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| author | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 04:44:13 -0700 |
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| committer | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 04:44:13 -0700 |
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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/14331-0.txt b/14331-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2c9ccd0 --- /dev/null +++ b/14331-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,12628 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14331 *** + + JUDITH OF THE GODLESS VALLEY + + BY HONORÉ WILLSIE + + Author of "The Enchanted Canyon," "The Forbidden Trail," + "Still Jim," "The Heart of the Desert," etc. + + 1922 + + + + +CONTENTS + + + I LOST CHIEF SCHOOLHOUSE + II OSCAR JEFFERSON + III THE GRADUATION DANCE + IV THE HOUSE IN THE YELLOW CANYON + V THE HUNT ON LOST CHIEF + VI LITTLE SWIFT CROSSES THE DIVIDE + VII THE POST-OFFICE CONFERENCE + VIII JUDITH AT THE RODEO + IX THE TRIP TO MOUNTAIN CITY + X WILD HORSES + XI THE LOG CHAPEL + XII THE FIRST SERMON + XIII PRINCE GOES MARCHING ON + XIV THE BATTLE OF THE BULLS + XV THE FLAME IN THE VALLEY + XVI THE TRAIL OVER THE PASS + XVII BLACK DEVIL PASS +XVIII ELIJAH NELSON'S RANCH + XIX HOME + + + + +JUDITH OF THE GODLESS VALLEY + + + + +CHAPTER I + +LOST CHIEF SCHOOLHOUSE + +"To believe in a living God; to preach His Holy Writ without fear or +favor; to sacrifice self that others may find eternal life; this is true +happiness." + +--_The Rev. James Fowler_. + + +It was Sunday in Lost Chief; Sunday and mid-winter. For the first time +in nearly ten years there was to be a sermon preached in the valley and +every one who could move was making his way to the schoolhouse. + +Douglas Spencer drove his spurs into Buster and finished the last hundred +yards at a gallop. Judith, his foster sister, stood up in her stirrups, +lashed Swift vigorously over the flanks with the knotted reins and when +Buster slid on his haunches to the very doorstep, Swift brought her +gnarled fore legs down on his sweeping tail and slid with him. She +brought up when he did with her nose under his saddle blanket. The boy +and girl avoided a mix-up by leaping from their saddles and jerking their +mounts apart. + +"Now look at here, Jude!" shouted Douglas, "you keep that ornery cow-pony +of yours off of me or I'll make you sorry for it!" + +Judith put her thumb to her small red nose, and without touching the +stirrups leaped back into the saddle. Then she looked calmly about her. + +"First ones here!" she said complacently. "Even the preacher hasn't +come." + +"I suppose,"--Doug's voice was bitter--"that if I rode over toward Day's +to meet Jimmy you'd have to tag!" + +"I sure-gawd would. Swift would like the extra exercise." + +Douglas swept Judith's thin bay mare with a withering glance. "That +thing! Looks like the coyotes had been at it!" + +Judith wore but one spur and this had a broken rowell, but she kicked +Swift with it and Swift whirled against the nervous Buster and bit him on +the cheek. Buster reared. "Take that back, you dogy cowboy you!" shrieked +Judith. + +Douglas brought Buster round and raised his hand to strike the girl. She +eyed him fearlessly. The boy slowly lowered the threatening hand and +returned her gaze, belligerently. + +Prince, a gray, short-haired dog, of intricate ancestry, squatted on his +haunches in the snow with his tongue between his teeth and his eyes on +the two horses. Swift sagged with a sigh onto three legs. Perhaps the +little mare deserved some of the aspersions Douglas and his father daily +cast upon her. She was a half-broken, half-fed little mare which Douglas' +father had cast off. She did not look strong enough to bear even Judith's +slim weight. But as the only horse Judith was permitted to call her own, +the little bay was the very apple of the young girl's eyes, and she +wheedled wonderful performances from Swift in endurance and cat-like +quickness. + +Buster was a black which the older Spencer had bred as a cow-pony but had +given up because he could not be broken of bucking. Doug had begged his +father for the horse, and Buster, nervous, irritable and speedy, was a +joy to the boy's sixteen-year-old heart. + +Douglas sat tall in the saddle. He measured, in fact, a full five feet +ten inches without his high-heeled riding-boots. He was so thin that +his leather rider's coat bellowed in the wind, and the modeling of his +cheekbones showed markedly under his tanned skin. His sombrero, pushed +back from his forehead, disclosed a thick thatch of bright yellow hair +above wide blue eyes that were set deep and far apart. His nose was +high bridged, and his mouth, though still immature, gave promise of +full-lipped strength in its curves. + +Judith was fourteen and only a couple of inches shorter than Douglas. She +was even thinner than he, but, like him, glowing with intense vitality. +She had hung her cap on the pommel of her saddle and her curly black +hair whipped across her face. She had a short nose, a large mouth, +magnificent gray eyes and cheeks of flawless carmine. She wore a faded +plaid mackinaw, and arctics half-way up her long, thin legs. + +"I hate you, Doug Spencer," she said finally and fiercely, "and I'm glad +you're not my real brother!" + +"I don't see why my father ever married a woman with an ornery brat like +you!" retorted Douglas. + +"I wouldn't stay to associate with you another minute if you offered me a +new pair of spurs! I'm going to meet Maud!" And Judith disappeared down +the trail. + +Douglas eased back in his saddle and lighted a cigarette, while he +watched the distant figures approaching across the valley. The glory +of the landscape made little impression on him. He had been born in Lost +Chief and he saw only snow and his schoolmates racing over the converging +trails. + +The Rockies in mid-winter! High northern cattle country with purple sage +deep blanketed in snow, with rarefied air below the zero mark, with sky +the purest, most crystalline deep sapphire, and Lost Chief Valley, high +perched in the ranges, silently awaiting the return of spring. + +Fire Mesa, huge, profoundly striated, with red clouds forever forming on +its top and rolling over remoter mesas, stood with its greatest length +across the north end of the valley. At its feet lay Black Gorge, and +half-way up its steep red front projected the wide ledge on which the +schoolhouse stood. Dead Line Peak and Falkner's Peak abruptly closed the +south end of the valley. From between these two great mountains, Lost +Chief Creek swept down across the valley into the Black Gorge. Lost Chief +Range formed the west boundary of the valley, Indian Range, the east. +They were perhaps ten miles apart. + +All this gives little of the picture Douglas might have been absorbing. +It tells nothing of the azure hue of the snow that buried Lost Chief +Creek and Lost Chief ranches. It gives no hint of the awful splendor of +Dead Line and Falkner's Peaks, all blue and bronze and crimson, backed by +myriads of other peaks, pure white, against the perfect sky. + +It does not picture the brilliant yellow canyon wall which thrust Lost +Chief Range back from the valley, nor the peacock blue sides of the +Indian Range, clothed in wonder by the Forest Reserve. And finally, it +does not tell of the infinite silence that lay this prismatic Sunday +afternoon over the snow-cloaked world. + +Douglas did not see the beauty of the valley, but as, far below, he saw +Judith trot up to the Day's corral, he was smitten suddenly by his sense +of loneliness. Too bad of Jude, he thought, always to be flying off at a +tangent like that! A guy couldn't offer the least criticism of her fool +horse, that she didn't lose her temper. Funny thing to see a girl with a +hot temper. Ordinary enough in a man, but girls were usually just mean +and spitty, like cats. A guy had to admit that there was nothing mean +about Judith. She was fearless and straight like a first-class fellow. +But temper! Whew! Funny things, tempers! He himself always found it hard +to let go of his rage. It smouldered deep and biting inside of him and +hard to get out into words. He usually had to tell himself to hit back. +Funny about that, when his father was always boiling over like Judith. +He wondered if her temper would grow worse as she grew older, as his +father's had. Funny things, tempers! People in a temper always looked and +acted fools. The guy that could keep hold was the guy that won out. Like +being able to control a horse with a good curb-bit. Funny why he felt +lonely. It was only lately that he had noticed it. Here was Buster and +here was Prince, and here was the approaching joke of the preacher. Why +then this sense of loneliness? Maybe loneliness wasn't the right word. +Maybe it was longing. And for what? Not for Jude! Lord, no! Not for that +young wildcat. But the feeling of emptiness was there, as real as hunger, +and at this moment as persistent. Funny thing, longing. What in the world +had a guy like him to long for? + +A long coo-ee below the ledge interrupted his meditation. A young rider +leaped from the trail to the level before the schoolhouse, broke into a +gallop and slid, with sparks flying, to the door. + +"Hello, Scott!" said Douglas, without enthusiasm. + +"I thought Jude was here!" returned Scott. He was older and heavier than +Douglas, freckled of face and sandy of hair, with something hard in his +hazel eyes. + +"He'd better leave Jude alone," thought Douglas, "the mangy pinto!" + +There was a shriek and a gray horse, carrying a youth with the schoolmarm +clinging behind him, flew across the yard and reared to avoid breaking +his knees on the steps. The schoolmarm scrambled down, still screaming +protests at the grinning rider. One after another now arrived, perhaps a +dozen youngsters, varying in age from five to eighteen, each on his or +her own lean, half-broken horse, each appearing with the same flying leap +from the steep trail to the level, each racing across the yard as if with +intent to burst through the schoolhouse door, each bringing up with the +same pull back of foaming horse to its haunches. And with each horse came +a dog of highly varied breed. + +The youngsters had been racing about the ledge for some time before +the grown people began to appear. The women, most of them very handsome, +were dressed dowdily in mackinaws and anomalous foot covering. But the +men were resplendent in chaps and short leather coats, with gay silk +neckerchiefs, with silver spurs and embossed saddles. + +When Judith returned with Maud Day there were thirty or forty people and +almost as many dogs milling about the yard. The log school had weathered +against the red wall of the mesa for fifty years. There probably was not +a person in the crowd who had not gone to school there, who did not, like +Judith, love every log in its ugly sides. Judith caught Douglas' sardonic +gaze, tossed her curly head and urged Swift up the steps, where she +looked toward the road to the Pass, shading her fine eyes with a mittened +hand. + +Finally she cried, "I see the preacher coming!" + +"Somebody ought to go in and build the fire if we ain't going to freeze +to death!" exclaimed Grandma Brown, jogging up on a flea-bitten black +mule. + +"He invited himself. Let him build his own fire!" cried Douglas. + +Grandma pulled her spectacles down from her forehead to the bridge of her +capable nose, and stared at Douglas. + +"Well! Well! Doesn't take 'em long away from the nursing bottle to get +smarty. Where's your father, Douglas?" + +"Home with the toothache," replied Doug, flushed and irritated. + +"Did he bring you up to let a stranger come to the house and build his +own fire?" + +"No, but it's the schoolmarm's job to build this one," replied Douglas. + +"Jimmy Day, you and Doug go in and get that old stove going!" ordered +Grandma. + +Both boys dismounted slowly, tied their horses, and amidst a general +chuckle, disappeared into the schoolhouse. + +Charleton Falkner, a black-browed rider of middle age, with a heavy black +mustache, turned his horse toward Grandma. + +"That's right, Charleton," the old lady went on, "you come over here and +help me off of Abe. I ain't going to stay out here freezing till old +Fowler comes. Riding ain't the novelty to me it seems to be to the rest +of you." + +This was the signal for all the grown people to tie up their horses and +enter the building. Shortly Douglas and Jimmy came out, and scarcely had +remounted when the minister rode slowly up over the ledge. He dismounted +at the door and greeted the youngsters. They replied with cat-calls. +Fowler stared at the group of robust young riders, his gray-bearded face +somber, then he shook his head and opened the door. + +Douglas jumped from his horse and, giving the reins to Jimmy Day, he +followed the minister. The people within were seated quietly, and Doug +slid into a rear bench. His eyes were very bright and he watched the +preacher with eager interest. Mr. Fowler dropped his overcoat on a chair +and strode up to the platform, where he smiled half wistfully, half +benignly at his congregation. Then he raised his right hand. + +"Let us pray!" he said. "O God, help me to speak truth to these people +who ten years ago laughed me from this room. Help me to open their eyes +that they may behold You! Show them that they lead a life of wickedness +from the babes in arms to the very aged, from--" + +"Tain't any such thing!" interrupted Grandma Brown. "There you go again, +after all these years!" + +"If you've come here to preach old-fashioned fire and brimstone, Fowler," +said Charleton Falkner, "you might as well quit now. None of us believe a +word of it. We most of us think everything ends when they plant us in the +cemetery yonder, that is, if they put on enough rocks so the coyotes get +discouraged." + +Douglas shivered. "I wonder if that's what I'll believe when I get to +thinking about such things," he thought. "Hanged if I'll think of 'em +till I'm old!" + +"I'm with you, Charleton!" called Oscar Jefferson, rumpling his silvery +hair with his soft white cowman's hand. + +The Reverend Mr. Fowler leaned over the desk. "Charleton Falkner, aren't +you man enough to admit that you folks here in Lost Chief lead a wicked +life?" + +"How do you mean, wicked?" demanded Charleton. + +"I mean that you steal cattle, that you shoot to kill, that there is +indecency among your children, that your young girls go unguarded and +that your young men are no better than wild horses. I mean that your +little girls drink whiskey. And I defy you to show me two mothers in +the valley who have taught their children to pray and to walk with God." + +"Aw!" sniffed Oscar Jefferson, "if that's what you've come a hundred +miles to tell us, you'd better quit! That may do for foreigners and city +slums, but it won't go down with the Lost Chief cowman. We're Americans, +here." + +"Americans!" cried Mr. Fowler. "How much does that mean?" + +Jefferson rose to his full six feet. "By God, I'll tell you what it +means! It means our ancestors conquered the Indians, in New England, that +we fought the British in the Revolution and the rebels in the Civil War +and the hombres in the Spanish-American War. It means that fifty years +ago the father or the grandfather of every man in this room came out here +and fought the Indians and the wolves and the Mormons--" + +Charleton Falkner interrupted with his twisted smile that showed even, +tobacco stained teeth. "Jeff, this ain't the Fourth of July celebration, +you know!" + +Jefferson somewhat sheepishly subsided to the desk on which he had been +sitting. + +"That's exactly why I came back!" cried the preacher. "I know that you +and Lost Chief belong to the heroic early history of America. This should +be a valley of old Puritan ideals. A church should stand here beside the +school. You never have built a church. You never have allowed a minister +to settle here. You never--" + +Here Grandma Brown's brother-in-law, Johnny Brown, spoke. "I've deponed +that many a time to this crowd of mavericks! You'd ought to--" + +"Keep quiet, Johnny!" ordered Grandma. "Fowler, if you are going to give +us a regular Bible sermon, go ahead. Otherwise, I'm going home. I can +jaw, myself." + +"Also, cuss some, Grandma," suggested a slow voice. Grandma did not heed. + +"If you're going to preach, preach," she said to the minister. + +Mr. Fowler threw his head back. "Ten years ago I let you drive me out of +Lost Chief before I'd preached a sermon. God has never let me rest since, +no matter where I was, and when I was re-appointed to Mountain City, +before I preached my first sermon there, I came out here. You are going +to have the Word of God preached to you to-day if you shoot me for it. +And beware lest you come to Esau's fate for ye know how afterward, when +he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no +place for repentance, though he sought it carefully, with tears." + +He paused, took a Bible from his pocket and opened it. + +Douglas waited tensely. The preacher looked to him as if weighted with +mysterious knowledge, as if something infinitely illuminating were to +issue from his bearded lips. The boy had a sudden conviction that Fowler +was about to say something that would answer the longing that had so +oppressed him lately. He hunched his broad, thin shoulders forward, his +clear blue eyes on the preacher's face. + +Fowler cleared his throat. "'Moreover, the word of the Lord came unto me, +saying, Now thou son of man, wilt thou judge, wilt thou hide the guilty +city? Yea, thou shalt show her all her abominations.'" + +He closed the Bible. "Friends, this is my message and my text. I am going +to show you your abominations of crookednesses. I am going to show you +that hell is yawning for such as you." + +Douglas sighed. "Old fool!" he muttered. "As Grandma Brown says, she can +jaw. He's lost his chance with me." He slipped out of the door, mounted +his horse and nodded to the group of youngsters waiting for him. Then he +urged Buster up the steps, through the door and up the aisle. The others +followed him. A moment later, the schoolroom was chaos. Horses pranced +over the desks. Dogs barked and fought among the horses' legs. Babies +screamed. Oaths filled the air. Lost Chief rocked with laughter. + +Fowler jumped upon the teacher's desk, appealing in dumb show for order. +A plunging horse tipped the desk over and the minister went down among +the prancing legs. In a moment he was up, and again he raised both hands +in a plea for silence. Douglas, laughing gaily, twirled his lariat, and +pinioned the two pleading hands, then, amidst shouts of laughter, he +backed Buster from the room, drawing the minister none too gently with +him. + +Outside, whither the crowd quickly followed, Douglas halted and, still +laughing, allowed the preacher to free his hands. + +"Now go on back to Mountain City, Mr. Preacher," he cried, "and don't +come back till you've learned not to scold like an old woman." + +Fowler pulled on his overcoat which somebody tossed him, and mounted his +horse. Then he stood in his stirrups and pointed a trembling finger at +Douglas. + +"Ye shall find no place for repentance, though ye seek for it with +tears." + +"Why should I repent?" demanded Douglas. + +"Aw, run him! Run the bastard!" shouted Scott Parsons. + +But Doug rode between the preacher and the threatening young rider. "Let +him go, Scott. He's had enough!" + +Fowler disappeared down the trail. Scott turned scowling toward Douglas, +but before he could do more Judith cried, "Come on, everybody! Let's go +down to the post-office and get Peter to open the hall for a dance!" + +"I will if somebody brings whiskey," agreed Scott, turning his horse +toward Swift. + +"I'll go over to Inez Rodman's and get some if Maud will go with me," +volunteered Judith. + +"Let's all go to Rodman's," cried Maud. + +The older people were riding slowly down the trail to the valley. The +youngsters waited until the way was clear before leaving the school-yard, +agreeing in the meantime that Judith and Maud should go after the whiskey +while the others went to interview Peter; and the two girls departed +forthwith. + +"Some one besides me will have to work on Peter," said Scott. "He's sore +at me. I tried to kick Sister." + +"What did you do that for?" asked Jimmy Day. "Are you sick of living?" + +"She bit Ginger on the shoulder. I hate that dog." + +"Jude can handle Peter," said Douglas. "Come on, let's get going." + +The little cavalcade moved noisily down the trail, crossed the deep snows +of Black Gorge and broke into a wild race when the road opened a mile +below the post-office. The horses lunged and kicked through the drifts, +the dogs barked, the girls squealed, the boys shouted. The post-office +lay in the middle of the valley with neither tree nor house in its +vicinity. It was a square log structure, two stories high, originally an +inner fort built as a final retreat from the Indians. The upper room was +now used as a dance-hall. The lower floor contained the post-office, a +general store, and Peter Knight's living quarters. + +Peter Knight was the only outsider in Lost Chief. He had lived there a +scant twenty years. No one knew whence he came, nor why. He was a man +of education and an ardent lover of animals, a somewhat sardonic, very +lonely man, yet somehow having more influence in the valley than any +one save Grandma Brown. He showed no actual fondness for any particular +person save Judith and his big mongrel wolf-hound, Sister, Sister being +every inch a person! Douglas had sometimes thought that Peter showed +a real interest in him, but this interest was shown almost entirely by +scathing vituperations, so the boy made no attempt to form the interest +into friendship. + +The crowd of riders drew up at the post-office, sparks and snow flying, +just as Maud and Judith lashed their horses in from the west trail. +Judith waved a bottle of whiskey. + +"Some providers!" cried Scott, putting out his hand for the flask. +He took a pull, then passed it on. Boys and girls alike took a drink, +then Scott pocketed the bottle. During this procedure, the door of the +post-office opened and Peter Knight appeared. + +He was about forty-five years old, very tall, very, very thin, and +as straight as he was thin. Thick, closely clipped gray hair stood up +straight from his forehead. His eyes were deep sunk in his head and a +piercing, light blue. He possessed a belligerent chin below an obstinate +lower lip and a close-cropped gray mustache. He wore a gray flannel shirt +and blue denim pants turned high over riding-boots. + +He watched the passing of the whiskey bottle without comment. + +"Hello, Peter!" called Judith. "Will you open the hall and let us have a +dance?" + +"What have you been doing to your horse, Jude?" demanded Peter, eying the +panting and dejected Swift. + +"Nothing!" + +"Nothing! I tell you what, the way you little devils treat your horses +would draw tears out of a coyote. Starving 'em, beating 'em, running 'em! +You ought to be thrashed, every one of you worthless young slicks." + +Curiously enough, none of the group which had shown so much temerity in +man-handling the preacher now attempted to reply to Peter. A great shaggy +gray dog, exactly like a coyote except that she was much larger, now +appeared in the door beside the postmaster. A chorus of growls and whines +immediately arose from the dogs congregated among the horses. + +"What happened at the schoolhouse?" asked Peter abruptly. + +"You're always preaching, yourself; I suppose that's why you didn't +attend," grinned Scott Parsons. + +"My Yankee horse is sick," said Peter, "and I couldn't leave him. How did +it go?" + +"We ran him out," laughed Douglas. "We gave him a chance to give us real +talk but he couldn't come across, so we roped him and ran him." + +"I thought that would happen. Poor Fowler!" Peter's voice was grave. + +"Listen, Peter," cried Judith, "I want to ask you a favor." + +She mounted the steps and stood before the man. She was as thin as he and +as straight. Peter looked down at her, still scowling. + +"Now, Peter, listen! You know I love Swift and wouldn't hurt her for +anything." + +"Wouldn't hurt her! Haven't I told you a hundred times that running a +horse through drifts like you do ruins 'em? No, don't try to soft-soap +me, Judith! When you kids want a favor from me, don't come up with your +horses dripping sweat in below zero weather." + +He jerked Sister back into the building and slammed the door. + +Judith turned. "Well, we can all go over to Inez' place. She asked us." + +"Who's there?" demanded Doug. + +"Nobody. She says we can dance if we want to." + +There was a silence, broken after a moment by Jimmy Day. "You can't go, +Maud." + +"I am going if you do!" exclaimed Maud. "Make him let me go, Doug." + +"What's the use of being so fussy about poor old Inez?" asked Scott. +"What harm is there in a dance at her place?" + +"I don't see why, if my mother don't stop me, yours should stop you," +protested Judith. + +"O, your mother couldn't boss a day-old calf!" said Jimmy impatiently. + +"Don't you knock my mother!" shrilled Judith. + +"Your mother--" began Maud. + +"Dry up, Maud, or I'll smack your mouth!" ordered Douglas. + +"No you won't!" cried Jimmy. + +"I will, anybody that says anything against Jude's mother," returned +Douglas promptly. + +"Aw, if you folks are going to start fighting, as usual I'm going home," +growled Scott Parsons. "Every time the crowd gets together, Jude has to +start a scrap. It's getting god-awful cold, anyhow, and I've got chores +to do." He spurred Ginger and was off. + +"Same here!" chimed half a dozen voices, and more horses were spurred +away. + +Douglas glared at Judith. "Always making trouble! I should think you'd +get sick of it." + +"Let 'em not knock my mother, or my horse, or my dog, then," replied +Judith, tossing her head. + +"Your dog! Prince is my dog, miss, and don't you forget it for a minute," +cried Douglas. + +He spurred Buster onto the main trail which lifted gradually toward Dead +Line Peak. Judith, after a pouting moment, followed him. + +Except for this steady lift from seven thousand feet at Black Gorge to +eight thousand feet at the base of Dead Line and Falkner's Peaks, the +valley was as level as a floor. The sun was setting as the two left the +post-office. Lost Chief Range, on their right, was black against fire. +The snow of the valley was as blue as indigo. A gentle but bitterly +cold wind rose from the east. Prince, yelping, set off after a skulking +coyote. When he had disappeared beyond a distant herd grazing through the +snow, Judith pushed her horse up beside Buster. + +"Doug, am I any scrappier than the rest of them?" + +Douglas, his cigarette hanging negligently from a corner of his mouth, +nodded. + +"Well, I have to be, Doug," insisted Judith. + +"No, you don't. You just look for trouble, all the time. Why do you have +to be?" + +"Who is there to look out for me?" demanded the girl, chin in the air. + +"Pshaw! You don't need a guard, do you? Besides, what's the matter with +me?" + +"Huh! You don't really care what happens to me. I'm not your real sister +and you never forget it. I'm lonely." + +Douglas gave her a curious glance. Was she, he wondered, experiencing +that feeling of loneliness and longing which had been haunting him for +months? He wanted to ask her about it but he could not. She laughed at +him too easily. + +They rode on in silence for a while, Judith's thin young body sagging +dejectedly in the saddle. The lavendar twilight was gathering. White +stars hung within hand touch. Prince returned to the trail and a coyote +barked derisively from beyond an alfalfa stack. + +"Douglas," exclaimed Judith suddenly, "if I thought when I got married, +my husband would treat me like Dad does Mother, I'd never get married. +Getting married in real life isn't a bit like the books show it." + +Douglas grunted. "I wouldn't worry about getting married for a few years +yet." + +"I'm fourteen," returned Judith. "I've got a right to think about it. +Don't you ever?" + +"No." + +"You think about girls, though," insisted Judith. + +"That isn't thinking about marrying, is it?" + +"What do you think about mostly, Doug?" + +Douglas sighed. "It's hard to say. I've been awful sad lately. I don't +know why. I think about that and I plan a lot about what I'm going to do +when I finish school." + +"Would you like to marry Maud Day?" + +"Who's talking about marrying!" shouted Doug with sudden and overwhelming +exasperation. "What makes you such a fool, Jude?" + +"How can I help talking about it when it's my mother your father's so +rough with. Of course, you don't care." + +"I do, too, care. I think a lot of her, but he don't mean half he says." + +"Well, he'd better begin to stop knocking me around when he's mad, or +I'll run away." + +"Especially in the winter, I suppose," sniffed Douglas, "when it would be +plain suicide." + +"I don't care if it's in a blizzard," insisted Judith. "When I've had +enough, I'll go." + +Douglas laughed. "Hanged if I don't think you would, too, Jude. You've +got the nerve of a wolverine." + +"I hope Dad's tooth is better," said Judith, as dim buildings and a +lighted window shone though the dusk. + +"Are you really afraid of Dad?" asked Douglas suddenly. + +"No," replied Judith, thoughtfully, "but sometimes I hate him." + +"I think he's a pretty good old scout in spite of his temper," said the +boy. + +"Well," admitted Judith, "I guess I do too. At least, I can see why so +many women like him. He's awful good-looking. I can see that now I'm +growing up." + +"Growing up!" mocked Douglas. + +But before Judith could pick up the gauntlet, the horses came to pause +before the lighted window. Judith jumped from Swift, unsaddled her and +turned her into the corral. Then she went hurriedly into the house. +Douglas unsaddled more slowly, and strode toward the sheds where calves +were bellowing and cows lowing. + +For half an hour he worked in the starlight, throwing alfalfa to the +crowding stock. It was so cold that by the time he had finished he +scarcely could turn the door-knob with his aching fingers. He entered the +kitchen. + +It was a large room, with the log walls neatly chinked and whitewashed. +An unshaded kerosene lamp burned on the big table in the middle of the +room. Judith was cutting bread. The air was heavy with smoke from frying +beef. A tall, slender woman, with round shoulders, stood over the red-hot +stove, stirring the potatoes. She was a very beautiful, very worn edition +of Judith, though one wondered if she ever burned with even a small +portion of Judith's eager, wistful fires. She turned as Douglas came in +and gave him a quick smile. + +"Cold, Douglas?" she asked. + +The boy nodded. "Where's Dad?" + +"In the other room. His tooth still aches, I guess." + +"Is he sore because I'm late?" asked the boy, scowling. + +Judith answered with a curious jerking of her breath. "He tried to kick +me. I hate him!" + +Douglas grunted and marched through the inner door into the one other +room of the house. It was at least twenty-five feet square. The log walls +were whitewashed like the kitchen and from one of the huge pine rafters +hung a lamp which shed a pleasant light on a center table. Beds occupied +three corners of the room. There were several comfortable rocking-chairs, +a big mahogany bureau and a sewing-machine. Over the double bed hung an +ancient saber and over a low bookcase was a framed sampler. There were +several good old-fashioned engravings and some framed lithographs with +numerous books and piles of dilapidated magazines. Doug's father stood +by the table with a book in his hand. + +John Spencer at forty-six was still a superb physical specimen, standing +six feet two in his felt slippers. His face, so like, yet so unlike his +son's, showed heavy lines from the nostril to the corner of the mouth. +Beneath his eyes were faint pouches. The thick thatch of yellow hair had +lost its yellow light and now was drab in tone. His flannel shirt, +unbuttoned at the throat, showed a strong neck, and the rider's belt that +circled the top of his blue denim pants outlined a waist as slim and hard +as Doug's. + +He looked up. "What do you mean by coming in at this hour, you young +hound?" + +"I think I might have Sunday afternoon to myself," said Douglas sulkily. + +"So do I. But that don't mean you are to have all Sunday night, too. Did +you feed the calves?" + +"Yes." + +"Next Sunday you be here by five o'clock, understand?" + +"Yes." + +"Supper's ready!" called Judith. + +The table was covered by a red-checked cloth. A huge platter of fried +beef, another of fried potatoes, another of baking-powder biscuits, and a +pot of coffee steamed on the table. John did not speak until his first +hunger had been satisfied. When he received his second cup of coffee, +however, he said, "Well, my tooth's better. What happened this afternoon, +children?" + +Judith did not reply, but Douglas, with a chuckle, told the story of Mr. +Fowler's discomfiture. John and Mary shouted with laughter. + +"By old Sitting Bull, it serves him right!" John wiped his eyes. "What +became of him?" + +"O, he beat it for the Pass!" replied Douglas. + +"What did you do after that?" inquired Mrs. Spencer. + +"We went up to the post-office to get Peter to let us have a dance, but +there was nothing doing. He just gave us all a jaw because our horses +were sweating." + +"I'll bet Swift was the worst off," chuckled John. + +"That's right! Pick on me!" cried Judith. + +"Judith! Be careful!" protested her mother. + +"Let her alone, Mary." John's blue eyes twinkled as he watched the young +girl. "She's kept out of a row about as long as she can without choking." + +"Some day, when you least expect it," said Judith with a little quiver in +her voice, "I'm going to run away." + +The others laughed. + +"Where to, Jude?" asked her stepfather. + +"To some place where folks like me." + +"I like you, Jude!" protested John. + +Judith turned to him quickly. "Why do you thrash me and kick me, then?" + +"Kids have to be trained, and you are as hard bitted as Buster," answered +John. + +"No such thing!" Judith suddenly rose from the table. "It's just bad +temper." + +"Judith! Judith! Don't!" pleaded her mother. + +"Let her alone!" John's voice was not angry. He was eying Judith with +inscrutable gaze. + +"The next time you even try to kick me, I'm going to run away." + +She paused and suddenly Douglas thought, "Jude knows what real loneliness +is. She's a very lonely person." He leaned forward and watched her with +unwonted sympathy. She swallowed once or twice, and then went on: + +"A woman, a dog, and a horse, you don't kick any of them. Peter Knight +says so. Maud Day's father never kicks her. He hits her with a belt, +maybe, when she doesn't get his horse quickly enough, and maybe he hits +her mother when he's drinking, but that's all." Judith began to gather +up the dishes with trembling fingers. + +"How old are you, Judith?" asked John. + +"You know. I was fourteen last spring." + +"By jove, you are almost a woman grown!" John swept her with a look, then +rose and went into the living room. + +Douglas followed him and, sitting down on the edge of his bed, he +unbuckled his spurs. John settled himself under the lamp with his book, +but he did not begin to read at once. + +"Yes, Doug; that girl is a woman now and she has any woman in Lost Chief +beaten for beauty and nerve." + +Douglas gave his father a startled glance; then he said, with elaborate +carelessness, "Rats! She's just a fighting kid!" + +John chuckled. "I'm glad you're still only a sixteen-year-old fool, +Doug." + +The boy said nothing more. He scowled and sat staring at his father long +after that strenuous person was absorbed in his book. Then he kicked off +his boots, pulled off his vest and trousers and crawled into bed. Not +long after, Mrs. Spencer came in, glanced at her husband, sighed wearily, +then she too went to bed. Judith finished wiping the dishes, sauntered in +to the center table and shortly was absorbed in "Bleak House." Mrs. +Spencer was snoring quietly and Douglas had not stirred for an hour when +he heard his father say in a low voice: + +"Jude, old girl, I'm never going to lay finger on you again." + +Jude gave a little gasp of surprise. "What's happened, Dad?" + +"You've happened! By jove, you've grown to be a beautiful woman!" + +"Huh! Doug says I'm a homely, pug-nosed outlaw." + +"Doug's a fool kid. It takes a man like me that knows women to appreciate +you, Jude." + +"Doug'll hear you," warned the girl. + +"He's been dead for an hour. Give me a kiss, Judith." + +"I don't think I will, I'm too sleepy and tired. Guess I'll go to bed!" +She rose, dropping "Bleak House" as she did so. + +Mrs. Spencer woke with a start. "What's the matter?" + +"Nothing! I just dropped a book." Judith retired to her own corner and +shortly she too was asleep. + +But Douglas, new thoughts surging through his brain, lay awake long after +his father had turned out the light and crawled in beside Mary. Of a +sudden, he had seen Judith through his father's eyes and he found himself +very unwilling to permit John to see her so. Her loneliness had assumed +an entirely new aspect to him. It was the loneliness of girlhood, of +girlhood without father, mother, or brother. That was what it amounted +to, he told himself. He never had been a real brother to Judith, never +had looked out for her as if she had been his sister. And Jude's mother! +Just tired and sweet and broken, about as well fitted to cope with her +fiery daughter as with the unbroken Morgan colt which was John's pride. +As for his father--! Douglas turned over with a deep breath. Let his +father take heed! Judith! Judith with her glowing wistful eyes, her +crimson cheeks, her dauntless courage, her vivid mind! Judith, with her +loneliness, was his to guard from now on. Funny how a guy could feel so +all of a sudden! Funny, if he really should love old Jude, with her +fiery temper and more fiery tongue. And if this were love, love was not +so comfortable a feeling, after all. It was a profound uneasiness, that +uprooted every settled habit of his spiritual being. It was, he told +himself, before he fell asleep, a funny thing, love! + + + + +CHAPTER II + +OSCAR JEFFERSON + +"Help those that need help." + +_--Grandma Brown_. + + +The next morning while Doug was feeding in the corral, his father hitched +a team to the hay wagon. Just as he prepared to climb over the wheel, +Judith came out, ready for her ride to the Days' ranch, where she was +to spend the day. + +"Say, Jude," called John. "I want Doug to go to the old ranch after some +colts. You come with me and help feed. I'm going to get all I can out of +you two until school begins again." + +Judith crossed silently to the wagon and climbed aboard. Douglas dropped +his pitchfork and walked deliberately toward the fence. As he climbed it, +he said, "Judith, you aren't going. You keep your date with Maud." He +dropped from the fence to his father's side. + +John turned to him with a look of entire astonishment. + +"Jude's growing up, as you say," explained Douglas heavily. "If you +aren't going to look out for her, I am." + +"O, you are! And why?" demanded his father. + +"Because!" replied Doug. "Jude, you get down and get started on Swift." + +Astonishment, amusement, anger, pursued their way across the older man's +face. Judith put out her tongue at her brother. + +"Chase yourself, Doug Spencer! You're not my boss, you bet!" + +John put his foot on the hub. "Good-by, Doug; I hope you recover from +your insanity by to-night." + +Douglas put an unsteady hand on his father's shoulder. "She can't go with +you, Dad!" + +His father struck him roughly aside. Douglas ran around the wagon. Judith +was sitting on the edge of the rick. He reached up, pulled her into his +arms, ran her into the feed shed, turned the key in the padlock and +put the key in his pocket. As he turned, his father met him with a blow +between the eyes. Mary Spencer appeared on the doorstep, pale and +silent. + +It was but the work of a moment to subdue the boy, and to unlock the +door. + +"Get into the wagon, Judith!" ordered John. + +Douglas strode uncertainly to his father's side. "Judith, you go get on +your horse!" + +The young girl stood staring at the two, something impish in the curl of +her lips, something wistful and unafraid and puzzled in her beautiful +gray eyes. Back of the two men lay the unblemished blue white of the +snow-choked fields and in awful proximity to these, Dead Line Peak flung +its head against the cloudless heavens. Judith looked from the Peak to +father and son as though deliberately appraising them. John, with ashen +hair, with bloodshot eyes and the tell-tales lines from nose to lip +corner, but handsome, dominating, choleric, with his reputation as a +conqueror of women, as a subduer of horses, as a two-gun man. Douglas, +with his thatch of gold blowing in the cold morning air, thin, awkward, +only a boy but with a spirit glowing in his blue eyes that Judith never +before had seen there. The girls of Lost Chief were sophisticated almost +from the cradle. Judith could interpret the lines in her stepfather's +face. But she did not know what the strange light in Douglas' eyes might +mean. Suddenly she sprang to Swift's back and put her to the gallop. + +"You know what to expect when you come back, miss!" roared John. + +But Judith did not seem to hear. Spencer turned to his son. "Now, sir, +you go into the house and get the whip!" + +Douglas did not stir. "You aren't going to whip me any more, Dad. If you +want to fight me, put up your fists." + +Mary Spencer ran through the snow toward the two. "Don't fight him, John! +Don't! He's just a child!" + +John whirled at her with his fists raised. Douglas jumped before his +step-mother and caught the blow on his raised elbow. + +"And that'll be about enough of that, too, Dad!" + +John caught his breath, then poured out a string of oaths and invectives, +ending with, "Now before I thrash the cussedness out of you, young +fellow, what excuse have you got to put up?" + +"I haven't any." Douglas was still pale and his voice broke, childishly. +"Only, all of a sudden it seems cowardly to me for you to hit Mother. +She's not a child. You haven't got the excuse that you're training her. +And you know she can't hit you. You're a good fighter, but I notice you +don't hit Peter Knight or Charleton Falkner, any time they peeve you a +little. It was all right to lick me and Jude when we were little. But now +I warn you. I'm going to hit back. And you got to leave Judith and her +mother alone." + +John Spencer stood staring at his son. Twice he raised his heavy fist +to strike him. Twice he dropped it. Douglas, still pale and trembling, +wondered at his own temerity. He always had been so terribly afraid +of his father! + +"So you don't intend to obey me any more!" sneered John. + +"Sure I do," replied Douglas. "Only I'm not going to be licked into doing +things blind, and I'm going to take care of Jude." + +John uttered a contemptuous oath. + +Doug swallowed with an effort but his steady temper was well under +control and he went on, "I'd like to be as good a rider and rancher as +you are and handle a gun as good as you do, but I'm hanged if I want my +woman to be as scared of me as Mother is of you." + +"Think yourself a man, eh? Well, I'll tell you, young fellow, as long as +you live in that house, there, you'll obey and take the lickings I give +you. My father built that house and I was born in it and so were you. +Hemen come from our breed and only a sissy refuses to obey. I may not be +as well educated as my ancestors back East were, but I'm just as well +trained as any of 'em and you're going to be too. We Spencers boss our +own households. Go get me that whip!" + +"No, sir, I won't do it," replied Douglas, a steady burning light in his +eyes. + +"You mean you'll stand up to me and fight after you saw the way I could +handle you a few minutes ago?" + +"Yes, sir, I do." + +For a long moment there was silence, while Mrs. Spencer twisted her hands +together and Doug and his father stared at each other. Then John gave a +short laugh. + +"By Sitting Bull! if you haven't got nerve, Doug! Go saddle Buster and +get up to the old ranch after those three-year-olds." Then he climbed +into the hay wagon, shouted at the team and was off. + +Douglas' lips parted. The color returned to his face. Then he sat down +weakly on the lower bar of the buck fence and burst into tears, and he +was more frightened by his own tears than he had been by his father's +anger. Mary Spencer knelt in the snow before him and tried to pull his +head to her shoulder. + +"Doug! Doug! You are a man!" she whispered. "You are a man!" + +Douglas struggled heavily with the strangling sobs and after a moment sat +erect and embarrassed. + +"Douglas, what happened? How did you come to do it?" + +"Something he said to Jude last night scared me," mumbled Doug. + +Mary tightened her hold on the boy's arm. "I've been so afraid! So +afraid! And no one to talk to!" + +"Haven't you ever warned Jude about it?" demanded Douglas, with a sudden +sensing of a debt mothers owed to daughters that Mary might not be +discharging. + +Mary shrank. "O, I couldn't, Doug!" + +Douglas looked at her scornfully. "I don't see why that isn't your job." + +Mary rose from her knees. She twisted her work-scarred hands together and +looked at the boy with pathetic wistfulness. + +"Don't you see, Doug, that I couldn't make her understand? She's still +such a child she'd just laugh at me." + +"Child!" scoffed Douglas, forgetting his own previous estimate of Judith. +"She knows a whole lot more than you do!" + +Mary laughed drearily. "Now you're talking like a child!" Then her voice +cleared with unwonted purposefulness. "No one who hasn't been married can +possibly understand men, or fear them or despise them, like they ought to +be feared and despised. When I think what I was before I married and what +I am now, I feel like I wanted to put Judith where she never could see a +man. It's not right that a woman should suffer so. It's not right to lose +all your dreams like I've lost mine. Marriage was never meant to be so." + +Douglas scowled in his astonishment. Mary had been feeling like this all +along when he'd been thinking of her as without nerve! Here, then, was +somebody else lonely, like himself and Judith. + +"I'm sorry, Mother," he said awkwardly. "I'll do what I can to change +it." + +"You can't do anything, my dear. What I'm suffering is in the nature of +things." + +"Well, anyhow, you ought to warn Jude," repeated Douglas. + +"I can't!" said Mary. "Doug, if I do she'd guess how cowardly I am and +how I suffer--in my mind, I mean," and she put her hands over her face +with a dry sob. + +Douglas put his long young arm about her. "I'll take care of it for you," +he said huskily. "Judith don't know it but she's got somebody besides old +Peter ridin' herd on her now. And you know I'm some little old herder, +Mother!" + +"I know you're a man!" exclaimed Mary. "The kind of a man that's mighty +scarce in Lost Chief Valley." She turned away toward the house. + +Douglas picked a bridle from the fence and started after Buster. + +It was nearly supper time and Doug and his father were reading in the +living-room when Judith returned. The wind had risen and fine particles +of snow sifted under the eaves and over the table. The wood stove glowed +red hot and the smell of cedar mingled with that of frying beef in the +kitchen. + +Judith, without waiting to take off her mackinaw, cheeks scarlet, eyes +brilliant, stood before her father. + +"Here I am, Dad." + +John looked up from his book. "Have you milked yet?" + +"No, sir." + +"Go out and do it." + +"I want to know if you're going to lick me, Dad?" + +"What did I promise you, last night?" he demanded. + +"Do you mean to keep that promise?" asked Judith. + +"Go out and tend to your milking!" roared John, rising to his feet and +throwing the book across the room. "Get out of my sight, you little fool, +you blankety-blank--" But Judith had fled and Douglas retired to the +kitchen. + +Supper was a silent affair. But that evening when the family had gathered +under the lamp to read, Douglas said, "Scott Parsons wants me to take the +mail stage for him Wednesday." + +"Where's he going?" asked John. + +"Out after his registered bull. It's strayed again." + +"Huh!" grunted John. "Are he and Oscar Jefferson still fighting over that +bull?" + +"I guess so," replied Douglas. "Can I go, Dad?" + +"It will put the dehorning off another day, but I guess you can go. That +extra money will come in handy. How would you like to drive the mail +regularly next winter, Douglas?" + +The boy tossed "Treasure Island" on the table. "Do you mean you'd let me +have it?" + +"What would you do with the money?" + +Douglas hesitated. + +Judith spoke. "I know what I'd do. I'd put half the money into books. The +other half I'd use to buy me some buckers and I'd go into training as a +lady bronco buster." + +Everybody laughed, and Mrs. Spencer said, "You won't have time to keep +your nose in a book if you start in that line, Judith!" + +"I'll always read," retorted Judith loftily. + +"I'd buy me a silver-mounted saddle and silver spurs," said Douglas, "and +that dapple gray of Oscar Jefferson's and a good greyhound, and I'd go +into the wild horse catching business." + +John groaned. "We've sure-gawd got an ambitious pair of kids here, Mary! +What about the money you get from this trip, Doug?" + +"Will you let me keep it?" asked Douglas, eagerly. + +"I'll see!" John picked up his book again. + +"Let me go with you, Doug!" pleaded Judith. + +"Nothing doing!" exclaimed her stepfather succinctly. "You go to bed now +before you get me aggravated." + +Judith tossed her head but obediently retired to her corner of the room, +undressed and crawled into her bed. Douglas was not long in following her +example. + +It was about eight o'clock Wednesday morning and twenty below zero when +the mail buckboard driven by Douglas took the rising trail from Black +Gorge eastward over the Mesa Pass. The snow was heavy and the trail +only indifferently opened. To add to the difficulties, Scott had hitched +Polly, a half-broken mule, to the stage in place of the mare who had gone +lame. James, the remaining horse, was steady, however, and Douglas had +only a moderate amount of trouble until the long steep grade up to the +Pass began. Here, after a quarter of an hour of reluctant going, the +mule balked. James did what he could to pull her along, Douglas plied the +blacksnake; but to no avail. When she finally did move it was to lie down +with deliberate slowness. Douglas jumped out into the drifts and by +risking his life among her agitated legs he managed to get her up. An +hour passed in the intense cold before she finally was harnessed and +meekly pulling more than her share. + +At the top of the Pass, Douglas drew up to breathe the team. Bleak, +snow-covered rocks rose on either side of the trail, but opening beyond, +snow-topped ranges in rainbow tints gleamed against a sky of intensest +blue. Behind him, as he turned to look, lay Lost Chief Valley, with blue +clouds rolling from the tops of Dead Line and Falkner's Peaks. Douglas +shivered and urged the team on. But the mule again balked, and as Doug +gathered up the whip a gruff voice cried, "Hold up your hands!" + +A six-shooter in a mittened fist appeared over a rock heap at the +roadside. + +Douglas blanched, then looked keenly at the mitten. "Come out of that, +Jude! Darn it, I thought you'd gone to Grandma Brown's!" + +Judith led Swift from behind the rock, and mounted. Her eyes were bright +with mischief. + +"You turn right round and go home again, miss!" he cried, as Swift ranged +beside the buckboard. + +Judith giggled. "You sure do need a hazer, Doug, while you're driving +that mule! I left a note for Mother." + +"Go home! Don't speak to me. This is no trip for a girl!" + +"You mean you want me to go home and help Dad feed the two-year-olds?" +demanded Judith. + +Douglas glared at her. For all the biting cold, her old knit cap was +hanging to the pommel, her mackinaw was open at the throat. Her cheeks +were deep scarlet, her gray eyes half filled with tears. + +Douglas scrowled and his mouth settled into sullen lines. This was a +man's trip. Judith had no business to make it seem easy enough for a +girl! And with this new feeling for Judith, she was making the adventure +too difficult. Hang it all! The place for a girl was at home! But he knew +Jude and he was not going to try to repeat the triumph of Monday morning. +He called to the team and started on. + +Judith, having won her point, dropped behind the buckboard and the +journey continued in silence. They reached the half-way cabin late in the +afternoon. The little log hut, with a rude horse shelter beside it, stood +in a clump of cedar close beside the trail. The snow was fresh trampled, +for the up stage had left at three o'clock. Judith and Douglas were very +cold. They hastily unharnessed, broke the ice at the little spring and +watered the horses, then rushed into the cabin. There was a bunk, covered +by soiled and ragged quilts, a table, a few cooking utensils, and boxes +for seats. They lighted a candle and unearthed canned beans, coffee, and +canned brown bread from beneath the bunk. After he had eaten his supper, +Doug grinned for the first time. + +"Forgiven me, huh?" asked Judith. + +Douglas nodded. "It would be darned lonely without you. You'd better get +to bed, Jude." + +"Who gets the bunk?" asked Judith. + +"You of course!" Douglas' voice was suddenly harsh again. + +Judith sat down on the edge of the bunk. In the uncertain light of the +candle she looked all eyes. + +"Doug, what is the matter lately? I never know when you're going to take +my head plumb off." + +"Oh, shut up, can't you! I don't see why girls can't let a fellow alone!" + +"Tell me, Doug: Why did you keep me from going with Dad on Monday +morning?" + +Douglas straightened up, his back to the stove, scowled, sighed, then +said, "I feel like I wanted you to be like the girls in books and not +like these wild women round here. And if you don't know what I mean, you +are a fool." + +"Douglas Spencer, you know I'm just as good as any girl that ever lived +in any book!" + +"I know that, and I propose to keep you so." Doug lighted a cigarette. + +"Since when were you so interested, I'd like to know?" + +"That is none of your business. Only, from now on you toe the mark, +miss." + +"You're not my boss, Doug Spencer!" + +"Yes, I am," returned Douglas serenely. He finished making up a bed on +the floor, rolled himself in two of the quilts and pulled the corner of +one over his head. + +Judith put out her tongue at his muffled form and crept under the quilts +that remained on the bunk. By and by the moonlight appeared through the +window. The stove grew cold. The howling of the coyotes circled nearer +and nearer. Suddenly a rifle-shot rung out, then another. The shots did +not waken the sleeping boy and girl, but the mule brayed and began to +kick with the rapidity of machine-gun fire. They both jumped up and ran +out. The mule was just disappearing across the trail. Douglas jumped on +Swift's bare back, catching the lariat from the saddle that lay on the +manger. + +"I'll come too, on James!" cried Judith. "I'll ride to the right!" + +Douglas urged Swift through the drifts, circled a cedar grove, and saw +the mule stop to sniff at a horse which stood beside a dark heap in the +snow. Judith appeared around the opposite side of the grove and the mule +dashed away. They both hurried toward the quiet heap on the ground. A man +lay in the drifts, his rifle beside him. It was Oscar Jefferson, with +blood running out of his temple into the snow. + +"Is he dead?" whispered Judith, crowding James up against Swift. + +"I guess so. Must have been the shot that scared the mule. Come on, +Judith! We've got to get him into the cabin, somehow." + +Judith began to cry. "I couldn't touch a dead man, Douglas!" + +Douglas' own lips were very uncertain in the moonlight but he answered, +firmly enough, "We've got to do it. The coyotes will get him here." + +"They'll say we shot him!" sobbed Judith. + +Doug gave a start. "They sure-gawd will! What shall we do, Jude?" + +"Go off and leave him and say nothing about it." + +"With our horses' tracks all round him! You're crazy! Anyhow, we couldn't +go off and leave a neighbor like this. 'Tisn't Lost Chief manners." + +"All right." Jude wiped her eyes on her sleeve. "Let's put the lariat +round his feet and let Jeff's horse pull him to the cabin. It won't hurt +him in the soft snow." + +"Nothing will hurt him any more, poor old Jeff," said Douglas. + +He dismounted and moved toward the body. Then, with teeth chattering +audibly, he tied the lariat round Jeff's feet and told Jude to get on to +the saddled horse. + +"Guide him easy. I'll walk and lead the other horses and see that nothing +goes wrong." + +Still whimpering, Judith obeyed, and the strange little procession moved +toward the cabin. When they reached the shed, Doug loosened the lariat. +"Judith," he said, "the best thing we can do is to put him in the +buckboard and take him home." + +"I'm so afraid of a dead man, Doug!" + +"So am I. But it's only poor old Oscar, after all, who's been our +next-door neighbor all our lives. We can't leave him here alone, like +a dead horse. We'll take him home. That's what Dad or any of the men +would do. Come on, Jude." + +They established poor Oscar on the floor of the buckboard, among the mail +bags. They hitched up James and Oscar's big black, and tied Swift to the +tail end. All this time the moon shone coldly on the white hills, and the +coyotes howled nearer and nearer. + +"Cover him deep with the quilts, Doug," whispered Judith. "I'm going to +make up a pot of hot coffee, before we start." + +"How about that mule?" whispered Douglas. + +"Let it go plumb to hell!" returned Judith. "Scott's the one should have +been shot, for sending you out with such a brute!" + +"If it hadn't been for the mule, we'd never have found him," muttered +Douglas. + +It was not much after eleven when the two, huddled together on the seat +of the buckboard, started back for Lost Chief. The cold was so intense +that they were obliged to take turns driving. When the road permitted, +they walked until even their hardy lungs demanded rest. Then they huddled +together again, their knees touching the dashboard, lest Oscar's poor +dead feet should thrust against theirs. + +They talked very little except to guess as to the probable name of the +murderer. Toward dawn, when the moon had set and Douglas was trusting the +trail to the horses, he said: + +"Do you remember at the schoolhouse Sunday, when Charleton said he didn't +believe in a hereafter, old Jeff chimed in and said, 'Me too'?" + +"I remember," replied Judith. + +"What do you suppose Jeff thinks about it now?" + +"He ain't thinking. He's gone. There's no hereafter. Dad says so." Judith +huddled still closer. + +"Isn't it horrible!" shuddered Douglas. "Horrible!" + +Judith began to cry again. "If there was just a heaven," she sobbed, "I +wouldn't mind living or dying either." + +"Well, there isn't any." Douglas heaved a great sigh. "I wonder if they +hang kids as young as us for murder?" + +"Let them try hanging me, just once! That's all I've got to say!" +exclaimed Judith stoutly, in spite of her chattering teeth. "The worst +I ever did to Oscar Jefferson was to play bucking bronco on that old +milch cow, Jinny, of his. And she sure-gawd could buck! But I was only +a little girl then and I can prove it." + +"Looks as if we might be in real trouble to me!" muttered Douglas. + +"It's growing daylight and there's the Pass, at last!" suddenly cried +Judith. + +Douglas drew a deep breath and urged on the weary horses. + +It was full nine o'clock when the team drew up at the post-office door. +At Doug's halloo, Peter Knight appeared. Sister crowded out the door past +him, pricked her ears forward and ran to sniff at the rear of the +buckboard. + +"What on earth brings you back at this hour?" demanded Peter. + +"Trouble!" Douglas moistened his frost-cracked lips. "Oscar Jefferson was +shot last night. We got his body here." + +"Who shot him?" asked Peter. + +"We don't know." + +"Where was it? Here, Sister, get back in the house!" Peter jerked the +door wide. + +Judith answered. "Up beyond the cedars, across from the half-way house. +We found him while we were hunting for that devilish old mule." + +Peter looked keenly at the two haggard young faces, then he said, "You +two come in and eat and get warm. I'll do some telephoning." + +"I want to get home to my mother," half sobbed Judith. + +"Sha'n't we take him on to his house?" asked Douglas. + +Peter replied impatiently, "You know he was baching it alone while young +Jeff's in California. You come as I tell you!" + +Stiffly the two stumbled out of the stage and into the warmth of +Peter's quarters. He had just begun his own breakfast and, at his orders, +Douglas and Judith devoured it while Peter went to the telephone. In an +incredibly short time John Spencer and Frank Day, the sheriff, galloped +up to the door. To them and to Peter, the young people told their story. + +The sheriff asked a number of questions. After he had finished Douglas +queried anxiously: + +"You ain't going to try and put it on us, Frank?" + +Frank grinned. "Well, I might, if the suspicions I have as to another +party prove wrong." + +"Don't torture 'em, Frank!" protested Peter. "They've been through a good +deal for kids." + +"Scott Parsons was the only rider in the valley who didn't like Oscar," +said John. "That war they've had for two years over the bull was bound to +end in trouble. I warned Oscar." + +"Oscar was more to blame than Scott," said the sheriff. "He was the +meanest man for hanging out on a fool thing I ever knew. And I'm just as +fond of Oscar as the rest of you. What was a bull to Oscar! He could buy +a dozen of 'em. Scott hasn't a thing on earth except wages for riding and +that mangy little herd of slicks he's picked up." + +"Picked up is right!" grunted John. "That bull, whoever it belonged to, +is standard bred." + +"Scott was born with a nasty temper." Peter spoke thoughtfully. "He told +Oscar in front of me he would get him. That was about two weeks ago." + +"Did Oscar tell any one he was going anywhere?" asked the sheriff. + +"Not me," said Peter. "Why not let the kids go home?" + +"Sure," agreed Frank. "You've done a good night's work, you two. Get some +sleep now." + +"You'll find Buster tied to my saddle, Doug," said John. "Judith, can +Swift still move?" + +"You bet she can!" replied Judith. + +There was a laugh, and the two young people gladly mounted and trotted +into the home trail. + +Oscar's wife had long been dead. His son was on a cattle-buying trip and +could not be reached. Oscar had been one of the richest men in the very +well conditioned valley, so, instead of taking the body up to the lonely +ranch house, it was laid out in state in the post-office. + +Grandma Brown always officiated at deaths and births in Lost Chief. After +it was found impossible to get in touch with young Jeff and after the +sheriff had made a three days' investigation, she ordered the funeral +to take place at once. + +"We could pack him down in the ice till a thaw opens up the cemetery a +little," suggested Charleton Falkner. "You know what a god-awful job it +is making a grave in the cemetery in winter, between the frost and the +rocks." + +"He's going to be buried now, while he's in good trim," declared Grandma. +"I'm not going to have him ruined, waiting for spring. You men get to +work now, in shifts, like you did for old Ma Day." + +Grandma's word was law in Lost Chief, and the grave forthwith was +prepared. John Spencer, Peter Knight, and Charleton Falkner were +appointed by the old lady to do the work, and Douglas accompanied his +father. Old Johnny Brown appeared while the work was in process. + +The cemetery was fenced in, but except for a few simple headstones and +monuments, it was unadorned. + +"Queer the women folks have never fixed this place up a little," said +Peter Knight, standing waist-deep in the grave, with John. "Most places +I've been, women keep the graves like they would a little garden." + +Charleton Falkner, resting on a neighboring headstone, smiled +sardonically. "Lost Chief women have enough to do without dolling +up graves." + +Cold sweat stood on Doug's forehead. He stared from the gaping grave to +the murmuring line of pines that marked the end of the cemetery and the +beginning of the Forest Reserve, and shuddered. He had not been sleeping +well since the night of the murder. Johnny Brown, small and very thin, +with a scraggly iron-gray beard hung with little icicles and his blue +eyes watering with the cold, moved away from the headstone against which +he had been resting after his turn in the grave. + +"That boy," he said, jerking his elbow at Doug, "will be massified for +many a year for driving the preacher out of Lost Chief." + +"How do you mean--massify!" demanded Doug, gruffly. Johnny might be +half-witted, but his remarks were curiously penetrating sometimes. + +"I mean massify," grunted Johnny. + +Peter Knight heaved a great frosted boulder out to the ground level. + +"Charleton," he said slowly, "doesn't the thought of lying in a forgotten +grave give you dumb horrors?" + +"Sometimes," replied Charleton laconically, as he beat his cold hands +together. "But only sometimes." + +Douglas strained forward in the intensity of his interest. + +Douglas' father straightened his broad shoulders. "If I let myself think +about it, I have to go out and get drunk," he muttered. + +"You don't conject right about them things," cried Johnny. "You got to +listen to things." + +No one heeded the sad-faced little man. Peter stooped for another frozen +clod. "I'd give my right hand for my mother's faith in a living God," he +said. + +"But if there isn't any God, what is there?" cried Douglas, with +passionate protest in his voice. + +"Don't you try to discuss matters you ain't old enough to understand, +son," ordered John Spencer. + +"Unbelief is the price we pay for scientific progress," said Charleton. +"Me, I'm willing to pay." + +"I'm not," growled Peter, "but I don't see any way round it. Come on, +Johnny, do your share." + +"I ain't going to dig any more," declared the little man. "You all say +I ain't all here, and the part that ain't here is the part that works. +Sabez?" + +Everybody laughed. + +"And," Johnny went on, seriously, "I ain't sure it's a good idea to plant +'em so deep. It takes a long time to grow up to heaven. It's a gregus far +away place." + +"Right you are, Johnny, old man," agreed Peter. "It sure is gregus far +away." + +Nobody urged Johnny to return to the job and the rest of the work was +finished in silence. + +That afternoon the funeral took place. There were services at the +post-office, where any one who wished spoke in praise of the dead man. +There were many speeches and it was late afternoon when the funeral +cortege reached the cemetery. The Forest Reserve was mysterious with +shadows and with the unending murmur of the pines. Snow gleamed blue over +the valley. The saddle horses and teams were hitched to the stout fence +that surrounded the cemetery, and Lost Chief Valley crowded about the +open grave. + +John Spencer drove Mary down in the old bobsled but Judith and Douglas +rode Swift and Buster as usual. Judith had been nervous and irritable +ever since the trip to the half-way house, but she had refused to admit +that the murder had anything to do with her state of mind. She had a +boyish horror of admitting to fears, mental or physical. She stood +opposite Douglas, with a round beaver cap pulled down over her curly +hair, her cheeks not so red as usual, her dark eyes rimmed and puzzled. +Douglas wondered what she was puzzling over and resolved that after the +ceremonies were over, he would ask her. + +Douglas could not know with what intensity his deep-set eyes turned from +Judith and fastened upon Grandma Brown, who stood at the head of the +grave. There was a contented assurance in the old lady's manner that +was vaguely comforting to the boy. He wondered what she knew that his +father and Peter and Charleton did not know. + +As the coffin was lowered into the grave, Grandma said, "Does anybody +feel like saying a few last words?" + +There was a silence broken only by the murmur of the Forest, then Johnny +Brown cleared his throat. "I might say a whole lot of things. I wasn't so +goldarned proud of Oscar like the rest of you seemed to be. He had a +gregus kind of a temper and oncet--" + +Grandma turned on him. "Johnny Brown, ain't you ashamed of yourself!" + +"No, I ain't! You say I ain't all here, and the part that I'd be ashamed +with is the part that's gone," returned Johnny firmly. + +Judith gave an irrepressible snort, then fastened solemn eyes on the sky. +A restless clearing of throats swept the little assemblage; then Grandma, +indignation still in her kind old voice, spoke once more. + +"Can't any of you men that knew Oscar all his life say something +comforting before you close his grave?" she urged. "Then I'll try to do +it. I was brought up religious, myself." She lifted her serene old face +to the evening sky. "O God, this man wandered far from You like all the +rest of us here. But an old woman like me believes You're there and that +you know Oscar hadn't a really bad hair in his head. Take his soul, Lord, +and be as good to him as You can. I am the Resurrection and the Life, +saith the Lord. He that believeth in me, even though he die, yet shall he +have Eternal Life." + +The tears were running down many cheeks when the old lady finished. +Foolish old Johnny laughed, then he began to sing a hymn in which several +of the women joined. + +"God be with you till we meet again, +By his counsels guide, uphold you, +With his sheep securely fold you, +God be with you till we meet again." + +And so the earthly career of Oscar Jefferson ended. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE GRADUATION DANCE + +"Horses, dogs, guns, women, whiskey, the open country of the +Rockies--enough for any man." + +--_Charleton Falkner_. + + +Instead of riding home with Judith, after the ceremony, Douglas, on +sudden impulse, took a roundabout way to the post-office, thence toward +the Browns' ranch. Dusk was settling in the valley. The quivering aspens +along Lost Chief creek were etched gray rose on the deep blue snow. Far +to the east a single scarlet mountain-top pierced through the twilight +blue. Buster loped swiftly through the swimming landscape. + +When he reached the post-office Douglas did not stop but rode on along +Black Gulch trail to the Browns'. Grandma, returning by the direct route +from the cemetery, had been home for a half-hour before Doug arrived. +She was coming out of the cow stable, lantern in hand, when the boy +dismounted at the corral. Spurs clanking, brave chaps flapping, Douglas +ran to her like a child and caught her apron in his gauntleted hand. + +"Grandma! Tell me something! Did you believe what you said at the grave?" + +The old lady held the lantern up to his face. "Come into the cow stable +out of the wind, Doug." + +Within the dim shelter she hung the lantern on a nail and sat down on a +box, indicating another to the young rider. + +"Yes, I believed it, boy. Didn't you?" + +"No, Grandma! And none of the men do that count in this valley. Is it +just old woman stuff, like they say?" + +"Maybe!" sniffed Grandma. + +"And if you believe it," Doug rushed on, "why did you let us run the +preacher out?" + +"O, the preacher! Pooh! He's nothing but a blankety blank sissy like the +rest of the sky pilots!" + +"But can't I believe like you do, Grandma? I'm just the unhappiest guy in +the world!" + +"You mean," the old lady spoke deliberately, "that this is the first +funeral you've seen that's set you to thinking and the fear of death is +on you for the first time. I hope it'll do you good, Doug. You're an +awful rough little devil." + +Douglas swallowed audibly. "Grandma," he cried passionately, "how can I +get to believe what you do?" + +Grandma looked thoughtfully from her plump milch cow to the lantern, and +from the lantern to Douglas. "Doug, I don't think you can, living among +the folks you do. To have my kind of faith, you've got to have a mother +that breeds it in you from the time you're a baby." + +Douglas, his face looking absurdly young above his broad shoulders, said +despairingly, "I don't believe you want to help me." + +"Well," Grandma was still deliberate, "I don't believe a wild young devil +like you really wants help. You're just scared." + +Douglas rose, drawing himself to his full height. He was deeply offended. +"I thought you might understand me!" he exclaimed. He strode out to +Buster and galloped home. + +It was extremely difficult to find a moment alone with Judith in the +two-room cabin; but the chores were late that night and Judith, instead +of helping her mother with the supper preparations, went out to milk, and +so Doug's second interview that evening was in the cow shed, for when he +reached the home corral, Judith had not finished her task. + +This time, he was not precipitate. He sauntered into the little stable +with a manner of large leisure. + +"Hello, Jude!" + +"Hello, Douglas! Finished feeding?" + +"No. I just got back. What did you think of the funeral?" + +"I'm not thinking of it at all." + +"Jude, don't you believe there's any hereafter?" + +"Doug, I don't want to talk about it." + +"But, Judith, I'm lonely and I've got to talk to some one." + +Judith turned an indignant face toward the tall boy. "Don't you suppose +I'm lonely, too? What good does talk do? Religion is all right for little +kids but you can't believe in fairy tales as you grow up." + +"But what can we do?" insisted Douglas, the sweat breaking out above his +lips again. "Doesn't the thought of no God, no hereafter, just paralyze +you?" + +"I tell you," repeated Judith obstinately, "I just don't let myself think +about it." + +"Then what's made you so cross ever since that night?" + +Judith rose and set the brimming milk pail in a feed box. Her eyes, in +the lantern light, widened with a horror so devastating that Douglas +clutched the manger behind him. + +"How did you know? Doug, that's it and there's no place to go for help +because there isn't any help for that!" + +The sudden revelation of her need roused Douglas. He moistened his lips +and said, "We've got to harden ourselves to stand it, like the rest of +'em do. And when it gets too bad we can talk to each other about it. +That'll help." + +Judith clutched his arm as if she felt the need of touching a human +being. Douglas did not stir but as he stood looking down at her a strange +aching gladness at her nearness and at her splendid girlhood flooded the +horror out of his thought. + +"I'll carry the milk pail in for you, Jude," he said. + +"Fudge!" she returned scornfully. "As if I hadn't carried it in every +night for four years! You'd better do your feeding before Dad gets after +you." + +Douglas suddenly laughed and went out. + +For a day or so he was haunted, particularly after he went to bed, by the +thought of the grave scene and by the comments Grandma Brown had made. +But Doug was only sixteen, after all, and shortly he was absorbed by +other matters: the hunt for Scott Parsons, the preparations for the +dehorning, and his new and thrilling and secret feeling toward Judith. + +The search for Scott delayed the round-up only for a short time. A day +or so after the funeral it snowed and removed the last chance of finding +Scott's tracks. The cold was intense, and the job really belonged to +Sheriff Frank Day, so the posse broke up after a few days and the +dehorning was undertaken. + +Early in the morning, half a dozen young riders helped Douglas and Judith +to cut out of the great herd in the swamp field the steers in need of +dehorning. In proportion to their strength, Lost Chief girls were as +clever as the men in handling horses and cattle. Judith was easily the +best of them. There was a fire and vim about her work, a wild grace, that +the other girls lacked. Douglas, his vision sharpened by his new attitude +toward Judith, thought she never had looked so handsome as she did this +morning, in her beaver cap, her new scarlet mackinaw, curls flying, +sitting the excited little Swift as easily as a boy. + +Out of the circular corral led a smaller one. A cedar fire burned in +the middle of the lesser enclosure. John Spencer and two helpers stood +near the fire, saws at hand, searing-iron heating, tar-pot simmering. +The herd bellowed in the outer corral. The riders, ropes in hand, sat +with laughing faces turned toward Judith, who was to rope the first +steer. Douglas wished that there were not so many of the riders with +admiration in their eyes. Judith sat Swift lightly, edging mischievously +now against one rider, now another. Swift bit Buster, who reared while +Douglas swore laughingly. Magpies swooped from the blue spruce at the +edge of the corral, black and white against pale blue. The cattle, all +Herefords, red and white, milled about and lowed and tossed worried +heads. The riders, sheepskin chaps flapping, bright neckerchiefs +fluttering, shouted and cursed and fingered their lariats. Dogs, yellow +dogs, black dogs, gray dogs, spotted dogs, continuously encroached +from without the fence and were ordered or lashed away. + +Suddenly Swift shot from the group of horses. Judith spun her lariat +and a lusty young steer, well back toward the south fence, turned and +stumbled. Swift sat back on her haunches, turned as she rose and leaped +toward the dehorning corral. The bellowing steer was dragged backward, +his left foot securely roped. He fell as they reached the gate and +skidded helplessly on his side through the trampled yellow snow. + +The men by the fire were ready. One of them perched on the steer's flank +and freed the lariat, while another sat astride his neck and amidst a +gush of blood sawed off the horns close to the head. John seared the +stubs with the hot iron dipped in tar. The poor brute bellowed with +fright and pain. Judith recoiled her lariat and made way for Jimmy Day, +who slid up with a protesting heifer. + +"'Jude!" he shouted. "You're the cow ropingest girl in the Rockies! Say, +Jude, ain't you afraid that baa-baa you're riding will buck with you? +Swift! What a hell of a name for that thing!" + +"She can beat you roping 'em at that, Jimmy!" cried Douglas. + +"Better ride light, Jimmy," warned John. "She thinks more of that mare +than she does of me." + +"All right, John," laughed Jimmy. "Take this heifer, fellows! She thinks +she's a moose!" + +"She'll think she's a kitten when we finish with her," chuckled John. + +There was an uproar now in the two corrals that echoed from mountain to +mountain. The trampled snow was crimson. White angora and sheepskin chaps +were gaumed with thick clots of blood. The horses, half frantic from the +smell of the bleeding cattle, tried every means in their not limited +repertoires to bolt the hateful job. + +The work had gone fast and furiously for some time when Douglas touched +his father on the arm. + +"Dad, look up on the shoulder of old Dead Line!" + +John straightened his back and shaded his eyes. A rider leading a +Hereford was coming down the ridge. + +"That's Scott's horse, Grover," said Douglas. "Can you make out the +rider?" + +"Not yet." John continued to stare intently. Others noticed his posture +and followed his gaze. + +"It's Scott Parsons!" cried Charleton Falkner. + +"Shall we go get him?" exclaimed Jimmy Day. + +"No. He's starved out and giving up. Let's hear what he has to say," said +John. + +The dehorning went on. Half a dozen more bleeding steers had been +turned out before Scott, weary, gaunt, haggard beyond words, leading an +emaciated young bull, drew rein beside the smaller corral. The roping +came to a pause. John twisted a lariat round the neck of a steer he was +working on and led it to the fence. The others followed. + +"Well, why the committee of welcome?" asked Scott hoarsely. His bloodshot +eyes turned from one to another. + +"Where'd you find the bull, Scott?" asked John. + +"First located him on Fire Mesa. Been round about considerable since." + +"Whose bull is it now?" Charleton Falkner pushed Democrat toward the +fence. + +"Mine!" Scott spoke shortly, his freckled face unmoved. + +"Do you think it was worth the price?" demanded Spencer. + +Scott looked searchingly at the crowd before him. The steer John was +holding had been dehorned but not seared. The blood had run down the +brute's white face and formed a crimson icicle on its under lip. John +had run his fingers through his ashen hair, leaving it blood-smeared. +Charleton was lighting a blood-stained cigarette with the hot +searing-iron. Judith pounded her half-frozen ringers together. + +"What price did I pay?" asked Scott. + +"Doug," commanded John, "you tell your story." + +Douglas, with considerable embarrassment and assisted by Judith, told of +their trip with the mail stage. Scott listened with little apparent +interest. He said nothing when the story was done. + +"It's like this, Scott," said John. "It looks like you killed him. You've +got a bad temper. So had Oscar. You fought for over a year about that +fool bull, first one of you branding it, then the other. You're young +and you'd better give yourself up. You'll stand a better chance." + +"Go ahead, Scott!" cried Judith. "I'll stand your friend like you did +mine when I rode old Oscar's milch cow 'most to death!" + +"Shut up, Jude!" exclaimed Douglas. + +"Go ahead, Scott," John half smiled. "You needn't worry. You have a +friend!" + +"A friend won't do him much good, if he's guilty," grunted Charleton +Falkner. + +"Anybody's better off for at least one friend," repeated Judith stoutly. +"Darn it! All of you picking on poor old Scott!" + +"Lean on me, Grandpa!" piped Jimmy Day. + +Scott's haggard eyes focused on Judith. "I'll hold you to that, Jude! By +God, you're the only white man in the valley! I came in to give myself +up, Jude. The cold got me. I shot him, after he'd rebranded the bull +before my eyes and after he'd given me this." + +He ripped open his mackinaw and shirt and tore a rag from his shoulder, +disclosing a vivid wound. "I ain't the only one that's quick on the +trigger!" + +There was a quick murmur among the riders. John and Charleton, the oldest +men in the group, looked at each other. + +"Charleton, you and Jimmy Day ride to Scott's house with him," said John. +"I'll go to the house and telephone to the sheriff." He mounted and rode +off. + +"Can your horse carry you so far, Scott?" asked Judith. + +Scott nodded, with something curiously like tears in his hard hazel eyes. +"You take the bull, Jude," he said. "I'd like for you to have him. He's +standard bred." + +Judith's eyes shone like stars. "If Dad'll only let me! Do you think he +will, Doug?" + +Douglas shrugged his shoulders. The bull was tied to the fence and Scott +rode slowly away with his escort. When John returned from telephoning he +gave a grudging consent to Judith's taking the bull, and the dehorning +went on. Not until the blue velvet shadow of Falkner's Peak lay heavy on +the incarnadined corral and the last bellowing steer had found solace at +the haystacks did the riders start homeward. Douglas followed Judith, as +she led the scare-crow bull. + +"He's a good mate for Swift," he said. + +"You're just jealous!" retorted Judith. + +"Of what?" demanded Douglas. + +"Of me starting a herd before you do!" + +"Ha! Ha!" ejaculated Doug, without a smile, and nothing more was said +until they reached the house. + +At supper that night John asked Judith why she had shown so much +friendship for Scott Parsons. + +"I was sorry for him," she replied. + +"But he killed our old neighbor!" exclaimed John. + +"Yes, and Oscar had a notch on his gun, Dad; and you have one on yours." + +"We put those notches there in the early days," returned John, "when +every cowman carried the law on his hip. It's different now. You're +altogether too highty-tighty, Jude, for a girl. You keep away from Scott +Parsons, or I'll make you regret it." + +Judith made no reply. + +Scott's trial took place in April. It was a matter of deep interest, of +course, to Lost Chief, and every one who could get to Mountain City by +horse, wagon, or automobile, attended the court sessions. Judith and +Douglas were chief witnesses and were royally entertained by young Jeff, +who had returned to Lost Chief a week or so after his father's funeral. + +Scott was acquitted on the plea of self-defense but he did not return at +once to Lost Chief. The attitude of young Jeff did not make an early +return seem diplomatic. + +Douglas, when he came home from the trial, had a curious feeling that the +winter just passed had ended his boyhood. He did not know why. He was not +old enough to realize that when the fires of desire and the fear of death +begin to sear a boy's mind, adolescence is passing and manhood has all +but arrived. + +Judith, who had accomplished her fifteenth birthday in March, a day or so +before Doug arrived at the dignity of seventeen, had changed too. She had +been less profoundly affected by the murder than Douglas; not that she +was less sensitive or intelligent than he, but she was far less +introspective than her foster-brother. And Judith had two unfailing foods +for all hungers of the mind. One was her love of reading, the other, her +love of riding; both absorbing, to the elimination of self investigation. + +Douglas read a great deal, himself. Books and magazines furnished the +only mental stimulants in the valley and it was a surprisingly well-read +community. But Douglas, caring for Judith as he did, found it impossible +to become fully absorbed in his old pastimes. He was restless, moody and +lonely as only youth can be. + +He and Judith both graduated from the log school early in June. There was +the usual graduation dance at the post-office at which, as usual, Peter +Knight officiated. It was a heavenly moonlit night. The air was fragrant +from the acres of budding alfalfa and full of the lift and tingle that +can belong to June only in the high altitudes. The ever strong, steady +west wind of Lost Chief summers swirled down the valley. + +The hall was dimly lighted by a single kerosene lamp. Cigarette smoke +mingled with the pungent smell of whiskey, which seemed to be the chief +ingredient of a concoction in a large pail, under the lamp. In the corner +opposite the pail was a phonograph over which Peter presided. + +Everybody danced. Even the dogs were not prohibited the floor. Only when +Sister started a fight with Prince did any one protest and the dogs were +driven back, temporarily, under the benches. + +The schoolgirls in their white dresses were, of course, the belles of the +occasion. Lost Chief, living its intensive life of isolation, probably +did not realize of what superb physique were the youngsters of its third +generation. Jimmy Day devoted himself to Little Marion Falkner, aged +fourteen. Marion was called little to distinguish her from her mother, +also Marion. The daughter at fourteen was five feet ten inches in height, +the mother an inch taller. Even a badly cut muslin dress could not fully +conceal the fine breadth of Little Marion's shoulders nor the splendid +length and straightness of her legs. + +Jocelyn Brown, Grandma's grand-daughter, dancing frequently with +Charleton Falkner, was at twelve only slightly shorter than Little +Marion. She had the face of an angel, the vocabulary of a cowman, and was +built of steel. + +Inez Rodman, very fair and slender, easily five feet nine, was scorned by +the older women but was brazenly popular with their husbands and the +younger set of boys and girls. + +Judith danced all the time but only occasionally with Douglas, who took +her to task for her neglect. + +"But, Doug, you and Dad are no novelty to dance with. What's the matter +with you anyhow? You never used to want to dance with me." + +"I'm just trying to keep you from dancing with all these roughneck +riders." Douglas' chin was in the air above his bright blue silk neck +scarf. + +Judith's eyes swept him appraisingly. His white silk shirt hung loose +on his thin, fine shoulders. His broad rider's belt, studded with blue +enameled rings, encircled a waist almost as slender as Jude's own. His +white duck trousers were turned up to display new riding boots, and his +spurs, a graduation gift, were of silver and chimed at his slightest +movement. + +"You're almost as good-looking as Jimmy Day," she said with a sudden +chuckle. "Run along, Doug. You aren't old enough to protect me from these +bad men!" And she turned to dance with the waiting Jimmy. + +It was nearing midnight when Douglas achieved his first dance with Inez. +She was the best dancer in the room, and Douglas told her so. + +"I'll bet you haven't told that to the other girls," she said with a +flash of her white teeth. + +"I have! I said it to Jude when she turned me down for Dad." + +"Smart! Helps both you and me with Jude, of course!" + +"Much you care about that!" retorted Douglas. + +"I like to be liked, of course," said Inez. + +"You do?" Douglas' voice was so honestly incredulous that Inez exclaimed +resentfully: + +"Am I so much worse than a lot of the kids at school?" + +Douglas shrugged his shoulders and replied, "Judith's straight. I've kept +her so." + +Inez laughed. "Judith's straight because she's that kind of a girl. Why +don't you watch your dad instead of Jude?" + +Douglas' lips tightened and Inez studied his face in silence for a +moment; then she went on, "Pretty fond of Jude, aren't you, Doug? Your +father is a devil with women--that big, bossy, good-looking kind always +is. I tell Jude so every time I see her." + +"How often do you see her?" demanded Douglas quickly. + +"I guess she has a right to come to my house as often as she wants to." + +"No, she hasn't," brusquely. + +Inez sniffed, then smiled. She had a frank and lovely smile. Douglas' +face softened and they finished the waltz in silence. + +Not all the music was of the cheaply popular variety. Between dances +Peter slipped on occasional opera records. He was playing from _Martha_: + +"Ah, so pure, so bright, +Burst her beauty upon my sight, +Ah, so mild, ah, so divine +She beguiled this heart of mine." + +when a man called from the open door, "Good evening, folks!" + +"Why, it's Scott Parsons!" cried Grandma Brown. + +There was a pause, during which the tender voice of the phonograph +thrilled on. Young Jeff, his red face even redder than his visits to the +pail would warrant, put his hand to his hip. Judith darted before him and +ran the length of the room. + +"Hello, Scott! Welcome home! The next dance is yours." + +"No, it's not!" shouted John Spencer. "You let Judith alone, you blank +young outlaw you!" + +"Get out of my way, Jude!" shouted Young Jeff. "I told Scott not to come +back to Lost Chief!" + +He strode down the room, his hand still on his gun. Scott's hand had been +equally quick. Peter Knight turned off the machine. "Hold on, Jeff!" he +cried. "You turned Scott over to the law, and the law acquitted him. If +you'd wanted to take things in your own hands, you should have done so +before the trial. If you kill Scott, you're no better than he is." + +"That's right!" cried Grandma Brown. "And your record ain't so clean, +Young Jeff, that you can afford to start anything!" + +Judith tossed her head. "I don't see why Young Jeff should be allowed to +spoil a perfectly good party." + +"If you can't put him out, Jude, I can!" cried Inez. + +Everybody laughed. Jude seized one of Young Jeff's big hands, Inez the +other. There was an uproarious scuffle which ended in the three, laughing +immoderately, executing a hybrid folk dance to the one-step which Peter +began to play. And Scott danced unmolested during the remainder of the +night. + +Charleton Falkner had drunk a good deal but was as yet little the worse +for it. He and Douglas met at the pail shortly after midnight. Charleton +gave the young man an amused glance. + +"You look sort of bored, Doug! Come outside and talk a little." + +Douglas gave a quick glance around the hall--at Judith, swooping in great +circles with Scott Parsons, at Inez dancing with his father. "All right!" +he said, and followed Charleton out into the moonlight. They perched +on the buck fence and smoked for a time in silence. + +"That's a good horse of Young Jeff's, eh?" said Charleton finally. + +"Not as good as the dapple gray he gave me will be when I get time to +break him," replied Douglas. "I don't know! I'm not as interested in +things as I was." + +"What's the matter?" asked Charleton, sympathetically. + +"I guess Oscar's killing upset me," said Douglas vaguely. + +"I don't suppose you ever heard of Weltschmerz," mused Charleton. "It's a +kind of mental stomach-ache most young fellows get about the time they +begin to fall in love." + +Douglas grunted. + +"Though you were pretty young to run into Oscar that way," Charleton went +on thoughtfully. + +"It isn't that; though I was scared stiff, of course. But it was seeing +Oscar laid in the ground to rot and hearing you and Peter and Dad say +that was all there was to it." + +Charleton nodded. "I know! But you'll reach my state of don't give a +hoop-la, when you're a little older. Wine and women and a good horse. +They help." + +Douglas drew a shuddering breath. "Is that all you've found out? All?" + +"Of course, there's ambition," said Charleton. "I was ambitious, myself, +once. You know my father was a college man and he wanted me to go back +East to school. I almost went." + +"Why didn't you go?" asked Douglas, immensely flattered at the mark of +confidence being shown him. Charleton Falkner was notoriously reticent +about himself. + +"O, it's this easy life of the open! Why should I have gone into politics +as my father wanted me to, when I could be happier with an easy living +right here? And it would all end up there in the cemetery, anyhow. And +what had ambition to offer me in comparison to the sport of running wild +horses on Fire Mesa, or riding herd in the Reserve or hunting deer on +Falkner's Peak. Horses, dogs, guns, women, whiskey, the open country +of the Rockies. Enough for any man." + +"Maybe!" muttered Douglas. + +"What are you going to do now you're through school?" asked Charleton +abruptly. + +"Ride for Dad. He's promised me a herd of my own when I'm twenty-one." + +"Listen!" said Charleton. "How'd you like to do a little business with me +once in a while when John can spare you? You know, cattle, horses and +such!" + +Douglas grinned delightedly. "Do you really mean it? Why, you know, +Charleton, as well as I do, there isn't a young rider in Lost Chief who +wouldn't give anything to go out on trips with you." + +"Fine! I'll be tipping you the wink one of these days. In the meantime, +keep your mouth shut to every one but your father. Come in and we'll have +a drink on the new partnership." + +Douglas had as yet acquired no great taste for such fiery pollutions as +the pail contained. But Charleton now applied himself so strenuously to +the business of getting drunk that shortly he was leaning on the +phonograph and reciting with powerful lungs: + +"'Tis but a tent where takes his one day's rest +A Sultan to the realm of Death addrest; +The Sultan rises and the dark Ferrash +Strikes and prepares it for another Guest." + +No one heeded him particularly. He smiled amiably at Peter, leaned +farther on the machine, and said, "Somebody will have to ease me to my +horse," then he drowsed forward over the phonograph. Douglas and Peter, +laughing, eased him to his horse, and Charleton, his arms around +Democrat's neck, jogged slowly off on the home trail. + +June dawn was peering over the Indian Range when the party broke up. +Scott disappeared with Judith. When John discovered this, he bolted after +the two. + +"You'd better go see that nothing happens, Doug," said Mary Spencer. +"John's drunk too much." + +"I'm going home," declared Douglas. "I got some pride, and Judith's +treated me like a dog to-night. She's too fond of starting something she +don't know the finish of." + +Mary and he were riding alone in the dawn. "You promised me you'd look +out for her. Don't you care for her any more, Douglas?" + +"Yes, I do!" + +"Have you ever told her so?" + +"She's too young." + +"No, she isn't, Douglas. You remember you told me she knew more than I +do." + +Douglas said nothing; and after a moment, his step-mother said, +hesitatingly, "Doug, I hate to see you dancing so much with Inez." + +"What harm was there in it?" + +"I don't know that I can tell you, Doug. When I was a girl, going to the +log schoolhouse, we girls never thought of touching whiskey. Our mothers +would have killed us if we had." + +"The world do move!" grunted Douglas. + +"I don't believe it's the world. Not from the books I read. I think it's +just Lost Chief. The old folks in my day had real influence in the +valley. There were many like Grandma Brown. But now! Why, your father +will never be the good influence his father was, and I'd never be like +Grandma. I don't know why." + +"You can't even train your own daughter," said Douglas with entire +frankness. + +"Can the other mothers?" asked Mary resentfully. "What can I do when the +other mothers are so easy?" + +"It ain't exactly easy." Douglas spoke thoughtfully. "The Lord knows, all +the kids in Lost Chief work hard enough and get walloped enough." + +Mary sighed deeply. Douglas watched her face, so like Judith's but +bearing tragic lines it would have broken his heart to see around +Judith's young lips. With unwonted gentleness he leaned over to put his +hand on Mary's while he smiled at her half sadly. + +"Poor Mother! We are an ornery lot! But you are as good as gold, and Jude +and I both know it!" + +Quick tears stung Mary's gray eyes. She lifted his hand to her cheek for +a moment, then, as he drew it away, she tried to return his smile. But +nothing more was said until they reached home. + +Just as they entered the living-room, Judith rushed in, + +"I hate Dad! I hate him! Scott and I were jogging home by way of the west +trail as peaceful as anything when Dad has to come along and start a row +going!" + +"Anybody hurt?" asked Douglas, watching Judith as she sat down on the +edge of her bed, big tears on her cheeks. + +"No, but no thanks to Dad! Scott turned round and left because I asked +him to. There's Dad now!" + +John clanked in, but before he could speak Judith rose and shook her +forefinger in his face. + +"Now, Dad," she said steadily, "there's going to be no rowing and no +cursing. I'm sick of it! Right here and now I warn you to stop +interfering with me or I'll leave!" + +John raised his ready fist. + +"None of that!" Doug's voice was quiet. "Finish what you have to say, +Jude." + +John scowled, breathing heavily, his eyes never leaving Judith. + +"I'm sick of it," she repeated. "There must be places in the world where +there's something beside family rows." + +"Are you through?" demanded John. + +"Yes, I am." + +"Then I've got one thing to say. You let Scott Parsons alone." John flung +himself on the bed, and before Mary had taken off his spurred riding +boots he was asleep. + +Douglas went out to the corral where, soon after, Judith appeared with +her milking pail. The tender pink mists rolled slowly away from the +yellow wall of Lost Chief range. Judith, with heavy eyes and burning +cheeks, looked from the mists to Douglas, who leaned on the fence and +watched her. + +"Jude," he said, "you are on the wrong foot. You ought to let whiskey and +Inez Rodman alone." + +"Why don't you let 'em alone?" demanded Judith. + +"It's different with a man!" + +"O, don't give me that old stuff!" cried the girl. "We women do men's +work in this valley. We'll have the men's kind of fun if we want it!" + +"That's not the point," returned Douglas. "Women have to pay a price the +men don't and that's all there is to it." + +"It's not fair! It's not fair! I hate the world! I hate it! Looks like +you'd either got to be like Mother or Inez Rodman." + +"Your mother's all right. Only Dad's broke her just like he broke old +Molly horse." + +"Did I ever say my mother wasn't all right? Only I'll tell you one thing, +Doug Spencer, Inez Rodman's given me more sensible warnings about men +than my mother ever did." + +Douglas wore a worried expression. "Seems like there's something wrong +about that. Mother knows all about those things." He cleared his throat. + +The half angry look on Judith's face gave way to a smile. + +"O Doug! Doug! You old owl! What's the matter with you? After all, it's +good to be alive! I wish I had a horse as good as Buster and I wouldn't +ask for much more in life." + +"I'll give you Buster," said Douglas suddenly. + +Judith's jaw dropped. "Give me Buster!" + +"I mean it." + +"But--but--why, Douglas, what's happened to you?" + +"Judith!" Douglas tossed back his yellow; hair and put a brown hand over +Judith's. "Judith! I love you. Won't you be engaged to me?" + +"Love _me_?" Judith's beautiful gray eyes opened their widest. "Why, it +doesn't seem more than yesterday that you were calling me a pug-nosed +maverick. And besides, I'm only fifteen and you're only seventeen." + +"Is it Scott?" asked Douglas. + +"It isn't anybody! Why, Douglas, you must be crazy!" + +"Do I look crazy?" + +Judith stared deep into Douglas' blue eyes. "No," slowly, "you don't." + +"You can have Buster and Prince too," said Douglas. + +"No, sir, Doug! Why, they're all you've got in the world!" + +"I have that dapple gray Young Jeff gave me after the trial. He's old +enough to break now." + +There were tears in Judith's eyes. "Douglas Spencer, you are a gentleman! +If I do have a horse like Buster, I can be lots more help handling the +cattle." + +"He's yours from this minute," repeated Douglas. "And so am I yours. But +I'm not going to nag you about it. I'm just going to try to look out for +you." + +There was something so sober, so gentle, and so determined about Douglas +that for once in her life Judith was at a loss for a reply. She started +slowly for the cow shed. Then she turned back. + +"But I'm not going to take Prince, Douglas. That's too much!" + +"Well," said Douglas. "Maybe I will keep Prince for a while. It'll be +kind of lonesome." + +"Lonesome!" Judith repeated the phrase as though it struck a familiar +chord. "Life is lonesome, isn't it Doug! Seems as though I never dare to +be myself any more, since Oscar's death. That was the first time I ever +realized how lonely you can be." + +Douglas nodded, his eyes full of an understanding that was pitiful. Youth +should not be allowed to contemplate this sort of loneliness. It is soul +searing. + +"But remember, Judith," he said, "that you've always got me." + +She gave him an enigmatic look and returned to her work. