by B. M. Bower
CHAPTER XIII. "I'll STAY--ALWAYS"
For a long time Thurston lay with wide-open eyes staring up at nothing,listening to the rain and thinking. By and by the rain ceased and hecould tell by the dim whiteness of the tent roof that the clouds musthave been swept away from before the moon, then just past the full.
He got up carefully so as not to disturb the others, and crept over twoor three sleeping forms on his way to the opening, untied the flap andwent out. The whole hilltop and the valley below were bathed in mellowradiance. He studied critically the wide sweep of the river. He mightalmost have thought it the Missouri itself, it stretched so farfrom bank to bank; indeed, it seemed to know no banks but the hillsthemselves. He turned toward where the light had shone among thecottonwoods below; there was nothing but a great blot of shade that toldhim nothing.
A step sounded just behind. A hand, the hand of Park, rested upon hisshoulder. "Looks kinda dubious, don't it, kid? Was yuh thinking aboutriding down there?"
"Yes," Thurston answered simply. "Are you coming?"
"Sure," Park assented.
They got upon their horses and headed down the trail to the Stevensplace. Thurston would have put Sunfish to a run, but Park checked him.
"Go easy," he admonished. "If there's swimming to be done and it's acinch there will be, he's going to need all the wind he's got."
Down the hill they stopped at the edge of a raging torrent and strainedtheir eyes to see what lay on the other side. While they looked, alight twinkled out from among the tree-tops. Thurston caught his breathsharply.
"She's upstairs," he said, and his voice sounded strained and unnatural."It's just a loft where they store stuff." He started to ride into theflood.
"Come on back here, yuh chump!" Park roared. "Get off and loosen thecinch before yuh go in there, or yuh won't get far. Sunfish'll needroom to breathe, once he gets to bucking that current. He's a good waterhorse, just give him his head and don't get rattled and interfere withhim. And we've got to go up a ways before we start in."
He led the way upstream, skirting under the bluff, and Thurston, chafingagainst the delay, followed obediently. Trees were racing down, theirclean-washed roots reaching up in a tangle from the water, theirbranches waving like imploring arms. A black, tar-papered shack wentscudding past, lodged upon a ridge where the water was shallower, andsat there swaying drunkenly. Upon it a great yellow cat clung and yowledhis fear.
"That's old Dutch Henry's house," Park shouted above the roar. "I'll bethe's cussing things blue on some pinnacle up there." He laughed at thepicture his imagination conjured, and rode out into the swirl.
Thurston kept close behind, mindful of Park's command to give Sunfishhis head. Sunfish had carried him safely out of the stampede and he hadno fear of him now.
His chief thought was a wish that he might do this thing quite alone.He was jealous of Park's leading, and thought bitterly that Mona wouldthank Park alone and pass him by with scant praise and he did so wantto vindicate himself. The next minute he was cursing his damnableselfishness. A tree had swept down just before him, caught Park and hishorse in its branches and hurried on as if ashamed of what it had done.Thurston, in that instant, came near jerking Sunfish around to follow;but he checked the impulse as it was formed and left the reins alonewhich was wise. He could not have helped Park, and he could very easilyhave drowned himself. Though it was not thought of himself but of Monathat stayed his hand.
They landed at the gate. Sunfish scrambled with his feet for securefooting, found it and waded up to the front door. The water was a footdeep on the porch. Thurston beat an imperative tattoo upon the doorwith the butt of his quirt, and shouted. And Mona's voice, shorn of itscustomary assurance, answered faintly from the loft.
He shouted again, giving directions in a tone of authority which musthave sounded strange to her, but which she did not seem to resent andobeyed without protest. She had to wade from the stairs to the door andwhen Thurston stooped and lifted her up in front of him, she looked asif she were very glad to have him there.
"You didn't 'cope with the situation,' after all," he remarked while shewas settling herself firmly in the saddle.
"I went to sleep and didn't notice the water till it was coming in atthe door," she explained. "And then--" She stopped abruptly.
"Then what?" he demanded maliciously. "Were you afraid?"
"A little," she confessed reluctantly.
Thurston gloated over it in silence--until he remembered Park. Afterthat he could think of little else. As before, now Sunfish battled asseemed to him best, for Thurston, astride behind the saddle, held Monasomewhat tighter than he need to have done, and let the horse go.
