke.
The two men swallowed the bait like a hungry fish. They glanced ateach other and winked knowingly. Billy Louise saw them from the tailof her downcast eye, and permitted herself a little sigh of relief.They would be the more ready now to accept at its face value herstatement concerning Ward, unless they credited her with the feat ofbeing in love with the two men at the same time.
"Well, I'm sorry Charlie Fox has been tapped off, too. He's a mightyfine chap," declared Floyd with transparent heartiness, his round eyesdwelling curiously upon the face of Billy Louise.
"Yes, I must be going," said that young woman self-consciously. "I'vequite a circle to ride yet. I hope you locate the rustlers, and ifthere's anything I can do--if I see or hear anything that seems to be aclew--I'll let you know right away. I've been keeping my eyes open forsome trace of them, and--so has Char--Mr. Fox." Then she blushed andtold them good-by very hastily and loped off up the ridge.
"Bark up that tree for awhile, you two!" she said, with a twist of herlips, when she was well away from them. "You--you darned idiots! Togo prowling around Ward's place, just as if-- Ward'll take a shot atthem if he catches them nosing through his stock!" She scowled at abig D cow that thrust her head out of an alder thicket and sent Blue inafter her. Frowning, she watched the animal go lumbering down the hilltoward the Wolverine. "Just because he's a stranger and doesn't mixwith people, and minds his own business and is trying to get a start,they're suspicious--as if a man has no right to-- Well, I think Imanaged to head them off, anyway."
Her satisfaction lasted while she rode to the next ridge. Then thelittle devils of doubt came a-swarming and a-whispering. She had saidshe knew all about Ward; well, she did, to a greater extent than othersknew. But--she wondered if she did not know too much, or if she knewenough. There were some things--
She turned, upon the crest of the ridge, and looked away toward thepine-dotted height locally known as the Big Hill, beyond which Ward'sclaim lay snuggled out of sight in its little valley. "I've a goodmind to ride over there right now, and make him tell me," she said toherself. She stopped Blue and sat there undecided, while the windlifted a lock of hair and flipped it across her cheek. "If hecares--like he says he cares--he'll tell me," she murmured. "I don'tbelieve it's wolves. And of course it isn't--what those fellows seemedto think. But--where did he get the money for all that?" She sigheddistressfully. "I hate to ask him; he'd think I didn't trust him, andI do. I do trust him!" There was the little head-devil of doubt, andshe fought him fiercely. "I do! I do!" She thrust the declaration offaith like a sword through the doubt-devil that clung and whispered."Dear Ward! I do trust you!" She blinked back tears and bit her lipsto stop their quivering. "But, darn it, I don't see why you didn'ttell me!" There it was: a perfectly human, woman-resentment toward anagging mystery.
She headed Blue down the slope and as straight for the Big Hill as shecould go. She would go and make Ward tell her what he had been doing;not that she had any doubt herself that it was perfectly all right,whatever it was, but she felt that she had a right to demand facts, sothat she could feel more sure of her ground. And there would be morequestions; Billy Louise was bright enough to see thus far into thefuture. Unless the rustlers were caught, there would be questionsasked about this silent stranger who kept his trail apart from hisfellows and whose prosperity was out of proportion with hisopportunities. Why, even Billy Louise herself had been curious overthat prosperity, without being in the slightest degree suspicious.Other people had not her faith in him; and they were not blind. Theywould wonder--
There was no trail that way, and the ridges were steep and the canyonscircuitous. But Blue was a good horse, with plenty of stamina and muchexperience. He carried his lady safely, and he carried her willingly.Even her impatience could find no fault with the manner in which heclimbed steep pitches, slid down slopes as steep, jumped narrowwashouts, and picked his way through thickets of quaking aspens or overwide stretches of shale rock and lava beds. He was wet to his earswhen finally he shuffled into Ward's trail up the creek bottom; but hebreathed evenly, and he carried his head high and perked his earsknowingly forward when the corral and haystack came into view around asharp bend.. He splashed both front feet into the creek just beforethe cabin and stopped to drink while Billy Louise stared at the silentplace.
By the tracks along the creek trail she knew that Ward had come home,and she urged Blue across the ford and up the bank to the cabin. Sheslid off and went in boldly to hide her inward embarrassment--and shefound nothing but emptiness there.
Billy Louise did not take long to investigate. The coffee-pot wasstill warm on the stove when she laid her palm against it, and sheimmediately poured herself a cup of coffee. A plate and a cup on thetable indicated that Ward had eaten a hurried meal and had not takentime to clear away the litter. Billy Louise ate what was left, andmechanically she washed the dishes and made everything neat before shewent down to look for Rattler. She had thought that Ward was outsomewhere about the place and would return very soon, probably. Blueshe had left standing in plain sight before the cabin, so that Wardwould see him and know she was there--a fact which she regretted.
While she was washing dishes and sweeping, she had been trying to thinkof some excuse for her presence there. It was going to be awkward, hercoming there on his heels, one might say. She remembered for the firsttime her statement that she had to help mommie and so could not takethe time to ride even a mile with him! Being a young person whosechief amusement had always been her "pretends," she began unconsciouslybuilding an imaginary conversation between them, like this:
Ward would come out of the stable--or somewhere--see Blue and hurry upto the house. Billy Louise would be standing with her back to him,putting the dishes into neat little piles in the cupboard perhaps;anyway, doing something like that. Ward would stop in the doorway andsay--well, there were several possible gre
etings, but Billy Louisechose his "'Lo, Bill!" as being the most probable. And then he wouldcome up and take her in his arms. (Oh, she was human, and she was awoman, and she was twenty. And Ward had established a precedent,remember, and Billy Louise had not objected to any great extent.)And--and-- (I'm going to tell on Billy Louise. She wiped a knife forat least five minutes without knowing what she was doing, and shestared at a sunny spot on the floor where a sunbeam came in through acrack in the wall, and she smiled absently, and her cheeks were quite abit redder than usual.)