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE HOUSE IN THE YELLOW CANYON + +"Beauty: to see it, to hear it, to feel it: that's all that makes life +worth while." + +--_Inez Rodman_. + + +Douglas was both elated and dejected by his conversation with Judith. He +was elated to feel that at last Judith knew his feeling toward her. He +was dejected because he felt that she had no understanding of the depth +and sincerity of this feeling. And with that marvelously naive egotism of +the male, he gave many hours of heavy thought to Judith's weaknesses and +temptations, none at all to his own. Perhaps more than anything, Judith's +friendship with Inez began to worry him. The more he pondered on it, the +more perturbed he became; and finally, a week or so after the dance, he +resolved to ask Inez to break with Judith. + +The Rodman house was built against the sheer yellow stone facing at the +base of Lost Chief range, known incorrectly as the Yellow Canyon. The +house of half a dozen rooms was the most picturesque cabin in the valley, +for Grandfather Rodman had built the roof with an overhang, giving the +house the hospitable shadows of a little Swiss chalet. There were several +hundred acres belonging to the ranch. Free range had grown small before +Inez' father died and he had gotten his acres well into grass and +alfalfa. But when he and Inez' mother were wiped out by smallpox, leaving +the ranch to Inez, the fields rapidly returned to the wild. Inez, fifteen +at the time of her parents' death, was unwilling to lead the life of a +ranch woman and for ten years the ranch had been going to pieces. + +When Douglas rode up to the outer corral in the dusk of the June evening, +he was struck anew by the disorder of the place. Cattle tramped freely +about the house. An old steer was poking his head in at the kitchen +window. Chickens roosted on a saddle, which was flung in the stable muck. +Tin cans, old wagon wheels, the ruin of a sheep wagon, were heaped in +confusion at one end of the cabin. Three or four dogs barked as Doug rode +up on old Mike. He called Prince in and looked inquiringly at two other +horses tied to the dilapidated corral fence. They were Beauty, his +father's horse, and Yankee, Peter's roan. + +As Doug sat hesitating, John and Peter came out of the kitchen laughing. +They swung, spurs clanking, up to the fence. + +"What the devil are you doing here, Doug?" asked Peter Knight. + +"Hasn't he got a right to call on the Harlot of the Canyon?" demanded +John, with a chuckle. "Hustle up, Peter! The crowd'll be there for the +game before you are." + +"They can't get in till I unlock," replied Peter. "Here, John, take the +key and ride on. I want to talk to Doug." + +John caught the key and trotted off. Sister snarled at Prince, who wagged +his tail apologetically. + +"Sister's a shrew, all right," grinned Douglas. + +"She sure can run coyotes, though," said Peter. + +"She and Grandma Brown run this valley," added Douglas. + +Peter laughed. "I'm strong for the ladies! Did you ever watch the moon +rise, Doug, from the top of the bench back of the cabin there?" + +"No," answered Douglas. + +"Come on up! It's not a long ride. I've been wanting to make you a +proposition for some time." + +Douglas followed the postmaster silently. The horses were panting and +sweating by the time they reached the top, and the rim of the moon was +just peering over the edge of the Indian Range. All the valley lay in +darkness. The two dismounted and threw themselves down on the ledge. +Douglas lighted a cigarette while Peter filled his pipe. + +"What are you planning to do with yourself now you're through school, +Douglas?" + +"Ride for Dad." + +"How'd you like to go East to school?" + +"Nothing doing! I've got more education now than I'll need as a rancher." + +"Well, I guess that's not particularly so," said Peter. "I was +thinking--you know I'm alone in the world--that I might help you out if +you had any leaning toward college or a profession." + +"Ranching is good enough for me, thank you all the same, Peter." + +For some moments Peter did not speak again. Coyotes wailed in the peaks +above them. The moon showed more of its golden face. + +"Does your father ever talk to you about your own mother, Doug?" + +"No; I quit asking him questions years ago. Peter, all I know about my +mother is that her name was Esther, that the smallpox wiped her folks +out, and that they owned the north half of our ranch. There's an old +photograph of her in Dad's bureau drawer. She was awful pretty." + +"She was more than that, Doug! I knew her well. You see, I'm the only man +in the valley that's a stranger, as you might say. I've only lived here +twenty years. So I could appreciate your mother more than the natives. +I came here a roundabout way from Boston. So did your mother's folks, +about forty-five years ago. She looked as Yankee as her blood, thin and +delicate, with a refined face. And all the coarse work women have to +do in Lost Chief didn't coarsen her." + +"How do you mean, coarse work?" asked Doug. + +Dimly in the moonlight he saw the postmaster rub his hand across his +forehead. + +"Why don't you put Buster to hauling and plowing?" asked Peter. + +"Too light and nervous." + +"So was your mother too light and nervous for the kind of ranch work +women have to do here. Women with blood and brains like most of the Lost +Chief women are best used to keep alive the decencies and gentler things +of life. Men lose those things in a cattle country unless the women keep +'em alive. If you keep women too close to the details of handling cattle +and horses, they get rough and coarse too. And I calculate that Lost +Chief and the world needs some decency and delicacy." + +Douglas pondered over this for a long time, his eyes on the glory of the +Indian peaks. Then he said, "You knew my mother well?" + +"Yes. I'd have married her, Doug, if she hadn't already married your +father. She--she was so devilishly overworked and unhappy! But she never +complained. Your father was crazy about her but he treats a woman like he +does a horse. He doesn't know any different." + +"O, don't tell me any more!" said Douglas brokenly. "The poor little +thing! Seems as if I couldn't stand it. Peter, I'm glad she died!" + +The older man was silent for a time, then went on. "Your mother came of +good people. Her grandfather was a friend of Emerson's. Tucked away +somewhere she had some letters the two men exchanged. Your grandfather +dreamed dreams about establishing a new New England out here. Those +letters should have been saved for you." + +The radiant light now swept across Lost Chief creek and to the foot of +the wall, drenching the Rodman ranch in beauty and mystery. Sister +crowded against her master's back and snored. Prince whined dolefully as +he always did at the moon. + +"So taking one thing with another," Peter Knight explained, "I thought I +might see if you had anything in your head except horse wrangling; +whether you're as much your Dad inside as outside." + +"I don't see why ranching isn't a good enough profession for any one!" +protested the boy. + +"In lots of places it is. But it's not in Lost Chief." + +"I don't see why," repeated Douglas. + +"It's awful hard here on the women is one reason. I never heard your +mother swear or use a foul word," said Peter. "I've been on ranches in +other places where the women would have been shocked at the idea. How +about Judith?" + +"You know she only curses like the other women do around here." + +"Do you like it?" asked the postmaster. + +"I never thought anything about it." + +"There you are!" groaned Peter. "If I can only make you see! Doug, a +woman lets down the first bar when she begins to swear and drink. She +begins where Judith is beginning. She's mighty apt to end where Inez is +ending. You just think about ranching in Lost Chief from your mother's +point of view. It's a rough kind of a community, Douglas, compared with +the same class of people in other communities. The talk itself is rough; +how rough you can't appreciate because you've never heard anything else." + +There was another silence. Then Douglas asked heavily: "Peter, what am I +going to do to keep Judith from going to Inez for advice?" + +"Might not be such bad advice! Inez has no illusions about what she's +doing or what she's paying." + +"You don't mean to say Judith ought to go there?" + +"No, I don't! But if a kid like you goes there himself, how can you +preach to Judith? And she only goes there for the dancing and fun." + +"But I'm a man!" + +"I don't care what you are. You can't preach good sermons with a foul +tongue. You ought to have the nerve to look at yourself as you are before +you try to bring up Judith. Lost Chief is still fairly honest. Even your +father calls Inez Rodman by her right title. There's hope in that!" + +"But what shall I do about Judith, Peter?" + +"Might make a man of yourself, Doug!" + +"What's the matter with me?" demanded Doug, indignantly. + +"Douglas, you haven't a clean-cut idea to your name. And a kid of +seventeen as self-satisfied as you are isn't worth baiting a coyote trap +with." + +"There's not a guy in the valley works harder than I do!" + +"Right! Nor uses his brain less!" + +"I suppose you mean I ought to go to college and let Judith go to the +devil." + +"Judith's pretty good stuff, herself," protested Peter. "A half-baked kid +like you can't influence Judith!" + +Douglas started to his feet. "By God, I will! You'll see!" + +"There's only one way. Show yourself fit to influence her. Don't get a +grouch at me, Doug. I've come a long, hard, lonely road. And all because +I thought everybody was wrong but myself. I don't want your mother's son +to make the same mistake, if I can help it." + +"I'm the unhappiest guy in the world!" cried Douglas, passionately. + +He mounted his horse and, followed joyfully by Prince, turned down the +trail. Peter did not stir. For a long time he sat with his arm around +Sister. The moon was high over the valley before he said aloud: + +"O Esther! Esther! The years are long!" Then he too mounted and rode +away. + +As Doug trotted through Rodman's door-yard, Inez crossed toward the +corral. + +"Hello, Doug! Where've you been? What's the matter with Buster?" + +Douglas drew up. "I gave him to Judith." + +"Why, you blank little fool! It must have hurt you deep!" + +"I guess Judith's worth it! Say, Inez, is there anything I can do for you +to get you to keep Judith away from here?" + +"I won't hurt her, Doug." + +"Aw, Inez, what's the use of saying that! Make out you're sore at her." + +"I could, but that won't do so much for her. Judith ought to have +something to look forward to beside breeding calves and wrangling +firewood for some lazy dog of a rancher, before she or any other Lost +Chief girl will think keeping away from here is worth while." + +There was a depth of bitterness in the woman's voice which Douglas felt +rather than understood. He sat in awkward silence. Inez put her hand on +his knee and looked up at him. Her face was tragically beautiful in the +moonlight. + +"Douglas, do you ever stop to think how beautiful Lost Chief country is?" + +"Not often," admitted Doug. + +Inez went on. "Peter Knight's been all over the United States and he says +there's no place passes it in beauty. Sometimes when I see the valley +looking like it does to-night, I cry. Doug, you are more promising than +these other kids. When you ride round on the range try to keep your mind +a little bit off cattle and horses and women and keep it on that line of +the Forest Reserve the way it looks to-night. Or the way this yellow wall +looks in the snow and the sunrise on it. And then, when you get that +habit, tell Judith about it and get her to thinking the same way. Beauty +can't live on rot, Douglas. I know that now. I don't care what Charleton +quotes." + +"Inez," asked Douglas huskily, "why don't you burn that old cabin up?" + +"It's too late," replied Inez shortly; and she turned on her heel and +left him. + +Douglas rode thoughtfully along the home trail. He was angry with Peter +and sorry for Inez, and he missed his mother as he never had missed her +before. He had been only a baby at the time of her death. This was the +first time that he had been told of the type of woman she was though he +had heard much of his mother's father, old Bill Douglas. He went to bed +that night with an entirely new set of thoughts. + +The heaviest ranch work of the year was now at hand. The hay harvest was +begun. From dawn until dusk, Doug and Judith worked in the fields and +tumbled to bed at night as soon as the chores were done. They had many +opportunities during the day for conversations, however, for after the +hay was raked, Douglas and Judith drove one rick team, John and old +Johnny Brown the other. Heavy work it certainly was, but work of what +fragrance, under skies of what an unbelievably deep blue, in air of what +tingling warmth and clearness! What unthinkable distances were glimpsed +from the wild hay patch on the flank of Dead Line Peak! It seemed to +Douglas, lying at length, chin elbow-supported, on the top of the last +load, which Judith had insisted on driving, that he never before had +sensed the beauty of the haying season in Lost Chief Valley. And again +he seemed to see Inez's tragic eyes, which had shed tears over the beauty +of these very hills. He turned the memory of those eyes over in his mind +with a memory of the sardonic twist of Charleton's mouth as he had +uttered his philosophy of life, and suddenly Doug wished that he dared +to talk to his father about these things. He had asked John about the +Emerson letters but John professed never to have heard of them. And +Douglas fell to wondering about his grandfather's dream for Lost Chief. + +They were pulling through the swamp road above the home corral. It was +heavy going and when they reached the shade of a little clump of blue +spruce and aspen, Judith pulled the team up for a short rest. She pushed +her broad straw hat back from her face and half turned to look at +Douglas. + +"Have you seen that new litter of pups of Sister's?" she asked Douglas. + +He shook his head and Judith went on. "Peter says I can have the pick of +the lot, but there's only one I'd look at. He's the image of Sister. I'm +going to train him so's I can take him out to run wild horses with me +when he grows up." + +"Wild horses! The last time it was bronco busting you were going into. +What's it all about, anyhow, Jude?" + +"You don't suppose I'm going to spend my life in Lost Chief, do you?" +demanded Judith. + +Douglas swept the landscape with a lazy glance. "I don't see how you +could beat it." + +"O, for looks and stunts, yes!" Judith's voice was impatient. "But it's +no place for a woman! I'm going to earn enough money to take me out where +I can go on with my education and amount to something." + +"I guess Peter's been talking to you," said Douglas. + +Judith nodded. "Yes, and he offered to loan me the money for college. But +I won't be beholden to a man outside the family. I'll earn it myself." + +"What'll you do with a college education after you get it?" Doug's glance +was not lazy now, as it rested on the young girl's eager face. + +"I'll do something beside cooking and horse wrangling for some old Lost +Chief rancher, I can tell you that!" cried Judith. "I'm going to get out +and see the world and know life!" + +"And give up your horses and dogs and the big old mountains? Jude, you'll +never do it. I'd like to get out myself sometimes, but I know I'll never +be happy anywhere else." + +"I don't expect to be happy, but I've got to know things." + +"What things, Judith?" + +The girl turned from Douglas to gaze at the far light on Fire Mesa. + +"The truth about things," she said at last. "Inez says there's just one +big fact at the bottom of everything and that is sex, and that there's +only one thing worth living for, to make sex beautiful." + +"She's a liar!" exclaimed Douglas indignantly, as if Inez had said +something shameful. "Where does she get that rotten stuff?" + +"From Charleton and poetry, I guess. How do you know she's wrong, Doug?" + +Douglas sat up, his clear eyes blazing like blue stars out of his +sunburned face. "Because I know! I want to have the biggest, finest ranch +in the Rockies. Is that sex? You want a good education. Is that sex? +Peter wants me to carry on some dreams my mother and grandfather had. Is +that sex? What does that woman think the world was made for, I'd like to +know?" + +"That's just it," Judith sighed with all the sadness of sixteen, "what is +it made for?" + +There was silence for a moment on the hay rick while the two young +questioners gazed at the incomparable grandeur about them. And as he +gazed there returned to Douglas the sense of panic that had harassed him +after Oscar's death. What did it all mean? Whither was he directed and by +what? How long before he too would be swept into the awful void beyond +the grave? + +"That's what religion did for folks all these years," he said suddenly. +"They never asked these questions, I'll bet. I wish I had it." + +"I don't want to believe fairy tales just because I'm scared!" Judith +tossed her head stoutly. + +"I don't either," agreed Douglas dejectedly. + +"I'm going to drive on home and get something to eat," said Judith, +lifting the reins. "Food's the only thing that'll rid me of the dumb +horrors." + +Douglas settled back against the hay, and the rest of the ride was +continued in silence. + +Old Johnny Brown stayed on for a day or so to clean up odd jobs neglected +during the haying season. He was a gentle, timid little chap, the butt of +the entire valley, of course, and particularly of John Spencer. Douglas +often wondered why old Johnny consented to work each year at this season +for his father. This wonderment was solved the day after Doug's and +Jude's conversation on the load of hay and in a manner destined in a +small way to have its influence on Douglas' affairs in the years to come. + +Just before supper Judith returned from the post-office and rushed into +the kitchen with a huge, long-legged, ugly puppy in her arms. She set him +on the floor where his four knotty legs pointed in four different +directions and where his long back sagged like the letter U. He was +covered with rough gray hair and his eyes were huge and brown. + +"Isn't he a perfect lamb? He's mine!" cried Judith, squatting beside him. + +"Oh! A lamb!" grunted John, who was combing his hair at the wash-basin in +the corner. "I thought it was a buffalo calf." + +"Don't be stupid!" cried Judith. "Of course, you're no judge of dogs, but +Peter says he's just like Sister was at two months, only bigger." + +Mary Spencer looked him over critically, coffee-pot in hand. "Isn't he +awful homely, even for a mongrel, Judith?" she asked. + +"Mongrel! What is the matter with all you folks?" exclaimed Judith. "He's +no more mongrel than anybody else! Come here to your missis, you +precious!" and she gathered the great pup into her lap, where he sat +complacently, his legs in a hopeless tangle. + +"What's his name?" asked old Johnny, mildly. + +"Wolf Cub. And you wait till I'm through with him! You'll see the best +trained dog in the valley, like Sioux will be the best trained bull and +Buster the best trained horse. O, look, Doug!" as Douglas came in. "See +what I've got!" + +"I dare you to name its pedigree, Doug!" chuckled John. + +Douglas lifted the pup to the floor and ran his hands over its skull, +along its back, and down its erratic legs. "Some dog, Judith! You'll have +to muzzle him by the time he's six months old." + +Judith smiled triumphantly. "No, I won't! Wait till you see how I train +him." + +"You get that from your mother, Judith. She was always gregus smart with +critters," said old Johnny. + +Judith laughed skeptically. "She was!" The little old man nodded his +head. "I remember. I deponed that same thing to Peter the other day. How +Mary could break anything when she was a girl, like you." + +"Well, but Mother won't touch anything that isn't broke now!" exclaimed +Judith. + +"Just what I deponed," nodded Johnny. "John broke her just like he broke +old Molly horse, so she lost her nerve. I deponed just that. An awful +rough breaker. I deponed just that." + +"O dry up, Johnny!" grunted John, drawing his chair up to the table. +"I've put up with an awful lot of drool from you, and I'm getting sick of +it." + +Old Johnny was always most explanatory when he was most frightened. "I +wasn't drooling, John. I was just deponing. Any one can do that, can't +they? And Mary did used to be like Judith." + +"Will you shut up!" shouted John. + +The puppy, startled, gave a sudden loud howl. + +"Put that thing out and come to supper, Jude! If he howls to-night, I'll +shoot him." Judith left the house indignantly. + +"No, you won't, Dad," said Douglas quietly, as he buttered a biscuit. + +"If you're going to give me back talk, young fellow, you leave the table +now, before I lose my temper." + +"I'm not giving you any more back talk than you deserve," replied +Douglas. "Any man that would threaten to shoot a pup because it howls +deserves something more than back talk. Let's forget it. Johnny, how +about this stunt of Mother's breaking horses?" + +Old Johnny gave John a timid glance. "I don't remember," he muttered. + +Mary laughed. "What's the use of a woman breaking horses when she's got a +man to do it for her?" + +"Did you ever see her break a horse, Johnny?" insisted Doug. + +"Once," said the old man, "a lot of the boys tied me on a mule and the +mule ran away. It wasn't broke, that mule. Seem like it had run a gregus +long way when Mary come along. She was just a walking and she reached up +and grabbed the mule and she rode him back with me. And she made them +untie me. And I loved her ever since. I came up here every year to see +how John is treating her. I depone--" + +John rose and, striding around the table, he seized the old man by the +collar. Douglas put his hand on his father's arm. + +"Drop it, Dad, or I swear I'll think old Johnny is a better man than you. +I asked him to tell. Throw me out if you want to. Keep your hands off +this little chap. One thing is sure. He appreciates Mother more than any +of the rest of us have." + +"Get the half-wit out of my sight, then," growled John, returning to his +seat. + +"I wish a lot of folks with whole wits knew how to be as good a friend as +Johnny," said Douglas stoutly. + +"So do I!" Mary's voice trembled, but her glance at the little old man +was very lovely. + +The rest of the meal was finished in silence, Douglas turning over in +his mind this strange new picture of Judith's mother. Could anything, +he wondered, change Judith so? A curious anger against his father's +stupidity was at that moment born in Douglas' heart, an anger that never +was wholly to leave him. + +That evening, as Douglas sat in his favorite place beside the alfalfa +stack, old Johnny led up his little gray mare. + +"I'll be cowling myself along home now, Doug," he said. "John is awful +insidious to me. I just want to say, Doug, that you're the first man in +this valley ever stuck up for me and some day I depone I'll get even +with you." + +"Good for you, Johnny!" nodded Douglas. "When I get my old ranch going, +you come up and work for me." + +"I will so do," replied the old man solemnly, and he rode away in the +moonlight. + +And Douglas returned to the new theme old Johnny had given him. Of +what were women made that they could be over-broken as his father had +over-broken Mary? And why should Lost Chief, so small that control was +simple, permit such a thing to be? + + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE HUNT ON LOST CHIEF + +"A guy that don't rustle cattle when the rustling is good, is a fool." + +--_Scott Parsons_. + + +One hot afternoon in August Douglas had just unhitched the panting team +from the plow in the new oat field when Charleton Falkner trotted up on +Democrat. + +"How's the fall plowing, Doug?" + +"Just out of the woods, Charleton." + +"Your father says he can spare you for a day or two. I wish you'd come +down to my place to-night. I'm planning a trip. I don't suppose John +would loan you Beauty for a couple of days?" + +Douglas shook his head. + +"Well," Charleton went on, "I guess Buster can stand up under the work." + +"Buster belongs to Judith now. I've been trying to get time to break that +dapple gray Young Jeff gave me, after the trial. He's a good horse. +Darned if I don't think I can ride him now!" + +"I know that horse and he is a good one," agreed Charleton. "Ride the +young moose if you can stick on him. You'll need all his wind and limb on +this trip!" and Charleton trotted away. + +It was full starlight that night when Douglas freed his feet from the +stirrups before Charleton's door and jumped like lightning from the +saddle. His horse jumped with him, landing in the kitchen as Douglas +brought up against the door-jamb. There was a roar of laughter from +within, and as the horse lunged backward out of the door, Charleton +appeared. + +"So you and the moose are here! Better hobble him, Doug!" + +Douglas laughed and tied the rearing horse to a hayrack. Then he followed +Charleton into the kitchen. Scott Parsons was sitting by the table, hat +on the back of his head, spurred boots on the cold stove hearth. Mrs. +Falkner was just finishing the supper dishes. She greeted Douglas with +a tired smile. + +Douglas, with a resentful glance at Scott, shifted his gun belt, shoved +his own hat to the back of his head, and sat down. Mrs. Falkner pitched +the dish water out the back door and went into the next room. + +"Well, fellows," said Charleton cheerfully, as he tipped back his chair +and established his spurs beside Scott's, "there's a neat little job on +the horizon. You both know the big canyon beyond Lost Chief Peak, that +has the little creek that disappears under the range?" + +The young men nodded, and Charleton continued. + +"A Mormon named Elijah Nelson has settled there. I'm not certain of all +he intends to do but I know this much: He's to homestead that canyon up +there and hog the water rights on the creek. He's to be followed by nine +other Mormon families. Some of 'em are going to raise cattle in the +canyon. Some of 'em are going into the sheep business in the plains +country beyond the canyon, where we Lost Creek folks have been in the +habit of wintering our herd when the snow's too deep here. Some of us +older Lost Chief men realize that these folks are the beginning of a +march of Mormons up from Utah to run us Lost Chief folks out. And we're +going to harry them till they are sick of living. Mormons and sheep must +keep out of this country." + +Douglas' eyes burned and his breath came quickly. Scott's hard young eyes +did not flicker. + +"We're going to ride over the range to-morrow night and the next morning +gather up what we can of Nelson's herd that's grazing on Lost Chief. +We'll bring 'em to a certain place I know of. I'll divide half to me, +the other half to you two. Are you game?" + +"I sure am," said Scott. "How many do you think we can gather in?" + +"Not so many on one trip. Perhaps fifteen if we have good luck. A big +herd leaves a big trail." + +"There's an old corral up near the Government elevation monument," said +Douglas. "It's all overgrown with bushes and young aspens so's I don't +think one person out of twenty, knows it's there. Maybe we could corral +'em there?" + +Charleton gave Douglas a quick glance. "How'd you come to know about it?" + +"I happened on it last summer tracking a bear." + +"That's what I planned to use," nodded Charleton. "We'll make a real +cowman out of you yet. So you're ready to go, Doug?" + +Douglas' eyes were blazing. "Go! You couldn't pay me enough to keep me +away! Nothing ever happens in this old valley." + +"All right! Be here by nine o'clock to-morrow night, wearing chaps. It'll +be rough riding and that Moose of yours will be quite considerably broke +by the time we get back, Doug. I'll supply the grub." + +"Fine!" said Scott, rising. "If that's all, I'll be running along. Stage +was late to-night and the crowd'll be there getting mail. I'll be with +you on time, Charleton." + +"Me too!" exclaimed Douglas, following Scott. + +Weary as he was, Douglas was long in getting to sleep that night. +Charleton Falkner was deeply admired by all the young men of Lost +Chief. Not only was he of the ultra-sophisticated type, dear to +adolescence, not only was he by far the cleverest hunter in the valley, +but, most important of all, his name was whispered in connection with +horse and cattle deals, never called questionable by Lost Chief but +always mentioned with a wink and a chuckle for their adroitness. To have +been asked by Charleton to go as a partner on one of his mysterious trips +was intoxicating enough to take the sting out of the fact that Scott met +Judith that evening at the post-office and rode home with her. + +The next day Judith several times tried to discover where Doug was going +and with whom. + +"Don't you try tagging me again, like you did on the trip to the half-way +house," he said with a warning grin, when they were finishing the evening +chores together. + +"No danger! I got a date of my own!" This with a toss of her curly head. + +"Who with?" + +"Don't you wish you knew! Other folks beside you can have interesting +deals, Mr. Douglas Spencer!" + +"Huh! Some little stunt with Maud, I suppose." + +"No, it isn't either. Say, Doug, did you know Maud is going up to +Mountain City to stay with her aunt and go to school there?" + +"I suppose that's what you'd like to do?" Doug watched the eager face +closely. + +"Well, not just now," replied Judith with a little grin. "I want to keep +my date, first." + +"Well, don't get into mischief, daughter; that's all I have to say about +your mysterious deal," said Douglas paternally. + +Judith laughed and carried her pail of milk into the kitchen. + +It was after ten o'clock that night when Charleton led his two young +henchman along the west trail, past Rodman's and up the canyon toward +the first shoulder of Lost Chief Peak. The Moose did not approve of +the trip. He showed his disapproval by plunging and side jumping with +nerve-racking persistency. Ginger and Democrat gave him ample turning +room, biting or kicking him if he drew too near them. Midway in the +canyon Charleton left the trail and turned abruptly to the left, up +the sheer shoulder of the mountain. + +"Need a hazer, Doug?" he called. + +"Where are you going to camp, Charleton?" laughed Douglas, as the Moose +refused the trail. + +"On the west shoulder of the peak, just under the elevation monument." + +"I'll find you there. I may be delayed for a while!" + +Charleton laughed too. "Just so you get there by dawn!" he called; and +Douglas saw the two figures, dim in the starlight, move upward on the +barren shoulder of the mountain. He allowed the Moose to circle for a +moment, then he drove the rowells deep. The snorting horse leaped up the +steep incline, at a pace that shortly left him groaning for breath. But +Douglas spurred him relentlessly to the far tree line. Here he permitted +him to breathe while he listened to the receding thud of hoofs above. + +When his horse had ceased to groan, Douglas turned him toward the dark +shadow of the forest. The Moose reared and turned, falling heavily. Doug +was out of the saddle when it cracked against the gravel and in it when +the trembling horse rolled to his feet. Doug brought the knotted reins +smartly across the animal's reeking flanks. + +The Moose bolted. Doug laughed and swore and for a time made no effort +to guide his mount. The Moose leaped fallen trunks and low bushes. He +jumped black abysses. He thrashed into trees and rocks. But he could not +dislodge the figure that clung to his back with knee and spur. Douglas +did not know how long this mad fight lasted, but he was beginning to be +exhausted, himself, when the Moose stopped on the edge of a black drop. +The horse was shaking and groaning. + +"Now listen here, you Moose," said Douglas. "If you expect to be friends +with me, you've got to begin to show some interest in me. I sure do +admire your speed and your nerve. You're a better horse than Buster, +and I don't want to break you more than I have to. But how about showing +interest in me? I'm here to stay, you know, so you might as well begin to +put me in your calculations. Now, just to show you're a changed horse, +suppose you push up here to the right. I think there's a clear space +there where I can see the stars and locate ourselves." + +The Moose turned slowly under the rein, and carried Doug cleverly into an +open park. Here Doug studied the brilliant heavens. + +"We'll just move south, old Moose," he announced, "climbing uphill all +the time, till we run into something." + +The Moose worked steadily enough now, but it seemed a long time to +Douglas before he saw the faint glare of a fire through the trees. +Charleton and Scott looked up grinning as he rode into the circle of +light. Wide bare patches showed on Doug's chaps. One sleeve of his +flannel shirt was hanging by a thread. His face was bleeding from many +scratches, but he grinned amicably as he slid wearily from the saddle. + +"Hello, Doug! Is your horse broke yet?" asked Charleton. + +"Some," replied Douglas. + +"We thought we heard you a while back!" said Scott. "Sounded as if a +grizzly had been bitten by a hydrophobia skunk." + +"He ain't as nervous as he was," grinned Douglas. "Anything to drink?" + +Charleton indicated the coffee-pot and said, "It's only a short time to +dawn. Better get what sleep you can!" + +Douglas nodded, drank a tin cup of coffee, and then unsaddled the Moose. +Scott, rolled in his blanket, watched him with a twisted grin. + +"Some horse to take on a trip like this," he said. "A half-broke mule +couldn't be worse. Funny if Doug don't gum the whole game for us, +Charleton." + +"You go to hell, Scott!" grunted Douglas. + +Scott sat up with a jerk. Charleton spoke sharply. "No scrapping! You two +get to sleep!" + +Scott lay down reluctantly. Doug shrugged his broad shoulders, and +shortly, head in his saddle, feet to the fire, he was fast asleep. + +The trees were black against gray light when Charleton called the two +young riders. + +"Let's eat and be off," he said briefly. + +Breakfast was a short affair of bread, bacon and coffee. While they were +bolting it, Charleton outlined the campaign. + +"You'll see Nelson's cattle have been all through here. No one else +grazes hereabouts. Don't rope any cows with calves following 'em. They +make too much bellowing. Get what steers you can by mid-morning into the +old corral. There isn't one chance in a thousand we'll meet any one. +Nelson's making hay five miles below here. But if any one should come +along when you've roped a steer, get him to examine the brand for you, +and of course if the brand isn't yours, let the critter go." + +"Where is the old corral from here?" asked Scott. + +"Show him, Doug," ordered Charleton. + +The camp had been made just within the tree line below the peak. Above, +against the glowing pink of the heavens, was etched the suave line of the +peak and topping this a heap of rocks, surmounted by a staff. West of the +staff and below it projected the top of a dead spruce on which sat an +eagle. To this Douglas pointed. + +"Down the mountain on a line with the staff and the dead spruce in a +thick clump of young aspen, about an acre of it. The old corral is +there." + +Scott nodded. They broke camp at once and trotted off, each one for +himself. The Moose was not yet a cow-pony, but, from Doug's viewpoint at +least, he was now quite manageable. Any one in Lost Chief could rope a +steer from a well-trained horse. Douglas proposed to repay Scott's sneer +by bringing in on his half-broken mount as many animals as either of his +companions on their seasoned cow-ponies. And although Doug risked his +life a hundred times, four of the dozen fat steers that were milling +about in the old corral by nine o'clock had been dragged in by the +snorting, trembling Moose. + +When Doug closed the bars on his fourth steer, he waited for a short time +for Charleton and Scott, but as neither appeared, he set off after +another brute. He had ridden a good mile from the corral when he heard +the bellow of a bull and a shout from Charleton. He spurred the Moose in +the direction of the cry. Democrat was standing with the reins over his +head. Under a giant pine close by, Charleton was clinging desperately +to the horns of a red bull. Blood was running over the back of his gray +shirt. The bull was stamping in a circle in the vain attempt to trample +his victim. + +"Don't shoot!" gasped Charleton. "Rope his hind legs and throw him! By +God, I'll keep him now!" + +Twice Doug's lariat darted through the air before the loop caught. But +the third attempt was successful and he raced the half-maddened Moose +away and jerked the bull off his feet. Charleton rolled to his own lariat +lying on the ground near Democrat. He grasped the rope, rose to his knees +and twirled it. It twisted about the bull's mighty neck. Charleton sank +back to a sitting position and pulled the rope taut. + +"Dismount and come up on him, Doug, and hog tie him," he panted. + +Douglas obeyed, and shortly the bull was helpless although he continued +to bellow threateningly. + +"He'll have Nelson up here even if he is five miles off," said Douglas +anxiously. "Better let him go." + +"Take a look at my ankle, Doug," ordered Charleton. "If it's nothing +worse than a sprain, I'm in luck." + +With many oaths on the part of Charleton, the high riding-boot was worked +off, disclosing an ankle already puffed and discolored. + +"A sprain! Well, I can sit Democrat with that. Now take a look at my +shoulder." + +Doug turned back the bloody shirt. The bull's horn had grazed the +shoulder but not deeply. Doug tied the wound up with Charleton's +neckerchief. He had just finished and was beginning with his own scarf on +the ankle when Scott galloped up. + +"Say, you can hear that bull for a thousand miles! What the devil are you +up to? I want you both to come and help me get three I've roped down the +draw a couple of miles below here." + +Douglas explained the accident. + +"My gawd, Charleton, don't you know enough not to tackle a bull on foot?" + +"How'd I know there was a bull around?" retorted the wounded man. "I +dropped my rope and when I dismounted to pick it up, he came after me +like a Kansas cyclone." + +"Well, I'll take the bull to the corral and come back here for grub if +Douglas will fix it up. We will put plenty of whiskey and hot coffee in +you, Charleton. Do you think you can get home, while Doug and I ride +herd?" + +"I sure can! Go ahead, Scott. You'd better blind the bull." + +Scott nodded, and picking up several handsful of dry dirt, he threw them +into the bull's wide, bloodshot eyes. The animal snorted and tossed his +head. Scott continued with handful after handful until the bull's eyes +were only muddy blanks under his tossing forehead. His bellowing ceased. +Then Scott removed the ropes from his hind legs and, mounting, led him +away. The bull was silent and entirely occupied in attempting to rub the +dirt out of his streaming eyes. + +"Make it as quick as you can, Scott," called Charleton. Then to Douglas, +"Get busy with the whiskey and coffee, Doug. He ought to be back by the +time you've fixed up a snack." + +But Scott was long in returning. + +"Oughtn't he to be back?" asked Doug, when the bacon was ready. + +Charleton looked at his watch. "He's been gone over an hour. After you +eat, you go see what kind of trouble he's in, Doug." + +Douglas devoured the bacon and bread, then mounted and rode slowly +through the silent, scented forest. His blue eyes danced with excitement, +his tanned cheeks burned as he guided the Moose through the quivering +aspens to the corral. Here he pulled up with a sudden oath. The corral +was empty, the fence torn open in half a dozen places. + +"That blankety-blank old bull must have started a stampede!" gasped +Douglas. "I wouldn't have thought Scott would have left him free in +here!" + +He rode through and around the corral. Cattle tracks led in every +direction. He trotted in widening circles. Perhaps a mile north of the +corral, he pulled up and looked closely at the ground. Single cattle +tracks here converged and a herd track led on northward. As he stared +at it, the bull came thundering down the trail. Doug put the Moose after +him but had not followed him for five minutes when Scott broke into the +chase from the