So long as Sunfish had footing he braced himself against the mad rush ofwaters and forged ahead. But out where the current ran swimming deephe floundered desperately under his double burden. While his strengthlasted he kept his head above water, struggling gamely against the floodthat lapped over his back and bubbled in his nostrils. Thurston felt hislaboring and clutched Mona still tighter. Of a sudden the horse's headwent under; the black water came up around Thurston's throat with ahungry swish, and Sunfish went out from under him like an eel.
There was a confused roaring in his ears, a horrid sense of suffocationfor a moment. But he had learned to swim when he was a boy at school,and he freed one hand from its grip on Mona and set to paddling withmuch vigor and considerably less skill. And though the under-currentclutched him and the weight of Mona taxed his strength, he managed tokeep them both afloat and to make a little headway until the deepestpart lay behind them.
How thankful he was when his feet touched bottom, no one but himselfever knew! His ears hummed from the water in them, and the roar ofthe river was to him as the roar of the sea; his eyes smarted from theclammy touch of the dingy froth that went hurrying by in monster flakes;his lungs ached and his heart pounded heavily against his ribs when hestopped, gasping, beyond reach of the water-devils that lapped viciouslybehind.
He stood a minute with his arm still around her, and coughed his voiceclear. "Park went down," he began, hardly knowing what it was he wassaying. "Park--" He stopped, then shouted the name aloud. "Park! Oh-h,Park!"
And from somewhere down the river came a faint reassuring whoop.
"Thank the Lord!" gasped Thurston, and leaned against her for a second.Then he straightened. "Are you all right?" he asked, and drew her towarda rock near at hand--for in truth, the knees of him were shaking. Theysat down, and he looked more closely at her face and discovered thatit was wet with something more than river water. Mona the self-assured,Mona the strong-hearted, was crying. And instinctively he knew that notthe chill alone made her shiver. He was keeping his arm around her waistdeliberately, and it pleased him that she let it stay. After a minuteshe did something which surprised him mightily--and pleased him more:she dropped her face down against the soaked lapels of his coat, andleft it there. He laid a hand tenderly against her cheek and wondered ifhe dared feel so happy.
"Little girl--oh, little girl," he said softly, and stopped. For thecrowding emotions in his heart and brain the English language has nowords.
Mona lifted her face and looked into his eyes. Her own were soft andshining in the moonlight, and she was smiling a little--the roguishlittle smile of the imitation pastel portrait. "You--you'll unpack yourtypewriter, won't you please, and--and stay?"
Thurston crushed her close. "Stay? The range-land will never get ridof me now," he cried jubilantly. "Hank wanted to take me into the LazyEight, so now I'll buy an interest, and stay--always."
"You dear!" Mona snuggled close and learned how it feels to be kissed,if she had never known before.
Sunfish, having scrambled ashore a few yards farther down, came up tothem and stood waiting, as if to be forgiven for his failure to carrythem safe to land, but Thurston, after the first inattentive glance,ungratefully took no heed of him.
There was a sound of scrambling foot-steps and Park came dripping up tothem. "Well, say!" he gre
eted. "Ain't yuh got anything to do but set hereand er--look at the moon? Break away and come up to camp. I'll rout outthe cook and make him boil us some coffee."
Thurston turned joyfully toward him. "Park, old fellow, I was afraid."
"Yuh better reform and quit being afraid," Park bantered. "I got out uhthe mix-up fine, but I guess my horse went on down--poor devil. I waspoking around below there looking for him."
"Well, Mona, I see yuh was able to 'cope with the situation,' allright--but yuh needed Bud mighty bad, I reckon. The chances is yuh won'thave no house in the morning, so Bud'll have to get busy and rustle onefor yuh. I guess you'll own up, now, that the water can get through thegate." He laughed in his teasing way.
Mona stood up, and her shining eyes were turned to Thurston. "I don'tcare," she asserted with reddened cheeks. "I'm just glad it did getthrough."
"Same here," said Thurston with much emphasis.
Then, with Mona once more in the saddle, and with Thurston leadingSunfish by the bridle-rein, they trailed damply and happily up the longridge to where the white tents of the roundup gleamed sharply againstthe sky-line.