"I didn't expect to see you here, Wilhemina-mine."
"Oh, I was just riding around, and I came over to see how you digdollars out of wolf-dens. You said you'd show me."
The trouble with the conversation began right there. Ward would besure to remind her of the condition he had made, to tell her how he dugdollars out of wolf-dens when she was through with wanting to be justfriends. That put it up to Billy Louise to say she would be engagedand marry him; and Billy Louise was not ready to say that or be that.Her woman-soul hung back from that decisive point. She would not shutthe door upon her freedom and her girlish dreams and her ideals and allthose evanescent bubbles which we try to carry with us into maturity.Billy Louise did not put it that way, of course. She only reiteratedagain and again: "I like you, but I don't want to marry anybody. Idon't want to be engaged."
Well, that would probably settle Ward's telling her about diggingdollars out of wolf-dens or anything else. He had a wide streak ofstubbornness; no one could see the set of his chin when he was in acertain mood and doubt that. Billy Louise began to wish she had notcome. She began to feel quite certain that Ward would be surprised anddisgusted when he found her there, and would look at her with thatfaint curl of the lip and that fainter lift of the nostril above it,which made her go hot all over with the scorn in them. She had seenhim look that way once or twice, and in spite of herself she began topicture his face with that expression.
Billy Louise was on the point of riding away a good deal more hastilythan she had come, in the hope that Ward would not discover her there.Then her own stubbornness came uppermost, and she told herself that shehad a perfect right to ride wherever she pleased, and that if Warddidn't like it, he could do the other thing.
She went to the door and stood looking out for a minute, wonderingwhere he was. She turned back and stared around the room, whichsomehow held the imprint of his personality in spite of its roughsimplicity.
There was a little window behind the bunk, and beside that a shelffilled with books and smoking material and matches. She knew by thevery arrangement of that shelf and window that Ward liked to lie thereon the bunk and read while the light lasted. Well, he was not therenow, at any rate. She went over and looked at the titles of the books,though she had examined them with interest only yesterday. There wasBurns; and she knew why it was he could repeat _Tam O'Shanter_ soreadily with never a moment's hesitation. There were two volumes ofScott--_Lady of the Lake_ and other poems, much thumbed and with acigarette burn on the front cover, and _Kenilworth_. There wereseveral books of Kipling's, mostly verses, and beside it Morgan's_Ancient Society_, with the corners broken, and a fine-print volume ofShakespeare's plays. Then there was a pile of magazines and beyondthem a stack of books whose subjects varied from Balzac to strange,scientific-sounding names. At the other end of the shelf, within easyreach from one lying upon the bunk, was a cigar-box full of smokingtobacco, a half-dozen books of cigarette papers, and several blocks ofthe small, evil-smelling matches which men of the outdoors carry fortheir compact form and slow, steady blaze.
At the head of the bed hung a flour-sack half full of some hard, lumpystuff which Billy Louise had not noticed before. She felt the bagtentatively, could not guess its contents, and finally took it down anduntied it. Within were irregular scraps and strips of stuff hard asbone--a puzzle still to one unfamiliar with the frontier. Billy Louisepulled out a little piece, nibbled a corner, and pronounced, "M-mm!Jerky! I'm going to swipe some of that," which she proceeded to do, tothe extent of filling her pocket. For to those who have learned tolike it, jerked venison is quite as desirable as milk chocolate or anyother nibbly tid-bit.
The opposite wall had sacks of flour stacked against it, and boxes ofstaple canned goods, such as corn and tomatoes and milk and peaches. Abox of canned peaches stood at the head of the bed, and upon that acase of tomatoes. Ward used them for a table and set the lantern therewhen he wanted to read in bed. "He's got a pretty good supply ofgrub," was the verdict of Billy Louise, sizing up the assortment whileshe nibbled at the piece of jerky. "I wonder where he is, anyway?"And a moment later: "He oughtn't to hang his best clothes up like that;they'll be all wrinkled when he wants to put them on."
She went over and disposed of the best clothes to her liking, and shookout the dust. She had to own to herself that for a bachelor Ward wasvery orderly, though he did let his trousers hang down over theflour-sacks in a way to whiten their hems. She hung them in adifferent place.
But where was Ward? Billy Louise bethought her that Blue deservedsomething to eat after that hard ride, and led him down to the stable.There was no sign of Rattler, and Billy Louise wondered anew at Ward'sabsence. It did not seem consistent with his haste to leave theWolverine and his frequent assertion that he must get to work. Fromthe stable door she could look over practically the whole creek-bottomwithin his fence, and she could see the broad sweep of the hills oneither side. On her way back to the cabin, she tried to track Rattler,but there were several stock-trails leading in different directions,and the soil was too dry to leave any distinguishing marks.
She waited for an hour or two, sitting in the door-way, nibbling jerkyand trying to read a magazine. Then she found a stub of pencil, toreout an advertising page which had a wide margin, wrote: "I don't thinkyou're a bit nice. Why don't you stay home when a fellow comes to seeyou?" This she folded neatly and put in the cigar-box of tobacco overWard's pillow. It never once occurred to her that Ward, when he foundthe note, would believe she had placed it there the day before, andwould never guess by its text that she had made a second trip to hisclaim.
She resaddled Blue and rode away more depressed than ever, because herdepression was now mixed with a disappointment keener than she wouldhave cared to acknowledge, even to herself.