right. + +"What do you think you've done, blank you?" he shouted. "What have you +done with the rest of the herd?" + +"Done with the herd?" roared Douglas. "What are you talking about?" + +"I know you, you dogy rider, you! I told you that wild horse of yours +would gum the game. There ain't a steer left! What do you mean by riding +him into the corral?" + +"You're drunk!" retorted Douglas. "You'd better ride after that bull or +Charleton will pull a gun on you." + +"Ride after nothing! Chase him yourself!" + +"On second thoughts, I think I will. It's your turn to play nurse. Go on +back and tell Charleton what's happened." + +"Don't get fresh, young fellow!" snarled Scott. + +Douglas pushed back his hat and the noon sun glimmered through the pines +on his yellow hair. His clear blue eyes studied Scott appraisingly. +Finally, he said, "I guess, on third thoughts, I'll take you back to +Charleton." + +Scott laughed. "Now you're drunk!" + +Douglas' six-shooter appeared casually between the Moose's twitching +ears. "Hold up your little brown hands, Scott, till I reach me your gun. +Fine! Now ride ahead of me till we reach Charleton. Some boy I am on the +draw, eh, old-timer?" + +Scott swore, but rode ahead at a steady trot until they reached the +noonday camp. Charleton looked at them in astonishment. + +"Call this damn fool off my back, will you, Charleton?" drawled Scott. +"He's mad because I called him for letting that wild cayuse of his +stampede the herd." + +"He's a liar! This is as good a cow-pony as he ever rode and better. +Ain't a better horse in Lost Chief than this same Moose. He was after the +bull like a hound after a coyote when Scott broke in on us, the dirty--" + +"Hold on," interrupted Charleton, "What's your story, Scott?" + +"The corral is broke in forty places and all the stock gone. I suppose +this fool rode his wild horse into the herd and stampeded it. I found him +running the bull like he and his horse was both loco." + +Douglas uttered an oath. "Nothing of the kind! When I got there, the herd +was gone and I'd just picked up the trail when the bull came along." + +Charleton looked from one young man to the other. Doug with his long face +entirely expressionless, sitting easily sidewise in his saddle; Scott, +face flushed, eyes angry, standing tense in the stirrups. There came an +ugly twist to Charleton's lips, but after a moment he spoke coolly. + +"You fellows help me up on Democrat and we'll beat it for home." + +"But you don't believe the Moose--" began Doug. But Charleton +interrupted. + +"If I wasn't crippled I'd mighty soon show you fellows what I believed. +As it is, I'm going home. But if I find either of you has double-crossed +me, I'll square accounts." + +There was that in Charleton's eyes which caused the two riders to +dismount without a word. They heaved him into his saddle and, with his +lariat, arranged a sling for his injured ankle. When they had made him as +comfortable and secure as possible, Scott said politely: + +"You don't need two of us, Charleton. I think I'll go after a bear I saw +in the raspberry patch beyond the corral." + +"Nothing doing, Scott!" grunted Charleton. + +"You've fallen down on the job, Charleton," Scott laughed, "so you've +lost your right to boss." + +"No, he hasn't," said Douglas. "You come along!" + +But this time Doug's six-shooter flashed no more quickly than Scott's. +Charleton, his face twisted with pain, waited for a thoughtful minute +before he said: + +"Put up your guns, boys. Let him go, Doug," and he turned his horse +eastward. + +Douglas reluctantly returned his gun to his hip and Scott disappeared at +a canter. The Moose followed after Democrat. + +"What did you do that for, Charleton?" demanded Douglas, resentfully. +"That's just giving him the herd." + +"If he has double-crossed me," returned the older man, "I'm in no shape +to handle him just now. He never came back to meet you till he'd turned +the herd over to an accomplice. In any case, I lose on this trick." + +"But he didn't know you were going to meet up with a bull!" + +"No, but he was going to keep us away from the corral, somehow. You +remember he said he'd come back to get us to help him bring in some +steers. Of course, you and he might be in cahoots on this, but Scott's +tricky so I'm giving you some of the benefits of the doubt." Charleton +turned in his saddle to favor Douglas with a suspicious stare. + +"I didn't double-cross you, Charleton," said Douglas, not without a +simple dignity that may or may not have impressed his mentor. At any +rate, Charleton made no reply. + +Douglas was entirely deflated. He drooped dejectedly in the saddle, +guiding the stiff and weary Moose without interest. His wonderful +expedition by which he was to establish his standing as a man with his +father and Judith had ended in ignominy. He watched Charleton's painfully +rigid back but he did not dare to speak to him until they were nearly +home. As they neared the edge of the first line, the ground became +tapestried with lilies, yellow, white and crimson. Tree-trunks turned +blue against the blue skies that belled over the valley. As they +descended, the Forest Reserve lifted gradually, a black green sea beyond +the burning brown level of the ranches. But Douglas was in no frame of +mind either to seek or to see beauty. He had a guilty sense that +Charleton believed that he had failed him, and finally he summoned +courage to call, "Doggone it, Charleton! I wanted to put it over, don't +you suppose?" + +Charleton did not answer, and when they crossed the canyon back of +Rodman's, Douglas, hurt and resentful, turned the Moose onto the home +trail. He had gone almost beyond hailing distance before Charleton +called, "Come down and see me soon, old cattle rustler!" + +Instantly Doug's spirits soared. He waved his hand with a grin and put +the Moose to a trot. + +It was supper time when he clanked into the kitchen. His father and +mother were at the table. + +"You're early, Doug!" exclaimed John. + +Doug nodded. "Where's Judith?" + +"Keeping that mysterious date of hers. Maud, of course! She won't be home +till late. I hope it's not with Inez. You look tired, Doug." + +"I am. Jude makes me sick. She's harder to watch than a boy!" + +John laughed enigmatically and went out to finish his chores. Shortly, +Douglas followed him and told the story of the miscarried adventure. + +"I told Charleton not to let Scott in on it," exclaimed John. "Serves him +right. I sure got the laugh on Charleton this time." + +"He's awful sore! Acts kind of suspicious of me," said Douglas ruefully. + +"A guy like Charleton don't even trust himself." John pitched down a +forkful of hay. "Have you any idea what Maud and Jude are up to?" + +"No, sir. Are you worried about her?" + +John laughed. "As long as Scott Parsons was with you, why worry? We'd +ought to let Young Jeff run that crook out of the valley." + +"I'll do it myself, some day." Douglas squared his big shoulders as he +spoke. He was still very thin and his clothes hung loose on him. But his +father, looking him over, did not smile. + +"Go to it, boy," he said. + +Douglas had planned to lie awake until Judith returned. But the minute he +touched his pillow he dropped into dreamless slumber from which he did +not waken until breakfast time. John was scolding Judith when Doug +reached the table. + +"That's all right, to be so highty-tighty. You can get away with that +with your mother but not with me. It was nearly three o'clock this +morning when you came in." + +"O, no, John! It wasn't that late," protested Mary anxiously. + +"Now, Mary, don't put up one of your fool lies for the little devil. +I know what time it was. What excuse have you, miss?" + +Judith, who was looking tired, but singularly self-satisfied, answered +demurely, "I was out on business, Dad. And I'm going to get pay for it, +too. A horse that will really buck." + +John's face was flushing when Douglas spoke. "Aw, let her keep her +secret, Dad! I don't think she's done a thing but rope a stray pony." + +Judith protested quickly. "Nothing of the kind! If you three just knew +what I have done, you'd respect me. Anyway, Doug, I know where you were. +Over on Fire Mesa with Charleton Falkner." + +"Who told you that?" grinned Douglas. + +"Somebody that knew. Dad, why don't you get after Doug like you do after +me? What was he doing over on Fire Mesa, all night?" + +"That's right, Doug! What were you doing on Fire Mesa?" asked John, all a +broad smile now that infuriated Judith. + +She jumped up from the table, took down her milking pail and went out. +Nor did she give Douglas opportunity to talk to her during the rest of +the day. Not until twilight had settled in the valley did Douglas find +her alone. Then, searching for her, he discovered her behind the corral, +curled up against the new alfalfa stack, her eyes on the sunset glow +above Lost Chief Peak. + +Douglas sat down beside her. "I didn't mean to tease you, this morning, +Jude. I was just trying to steer Dad off." + +"But you always do think my stunts never amount to anything, Doug!" + +"Have I said a word like that, lately? I can't help being anxious, can I, +when a girl like you stays out until three in the morning?" + +"Yes, you were so anxious your snores shook the house!" returned Judith. +"Now admit, Doug, that you really think it was nothing worth worrying +about." + +"Well, I don't see how it could be anything so very important." + +"There, I knew it! Doug, I'm so proud of myself that if I don't tell some +one, I'll burst. Give me your word of honor you'll never give it away and +I'll tell you." + +"I swear I'll die before I'll peep!" + +"Still think it's funny, don't you! All right, mister, prepare to faint! +I was out helping Scott Parsons run cattle." + +Douglas gasped. + +"There, Doug Spencer! You're such a wonder! Of course," honestly, "I +didn't do the hardest part. Scott had got 'em all together in a corral +before I got there. But I held the herd in a little canyon for a couple +of hours while he got old Nelson off the scent. Then we drove 'em across +the ridge, down into the desert country west of Mesa Pass. He's going to +sell 'em in Mountain City and my share is a good bucking horse, like I +told you." + +Douglas sat perfectly still, so torn by conflicting emotions that for a +time he was speechless. Finally, from the chaos of his mind rose an +overwhelming anger. + +"Do you think that's a decent thing to do? A girl, running cattle and +with a confessed murderer at that? I sure am ashamed of you, Jude!" + +"Can you beat a man!" cried Judith to the flaming heavens. "He won't even +give me credit for being a cattle wrangler! And he says he loves me!" + +Doug's voice was furious. "You ought to be ashamed of yourself, stealing +cattle and running round with that Inez Rodman!" + +"You just be careful of what you say, Doug Spencer!" "Careful! Why should +I be careful. You aren't careful!" + +"I'm a whole lot better than you, at that! If it's so smart for you to do +all these things, why isn't it for me?" + +"A woman has to be good. It's her job to be good. If she isn't good in a +cattle country like this, everything goes to pieces." + +"It's a wonder you men don't set us women an example," said Judith +coolly. + +"Don't I try to keep you straight?" + +"Yeh! A wonderful example you set me!" + +Douglas' voice broke with anger. "Don't talk like a fool! The world isn't +like that! The women have to be good. The men want 'em to be, no matter +how hard they try to make the women bad. And the more you care for a +girl, the more you want her to be perfect." + +"The world is plumb loco and you with it!" + +"You're as cold as a dead rabbit!" exclaimed Doug, + +Judith laughed mirthlessly. "Yes, I'm cold! I'm as cold as fire!" And +suddenly she put her head down on her knees and burst into tears. + +Instantly Douglas melted. He put his arms about. Judith and drew her head +to his shoulder. "O Jude! Don't! If I could only make you see it's my +love for you makes me so mad!" + +"You,--you don't want me to have any fun!" sobbed Judith. "How'd you like +to be asked to give up everything yourself and stay home like a woman?" + +"I wouldn't like it. But a regular girl oughtn't to want to do such +things." + +"Why not? I like horses and dogs and the wind on Fire Mesa just as much +as you do. And dancing and hunting by moonlight and getting away with +somebody else's cattle and all of it. I love it! And you ask me to give +it up because you want me to be good. What do you call good, anyhow?" + +Douglas did not answer at once. In the first place, Judith's flushed +cheek in his neck upset his equilibrium, and in the second place he was +overwhelmed with a sudden consciousness of the truth of Peter's +statement, that he had not a clean-cut idea to his name. + +But finally he stammered, "Well, I call being good not drinking or +stealing or being loose with men or any of those things--for a girl." + +"And for a man?" asked Judith, sitting erect. + +"Aw, who wants a man to be good?" laughed Douglas. + +"I do," replied Judith, with a sudden thrilling intensity in her young +voice. "I want his strength to be as the strength of ten, because his +heart is pure," + +"Judith, you really do?" + +"Yes, I really do." + +Douglas drew a long breath. "Judith, would you want me to be that way?" + +"I sure would." + +"Well, then, Judith, so help me God, I will be!" + +Judith put her slender, muscular hand on Doug's, swallowed hard once or +twice, but said nothing. Then the tense moment past, she asked, "Honest, +Doug, don't you think that was kind of a smart stunt of mine?" + +"I certainly do," with heart-felt conviction. "But I want you to promise +me one thing. That you won't run any more cattle. Will you, Jude?" + +"I'll promise you, if you'll promise me," returned Judith promptly. + +"But it's different with a man," repeated Douglas. + +"But you promised about that other." + +"That was different. It was something personal between you and me. The +other is business." + +"All right! I don't promise unless you do." + +"I can't promise, Jude. Honest, I can't." + +Jude laughed and jumped to her feet. "You are a goose, Doug, but I sure +am fond of you." Then she left him. + +Douglas sat still, his head pressed against the indescribable sweetness +of the alfalfa hay, eyes on the wonder of the stars. Finally he said +aloud, "I wish there was somebody a fellow could talk to that knows +things. I wish my grandfather Douglas was alive. Peter jaws too much. +What I want is to know facts, then judge for myself." + +His father passed by the haystack, pitchfork on shoulder. "Who are you +talking to, Doug?" he asked. + +"The biggest fool in Lost Chief," replied Douglas, rising and following +his father to the house. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +LITTLE SWIFT CROSSES THE DIVIDE + +"Ride 'em till they drop, then break another. That's what Nature does and +that's what I do." + +--_John Spencer_ + + +The following afternoon when Douglas rode after the mail he went round by +the west trail to call on Charleton. He found the crippled philosopher +propped up in bed, reading the _Atlantic Monthly_ and smoking a pipe. +Mrs. Falkner and Little Marion were in the corral doing the chores. + +"Well, how's the Moose after his disappointment?" asked Charleton. + +"Going strong! Any news of Scott?" + +"No; I don't expect any news for a week till I get on my feet." + +"I guess we might as well let him go and try again without him," said +Doug, looking out the door at Little Marion, who was astride a saddleless +mule which was doing its best to climb the corral fence. + +Charleton grinned. "No one can double-cross me without my taking the +trouble to show him he can't do it twice, can they, Marion?" as his wife +came in with an armload of wood she had just split. + +"You are as revengeful as a wolf, if that's what you mean," replied Mrs. +Falkner. "Not that you've tried it on me." + +Charleton gave her an amused glance not unmixed with admiration. + +"I don't know that even a wolf would tackle a lynx cat," he chuckled. + +Douglas looked from the beautiful woman around the homelike room. "You're +a lucky chap, Charleton," he said suddenly. + +Mrs. Falkner had picked up her sewing-basket. "Nobody with a mind like +Charleton's is so awful lucky," she said. + +"Ouch!" grinned Charleton, and lighted his pipe afresh. + +Douglas pondered on Mrs. Falkner's remark on his way back to the +post-office. Peter was sitting on the doorstep with Sister. The mail +had been distributed and most of Lost Chief had come and gone. + +"That horse is tired, Doug," said Peter. "What have you been doing? +Running him to break him?" + +"Aw, he's all right," protested Douglas. "Don't climb a tree about him, +Peter. I want to talk to you. Make Sister move over." + +"Sister," said Peter, "don't you want to go down and speak nice to your +old friend Prince?" + +Prince, standing before the platform with slavering tongue, bright eyes +shining, wagged his tail in a conciliatory manner. Sister sniffed, +growled, whimpered, then walked deliberately down the steps and said +something to Prince. He barked and they trotted over to the plains east +of the post-office. + +"She's got a dead coyote she keeps up there for her special friends," +said Peter. "What's your trouble, Doug?" + +Douglas sat down in Sister's place. "I've been over to see Charleton, and +his wife said something that struck me as queer." He repeated Marion's +comment. + +Peter laughed. "The women in this valley beat any bunch I've seen +anywhere. If the men were their equals, there wouldn't be a spot in the +world could touch Lost Chief. What do you think of Charleton's mind, +Doug?" + +"I think he's a wonder. He's lived, that guy." + +"Any guy of forty has lived. It's the way they look at life that makes +men different. Charleton hasn't any faith in anything good. That's why +he's unlucky. Don't let him influence you too much, Doug. I like +Charleton but he's not good medicine for a boy of your kind. Have you +thought anything about my offer of a couple of months ago?" + +"Not much. I'm putting in most of my time worrying about Jude." + +"Has she been doing anything special?" + +"Well, yes. If I could just make her care for me, it would be easy. But, +Peter, she cares a lot more for that poor old broken down Swift than she +does for me." + +"She's just a child. You'll have to be patient, Doug." + +"I am patient, Peter. But, in the meantime, Scott, or--" He hesitated, +then went on. "I tell you, this caring for a woman who don't care for you +is hell, Peter!" + +Peter stared off toward Fire Mesa, with its rolling clouds of red, and +answered seriously, "Yes, it is, Douglas. But I told you in June all that +I could think of, in regard to Judith, and you got sore at me." + +"Well, I'm not sore now. I was a fool. Here comes Jimmy Day. Give me my +mail, Peter, and I'll beat it. I'm in no frame of mind to talk to a kid." + +Jimmy, who was perhaps a year older than Douglas, pulled his sweating +horse to its haunches. His dog, a mongrel collie, ran up the trail to +meet the returning Sister and Prince. There was a whining colloquy, then +the three dogs turned back. + +"Must be a scandal somewhere," suggested Jimmy. + +"No, just a dead coyote," said Peter. "Sister ran him down yesterday. +Ain't a dog in the State outside of a greyhound can touch her." + +Douglas made a flying leap into the saddle while the Moose whirled on his +hind legs. + +"Some horse, Doug!" exclaimed Jimmy. "I'll swap this and a two-year-older +heifer for him." + +"I'm afraid he might hurt you. He's a regular man's horse, Jimmy." Doug +lighted a cigarette while the Moose reared. + +"Thanks," grunted Jimmy. "Say, did you know Scott Parsons has had four +young calves by one milch cow, all the same age? Ree-markable man, +Scott. Say, I was by there the other day and there sat Scott in the +corral on Ginger cracking a black snake at this fool cow to make her +let those four slicks eat. He'll die rich, Scott will. He's the +calf-gettingest rider in the Rockies." + +Douglas turned the Moose into the home trail. When he reached the ranch, +Judith was strolling in the main corral with her arm about the neck of +the bull Scott had given her. He would follow Judith about like a pet dog +but would allow no one else to touch him. + +"When he is a little older, you won't be able to play with him that way, +Jude," said Douglas, eying the pair with admiration not untinctured with +apprehension. + +It was a brilliant afternoon, with the western sun throwing long +golden shadows across old Dead Line Peak. The corral with its fringe of +quivering aspens a silvery lavender; the great red bull; the young girl +with her noble proportions, rubbing the brute's ferocious head with one +slender brown hand, made an unforgettable picture. The puppy, Wolf Cub, +was chewing an old boot beside the alfalfa stack. + +"He'll always be fond of me if I handle him right," said Judith. "Won't +you, Sioux? I'm going to saddle him, some day, Doug." + +"Well, not while I'm around," exclaimed the young rider, as he pulled the +bridle over the Moose's head. "Say, have you seen Scott yet?" + +"No. Why?" + +"I pity him. Charleton sure is after him." + +"Charleton? Why?" + +Douglas shrugged his shoulders. "You ask Scott why," and he strode off to +his chores. + +Doug did not see Charleton again for several days. But one afternoon, +about a week after the return from the hunt, they met at the post-office +and Charleton, who wanted to see John, rode home with him. + +"Scott is back," said Doug. + +"Yes; I saw him yesterday." Charleton smiled. "I found out who was his +helper on that little deal." + +"You did! How?" Douglas' voice was so sharp that the Moose jumped +nervously. + +"I bought the information. Swapped him something for it." + +"Who was it? Do you believe him?" Doug spoke a little breathlessly. + +"I don't know. I'm going to check up on it now." + +"Charleton, who did he say it was? Please, Charleton!" + +The older man turned to look suspiciously at Doug. "How long have you +known it?" + +"You've no call to speak that way to me," cried Douglas. + +"Humph! Well, he says it was that young devil of a Jude." + +"Look here, Charleton, don't say anything to my father about it. He'll go +crazy." + +"I don't know what I'll do. I'll talk to Jude, first." And Charleton +would say no more. + +He found Judith in the milking shed, and while he talked to her there +Douglas engaged his father's attention in the living-room. Here Judith +swept upon them. + +"Doug Spencer, as long as I live, I'll not speak to you again! You +promise breaker, you--" + +"Wait, Jude! I haven't told anybody. Did I tell you, Charleton?" + +"I've told her that you didn't but she won't believe me," grinned +Charleton. + +"Scott wouldn't have told. Doug was the only one that knew!" Judith paced +the floor. + +"What the devil has broke loose?" demanded John. + +"Now you have started something, Jude," groaned Douglas. + +"Judith! Do calm down!" pleaded her mother, who had taken her hands out +of the biscuit dough and now stood, twisting her fingers, in the doorway. + +"Well," said Charleton, "I don't know any reason why I should keep quiet +after the pretty names Jude has called me. It was Judith that helped +Scott double-cross us up on Lost Chief Peak. She claims she didn't know +it was our deal." + +"She didn't, either!" cried Douglas stoutly. + +John gasped, "Jude! She got away with your cattle, Charleton? That +sure-gawd is funny! Jude! O Lord!" And John burst into a tornado of +laughter that lasted until he dropped weakly on his bed. + +Judith stared at him, uncertainly, as did her mother. Douglas scowled. +Charleton lighted a cigarette. "Of course, it has its humorous side," +said Charleton, as John's shouts died down. "But I've served notice on +Scott and I serve notice on Judith now, that I'm not the man who kisses +the hand that spoils his deals." + +This remark sobered John. "You're right, too, Charleton. Jude, how'd you +come to do such a fool thing?" + +"How'd Doug and Charleton come to do such a fool thing?" asked Judith. +"Scott and I had as good a right to run cattle off them as they had off +Elijah Nelson." + +"O Judith! Judith!" exclaimed her mother. + +"You know how I feel about Scott Parsons!" cried John. "Jude, I'm going +to punish you for this so you'll never forget it.'" + +"In other words, if Doug runs cattle, he's admired. If I run cattle, I'm +punished!" Jude's fine eyes were flashing, her tanned cheeks burning. + +"Doug's a boy; you're a girl," replied John. "And I've told you to let +Scott Parsons alone." + +"I wish I were dead!" exclaimed Jude. + +"Well," said Charleton casually, "I must be getting back home." No one +heeded him as he clanked out the door. + +"How are you going to punish Jude, Dad?'" demanded Douglas. + +"Doug," cried Judith, "you keep out of my affairs from now on! I'll show +you that you can't break a promise to me." + +"Judith, I tell you that I never breathed a word." + +"I know better. Scott wouldn't be such a fool. And he told me not an hour +ago that Charleton said you'd given me away. And, anyhow, I think more of +Scott Parsons than I do of you and Dad put together! He's not always +jawing at me. He thinks I'm just right as I am." + +Douglas drew himself up, angry and offended. + +"You'll come after me, miss, before I speak to you again!" + +"That's exactly what I want!" retorted Judith. + +During this dialogue, Mary stood with the tears running down her cheeks, +begging the two to stop quarreling. John leaned against the table, his +eyes half closed, his mouth distorted. + +"So that's how the land lies with Scott?" he shouted suddenly. + +"Yes, and if you lay hands on me, I'll shoot you," said Judith +succinctly. + +"I know how to get you, miss," sneered John. + +He rushed out of the house. A moment later he galloped past the window on +Beauty. Judith walked defiantly to the door and looked after him. Douglas +went out to the corral. Shortly, John returned, leading Swift. He pulled +up in front of the door and dismounted. He kicked Swift in the haunch to +make her turn, and before Judith could do more than start toward him from +the door, he put his six-shooter to Swift's patient little head and +pulled the trigger. Swift dropped to her knees and rolled over. + +"Now, Jude, try it again and I'll give Buster a dose," said John, +standing tense as he waited for the girl's attack. + +But with a look of such horror that John recoiled, she stopped in her +tracks. She threw her arms about her head with a groan, ran across the +yard to the stable and climbed into the hay-loft. Douglas stood for a +moment as if turned to stone. Then he picked up a bridle and went into +the corral for the Moose. As he adjusted the saddle, John led Beauty to +the fence. + +"You finish those chores, Doug!" + +Douglas went on tightening the cinch. + +"It was just a broken-down cow pony that should have been shot long ago," +said John, sullenly. + +Douglas leaped into the saddle, took the fence like a swallow, and was +gone. Prince yelped on the trail before him. + +Where he was going, Doug did not know. He thrust the spurs into the +Moose and set him straight up the sheer barren side of Falkner's Peak +until the Moose was winded, then he dismounted and led him up and up +until they both were exhausted. Then Doug looped the reins over a clump +of sage-brush and dropped to the ground. Prince squatted beside him, +panting. + +A blind despair had engulfed Doug. He could think of nothing to do. +Nothing that would adequately punish his father, nothing that would +solace Judith or bring her to her senses. + +Nothing is so intolerably bitter to youth as its first realization of the +fact that one is helpless to change life as it is. Douglas, biting his +nails and railing at the heavens, was draining one of life's bitterest +drinks. He was in deep trouble, utterly alone, and he had no spiritual +star for guidance. + +But when he finally descended the mountainside he had taken a resolve. He +was going to leave home for a while. He was going to work for Charleton, +who was greatly in need of a rider. He was not yet of age, but he was not +afraid of John's forcing him to return. + +His father and mother were in bed when he reached home. Judith's bed was +empty. Douglas went out to the stable and climbed noiselessly to the +loft. On the hay close to the open door lay Judith, her face dimly +outlined in the moonlight. She was still sobbing in her sleep. Douglas +stood looking down on her till his own eyes were tear-blinded. Then he +knelt in the hay and kissed her softly on the lips. She stirred but did +not open her eyes, and he slipped back to the ladder and down, without a +sound. + +He went to bed at once but was up in the morning before his father, +leaving a note on the kitchen table: + +I am going to work for Charleton till things are better here at home. + +_Douglas._ + +He found Charleton grooming Democrat. "Charleton," he said, "you made a +lot of trouble for Jude last night." + +"What happened?" asked Charleton. + +Douglas told him. + +"That was a rotten trick!" exclaimed Charleton. "I just thought he'd lick +her. John's got a mean temper." + +"I want to work for you a while, Charleton. I'm sick of the rows at +home." + +"John willing?" + +"I haven't asked him." + +Charleton grinned. "I need a rider, sure. You finish currying Democrat +while I go in and talk to the missis. Little Marion's visiting at Lone +Bend. Maybe my wife will think it's too much cooking for two men." +But he came back in a little while, smiling cheerfully. "Come on in to +breakfast. It's all right." + +So Douglas settled to riding for Charleton Falkner. His father did not +come after him, and when the two met on the Black Gorge trail a day or so +after Doug's departure, John returned Douglas' muttered greeting with a +silent, ugly stare. There was comment and conjecture in Lost Chief, but +the fall round-up was coming and this soon engrossed the attention of the +community. Of Scott, Douglas saw nothing. + +The fall slipped into winter, which in Lost Chief country begins in +September, and Christmas passed with none of the Spencers at the +schoolhouse party excepting Judith, who attended with Scott. February +slipped into March and Douglas' eighteenth birthday passed unnoticed. +The snows were too deep to allow Charleton to undertake any of those +mysterious missions for which he was so much admired, and Elijah Nelson +was allowed to flourish unmolested. It was reported that the Mormon had +accused Lost Chief of running some of his cattle, but he evidently had no +desire to start a controversy with the valley. And Douglas came more and +more under Charleton's influence. + +Peter Knight, watching the boy more closely than Doug at all realized, +was deeply troubled by what he felt might permanently distort Doug's +ideas of life. + +"How are you and Judith making it, Doug?" Peter asked him one Sunday +afternoon early in April, when he and the young rider were sunning +themselves in the post-office door. + +"You know Judith hasn't spoken to me since last August," replied Doug +impatiently. + +"Too bad!" grunted Peter. + +"O, I don't know," replied Douglas. "I don't see much to this marriage +game anyhow. Look at the couples round here and point me out any of 'em +that's been married over five years that're really in love. Just a +houseful of brats and a woman to nag you." + +"Dry up, Doug! You are just quoting Charleton Falkner. I've heard plenty +of his empty ideas in the last twenty years. You've worked for him long +enough, anyhow. Better go back to your home; or if you're through with +Jude, take my offer and go East to school." + +"Forget it, Peter! As soon as Fire Mesa opens up, I'm going after wild +horses with Charleton. And you can roast him all you want to, but he +knows life." + +"Knows your foot!" snorted Peter. "If anybody could catch Charleton with +his skin off, we'd find he gets happiness and sorrow out of the same +things the rest of us do. He's just a big bluff, Charleton is." + +"He's lived too much to let anything get him," said Douglas stoutly. + +Peter laughed. "Nobody can accuse you of having lived too much, Douglas." +Then he added soberly, "You're disappointing me a lot, Douglas. I never +thought you'd let go of Jude." + +"Jude let go of me," replied Douglas. "I suppose she thought I'd come +running back to her, but she's mistaken. I'm through with women." + +"Don't talk like an idiot, Doug," said Peter, after a long careful look +at Douglas' face. "I know you. You are breaking your heart this minute +for Judith. And she misses you a whole lot more than she'll admit." + +"How do you know? Have you talked to her?" asked Douglas quickly. "How +are things going up there?" + +"Yes, I've talked to her. She's all right, but she's getting too many of +Inez' ideas in her head. She says John doesn't say ten words a day. You'd +better go back, Doug." + +"Go back! With Jude believing I double-crossed her and nothing but rows +going all the time? I'll admit I'm unhappy, but at least it's peaceful at +Charleton's. He and his wife don't fight. I tell you that if home's just +a place to fight in, I don't want a home." + +"What do you want, Douglas?" asked Peter. + +"I don't know," muttered the young rider. + +"I know," said Peter softly. "You want a guiding star, you want something +that's not to be found in this valley, an ideal fine enough to save your +soul alive. You come of stock that lived and died by a spiritual idea, +Doug, and you are going to be unhappy till you find one." + +Douglas turned this over in his mind soberly for a few minutes. "Have you +got one, Peter?" he finally asked, wistfully. + +"No! I might have had if your mother had lived. She was an idealist if +ever there was one. Work yourself out a plan, Doug, that is based on +something fine, then fight to put it over. That's the only way you'll +ever be contented." + +"What I want," cried Douglas, "is something to take away this emptiness +inside of me." + +"Exactly! And I'm telling you how. And the reason I know is because I +started out in life with the idea that women and the day's work were +enough. Maybe they are for a man like your father, though I doubt it. +But a man like you or me isn't built for promiscuity either in love or in +work. We are the kind that have to choose a fine, straight line and then +hew to it, keep our faith in it, never leave it." + +He paused for so long a time that Douglas stirred uneasily, then said, +"How did you learn different, Peter?" + +"By doing all the things that impulse and youth suggested, regardless of +any suggestions or advice, and arriving at middle life with my mind and +heart as empty as yours. Don't do it, Doug. It makes tragedy of old age." + +Douglas rose slowly. "I don't see what in the world I can do with +myself," he said heavily, and he rode back to Charleton's ranch. + +Books had perhaps been Douglas' greatest solace that long winter. +Charleton had a good many, mostly representing his young delvings +into the realms of agnosticism. His later purchases simmered down to +a few volumes of poetry. There were several of Shakespeare's plays +around the cabin and these Douglas read again and again. He did not see +much of Little Marion, who was a great gad-about, and who, when she was +at home, was monopolized by Jimmy Day. Mrs. Falkner he found immensely +companionable. She had a half-caustic wit which he enjoyed, but he liked +best to have her argue with Charleton on what she called his dog-eat-dog +theory of life. + +He had reason, not long after his conversation with Peter, to recall the +postmaster's comments on Charleton. Very early one morning Charleton +roused him and told him to ride like forty furies after Grandma Brown. + +Douglas obeyed him literally and arrived at the Brown ranch with the +Moose in a sweating lather. When he banged on the door, Grandma, +clutching her nightdress at the throat, put her head out. + +"The baby, I suppose!" she snapped. "Is Little Marion there?" + +"Yes!" + +"Well, let me dress." + +"Hurry, please, Grandma! Charleton seemed awful scared." + +"Charleton! Huh! I'm going to get my proper clothes on and drink my +coffee, no matter how Charleton Falkner worries. He always was a baby. +You go saddle Abe." + +Abe was saddled and the Moose was breathing normally before Grandma +appeared, plump and calm. Nor would she allow Abe to be hurried out of +his usual gentle trot. + +"Douglas, when you've seen as many new eyes open and old eyes close as I +have, you'll quit hurrying," she said. "The Almighty generally looks out +for mothers, anyhow." + +So, sedately, in the glory of the sun bursting over the top of the Indian +range, they trotted up to Falkner's cabin. + +Charleton burst out of the door. "Where in the blank-blank have you been? +Hurry, Grandma! I've been nearly crazy!" + +"I'll bet your wife ain't crazy." Grandma dismounted with Doug's help. +"Now, Douglas, you keep this lunatic outside, no matter what he says or +does. It's just the way he acted when Little Marion came." She stamped +into the house and closed the door. + +"Let's go do the chores!" suggested Douglas. + +"Chores! Chores! Don't you know that--" + +"Yes, I know all about it," interrupted Doug. "Come on and get the +milking done. Are you afraid your wife will die, Charleton, or what?" + +"Or what!" gasped Charleton. "You poor, half-baked idiot!" + +For an hour, Douglas sweated with Charleton. Then, as they rested for a +time on the corral gate, the kitchen door opened and Grandma's head +appeared. + +"You go, Doug," said Charleton feebly. + +But Grandma did not wait. "It's a boy, Charleton!" she shrieked. "A fine, +big boy!" And she closed the door. + +Charleton sat perfectly still on the fence. His lips moved but for +several seconds no sound came forth. Then he said, "Charleton Falkner, +Jr.! Charleton Falkner, Jr.! All my life I've been waiting for this +moment!" Tears were on his cheeks. "Doug, you go up and ask 'em how my +wife is and give her my love." + +Douglas stared at his mentor, wonderingly, unwound his long legs from the +fence and crossed the yard. Grandma answered his timid rap. + +"Charleton says how's his wife and sends his love." + +"O, he does!" witheringly. "Why don't he go over to the post-office and +telephone us? You tell him she did fine like she always does everything. +You folks go up and get Peter to give you some breakfast." + +"I'm not going near Peter till I see the boy and my wife!" called +Charleton. + +Grandma slammed the door. + +"I wouldn't go near the post-office," said Douglas, established again on +the fence beside Charleton. + +"Why not?" + +"If--if I felt like you do, I'd want to stay by myself, just take a ride +alone up to the top of Fire Mesa." + +"I don't care what I do as long as the boy's here. Charleton Falkner, +Jr.! I'll tell you, Doug, you'll never know what happiness life can hold +for you till a woman like Marion gives you a son." + +"Say!" cried Douglas in an outraged voice. "What's all this talk you've +been giving me for a year about whiskey and women and horses?" + +Charleton did not hear him. "Charleton Falkner, Jr.!" he was murmuring +over an unlighted cigarette. + +It seemed a very long time before they were admitted to the baby and +breakfast. Douglas was entirely unimpressed by the squirming red morsel +of humanity that Little Marion proudly brought into the kitchen for their +inspection. But Charleton was maudlin with admiration. It was, it seemed, +easily the first child ever born in Lost Chief, not excepting Little +Marion who had been a wonderful baby herself. + +Douglas listened, eating his breakfast grimly the while, filled with an +embarrassed consternation at last beholding his mentor with, as Peter had +said, his outer skin off. + +This, then, was what Charleton really wanted; not whiskey, or promiscuous +women, or wild horses, or Omar Khayham. What he wanted was a son, bone +of his bone, flesh of his flesh, to carry on his name. And yet what had +Charleton ever done to that name except to besmirch it? For Douglas now +in his heart had no illusions about the proper nomenclature for his +mentor's mysterious little deals. + +"Charleton," he demanded suddenly, "do you want the kid to grow up to be +just like you?" + +Charleton looked at Douglas in astonishment. "Like me? Listen, Doug, +old-timer, I'm going to spend the rest of my life licking out of him +anything I see in him like me!" + +Douglas gave up in despair and went out to finish the chores. + +It was a disjointed day, of course. In the afternoon Charleton went to a +choice gathering of spirits at the post-office; and Douglas, feeling +particularly lonely and unsettled, rode up the south trail after three of +Charleton's young mules which had strayed. He felt somehow that, with the +dereliction of Charleton, the last hold he had on reality had gone. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE POST-OFFICE CONFERENCE + +"Ride with your finger on the trigger--but smile before you shoot." + +--_Sheriff Frank Day_. + + +Douglas had no luck at all on his mule hunt. And as if to add to his +discomfort, while climbing down the trail from the cemetery, he saw +Judith on Buster, accompanied by the leaping Wolf Cub, overtake Scott +Parsons and saw them race toward the post-office. Twilight came on, with +the mud of the trail stiffening in the frosty air. An overpowering sense +of loneliness urged Douglas across the valley and brought him to pause +beside the Rodman corral. He dismounted at the buck fence and stood for a +moment in the shadow of the Moose, wondering why he had stopped here. He +had stood thus but a few moments when two riders came up the trail. They +trotted into the door-yard. + +"I don't think I want to dance, after all, Scott," said Judith's voice. + +"What harm is there in it?" demanded Scott. + +"I make it a point never to go in here except when Inez is alone." + +"I suppose you're afraid to meet Doug!" exclaimed Scott. "He's here half +the time." + +Douglas leaped over the fence, rushed to Scott's side and struck him +twice. + +"That's a lie! Get down and fight with your fists, you thief and +murderer!" Doug's voice was low with passion. + +There was a quick movement of Scott's right hand to his hip and Douglas +felt a stinging pain in his left shoulder. Simultaneously with the shot, +Scott put the spurs to Ginger, and Doug reeled as the mare's shoulder +thrust against him. Judith jumped from Buster. + +"Doug, did he get you?" + +Douglas had not fallen. He pushed the girl aside and ran to the plunging +Moose. Inez Rodman called from the door. + +"Who's shooting?" + +Still without speaking, Douglas threw himself on his horse and was off +after the dim figure that raced down the west trail which led to the +Pass. He did not heed Judith's call nor the quick patter of hoofs behind +him. On and on through the frosty April night, Prince barking joyfully +before, the Moose galloping at top speed, the stars sliding overhead. On +past the Browns' noisy corral, past Falkner's brightly lighted cabin, and +up the lifting trail to the Pass. The broken black line of the Pass, +usually so clean-cut against the stars, looked wavering and uncertain. +Douglas dropped forward and put his arms about the neck of the Moose. + +Once in a while a horse is born with as much acumen as a mule plus the +sensibility of a dog. The Moose, when he felt Doug's arms about his neck, +dropped from a gallop to a trot and from a trot to a walk. Shortly, when +Judith called, "Whoa-up, Moose!" he stopped and stood nickering uneasily. +Judith dismounted and pulled the reins over Buster's head. Then she ran +up to put her hand on Doug's knee. + +"Doug! Doug! Where did he get you?" + +"Don't hold me back, Jude!" said Douglas thickly. "Tie me onto the Moose +and leave me after him. I'm going to finish him, now." + +"You can't catch him. You're hurt too bad. Let me take you home, Doug." + +There was no reply for a moment. The Moose moved his head uneasily up and +down. Then, breathing heavily and brokenly, Douglas said, "Not--while +you--think I told--Charleton." + +That was the last he knew for some time. When he returned to +consciousness, Peter and Judith were half dragging him, half lifting +him into the post-office. + +"I don't care what you want, Jude," Peter was saying, "you aren't going +to drag him another hour over the trail. We'll get him onto my bed and +see how bad off he is." + +"My shoulder!" grunted Douglas. + +"All right, Doug! Now, Judith, one more heave onto the bed. Get off +there, Sister. Jude, pass me that bottle of whiskey, then go lock the +outside door so's no one can bother till I've finished. Then come back +here." + +Judith, her eyes wide and brilliant, her cheeks feverish, obeyed without +a word. She drew off Doug's short leather rider's coat and cut off his +blood-saturated shirt and undershirt. Douglas watched her with beads of +sweat on his lips. Peter in the meantime had thrust his late supper back +from the front of the stove and had put a couple of disreputable looking +towels to boil in the dishpan. When Judith had finished and Doug's +beautiful thin torso lay white against the dingy Indian blanket, Peter +scoured his hands and examined the hole in the shoulder from which the +blood pulsed slowly. + +"It's gone clean through from front to back," said Peter cheerfully. +"Guess I can fix him. Eight years in the regular service is useful +sometimes. Come here and hold him, Jude. I'm going to clean this hole +with peroxide and he'll try to climb the wall." + +"No, I won't! Go to it!" whispered Douglas. + +Nor did he, for as Peter, with a piece of stove-pipe wire he had boiled +as a probe, began his very thorough process of sterilization, Douglas +quietly fainted. When he came to his senses, his shoulder was bandaged +and Judith was pulling an old shirt of Peter's over his head. + +"Now, Judith, make a fresh pot of coffee and drink some of it," said +Peter. "You are as white as a sheet. How are you, Doug, my boy?" + +"Fine! Peter, you get me drunk. I'm going after Scott to-night." + +"Let's have the story." Peter's lips were grim, "You begin, Judith." + +Judith set the coffee-pot on the red-hot stove and perched on the edge +of the bed. She was wearing a middy blouse of dull blue. It was small for +her and showed her fine shoulder and full-muscled throat and chest. She +drew a deep breath and began at once. + +"I was riding past Inez' place with Scott. He teased me to go in for a +dance. When I wouldn't go, he asked me if I was sore at Inez because +Douglas spent half his time there with her. Doug must have been behind +his horse. He came out like a crazy man, called Scott a liar and told him +to come down and fight, and hit him. Scott drew on him and shot him. Then +he rode away like mad, and Doug after him. I followed and caught Doug +part way up the Pass and brought him here." + +Judith paused and Peter turned to Douglas. "All correct, Doug?" + +But the young rider was staring at Judith. "Did you believe Scott, +Judith?" he demanded. + +"How do I know what you've been up to? You were there to-night." + +"I hadn't seen Inez. I haven't been near her place since I made you a +promise, once. I went over to-night because I was discouraged. I'd made +up my mind that there wasn't anything real about anybody. Even Charleton +isn't real. Now, Peter, you give me a quart of whiskey and help me onto +the Moose. I'll--" + +"You'll calm down, that's what you'll do," said Judith succinctly. "Won't +he, Peter? When Scott finds he hasn't killed you, he'll be back and then +you can settle with him. Peter, you telephone my mother I'm going to stay +down here for a while and take care of Doug." + +Peter hesitated. "I don't need you, Jude, though of course, it'll be +pleasant to have you here." + +"It's just as well you feel that way," said Judith, "because I intend to +stay, anyhow." + +Douglas blinked round eyed at Judith, then smiled seraphically and +closed his eyes. He was asleep before Peter had succeeded in getting +Mrs. Spencer on the telephone. All Lost Chief was on a party line and he +carried on his conversation not without difficulty. Judith sat listening +with a broad grin of appreciation. + +"Hello, Mary. This is Peter Knight. Doug had an accident and I have +him here with me--O, Inez telephoned you. Well, Judith overtook him +and brought him here. He's in no particular danger--That you, Grandma? +How's Marion?--No, it was Scott drew on Doug.--Wait a minute till I +finish with his mother.--Listen, Mary! Don't get excited--You keep +quiet, Inez.--Everybody butt out! Now, listen, you folks, if you've got +to, but don't interrupt!--Scott said something that riled Doug and Doug +hit him. Scott drew and got Doug through the left shoulder, bad, but +clean, and I've got the wound dressed.--Say, if you women don't keep +quiet, I'll sure-gawd hang up. O, hello, Charleton! Yes, Scott made a +clean get-away.--Now, listen, Mary. I'm going to keep Judith here +to-night to help me and you can come down to-morrow.--Yes, that you, +John? Well, you come along now, but not Mary. She's too weepy.--What's +that you say, Inez? The sheriff and Jimmy gone out after Scott? When did +they start--Hello, Mrs. Day. Half an hour ago? That's good. Now, listen, +John. You stop by here before you go crazy. Understand me? All right! +Good-night, everybody!" + +He turned from the telephone with a wry smile. "John's coming down." + +"He's been worse than a wolverine since Doug left," said Judith. + +"How do you and he get along?" asked Peter, sitting down to his belated +supper. + +"O, I patch along for Mother's sake. But it's no way to live! I don't see +what Dad gets out of his own ugliness." + +"You'd probably find out, if he'd tell you the truth, that John doesn't +consider himself ugly-tempered. He'd admit he was firm and misunderstood +and unappreciated." Peter smiled grimly. + +Judith laughed. "Well, thank heaven John doesn't belong to me, and I +don't belong to him!" She sipped a cup of coffee slowly, her eyes on +Douglas in his uneasy sleep. + +He was still asleep when John came in. He nodded to Peter then strode +over to the bed, where he stood for a moment scowling down at his son, +his lower lip caught between his teeth. Douglas opened his eyes. + +"Douglas," said John hoarsely, "before I go out after Scott, tell me all +is straight between you and me. Judith made up, long ago." + +"That's a whopper!" exclaimed Judith. "I'll never forgive you as long as +I live! I'm just sticking round for Mother's sake. My mother that once +could ride an unbroken mule. When I think of that--" She paused as Peter +laid a hand on her arm. + +"It's not a matter of making up," said Douglas. "It wasn't a thing you +could make up. It was just one more fact to knock a fellow's faith in +life's being a straight deal." + +John did not answer for a moment, but something very like a blush rolled +over his tanned face. For the first time in his life, perhaps, he felt +that he had done something shameful. But he made no admission. + +"You'll come home and let us nurse you, Doug?" he asked when the blush +had gone. + +"I guess I'd better stay with Peter. I never want to come home while +Judith believes I squealed to Charleton." + +"Jude doesn't believe anything of the kind. She's just a flighty, fool +girl." + +"Thanks, dear Father!" sniffed Judith. + +John did not glance at the girl. He was watching Douglas eagerly. "I +thought it was me that kept you away from home. I can make Jude apologize +as soon as I get Scott back here. If I clear that up, then will you come +home, old boy?" + +"Yes, I guess so. But that won't keep me from settling with Scott for +to-night." + +"Sure! But you get well, Dougie!" John turned from the bed with the look +of sullenness wiped as by magic from his face. + +Douglas stared at Judith. His mind was confused but he realized that the +loneliness and despondency of the day was gone. He was blindly angry with +Scott yet grateful to the event which had brought Judith to his aid. + +John held a low-voiced colloquy with Peter as to the nature of Douglas' +wound; then with a cheerful goodnight, he went out. Douglas closed his +eyes. + +"You fix yourself up a bed on the floor, Judith," said Peter. "I'll keep +the fire going and an eye on Douglas. To-morrow you can take your turn." + +Judith answered pleadingly, "I'm not tired or sleepy, Peter. And I almost +never get a chance to talk alone with you. Let me sit up with you!" + +Peter's long, harsh face softened. "All right, Jude! We'll keep the old +coffee-pot going and make a night of it. Then--" + +He was interrupted by the sound of wordy altercation among the dogs +outside. Judith cocked a knowing ear. "Wolf Cub's in trouble! I'd better +let him in, Peter. He and Sister will snarl and quarrel all night. They +get along about like Dad and I do." + +"It'll break Sister's heart, but go ahead. I always tell her, guests +first," said Peter. + +Judith opened the door a crack and whistled. There was a rush outside of +many paws, and Wolf Cub's long gray muzzle appeared in the narrow +orifice. There was a scramble, a yip from Wolf Cub, and he was inside, +licking Judith's hand and trying to climb into Peter's lap at the same +time. He was two-thirds grown now and as big as a day-old calf. Judith +gazed at him with utter pride. "Isn't he a lamb, Peter? Now, you get +over in the corner, Wolf, and don't let me hear a sound from you +to-night!" + +The great puppy looked up into her face with ears cocked, then turned +slowly and crept into the corner indicated and with a groan lay down. +Peter jerked his head in admiration. + +"You are some person, Jude! Keep boiling water going. I'm going to wash +that wound of Doug's every hour. This cattle country is the devil for +infection." + +"Oughtn't we to take him up to Mountain City?" asked Jude, in sudden +anxiety. "We could get Young Jeff's auto." + +"At the first sign of trouble, I will," replied Peter. "But I think I've +had more experience with gunshot wounds than Doc Winston's had." + +There was a renewed sound of scratching and whining at the door. Douglas +opened his eyes. "Better let Prince in long enough to see that I'm all +right," he said. + +Peter groaned. "Another insult to Sister! However, if he and the pup +won't fight--" + +"I'll answer for Wolf Cub." Judith tossed a warning glance at the corner +where gray ears were twitching restlessly. + +Peter opened the door carefully. Sister and Prince stormed in. There was +a mix-up, during which the pup did not stir from his corner and Sister +was shoved out the door, snapping at Prince as she went. Prince wagged +his tail at Judith and Peter, then put his forepaws on the bed and gazed +anxiously at Douglas. He sniffed at the wounded shoulder, wriggled and +gave a short, sharp bark. + +Doug opened his eyes. "It's all right, Prince." + +Prince licked Doug's cheek. + +"So that's understood," said Peter, taking Prince by the collar, "and you +can just step out and talk it over with gentle little Sister." + +Douglas closed his eyes again. Judith sat down on the floor, her back +against the bed. Peter lighted his pipe and put a fresh panful of towels +on to boil, before settling himself in his homemade armchair. + +"I understand Scott gave you a little blue roan that's a real bucker," he +said. + +"He didn't give him to me. It was pay for some work I did for him." + +"Uhuh! What do you aim to do with him?" + +"Keep him unbroke for the Fourth of July rodeo. And, Peter, I'm going to +enter my Sioux bull for some stunts." + +"Dangerous work, I'd say. What kind of stunts?" + +The young girl chuckled. "You wait and see! That Sioux weighs a good two +thousand pounds and he thinks he's a bear cub!" + +"Bear cub! I don't know what John Spencer's thinking of!" grunted Peter. + +"John doesn't think. He just feels," said Judith. There was a short +silence which the girl broke by saying, "Peter, were you ever in love?" + +The postmaster took his pipe from his mouth, stared at Judith's earnest +eyes, put the pipe back and replied, "Yes." + +"How many times?" + +"How many times? Can you really be in love more than once, Judith?" + +"Now, what's the use of saying that to me, Peter? I'm not a baby!" + +"In many ways you are," returned Peter, serenely. "Why this interest in +love? What's his name?" + +"I'm not sure it's any one. But of course I think a lot about it. You +aren't laughing, are you, Peter?" + +"God forbid! I feel much more like crying." + +Judith smiled up at him, doubtfully. + +"Crying?" + +"Yes; you are so young, Jude. I hate to think of your dreams going by +you." + +"Well, I'm not such a kid as you think I am. I'll bet I know all there is +to know about love." + +"My God, Judith, you don't even know the real thing when it's offered +you. All you know is the rot you've seen all your life. Love!" Peter +snorted derisively. + +Judith gave a little shiver of excitement. "Well, if you know so much +about love, Peter, what is it?" + +"I don't know what it is, except that all of it, every aspect of it, +understand, is bred right here." He tapped his forehead. "It begins in +the brain, not in the body. Love is not lust, Judith." + +Judith scowled thoughtfully. Peter let the thought soak in; then he said, +"And when real love comes, it takes possession of your mind and turns it +into heaven and hell." + +"Is that the way it came to you, Peter?" + +"Yes!" + +"How many times?" + +"Twice. And I wouldn't want to endure it again." + +"There's a poem like that," said Judith, somewhat blushingly, "Do you +mind poetry? I read lots of it." + +"One should at sixteen," returned the postmaster. "No, I don't mind +poetry. What were you thinking of?" + +Judith, still blushing, gave a cautious glance at the bed and began: + +"He who for love hath undergone + The worst that can befall, +Is happier thousandfold than he + Who never loved at all. + +A grace within his soul hath reigned + Which nothing else can bring. +Thank God for all that I have gained + By that high suffering!" + +Peter, watching Judith with something deeply sad in his blue eyes, nodded +when she had finished. "Youth!" he muttered. "Youth!" + +"Do you believe it, Peter?" demanded Judith. + +"Yes, I do. Girl, how much high suffering will you get out of your goings +on with Scott?" + +"None at all, Peter." + +"I wish I were twenty years younger," said Peter. + +"If you were twenty years younger you wouldn't be as wise as you are +now." + +"And what happiness has wisdom brought me?" exclaimed Peter. + +"It must be mighty fine to really know things," said Judith. + +"What kind of things?" + +"O, love and all that kind of thing." + +"I'd like a drink of water, please!" Douglas opened his eyes. + +"Have you been listening, Douglas?" demanded Judith. + +"I don't think I missed any of it," Doug smiled. "You're growing up, +Jude." + +Judith tossed her head. "I think it was rotten of you to listen to my +conversation with another man!" And although she and Peter talked in a +desultory way until dawn, the vasty subject of love was not mentioned +again. + +About ten o'clock the next morning Charleton Falkner came to see Douglas. +He hardly had established himself when the thunder of many hoofs sounded +without, a wrangling of dogs began, and John Spencer thrust open the door +to Peter's living quarters. He was spattered with mud from head to foot. +So was Scott Parsons, who followed him, as well as Sheriff Frank Day +and Jimmy Day, who brought up the procession. + +Judith, who had been washing dishes, hastily dumped the dish-water out of +the window. Charleton, with his familiar, sardonic grin, propped Douglas +up on a pillow. + +"What're you bringing him in here for, John?" demanded Peter harshly. +"Doug's in no state for a row." + +"I don't know why not!" exclaimed Douglas coolly. "I don't have to talk +or listen with my shoulder. Where'd you pick him up, Dad?" + +"Never mind that!" replied John impatiently. "He's here. What do you want +done with him, Doug?" + +All eyes focused on Scott. In mud-spattered chaps and leather coat, his +sombrero on the back of his head, a cigarette hanging from his hard, +handsome mouth, Scott leaned easily against the table, eying Judith. +Douglas looked from Scott to Judith and from Judith out of the window +where beyond the yellow green of rabbit bush that carpeted the valley +there lay the green shadow of the Forest Reserve. After a moment's +thought he said: + +"What made you draw on me like that, Scott?" + +"I thought you'd pulled your gun." + +"I punched you right and left. You knew I hadn't pulled a gun. As far as +I'm concerned, you're too free and easy with that six-shooter of yours." + +"Me, too," agreed the sheriff, scratching Prince's ear. + +"He's the gun pullingest guy in the Rockies," volunteered Jimmy. + +"All I want to say," Doug announced, "is that when I get use of my +shooting arm again, I'm going to pot Scott on sight." + +Peter looked at Douglas' tanned face beneath the tumbled golden hair. + +"Let's sit down," said Peter, "and go over this thing carefully. Scott's +leading with the wrong foot in this valley, but I don't know as shooting +him on sight is the answer." + +Scott and Jimmy perched on the table, John and Judith on the foot of the +bed. The others found chairs. Doug stared at Peter, at first with +resentment, then with an air of curiosity. + +"Don't you try any soft stuff, Peter!" protested John. "Scott's worn his +welcome out in Lost Chief and that's all there is to it." + +"My folks came here a year before yours did, John," retorted Scott. "I've +got as good a right in this valley as anybody." + +"Nobody that makes a nuisance of himself has got any rights in this +valley," asserted Douglas. "I suppose you think because your grandfather +killed Indians here you've got a right to shoot white men. Well, sir, +I'm going to teach you different." + +"Pot-shooting at him isn't going to teach him anything except perhaps +what is over the Great Divide, Doug," said Peter dryly. + +Scott laughed sardonically. + +"The law has got something to say in this case," announced the sheriff, +lighting a small black pipe. + +"No, it hasn't," exclaimed Douglas; "not if I don't want it to." + +"You aren't the whole of Lost Chief, Doug," said Charleton. "I've got a +small grudge to settle with Scott, myself." + +"And I've got several," added John. + +"Enjoy yourself, folks," suggested Scott, winking openly at Judith over +the cigarette he was lighting. + +This infuriated John. "Jude, you clear out! Scott, you blank-blank--" + +Douglas flung up a protesting hand. "O, cut that, Dad! Judith, you stay +right where you are. You're at the bottom of this whole trouble and I +want you to see and hear it." + +"Draw it mild, Douglas!" protested the postmaster. + +"Don't bother about me," said Jude. "I sure-gawd can take care of +myself." + +"What happens next?" inquired Jimmy Day. + +Nobody spoke for a moment; then very deliberately, Peter turned to the +sheriff. + +"You remember Doug's mother, don't you, Frank? I can't help thinking how +much he looks like her, to-day, although he's the image of John." + +"Remember her! I tried for five years to get her to marry me. But her old +dad wouldn't stand for it." + +"You mean she couldn't see you because of me, Frank!" exclaimed John, a +sudden light in his handsome eyes. + +Douglas again favored the postmaster with a contemplative stare. + +"Some old wolf, her dad, I've heard," Peter went on. + +"He was," agreed the sheriff. "He ran the valley and he ran it right. +Every Fourth of July he made a speech about making Lost Chief the +Plymouth Rock of the West." + +Charleton Falkner roared. "I remember those speeches!" + +Peter was grinning. "But in spite of them, from what I've heard I believe +he came mighty near being a great man, old Bill Douglas." + +"What did he lack?" demanded Douglas suddenly. + +"Religion!" answered Peter, promptly. + +"Religion? What's that?" asked John with a guffaw. "You never had any, +Peter." + +"Right!" agreed Peter. "Worse luck for me that I didn't have that kind of +a mind. But I know any kind of a social idea fails without it. And I know +if old Bill Douglas had built a church up there beside the schoolhouse, +the chances are that Scott wouldn't have plugged Douglas last night. And +mind, I don't believe in God, or the hereafter, or any of the dope they +drug you with." + +"What the hell are you driving at, Peter?" demanded Charleton. + +"Say," shouted John, "is this a trial or a sermon?" + +"It's neither," replied Peter. "We're just talking things over. My idea +is that Doug shall sort of sit in judgment on Scott and the rest of us +abide by his decision." + +"Now, listen here!" exclaimed Scott. "This may be a funny joke, but I +don't see it!" + +Charleton laughed. "I'm with you, Peter. Only that won't pay my grudge." + +John laughed too, with a little glance of pride toward his son's set, +white face. "I'm on! Make it include his leaving Jude alone." + +"Aw, you folks act plumb loco!" snarled Scott. + +"Wait and see! Wait and see!" protested Peter. "And while Doug thinks it +over, let me add something to what we were saying about old Bill Douglas. +He used to act as a kind of unofficial judge in the valley?" + +The others nodded. + +"Did he ever," Peter went on, "make an important decision that he didn't +try to look to the good and the future of Lost Chief? At least, I +gathered that from the things Doug's mother used to tell me about the old +man's pipe dreams." + +John spoke soberly. "He was a just man. They don't make 'em that way any +more." + +"He was more than just," insisted Peter. "He was forward looking. But he +led with the wrong foot. He laughed at the church." + +"Sure he did," agreed Charleton. "Why not? Remember old Fowler? A fine +sample of the church!" + +Peter rose and paced the floor a minute. "Let me tell you folks +something. I laugh at the cant they've wrapped the church up in. But +I don't laugh at the system of ethics Christ taught. I'm here to tell +you folks, He put out the finest, most workable system of ethics the +world has ever known. And folks can't live together without a system +of ethics." + +"It's a wonder you don't subscribe to 'em, Peter," jibed Charleton. + +"It's too late. But that don't say that I don't realize clearly that I've +failed in life because of it. What do you say to that, Charleton?" + +Charleton's lips twisted. + +"Why all the Saints and Sages who discuss'd +Of the two Worlds so wisely--they are thrust +Like foolish Prophets forth: their Words to Scorn +Are scattered and their mouths are stopt with Dust." + +John laughed. Peter shrugged his shoulders and said, "Suit yourselves. As +for me I believe everybody is destined sooner or later to deal squarely +with right and wrong. Sooner or later every community has to wrestle +with the question of social ethics, or fail. Fate has written it of Lost +Chief. You'll see." + +"I'm with you there." Frank Day spoke soberly. "I believe in fate. You +can't ride these hills and not. It's all written beforehand." + +Douglas cleared his throat. "I've got an idea," hesitatingly. "I've been +thinking for a long time that somebody in Lost Chief that has a homestead +right ought to homestead that shoulder of Lost Chief mountain that cuts +off Elijah Nelson from our valley. If we don't, he will. I can't do it +because I'm not of age. But Scott can, and he can find plenty of work for +that six-shooter of his, worrying the Mormons and keeping 'em out of Lost +Trail. I'll agree to let Scott alone if he'll let me alone and undertake +that job." + +There was silence, Scott staring at Douglas with a mixture of contempt, +belligerency and surprise in his face. + +"But," protested John, "that's no punishment, and it don't say a thing +about Judith!" + +Douglas shifted his feet impatiently. "I'm not going to punish any guy +for running after Jude. That's a fair fight. What I'm sore about is his +lying about me and shooting at me when I wasn't armed." + +"I'd planned," said Scott gruffly, "to try to buy back our old place from +the Browns. They've got more than they can carry and I'm sure getting +nowhere renting that piece from Charleton." + +"And," suggested Charleton with a grin, "if you encourage those broncos +of yours, they each might have three or four slicks every spring, and if +you keep up practice with the blacksnake on the old milch cow--" + +"Dry up, Charleton!" exclaimed Peter. "What do you think of the idea, +Frank?" + +"It ain't bad," answered the sheriff slowly, "though I ain't afraid of +the Mormons coming in." + +"That's where you are wrong," said Charleton. "They are going to get Lost +Chief Valley by any straight or crooked method they can think up. With +an ornery devil like Scott to climb over, they won't try to come in that +entrance, that's sure." + +"How about it, Scott?" asked the sheriff. + +"I'd just as soon, and I'd just as soon say that I sure went crazy when +Doug gave me those two good ones and I did what I wouldn't have done if +I'd taken time to think." + +"Well," grinned Douglas, "nobody is going to kick if you don't take time +to think over in the Mormon valley." + +Sheriff Day rose with a laugh. "I've got to get to the alfalfa field I'm +plowing. Come on, Jimmy." + +Jimmy rose to his good six feet of height and pulled on his gloves. "I +feel like I'd been praying," he said. "That is, if I'd ever heard a +prayer, I'd say so." He made a face at Judith and followed his father. + +John Spencer looked from Douglas to Peter and from Peter to Charleton +with a little lift of his chin. Then he said, "When are you coming home, +Doug?" + +"Not till Jude believes I didn't tell on her last summer." + +"I'll get the truth out of Scott!" exclaimed John, drawing his +six-shooter. + +"Aw, put it up, John, you feather-brain you," drawled Scott. "I told +Charleton, Jude. He paid me for the information. I never supposed he'd +hold it against a girl." + +Judith turned very red. "Scott Parsons, I hope you go up that Mormon +valley and that they get you, you blank-blank double-crosser you!" + +Scott shrugged his shoulders. Judith glared at each of the men in turn. +"I hate you all, every one of you!" she cried. "What chance has a girl +among you? You're just like a lot of coyotes after a rabbit!" + +"Rabbit! Say lynx-cat, Jude!" laughed John. + +Judith tossed her head and rushed out of the room. The men laughed hugely +as she banged the door. Only Douglas remained sober. + +"Well," said John, "I suppose you'll be home in a day or two, Doug." + +"If Charleton can find some one I will be." + +"I'll give him half time," volunteered Scott. + +"Nothing doing!" replied Charleton. "Nobody gets a second chance to +double-cross me!" + +Scott flushed angrily but shrugged his shoulders. Charleton went on, "Of +course, Charleton, Jr. won't be able to ride for a month or so but Jimmy +Day will help me out in the meantime." + +"Son smoke yet?" asked Peter. + +"No; I have to spend so much time doing jury duty on my neighbors, I +haven't got round to teaching him. He weighs a big ten pounds, the little +devil." + +"Come on, let's get out," said Scott. + +They clanked out, leaving Douglas alone with Peter, and he fell into a +long sleep. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +JUDITH AT THE RODEO + +"If you break the heart of a thoroughbred, she doesn't even make a good +cart horse." + +--_Mary Spencer_. + + +Late in the afternoon, when Douglas awoke, Judith was sitting beside the +bed, chin in palm. Peter was not to be seen. Douglas stared at the young +girl until her gaze lifted from the floor and she smiled at him. + +"Judith," he said, "it's been a long time, hasn't it?" + +Judith nodded. "I've been sitting here thinking how much you've changed. +You were just a boy, last summer. Now you look like a man, lying there." + +"You've changed yourself. Jude, you're going to be very beautiful." + +Judith chuckled. "You and Scott agree on one point, then!" + +"Jude! Honestly, I don't see how you can stand that crook!" + +"He's a woman's man," said Judith shortly. + +"I can't see it!" + +"Don't let's quarrel the first thing, Douglas. How is Little Marion?" + +"Same as usual. Did you know that she is engaged to Jimmy Day?" + +"I knew she ought to be," said Judith bluntly. "They sure make a +good-looking pair! When will they be married?" + +"When Jimmy has got a good start with his herd. Judith, Charleton isn't a +bit like I thought he was." + +"He's an ornery mean devil, if you ask me," said Judith succinctly. "He's +the worst influence that ever came into your life." + +"Did Peter say that?" + +"No; I said it. You are too good to waste on Charleton. What has finally +waked you up about him?" + +"He's always talked to me against marriage and women and children and +everything like that. Said awful hard things about 'em, Jude. He really +got me to the point this winter where I felt as if marriage was wrong. +But do you know, when the boy was born, yesterday morning, he just went +plumb loco. He cried and was sentimental like these young fathers you +read about in books." + +Judith's great eyes widened incredulously. "He was!" She turned this over +in her mind for some time, then shook her head. "I give it up. I can't +understand men at all. I thought I had Charleton's number. I always did +agree with him about marriage." + +Douglas drew a quick breath. If men were difficult to understand, how +much more so were women, particularly of Judith's type! One never got to +the end of them. + +"How do you mean that, Judith?" he asked. + +"I mean I'd rather be dead than married. Just look at the couples we +know, Doug! Just look at 'em!" + +"I'm looking at 'em! What's the trouble?" demanded Doug. + +"They don't love each other any more. That's all!" Judith tossed her head +knowingly. + +"Pshaw! How do you know?" + +"Because I've watched them for years and studied about it. There is +nothing in marriage, Doug. No, sir!" + +"Pshaw! And you were sitting and quoting love poetry to Peter last +night!" + +"Yes, I was! Certainly! I'm not idiot enough to say there's no such thing +as love. But I do know that a few years of marriage kills it. Yes, sir!" + +Douglas eyed her wistfully. She was so vivid. Yes, vivid, that was the +word. Her eyes glowed as if her brain glowed too, and her lips were so +full of meanings, too changing and too subtle for him to read. If only +they could work out this strange enigma of life together! + +"They can't hold out against the years," Judith repeated dreamily. "It's +as if love was too delicate for every-day use. They get over caring." + +"I wonder why?" said Douglas. + +"I think people get sick of each other, Doug! Why, I think a lot more of +you, since you've been away for a few months. And I get tired of my own +mother, bless her dear old heart, and I love her to death. But she's my +mother and I can't stop loving her. But I certainly couldn't stand a man +around the house, year after year. No marriage for me! No, sir!" + +"But what will you do about love?" asked Douglas. + +Judith's burning eyes grew soft. "Cherish it," she answered in a low +voice. "Keep it forever. Never murder it by marriage. It's the most +wonderful thing that comes into human life." + +Douglas smiled sadly. "You talk as if you were a thousand years old, +Judith, on the one hand and like a baby on the other. What will you do, +marry without love? Somehow the children have got to be cared for by +responsible parties." + +"Responsible parties!" Jude was derisive. "Do you call Dad a responsible +party?" + +"He's fed and clothed us." + +"What does that amount to?" said Judith largely. "An orphan asylum would +do that. The kind of parents kids need are the ones that will answer your +questions. I mean the real questions. The ones we don't dare to ask." + +"About life and sex and all those things!" Doug nodded understandingly. +There was silence, then Doug shook his head. "I don't know how things +would go along without marriage. Just you wait until you fall in love and +see how you feel. You'll want to marry just like all the rest of us." + +"Never! I'm with Inez on that!" + +"Inez!" + +"Yes, Inez! She's got more sense about living than all the women in this +valley put together. And she knows life." + +Douglas sighed. "What are some of Inez' ideas about marriage?" + +"Well, she just says it won't do! She says that the children have got to +be taken care of but that it isn't fair to put the curse of marriage on +parents. And she says her way isn't the answer, either, but that anyhow +it's honest, which is a darn sight more than a lot of marriages in Lost +Chief." + +Judith paused to take breath and Douglas asked, "Say, now listen, Jude, +was Inez ever in love?" + +"She says she's in love right now but she won't say who he is." + +"I don't believe she knows what love is! Her ideas aren't worth anything. +I've lost faith in these folks that tell you they know life. They're +exactly like the rest of us under their skins. I'm getting to believe +that we all get happiness in the same way and over mighty few things. +Loving and having children, that's about all." + +"Inez says it's nothing of the kind; that the only way to be happy is to +know what is beautiful when you see it." + +"I suppose that's smart," said Douglas crossly, "but I haven't any idea +what it means." + +"I know what it means; but you never will until you can ride across Fire +Mesa with your heart aching because it's so beautiful." + +"I don't see where in the world you get the idea that I don't see the +beauty in things!" protested Douglas. "I can't gush like a girl and quote +poetry, but this sure is a lovely country to me. And I want my children's +children to have this valley and hold it till the very bones of their +bodies are made out of the dust of Lost Chief. That's how I feel about +these old hills. More than that, I can see how a marriage here in Lost +Chief might be a life-long dream of beauty." + +Judith looked at Douglas with astonishment not unmixed with admiration. +But she returned sturdily to her own line of defense. + +"Doug, do you see any beautiful marriage around here?" + +Douglas stared at her tragically, then answered with a groan: "No, I +don't! But," with new firmness, "that's not saying I don't firmly believe +I couldn't make marriage a lovely thing." + +"Why, do you think you are cleverer than anybody else?" + +"Not clever, but--but--" Douglas paused, powerless to tell Judith of that +something within him that suddenly told him that his fate was to bring to +Lost Chief the thing of the soul it never had had. How or what this was +to be, he did not know. + +After a time, he said softly, "Judith, were you ever in love?" + +Judith returned his look with a curiously impersonal glance. "I'm not +sure," she answered slowly. "Not what Inez calls love, that's sure." + +"Isn't there any other woman in Lost Chief that could give you ideas +except Inez?" asked Douglas impatiently. + +"What woman would you suggest?" Judith waggled one foot airily and tossed +her head. + +"Charleton's wife. She has brain and she's interesting." + +"She's too old. I mean she looks at everything from an old-fashioned +viewpoint. I wouldn't care what her age was if she could just see things +the way they look to a person sixteen or seventeen years old. Now, Inez +is awfully modern." + +"Modern!" snorted Douglas. "Where'd you read that? It sure is a new word +for Inez' kind!" + +Judith flushed angrily but was denied a retort, for Peter suddenly +appeared in the door. + +"What in the world do you children mean by this kind of talk?" he +shouted. "I couldn't help hearing while I was sorting mail. What do you +mean by thinking such thoughts, Judith? Have you the nerve to admit that +you are patterning your ideas on a woman like Inez?" + +"I don't care what she is," replied Judith obstinately. "She's the only +woman in Lost Chief who can talk about anything but babies and cattle +raising. And more than that, and anyhow, I like her." + +Peter took a turn or two up and down the room. + +"I don't object so much to your liking her," he said, "as I do to your +absorbing her cynical ideas." + +"Pshaw, Peter! I don't notice you're displaying a wife and a happy home +for us to copy after!" sniffed Judith. "What I want you old people to +do is to show me by example how practical and true all these fine old +precepts are that you are so free about laying down for us kids. Where's +your happy marriage, Peter?" + +Peter's lips twisted painfully. "My happy marriage is in Limbo, Judith, +with the rest of my dreams. As for being old--why, Jude, I'm still in my +forties." + +"Forty!" gasped Judith. + +"Yes, forty; and if I hadn't been a fool I'd still be facing the most +useful part of my life. Heaven knows, children, I'm not offering myself +or any one else in Lost Chief as an example to you." + +"What do you offer?" asked Jude with an impish smile. + +Again Peter paced the room before coming to pause by Douglas' pillow. + +"You both heard what I said this morning about the lack of a church in +Lost Chief. That's what you children need for a pattern. Disagree with +his creed as you might, the right kind of a preacher in here could answer +your questions as they should be answered. If the church doesn't form +ideals for young people like you, loose women and loose men will." + +"That might be true, Peter," said Douglas; "but I don't see why you +should expect us to believe the stuff you can't believe yourself." + +Peter winced, then said gruffly, "I don't know as I do. All I know is +that when I was a boy I went to church on Sunday morning with my mother +and that there was an old vicar who would have set me straight on the +things you are talking about, if I'd have let him." + +"Couldn't you believe what he said?" asked Douglas. + +"I never went to him. I preferred my own rotten ideas. I--" He drew +himself up with a sudden expression of disgust. "Faugh! How like a fool +I'm talking!" He stalked out, this time closing the door of the room +behind him. + +"I wonder who Peter really is?" said Judith in a low voice. + +Douglas shook his head. "Dad says he's seen better days. He sure has +suffered a lot over something or other." + +"I wish I knew all about life that he does!" exclaimed Judith. + +"I don't wish either of us did," said Douglas. Then he put out his hand +to touch Judith's knee with infinite tenderness. "Couldn't you manage to +fall in love with me, Jude dear? I'd stay your lover all my life." + +Judith put her hand over Douglas' and her fine eyes were all that was +womanly and soft as she answered, "O my dear, you don't know what you are +talking about. What you promise is impossible." + +"But how do you know, Judith? I am an unchanging sort of a chap. You +realize that, don't you?" + +Judith shook her head. "You don't know what you are promising. You can't +force love to stay, once it has begun to fade." + +"Try me, Judith! Try me, dear!" + +Judith looked at him, lips parted, eyes sad. "Douglas, I'm afraid!" she +whispered. + +And again the sense of loneliness flooded Doug's heart. There was a look +of remoteness in Judith's expression, a look of honest fear that had no +response for the fine assured emotion that had held him captive for so +many years. + +The two were still staring at each other when Peter returned. + +Doug's wound healed quickly and with no complications. He remained +with Peter for a week or so, then returned to his home. Scott Parsons +began preparations at once for carrying out Doug's sentence and for a +time the post-office and the west trail to Inez' place saw him most +infrequently. The excitement over the shooting having abated, Lost Chief +began preparations for the great event of the year, the Fourth of July +rodeo. + +All the world knows the story of a rodeo, knows the beauty and the daring +of both riders and horses, knows the picturesque patois of the sand +corral. But all the world does not know of Judith's performance at this +particular rodeo. + +Mary, lax and helpless enough on most matters concerning her daughter's +conduct, held out on one point. Judith could not enter the Fourth of July +rodeo until she was at least sixteen. But now, at sixteen, Judith asked +permission of no one. She entered the exhibition with Buster and Sioux +and Whoop-la, the bronco Scott had given her. + +The rodeo was held on the plains to the east of the post-office. The +Browns owned the great corral, strongly fenced, and with a smooth sandy +floor bordered by a grandstand weathered and unpainted but still sturdy +enough to withstand the swaying and stamping of the crowd. Neither the +Browns nor any other of the Lost Chief families made money out of the +exhibition. It was a community affair in which was felt an intense +pride. All Lost Chief attended, of course, and people came in automobiles +and in sheep wagons and in the saddle from the ranches for a radius of a +hundred miles. + +Burning heat and cloudless heavens, the high west wind and the nameless +exhilaration and urge of the Rockies at seven thousand feet, this was the +day of the rodeo. The exhibition began at ten in the morning and lasted +all day, with an hour at noon for dinner. + +There was the usual roping and throwing of steers and the usual riding of +bucking broncos by men and women young and old. Douglas rode and rode +well, but he had his peer in Jimmy Day and in Charleton. Judith rapidly +eliminated all the women contestants and then began to vie with the men +in the riding of buckers. By four o'clock as one of the four best riders, +bar none, she was ready to enter the last competition on the program. +This was listed as an original exhibition to be given by each of the four +best riders. Douglas, Jimmy, and Charleton were the other contestants. +Judith entered first. + +She trotted into the sand corral on Buster, leading the blindfolded Sioux +and followed at a short distance by Peter Knight, who was master of +ceremonies for the day. A little murmur went through the grandstand. +Judith's curls were bundled up under a sombrero. She wore a man's silk +shirt with a soft collar. It was of the color of the sky. Her khaki +divided skirt came just below the knee, meeting a pair of high-heeled +riding-boots. Her gauntleted gloves were deep fringed. She rode slowly, +silhouetted against the distant yellow of the plains. Sioux, a russet +red, silken flanks gleaming in the sun, moved his head uneasily, but +followed like a dog on leash. + +Having crossed to the north end of the corral, Judith waited for Peter to +come up on Yankee. Douglas, circling outside the fence uneasily, heard +him say: + +"You are a plumb fool, Judith. Anybody that plays round on foot with a +bull isn't a cowman. It's a life and death matter with a brute like +Sioux, and you know it." + +"You slip his blindfold off when I dismount," she said, and she trotted +back to the south end of the enclosure. Here she dismounted, slipped the +reins over Buster's head and turned to face the bull. Peter jerked the +blindfold from the bull's eyes. The great creature lifted his head and +Peter backed away. Judith spread her arms wide and whistled. Sioux +snorted, pawed the ground, and started on a thundering gallop toward his +mistress. + +There was a startled murmur from the grandstand. Buster snorted and +turned. Without moving, Judith gave a shrill whistle. Buster wheeled and +came back to his first position, where he stood trembling. On came Sioux, +his hoofs rocking the echoes, and with every apparent intention of goring +his mistress. But ten feet from Judith he pulled up with a jerk and with +stiffened fore legs slid to her side, and rubbed his great head against +her shoulder. Judith threw her arm about his neck and hugged him, white +teeth flashed at the grandstand, which rose to its feet and shouted. + +Judith raised her hand for quiet, then leaped to Buster's saddle without +touching the stirrups. She put the uneasy horse to a slow trot and gave a +peculiar soft whistle to Sioux. Obediently he fell in behind the horse, +and Judith gave her audience a unique exhibition of "follow your leader." +Buster trotted, galloped, and backed. Sioux imitated him without protest, +until Judith brought up before the grandstand with both animals kneeling +on their fore legs, noses to the sand. Then Sioux jumped excitedly to his +feet as again applause broke out. Judith took his lead rope now and led +him to the middle of the corral where she blindfolded him and backed to +Peter. Peter strode across the corral carrying a saddle. + +"Once more, Judith," he said, "I ask you not to do this." + +"Saddle him quick, Peter. Then get on Buster and ride him off when I'm +up." + +Peter adjusted the saddle as best he could to the bull's great girth +while Judith rubbed the brute's forehead, talking to him softly. Sioux +stood with head lowered, his red nostrils dilating and contracting +rapidly. But he did not move. When Peter nodded, Judith jerked the +blindfold free and leaped into the saddle. Sioux brought his mighty fore +legs together and leaped into the air. Peter hesitated a fraction of a +minute before putting his foot into Buster's stirrup, and the bull's leap +brought him against the flank of the uneasy horse. Buster reared and +Peter fell, his left foot in the stirrup. The horse started at a gallop, +dragging Peter toward the east gate. + +Sioux, glimpsing from his wild, bloodshot eyes the prostrated figure of +a man, gave a great bellow and charged. Judith brought her quirt down on +the bull's flanks, at the same time whistling shrilly. But Sioux was now +out on his own. He overtook Buster half-way down the corral and thrust a +wicked horn at the wildly kicking Peter. Judith leaped from the saddle +and, running before Sioux, seized his horns and threw herself across his +face. The bull paused. + +At this moment came the full blast of Sister's hunting cry from the west +gate. She crossed the corral like a hunted coyote and buried her fangs in +Sioux's shoulder just as Douglas on the Moose caught Buster's bridle. +Sioux cast Judith off as if she were a rag and gave his full attention to +Sister. Judith picked herself up, rushed to the still plunging Buster and +jerked Peter's foot from the stirrup. She ran to the blindfold lying in +the sand a short distance away, then whistling shrilly above Sioux's +bellowing and Sister's yelping, she again caught one of the bull's horns +in her slender brown hand. Sioux had rubbed Sister free against the fence +and was now charging the dog as she snarled just under his dewlap. + +Again and yet again he flung Judith against his shoulders, but she did +not fall nor lose her grip. Suddenly, so quickly that the grandstand +could not follow the motion, she had wrapped the blindfold over the +burning eyes. As the bull stopped confused and trembling she hobbled his +fore-legs to his head with the bridle-chain. Then she seized Sister's +collar and stood panting, her hair tumbled about her neck. The grandstand +shouted its delight. + +Peter had risen and was wiping the sand from his face. + +"Call Sister, Peter!" cried Judith. "She'll bite me in a minute." + +Peter mounted Yankee, whistled to Sister, and with a rueful grin and +shake of his head for the audience, he trotted from the corral. Judith +loosened the bridle-chain and jumped once more into Sioux's saddle. + +"Pull off his blindfold, Doug!" she cried. + +"Nothing doing," returned Douglas succinctly. "You get off that bull, +Jude, before I take you off." + +"I'm going to ride him up to the grandstand," said Judith between set +teeth. + +She whistled to Sioux and he lunged forward. Doug twisted his lariat. It +coiled round one of the bull's hind legs. Doug brought his horse to its +haunches. + +"You get off that bull, Judith," he said. "You've put up the real show of +the day. Be satisfied before you are killed. Sioux is almost crazy." + +Frank Day, who was one of the judges, now trotted up. "Doug is right, +Jude." + +"There's not a bit of danger," cried Jude, "if you men would do what +you're told to do! Peter had to stop and look instead of hurrying as I +told him." + +Her eyes were full of tears. She dismounted slowly and after freeing +Sioux from Doug's lariat, she led the uneasy bull before the grandstand +and made her bow. Jimmy Day brought her a horse and, mounting, she +trotted out of the corral followed by the now half-crazed Sioux. + +The three men contestants laughingly refused to put on their exhibitions. +There was no hope, they agreed, of competing successfully against Sioux +and Judith; so Judith received the prize, a twenty-dollar gold piece. + +The day ended with this award. It was some time before Douglas and Judith +freed themselves from the crowd. John and Mary, still laughing over +Peter's discomfiture, led the postmaster off that Mary might treat his +really badly skinned face at the ranch. The ranchers who had come from +distant valleys began to scatter toward the Pass. When at last Judith and +Douglas, with their string of horses and the still unchastened Sioux, +started up the trail toward the post-office, they were held up by a +stranger in a smart, high-powered automobile. + +"Listen, Miss Spencer," he called, "how about your riding in the rodeo at +Mountain City, this fall?" + +Doug and Judith both gasped. The rodeo at Mountain City was the ultimate +and almost hopeless dream of every young rider. + +"How do you know they'd let me in?" asked Judith. + +"I'm chairman of the program committee this year," answered the stranger. +"If you are interested, I'll write you details when I get back home. I've +got to run for it now." + +"Interested!" exclaimed Judith. "I guess you know just what it means to +be competing in the Mountain City rodeo!" + +The stranger nodded. "Then you'll hear from me." He turned his panting +car away from the plunging horses and was a receding dot up the trail to +the Pass before Judith and Douglas found their tongues. + +"Well, you deserve it, Judith," cried Douglas. "You beat anything I've +seen. It's not only what you do but the way you do it. You've got to have +a good outfit. I'll help you buy it." + +"Do you really think I'm good enough for Mountain City?" exclaimed +Judith. + +"Good enough for the world!" declared Douglas. + +Judith laughed and gave her attention to the unhappy Sioux. + +Peter was at supper with John and Mary when they reached home. His whole +face was covered with boric powder. Judith and Douglas shouted with +laughter. Peter buttered another biscuit. + +"I never was vain of my looks," he said plaintively. "It was mean of you, +Judith, to ruin what I had." + +"I was never so surprised in my life, honestly, as when you fell, Peter," +cried Judith. + +"O yes; you were more surprised an hour ago," contradicted Douglas. He +turned to his father. "Judith's been asked to ride at the Mountain City +rodeo. The chairman of their program committee stopped us and asked her." + +"Bully for the girl!" cried John. "I'm not surprised, myself. Some show, +Jude!" + +"The Mountain City rodeo is a tough proposition for a young girl to +tackle," said Peter. + +"O, I'll go with her," John spoke quickly, "and let Mary and Doug run the +place for a week. We'll be back in time for the round-up." + +"If Judith goes, I go," said Mary with unwonted firmness. + +"What do you think I am?" demanded John. "A millionaire or a Mormon?" + +Douglas, a little white around the lips, glanced at Judith, who was +calmly devouring the lavish piece of steak which she had served herself. +Peter was rolling a cigarette. + +"If Jude goes," John went on, "she goes with her Dad. And believe me, I +am going to buy her the doggondest best outfit I can glom my hands on." + +Peter caught Douglas' eye and almost imperceptibly shook his head. + +"I'm going too," repeated Mary. + +"You are not!" John's voice thickened. "You and Douglas run the place. If +there's a rancher in the State deserves a vacation more than I do, I wish +you'd name him." + +"Give me a match, John," said Peter; "and if there's no objection, let's +get out of this hot kitchen." + +John tossed a match-box to the postmaster and led the way out to the +corral. Peter and Douglas lined up on the fence beside him. Judith +remained in the kitchen with her mother. + +"Well, it was the best rodeo we ever had," said Peter. + +"Jude was the whole show." John's handsome face showed vividly for a +moment as he lighted his pipe. "I suppose there are other folks that ride +as well, but she does it with an air!" + +"It's her love of it gets across to people who are watching her," mused +Peter. "And she rides with a sort of ease that belongs to Jude and no one +else, to say nothing of her power over animals. There is a lot to Jude. +Too bad she lives in Lost Chief. She hasn't a chance in the world." + +"Just how do you mean that?" demanded John. + +"Exactly as I said it. She hasn't a chance in the world." + +"Chance in the world for what?" John's voice was irritated. "Talk so a +fool like me can understand you, Peter." + +"I guess you understand me, John. Hello, Judith! I should think you'd be +tired enough to go to bed." + +"Who? Me?" Judith perched beside Peter. "I should say not! I'd like to go +to a dance." + +"I sure-gawd will try to give you your fill of dancing for once in +Mountain City." The anger had disappeared from John's voice. + +"Judith's not going unless her mother goes!" said Douglas coolly. + +Judith sniffed. "Her master's voice, again! You'd better horn out of +this, Douglas." + +"I haven't any intention of keeping out," retorted Douglas. + +"You'd better," warned Judith. "If you think I'm going to turn down a +chance for a real outfit, without hearing the argument, you're mistaken." + +"I told you I'd help you," insisted Douglas. + +"You! What could you buy!" jibed the girl. + +"I was thinking, Jude," said John, "why don't you let me get you one of +those regular riding suits like Eastern women wear, pants and one of +those long coats." + +"Everybody would laugh at me." Judith's voice was doubtful but deeply +interested. "What do you think, Peter?" + +"Women's clothes are out of my line," replied Peter. + +"Aw, don't bribe her, Dad," protested Douglas. + +"Bribe her!" snorted John. "For what?" + +Peter gave a sardonic laugh that would have done credit to Charleton. +"I'm going home, John, before I get hauled in on a family row. Doug, I'm +pretty stiff. Will you help me saddle Yankee?" + +Douglas rose reluctantly and followed Peter into the shed where Yankee +was munching hay. + +"Keep your fool mouth shut, Doug," whispered the postmaster. "You've got +from now to September first to sidetrack this thing." + +"If Jude passes her word to him, she'll go. And you know as well as I do, +Peter, that most anybody would sell their soul to ride in that rodeo with +a fine outfit." + +"Certainly, I know it. But you keep out of it for a while." + +"Peter, I can't! When Dad gets to working on Judith, I see red. Listen! +Just listen!" + +Stillness and starlight and John's voice rich and sweet as Peter never +had heard it. + +"You're beautiful, Judith! A beautiful woman! Let me dress you as you +ought to be dressed, give you the right kind of a horse, and the whole of +the rodeo will be yours. I tell you, girl, all you've got to do is to ask +me for what you want." + +"Do other folks call me beautiful, Dad?" Judith's voice was breathless. + +"Why do you call me Dad? I'm not your father, thank God!" + +Douglas strode out of the shed and up to the fence, followed by Peter on +Yankee. + +"I don't want to quarrel with you, Dad--" he began, furiously. + +"Then don't start something you can't see the finish of," interrupted +Judith. "Let me run my own affairs, Doug." + +"That's sound advice." John's voice was cool. "I don't want to quarrel +with you either. But I'm still master of my own ranch and, by God, I'll +knock you down if you interfere in this." + +Peter leaned over and put his hand on Douglas' shoulder. + +"Don't be a fool, Doug! Go off and think before you talk." + +For a moment there was silence. Douglas stood tense under Peter's kindly +hand, his face turned toward the beautiful shadow of Falkner's Peak. The +heavens, deep purple and glorious with stars, were very near. Suddenly +Douglas turned on his heel and clanked into the house, where he threw +himself down on his bed. + +The old, futile bitterness was on him again, and he was quite as bitter +at Judith as at his father. Of what could the girl be thinking? What did +girls think about men like John, or any other men for that matter? If +only there were some woman to whom he might go for advice. Grandma Brown? +No; he had talked to her once and she had failed him. Charleton's wife +had failed with her own daughter. There remained Inez Rodman, who knew +Judith better than any one else knew her. Inez! Doug's mind dwelt long on +this name. But he felt sure that the woman of the Yellow Canyon had +forgotten what she had thought and felt at sixteen. And, after all, he +did not want again to see life through Inez' eyes. Long after the rest of +the family slept, Douglas pursued his weary and futile self-examination, +coming to a blind wall at the end. + +The next day John mentioned casually that he and Judith had settled on +taking the trip to Mountain City together. Douglas made no comment. Not +that he had any intention of allowing Judith to make the trip under such +circumstances, but he knew that for the present he could only bide his +time. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +THE TRIP TO MOUNTAIN CITY + +"Don't think. Just whistle. And always keep your poncho on the back of +the saddle for when it rains." + +--_Jimmy Day_. + + +Lost Chief was very proud of Judith's invitation and deeply interested in +her preparations for the contest. Every day, now, she put Sioux and +Whoop-la through their paces. Late in the afternoon when she was working +the animals in the corral, it seldom happened that one of Lost Chief's +riders was not perched on the buck fence, watching her and criticizing +her and always assuring her, with the cowman's pessimism toward the +outer world, that she had no chance of winning a prize. + +Douglas watched the preparations with deep interest, but said nothing +further against the trip. He usually joined the audience on the buck +fence and smoked as he watched the really wonderful work in the corral. + +One brilliant afternoon Grandma Brown and old Johnny rode up. Jimmy Day +already was perched on the fence. + +"Well," called Grandma, "I hear you've finally reached the goal of your +ambition, Judith." + +Judith, leaving Sioux for the moment, strolled over toward the old lady. +"Who told you that, Grandma?" + +"Well, ain't you?" + +"I don't know what my goal is, but it sure isn't this." + +"I'm glad you haven't lost your head entirely," said the old lady. +"Jimmy, I wish you'd ask Little Marion to come over and help me out for a +day or so. Lulu is coming home for a little visit." + +"I'll ask her," said Jimmy. "But she won't come. She isn't so well. You'd +better stop by and see her." + +Old Johnny suddenly laughed. "He depones like you was a doctor that went +out to make visits, Sister." + +The old lady grunted as she gave Jimmy a keen look. "What's her mother +say about her?" + +"Why, you know Mrs. Falkner isn't back from Mountain City yet. She left +before Charleton went out after wild horses," replied Jimmy. + +"How should I know? I've hardly been off the ranch this summer. I guess I +will stop by." + +Old Johnny cleared his throat. "I was thinking I'd ask John if he'd let +me go along up with him and Judith when they went to Mountain City. I got +quite a gregus sum of money saved up and I never did see Frontier Day +yet." + +"That's right, Johnny! You ask him," said Douglas, with a remote twinkle +in his eye. + +"Johnny, you are a fool, I swear!" exclaimed Grandma. "Let me catch you +lally-gagging off to Mountain City! Come on, let's get started." + +"Anyhow, Doug is my friend," said the old man, belligerently, as he +followed his sister. + +"If I go, I'll take you along, Johnny!" exclaimed Douglas. "See if I +don't!" + +"You sure are crazy, Doug!" laughed Jimmy. + +"I like the old boy," insisted Douglas. "He and I had better go up and +see Jude rake in the prizes." + +"Right now every prize has been doled out to the regulars," cried Jimmy. +"But you should care, Jude! You'll have the grandstand with you, every +minute, if the judges aren't." + +"It will be the big event of my life whether I win or not," said Judith. +"What's the matter with Little Marion, Jimmy? I don't even remember her +at the rodeo." + +"O, she's busy, you see. I never did know a busier girl than Marion. I'm +busy too, with Charleton gone so long. And that fourth-class postmaster +of ours sent a lot of unclaimed magazines and mail order catalogs up +to the house. We've been reading those. Say, I bet I know everything +that's for sale in the United States. I'm the most price-listed rider in +the Rockies." + +"I'll be getting down to see Marion to-night or to-morrow," said Judith. + +"O, you needn't bother," returned Jimmy. "It's a long trip, and she'll be +all right." + +"So you and Little Marion have been baching it!" mused Douglas. "Hang +Charleton, he promised to take me out after wild horses!" + +"He generally goes by himself." Jimmy mounted his horse. "He's a lone +hunter, Charleton." + +"When are you folks going to be married?" asked Douglas. + +Jimmy turned his roan homeward. "I don't know," he answered soberly. + +"I wish I could have gone with Charleton," remarked Douglas, watching +Judith as she rubbed Sioux's head. + +"Charleton! I should think you'd hate a long trip with that old coyote. I +hate him." + +"It isn't to be with Charleton I want to go. I want to get me some wild +horses. But there was a time when I sure was crazy about being with him. +I thought he knew more about how a fellow could get happiness out of life +than any one." + +"Nobody in the Valley knows as much as Inez." + +"Do you call her happy?" + +"No; she's really sad. That's why she knows what real happiness is." + +"Judith, how do you suppose Inez will end?" + +"Over in the cemetery with a coyote-proof grave like the rest of us. And +I ask you, Doug, since that's the end of it, why worry?" + +"That's the very reason I worry! Life is so short and if we don't find +happiness here, we are clean out of luck, forever." + +Judith spurred the nervous Whoop-la into five minutes of active bucking, +then she leaped from the saddle and came to perch on the fence beside +Douglas. Her gaze wandered from his wistful face to the eternal crimson +and orange clouds rolling across Fire Mesa. + +"Outside of my riding," she said slowly, "I get most happiness out of my +eyes." + +Douglas followed her gaze. "Inez likes it too." + +Judith nodded. "She got me to using my eyes years ago. She's a funny +person. Reads almost nothing but poetry. She's got one she always quotes +when she and I are looking at Fire Mesa." + +"What is it?" asked Doug. + +"I don't know but one verse: + +"A fire mist and a planet, +A crystal and a cell, +A jelly-fish and a saurian, +And caves where the cave-men dwell, +Then a sense of law and beauty +And a face turned from the clod, +Some call it Evolution +And others call it God." + +"Say it again, slow!" ordered Douglas, his eyes still on Fire Mesa. + +Judith obeyed. + +"I didn't know Inez had got religious," he said, when Judith finished. + +"She hasn't. She doesn't believe anything except that beauty is right and +ugliness is wrong." + +"Then she'd better clean up her door-yard!" exclaimed Douglas. + +"O darn it!" sighed Judith. "I can't even discuss poetry with you without +your heaving a brick." + +"I'm not heaving bricks. O Judith, I'm so devilishly unhappy!" + +"You ought to quit thinking so much and have something you are crazy +about doing. When I get blue, I put Whoop-la to bucking." + +"I'm crazy about something, all right. Judith, don't you think you're +ever going to care about me." + +"I don't know, Doug. Who does know, at sixteen?" + +"I did." + +"I wouldn't marry a man that expected me to be a ranch wife in Lost +Chief, if I loved him black in the face." Judith jumped down from the +fence and turned Whoop-la free for the night. + +Douglas sat staring at her, wondering whether or not to mention the +subject of the trip to Mountain City. He was firmly resolved that unless +Judith gave in to her mother on the matter, he was going with her and his +father. But finally he decided that he would not end their friendly +conversation with a row and he clambered down and went about his chores. + +And so the days passed and the time grew close for the departure to +Mountain City. One evening, two days before the start, Douglas and Judith +went to call on Little Marion and Jimmy. When they reached the ranch +house, they found Little Marion in the big bed in the living-room and +Jimmy sitting beside the unshaded lamp, reading to her. + +"Well!" exclaimed Douglas. "What's happened to you, Marion?" + +Marion put back her great braid of hair, but what answer she might have +made they were not to know, for at that moment Charleton returned from +his wild horse hunt. Dust-covered and sunburned he strode into the room +with a pleasant grin. + +"Hello, folks! Why, Marion, are you sick?" + +"Kind of. What luck, Dad?" + +"Fair. Brought in a good stallion and some weedy stuff. How's the ranch, +Jimmy?" + +He asked this with his eyes still on his daughter. + +"O.K., Charleton," replied Jimmy. + +"You made a long trip, Charleton," said Douglas. + +"Left the day after the rodeo," tossing his hat and gloves on the floor +and sitting down on the edge of the bed. "I remember Little Marion was +laid up then with a sprained ankle or something. What do you hear from +your mother, Marion?" + +"She's well and so's the baby. They'll be home anytime now." + +"What's the matter with you, Marion?" + +"O, I'm sort of used up." + +"How do you mean used up? I don't like your looks. I'm not a fool, you +know." + +Marion burst into tears. "You know what it is!" + +Charleton made a sudden spring at Jimmy; but Douglas caught him by the +arm. + +"Hold on, Charleton!" cried Doug. "If things have gone wrong, you're as +much to blame as any one." + +"You clear out of here, Doug!" shouted Charleton. + +"Don't you go, Doug and Judith!" sobbed Marion. "I need some one to stand +by me." + +"I'm standing by you, Marion," said Jimmy, who had not stirred from his +chair. "I'd just as soon you'd beat me up, Charleton. A little sooner. +But that isn't going to help matters." + +Charleton stood glaring at his prospective son-in-law. + +"Come off, Charleton!" cried Douglas disgustedly. "You are a fine one to +raise trouble over a situation like this. Strikes me you've done +everything you could do to bring it about." + +Charleton did not seem to hear. His face was cold and hard. "Marion, you +and Jimmy pack up and get out of here!" + +"I can't, Dad! I'm too sick!" sobbed the girl. + +"Sick or no sick, you get out of here!" + +"Don't you do it, Marion!" cried Judith. "No man's got a right to act so +at a time like this. I'll stick by you. Jimmy, you go get Grandma Brown. +I'll bet she can fix Charleton." + +Jimmy rushed out of the house. + +"Now, Doug," Judith went on, walking over to take Marion's hand, "you and +Charleton go on out while I have a talk with Marion." + +"This happens to be my house," said Charleton. "Marion, get up and get +out!" + +"I can't!" repeated the girl. + +"You are a fine guy to tell a fellow how to live on wine, women and +horses," exclaimed Douglas, "and then raise the devil when your chickens +come home to roost. We all know Little Marion was born a month before you +were married." + +Charleton gave Douglas an ugly look. "I'll settle with you, for that, +young fellow!" He stepped toward the bed. "Are you going to get out, +Marion?" + +"No, she isn't!" snapped Douglas. He made a sudden rush at Charleton and +pushed him into the kitchen, Judith slammed and locked the door behind +them. + +It was on this scene that John Spencer appeared, closing the outer door +innocently behind him. + +"I wanted to borrow your buckboard for a couple of weeks," he began. Then +he paused and looked inquiringly from his son to his old friend. + +"Marion's in trouble," said Douglas, "and Charleton is trying to drive +her out. Jude and I won't let him." + +"Why should you butt in?" demanded John. + +"Anybody with a decent heart would," replied Douglas. + +"Get your kids out of here, John!" roared Charleton. "Judith's in there +with the door locked!" + +"Judith!" called John. "'Come here!" + +"I can't, Dad. I promised Marion to stick by her." + +"You come out or I'll break the door down and bring you!" + +"If you do, I'll not go to Mountain City with you!" + +John hesitated, though his face was purple. + +"You couldn't keep her away from the rodeo and you know it," sneered +Charleton. "Fetch her out, John, unless you're afraid of Doug." + +"Jude, are you coming?" shouted John. + +"No, sir." + +John heaved against the flimsy door and it broke on its hinges. He rushed +into the inner room. Judith, her great eyes blazing, stood with one hand +on Marion's shoulder. + +"Aren't you ashamed of yourself, Dad! You put a finger on me or Marion if +you dare!" + +"Don't touch her, Dad!" Douglas' voice had the old note of warning in it. + +But John, furious that his children should be defying him in public, was +quite beyond any effort at self control. He rushed on toward the bed. + +"You blank-blank!" screamed Judith. "You aren't fit to touch Little +Marion's feet! You or Charleton either!" + +John seized Judith's arm. Quick as a lynx-cat, Douglas leaped across the +room, seized his father from behind and was dragging him toward the door +when Grandma Brown ran in. + +"Now," she cried sternly, "what does this mean? Every one of you get out +of here as fast as your feet will carry you!" + +John stood up, sheepishly, Douglas eying him belligerently. + +"Look here, Grandma," Charleton shook his finger in the old lady's face, +"I want you to understand that--" + +"Understand!" shrilled Grandma. "Understand! You have the face to try to +say anything to me, Charleton Falkner? Do you think any man in this +valley can have anything to tell me I want to hear, least of all you, +Charleton Falkner? I know your history, man! And yours too, John Spencer. +And you can either get out or listen while I tell these children a few +facts about you." + +Charleton put a cigarette between his teeth, handed one to John, lighted +his own, gave a light to John and, John at his heels, walked out into the +night. + +"You and Douglas go home, Judith," said Grandma briskly. "Jimmy, I want a +talk with Little Marion. You put that door back on the hinges, then +disappear." + +So Judith and Douglas rode away. It was a heavenly night, with more than +a hint of frost in the air, and the horses were as frolicsome as Prince. + +"Now, will you tell me," asked Judith as she brought Buster back into the +trail for the third time, "just why Charleton acted so?" + +"It's just like I told you once," replied Douglas. "A man wants his own +women to be straight no matter how much he does to make 'em crooked." + +"Men are yellow," said Judith succinctly. "What's the use of +Charleton--" She paused as if words failed her, and they rode their +prancing horses in silence till John galloped up and pushed Beauty +between them. + +"I hope you two fools feel better!" he shouted. "You've got a row going +with Charleton." + +"Lot I care!" chuckled Judith. "I'll sic Grandma Brown on him again if he +bothers me." + +"I'd rather have a wolverine after me than Charleton," John went on +excitedly. "You both ought to be licked!" + +"Try it," suggested both the young people together. + +"I've a notion not to take you up to Mountain City and I wouldn't if--" + +Judith interrupted him. "You're not going to take me. I'm going with +Doug." + +"O, no, you're not!" snarled John. + +"And I'm not going to quarrel with you," Judith went on. "I'm sick of +men. I don't like the way you acted to me to-night. I told you if you +broke that door down I wouldn't go with you, and I always keep my word. +I'm not going to take money from Douglas, either. I'll borrow from Inez. +And I don't want to hear another word from you about it." + +She put the spurs to Buster and was gone into the starlight. The men +spurred after her, but she reached the home corral before they did. And +John could storm only at the deeply perturbed Mary, for Doug and Judith +went to bed, pulled the covers over their heads and were heard no more +that night. + +The next morning, before breakfast, half of Lost Chief had called the +Spencers on the telephone to tell them that Little Marion had a daughter. +The dominant note in the reports was one of huge laughter. Judith was +serene, and so was John. But the serenity was not to last. When she went +out to the corral to look after Sioux she came back stormily. + +"Where's Sioux and Whoop-la?" she demanded of John, who was mending a +spur strap. + +"Put away!" + +"Have you killed them?" + +"No. I'll produce them as soon as you agree to keep your promise to go to +Mountain City with me." + +"I never promised. I intended to go with you, but I never promised." + +"Remember if we don't get started by to-morrow," roared John, "we can't +get there in time." + +"I said I wouldn't go with you after last night, and now, I wouldn't go +with you if you were the last man on earth." + +She rushed from the house, and Douglas followed her. + +"I'll help you hunt for them, Judith," he said. + +She turned to him, white to the lips. "We're not going to hunt for them. +There are other Mountain City rodeos coming. If he thinks I'm going to +make a joke of myself rushing round the neighborhood after my outfit, +he's mistaken! I'm not a child. Don't bother me, Douglas; I'm going to +Inez." + +She put Buster to a gallop and was off, the dust following her in a +golden, whirling spiral. Douglas went into the house and stood before his +father, face flushed, golden hair rumpled, soft shirt clinging to his big +gaunt chest. + +"Dad, that's a rotten deal to put over Judith." + +John rose slowly to his full height and the two men looked levelly into +each other's eyes. John's expression was curiously concentrated. He +tapped Douglas on the arm. + +"Doug, you keep out of this, or I'll forget you are my son. You're smart +and you've got a bossy way with you. But I'm still master here. There +never was a Spencer that didn't rule his own family. Now, understand +me. Keep out of this matter between me and Jude. I'm going to break that +highty-tighty filly; and by God, she knows it!" + +"You'll never break her while I'm alive," said Douglas, and he walked out +of the house. + +Mary, coming from the cow shed with a pail of milk, looked at him +anxiously. "Let it go, Doug," she said in a low voice. "It's hard on +Judith, but she's been very headstrong and she's point-blank disobeyed me +in the matter. She deserves what she's got. Let it go." + +Douglas looked at Mary's care-worn face, so appealingly like, yet so +unlike Judith's. Suddenly his tense muscles relaxed. "I guess you are +right. I'd better be thankful it is as it is. But it sure is a rotten +trick of Dad's." + +Mary shrugged her shoulders and went on into the house. Douglas went off +to bring up horses for the fall round-up. A number of people rode up +during the morning to see the start for Mountain City. They found the +ranch deserted, except for Mary, who pleaded a sick headache and refused +to talk. Inez had no such reticence, however, and at the post-office that +night Judith's troubles ran neck and neck in popular interest with Little +Marion's. Both situations were of a nature to appeal to Lost Chief's +sense of humor. Douglas appeared during the session and learned that +Charleton's wife had come home. + +"I hope she won't go crazy too," he said. + +"No danger!" Peter tossed a letter to Frank Day. "Charleton'll be in line +by to-morrow. Too bad some one can't hobble John too." + +"Plumb unnecessary, the whole affair," grunted the sheriff. "I suppose +the next thing on the program will be a big wedding." + +"I guess they'll manage it like the Browns did," volunteered Young Jeff, +squirting his quid accurately to the center of the hearth. "Be around +borrowing my car in two or three weeks, run up to Mountain City for to be +married, then give a big party upstairs here, and nobody the worse off +for anything." + +Everybody nodded and grinned. Douglas sat on a pile of mail order +catalogs smoking, his hat on the back of his head, his eyes thoughtful. +"Anybody know how Jimmy's been behaving to-day?" + +Frank Day laughed heartily. "I rode up there this morning after I heard +the news, friendly like, of course. Grandma had Jimmy out in the yard, +washing baby dresses, while she stood in the door giving him what for. +Jimmy was dribbling cigarette ashes over the suds but he sure was game. +He grinned and got red when he saw me. 'I'm the hen-peckedest damn fool +in the Rockies,' he says." + +There was a roar of laughter. + +"What was Charleton doing?" asked Young Jeff, wiping his eyes. + +"I found him in the corral. He'd slept in the alfalfa stack and he wasn't +quoting poetry. I didn't stay with him but a minute." + +Again there was laughter. + +"Big Marion will calm him," said Peter. + +"I know one thing," exclaimed Douglas. "None of us will be saying the +things to Charleton we've been saying behind his back." + +"We sure won't," agreed Frank. "I suppose Judith's all broke up, poor +little devil!" + +Douglas nodded. + +"I saw her and Inez hobnobbing in the Rodmans' corral to-day," said Young +Jeff. "She'd better cut Inez out." + +Douglas stared at the familiar faces around the room as if he never +before had seen them. Peter, thin, melancholy, his long sinewy throat +exposed by his buttonless blue shirt; Frank Day, big and keen of eye, +squatting as usual against the wall; Young Jeff, ruddy and heavy-set, +with his kind blue eyes and heavy jaw. All clean shaven, all in chaps and +spurs, all good fellows, and all as helpless before the nameless mystery +of life as Doug himself. The sweat started to his forehead. He rose, +pulling on his gloves. + +"It's early yet, Doug," said Peter. + +"I'm going to call for Judith," replied Douglas. He went out into the +night, whistled to Prince, mounted the Moose and galloped across to the +west trail. + +It was sharp and frosty but Inez and Judith, in mackinaws, were sitting +on the back steps with a little fire of chips at their feet. Douglas +dismounted and came into the fireglow. The light caught the point of his +chin, his clean-cut nostrils, and the heavy overhang of his brows. + +"Ready to come home, Jude, old girl?" he asked. + +"Sit down and talk to us a little, Douglas," suggested Inez. + +Douglas hauled up a broken wagon seat and sat down. Prince crawled up +beside him and went to sleep with his head and one paw on Doug's knee. + +"I suppose congress was sitting at the post-office, to-night?" said +Judith. + +"Yes. Everybody's strong for you and Little Marion." + +"I don't see why I should be bunched with her. Not that I care though!" +Judith tossed her head and then dropped her chin to the palm of her hand. + +"I swear some one ought to give John Spencer a good thrashing!" exclaimed +Inez. + +"Don't worry!" Judith spoke through set teeth. "I'll be even with him +some day." + +"I just as soon try to lick him," said Doug. "But what good would it do?" + +The three sat in silence for a moment; then Douglas asked suddenly, +"Inez, do you believe that poetry about the Fire Mist that you taught +Judith?" + +"No; but I think it's a beautiful poem, just the same." + +"Say it all for me, will you, Inez?" + +Inez, in her soft contralto, repeated the lines. + +"And you don't believe it?" Douglas' voice was wistful. "Don't you wish +you did?" + +"I don't know as I do," replied Inez. + +"But don't you see," urged Douglas, "that without believing it, there's +no meaning to anything?" + +"Well, what of it?" asked Inez. + +"I'm the kind of a guy that has to see a purpose to things, I guess," +replied Douglas, heavily. "Peter is dead right. Lost Chief is a rotten +hole." + +"It's a rotten place for women and a paradise for men," stated Judith +flatly. + +"Never was any place in the world more beautiful," mused Inez. "If you'd +just see the beauty all around you, Doug, you'd do without the religion." + +"I do see the beauty," replied Douglas. "I've been seeing it ever since +you told me to look for it. But it just makes me blue." + +"You're no cowman, Douglas," Inez spoke thoughtfully. "You ought to go +East to college and get into politics or something!" + +Douglas shook his head. "I'm like Charleton. I couldn't leave these hills +and plains for anything the East has to offer me." He rose slowly, and +Inez stared up at him. Tall, slender, straight, his young face a little +strained, a little wistful, he was to the older woman something finer +than Lost Chief knew. + +"Judith," she said suddenly, "you're an awful fool!" + +Judith grunted, immersed in her own troubles. + +"Come, old lady," said Douglas. "We must get home." + +"I'm going to stay all night with Inez." + +"No, you're not, Jude," said Douglas quietly, and he stood waiting. + +"Let her stay, Doug. She'll be all right," urged Inez. + +"No," replied the young rider, with the familiar straightening of his +chin. "Come, Judith!" + +The tall girl rose, shrugged her shoulders, and followed slowly to the +corral after Douglas. Inez did not move and shortly they trotted away, +leaving her alone in the firelight. + +The next day, sullenly enough, John ordered Doug to make the horses ready +for the round-up. Frost had set in and he suddenly announced himself as +fearful lest snows catch the herds high on the mountains. So Douglas +and Judith spent the day bringing in several stout horses from the range. +On the morning following, before breakfast was finished, Scott Parsons +hallooed from the corral. The family went to the door. + +Scott was leading Sioux and Whoop-la. + +"Found these in the old Government corral up on Lost Chief Mountain," he +said laconically. + +"I suppose you're going to get something worth while from Dad for this!" +cried Judith passionately. + +Scott looked at the girl curiously. "You sure are crazy, Jude! Do you +suppose I'd help John Spencer do you like that? John's a blank-blank and +he knows it." + +Douglas moved to stand by Ginger's head. + +"No man says that to me without a grin." John drew his gun. + +"Jude!" said Doug sharply. He reached up and seized Scott's hand and with +a sudden twist relieved him of his six-shooter. + +Judith struck up her father's arm and a shot scattered dust from the sod +roof of the cabin. John smacked Judith on the cheek. She threw herself on +him like a fighting she-bear. John dropped his gun to seize her wrists +and Mary promptly picked the weapon up and gave it to Douglas. + +"Now," said Doug, when Judith stood panting like a young Diana, her eyes +black with anger and excitement, "if you two men want to fight, take your +fists and go to it!" + +John suddenly grinned, his eyes on Judith. "I don't see anybody spoiling +for a fist fight but Judith. You little lynx-cat! You get handsomer every +day!" + +"I'd hate to let a woman make putty of me like that," sneered Scott. "Let +me have my shooting-iron, Doug." + +Douglas had broken the revolver and unloaded it. He gave it back, +receiving the lead ropes of the two animals in return, and Scott trotted +away. + +"I'm much obliged to you, Scott!" shrieked Judith. "I'll ride up and tell +you all about it, some day." + +Scott waved his hand but did not look back. John, still holding Judith's +wrists, suddenly drew her to him and kissed her full on the lips. Then, +with a laugh, he freed her and returned to his breakfast. Douglas swore +under his breath and turned the uneasy Sioux and Whoop-la into the +corral. The day went forward as if nothing had happened. + +That night, Charleton and John appeared at the post-office gathering for +the first time since the birth of Little Marion's baby. Only Peter had +the intrepidity to comment on recent events. + +"I didn't want Judith to go alone with you to Mountain City, John," he +said. "But, all the same, that was a rotten deal you gave her." + +"She's a disobedient little hussy," John's voice was truculent, "and it +was the only way I could get at her." + +"You mean the fight she put up to help Little Marion?" demanded Peter. + +"O, dry up, Peter!" exclaimed Charleton. "Me, I'm sick of the sound of a +woman's name. They're all alike, ungrateful minxes." + +"Ungrateful is the word," agreed Peter grimly. "But I'd like to know just +what Marion was under obligation to you for?" + +Charleton did not reply. + +"When are they going to be married?" asked Peter, after a moment. + +"First of the month. We'll give 'em a party up here in the hall that Lost +Chief will never forget. John, do you ride to-morrow?" + +"Yes, Charleton. Everybody's reported but you." + +"I'll be there. Start from your place, as usual?" + +John nodded, and the rest of the evening was given over to a discussion +of details of the round-up. + +The fall round-up was always a long and arduous affair. The cattle were +scattered all through the ranges covered by the Forest Reserve. Slowly +and with infinite labor and skill, they were sought out and herded down +into Hidden Gorge Canyon, below Fire Mesa. Thence, they were driven to +the plains east of the post-office, where the riders cut out their own +cattle. + +The weather held for two weeks, star-brilliant at night, with the low of +mother-cows separated from their calves from mountain to mountain, with +the crisp wind bringing down the frosted leaves of the aspens, and at +noon the hot dust swirling up from the horses' hoofs into the sweating +faces of the riders. + +Perhaps thirty men rode in the Lost Chief crowd. The work was more or +less solitary by day, but at night over the camp-fires, there was society +enough. Douglas enjoyed it all to the very tips of his being. He was +coming now into the great strength that belonged to his height and could +do his full share of the heavy work. He had thought that, rolled in his +blankets, under the stars, he would find inspiration that would help him +solve the problem of life. But long before the camp-fire was low, he +would drop into slumber that ended only when his father shook him at +dawn. + +When the round-up reached the plains, the women set up a camp kitchen and +served hot meals. The weather this year held clear to the last day, when +a blizzard swept down from Dead Line Peak and the last of the cutting out +was finished in blinding snow. Douglas and John, after putting the last +of their yearlings into the cut over fields, staggered into the warm +ranch kitchen half-perished with the cold. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +WILD HORSES + +"If I could believe in God and a heaven I'd ask nothing more of life +except a good-saddle-horse." + +_--Charleton's Wife_. + + +And so another long winter was upon Lost Chief. It was much like other +winters for Douglas except for the fact that he began systematically to +trap for pelts. It was a heavy winter and game was plentiful, with pelts +of exceptionally fine quality for which there was a good market in St. +Louis. Douglas worked hard and began the accumulation of a sum of money +which he planned to use eventually to start his own ranch on the old +Douglas section, which was to be his when he came of age. + +But although to the young rider the money earned seemed the main aspect +of the winter's work, the important result really lay in the deepening it +gave to his appreciation of the beauty and mystery of this mountain +valley. + +Lost Chief was lovely in the summer with its crystal glory of color on +hill and plain. But Lost Chief in winter was awe-inspiring in its naked +splendor. Dead Line Peak and Falkner's Peak, barren save for the great +blue snows and for the black shadows that crept up and down their +tremendous flanks, were separated from each other by a long, narrow, +slowly rising valley. Down this valley rushed a tiny brook whose murmur +the bitterest weather could not quite still. Along this brook grew +quivering aspens, and beside it coyotes kept open a little trail. Along +this trail, Doug set his traps, as well as up on the wall of the +mountains where lynx-cats and wolverine were hid. + +Each day at noon, mounted on the Moose, with Prince at heel, he rode the +circuit of the traps, seldom reaching home until long after supper was +cleared away. There were days when, on leaving the ranch for the long, +bitter-cold ride, it seemed to Douglas that he never could come back +again, that the pain of living in the same house with Judith in her +girlish indifference was to be endured no longer. The primitive intimacy +in which the family dwelt made every hour at home a sort of torture to +him, a torture that he did not wish to forego yet that he scarcely could +endure. One cannot say how much of Douglas' self-control was due to +innate refinement, how much to expediency, how much to the male power of +inhibition when fighting to win the love of a woman. + +But, whatever the cause, Douglas was developing a power of self-control +possessed by no other man in the valley. It made him, even at eighteen, a +little grim, a little lonely, a little abstracted. And he rode his traps +like a man in a dream. He thought much, but not constantly, of Judith; +though she perfumed all his thoughts. For the most part he pondered on +the blank mystery of life and on the enigma of love, which to him seemed +far more productive of pain than of joy. Little by little, he found +himself eager to get into the hills. Quite consciously he left the ranch +each day with the thought that when he reached the crest of old Falkner's +lower shoulder, where his lynx trap was set, and beheld the unspeakable +strength and purity of the far-flung ranges, to whose vastness the Lost +Chief peaks were but foothills, he would find a wordless peace. + +And thus the winter slipped away and blue-birds dipped again in the +spring beyond the corral. And again alfalfa perfumed the alkaline dust +that followed the birds into the Reserve; and then again, frost laid +waste the struggling gardens of high altitudes; and for another winter +Doug followed traps, varying the monotony by getting out pine-logs for +his ranch house. + +The winter that Judith was twenty and Douglas twenty-two was one of the +most severe ever known in Lost Chief country. It was preceded by a summer +of drought and the alfalfa and wild hay fields failed. Feed could not be +bought. Steers and horses died by the score. Doug did little trapping. +He and his father spent the bitter storm-swept days fighting to save +their stock. By March they were cutting young aspens and hauling them +to the famished herds to nibble. Coyotes moved brazenly by day across +the home fields, stealing refuse from the very door-yards. Eagles +perched on fence-posts near the chicken runs. Jack-rabbits in herds of +many score milled about the wind-swept barrens, gnawing the grass already +cattle-cropped to the roots. The cold and snow persisted till mid-April, +and even then Lost Chief was only beginning to thaw on its lower northern +edge. + +It was a winter of tremendous nerve strain. There had been little +opportunity for the neighbors to get together, and the battle with the +cold never ceased. John Spencer, always at his best when great physical +demands were being made upon him, came through the winter better than +Douglas, whose profound restlessness was beginning to tell even on his +youthful strength. It was almost as much of a relief to Doug's family as +to Doug to have Charleton Falkner insist, late in April, that Doug go on +a wild horse hunt with him. + +It was like the opening of a prison door to the young rider. He had dwelt +within himself too much, had seen too much of Judith, had been too deeply +perplexed by his own relation to life. He resolved that during the week +they were to be out on the hunt, he would not once permit himself a +serious thought. + +They left Charleton's ranch early one morning, driving a sheep wagon +which trailed four saddle horses. On the tail-board of the wagon were a +bale of alfalfa and several bags of oats, for which Charleton had scraped +Lost Chief to the bottom of its bins. + +The snow was running off the trail in roaring streams. There was +brilliant sun. Magpies dipped across the blue. Charleton drove while +Douglas lay across the bunk, his spurred boots resting on an embroidered +sofa cushion which he had purloined from Mary for lack of a pillow. He +lay thus all day, except at meal time, neither man caring to talk. All +day long, they pushed north, over the hills, each hill and valley lower +than the last. When they made their night camp, the snows were gone. The +next day, too, they pursued ever-dropping trails, that disappeared toward +noon, leaving Charleton to find his way through barren hills that were +criss-crossed only by antelope and coyote tracks. At mid-afternoon, from +the crest of one of these hills they beheld a winding, black river with a +flush of green along its borders. They covered the miles to this at a +trot and made their camp beside the rushing waters. The eager horses +almost rended harness and halter in their desire to taste the budding +grass around the sage-brush roots. + +They carried food and fodder only for a week, so they dared allow but two +days for the actual hunting. At dawn they had finished breakfast and were +riding up into the rolling hills to the west. Brown hills against a pale +blue morning sky, then a sudden flood of crimson against a high horizon +line. Against this crimson, a row of grazing horses! + +"We'll separate now," said Charleton. "Do like we always do. Pick out one +horse and ride him down. They will be awful soft after such a winter. +Don't get side-tracked from one horse to another. They'd kill the Moose +off at that. He's getting pretty old for this kind of thing. I'll see you +at camp to-night." + +Douglas dropped into a valley which twisted under the hill where the wild +horses were grazing. Here he dismounted and, leading his horse, began to +snake his way upward through the sage-brush which covered the hillside. +When he was within a hundred yards of the herd, he paused. There were +fifteen horses, of every kind and color. Douglas selected a jet black +mare with a wonderful tail and mane. Then he turned to mount. Charleton, +at this moment, appeared on the far side of the hill. The Moose nickered, +and the herd tossed heads and broke. + +The mare dropped over the east side of the hill as if she had been shot. +Douglas turned the Moose after her and they hurled down the steep slope +with thundering hoofs. For some moments, the Moose sought to turn hither +and yon as different horses flashed across his vision. But Doug held him +to the black mare, and once the Moose realized that she alone was their +quarry Douglas was able to give almost all his attention to watching her +strategy. + +She did not show fight nor did she double on her tracks. Fleet as a bird, +she flew over the hills, dropping into canyons, leaping draws, jumping +rock heaps, until little by little she drew ahead of the Moose until she +became no larger than a black coyote against the yellow hills. But +Douglas would not allow the Moose to break from his swift trot. As long +as he could keep the mare in sight he was content. + +The sun was sailing high and the Moose was winded when the mare, +cantering painfully along the ridge of a hill, stumbled and fell. She +was up again at once but her gait slowed, perceptibly. In less than a +half-hour Doug was within roping distance of her. As the lariat sung +above her head, she half turned, gave Doug a look of anguished surprise, +leaped sideways and disappeared up a crevice in a canyon wall. Douglas +spurred the Moose in after her. They were in a little valley, thick +grown with dwarf willow. The mare was not to be seen. + +Now began a search that persisted till the Moose's sturdy legs were +trembling. Douglas threaded the valley again and again. There was no exit +save through the one crevice by which they had entered. He had all but +concluded that the mare had been swallowed up by the earth when he found +her trail, turning up the south wall. He spurred the Moose upward, and +there in a clump of cedars he found her hiding. With a laugh he again +twirled his rope and it slipped over the tossing black head. As the Moose +turned and the rope tightened, the mare gave a scream that was like that +of a human being in dire agony. For a moment she dragged back, then, +head drooping, trembling in every muscle, she followed in. + +Dusk was falling when Douglas made the camp. Charleton already had +started a fire in the little cook-stove. He came out and examined the +mare as well as the failing light and her extreme timidity permitted. + +"She's a beauty, Doug. Don't believe she's over four years old. Any brand +on her?" + +"No. From the looks of her hoofs, I'd say she'd been born with the herd. +What luck did you have, Charleton?" + +"None at all. I took after a young stallion and he wore my horse out. I +know where he's bedding down to-night and I'll get him to-morrow or shoot +him." + +"You'll get him," said Douglas. + +Charleton chuckled. "Nice thing if the mare is all we bring in. Make some +coffee, Doug. The biscuits are baking. I could eat one of Sister's +coyotes to-night." Charleton jammed another sage-brush knot into the +little stove. + +They were off at dawn. Douglas rode this day a young bay horse he had +recently broken and named Pard. But though Pard was strong and willing, +he lacked the skill of the Moose in running this rough country, and by +noon Douglas was obliged to give up the pursuit of a dapple gray he had +selected. He was far out on the plains when he made the decision to turn +campward. To the distant south, in the Lost Chief ranges, a snowstorm was +raging; but Pard and Douglas were dripping with sweat, under a sweltering +sun. Strange, thimble-shaped green hills, dotted the plains about them. +Douglas drew up at the base of one of these to rest his horse. Scarcely +had he done so when a tiny herd of antelope trotted casually round the +neighboring hillock. They halted, sniffed, and turned, but not before +Douglas had drawn his saddle gun and fired at the leader. The creature +went lame at once but disappeared with his fellows among the green hills. + +Douglas followed and shortly found a spot of blood that was repeated at +irregular intervals for a mile or so. Pard was grunting now, but Douglas +rowelled him and pushed on until he saw the antelope kneeling in the lee +of an outcropping of rock. It struggled to its feet and fell again, its +beautiful head dropping against its crimsoned breast. + +"Wonder if I can get you home alive to Judith?" said Douglas. + +After a moment of thought, he loosened his lariat, swung and roped the +antelope around the horns, dragging it from its futile sanctuary. Then +he dismounted and removed the lariat. The antelope bleated but lay +trembling, making no attempt to rise. Douglas examined the shattered +shoulder. + +"You poor devil!" he said. "Even if you weren't hurt so badly, you'd die +of fright before I could get you home. Well, of course I'm sorry venison +is out of season, but a man must eat!" He put his gun to the delicate +head, and an hour later Pard was snorting under a gunny-sack of venison. +Douglas lighted a cigarette and, whistling gaily, started once more for +camp. + +But this, if not a day of what Lost Chief would call real adventure, was +at least to be a day of episode. About mid-afternoon Doug heard the +tinkle of a sheep-bell. He was not surprised, for he knew that he was +well within sheep country. He followed the tinkle and came shortly to a +wide draw where moved a mighty gray mass of sheep. The herder, on a bay +horse, responded to Doug's halloo with a wave of his hand. Douglas made +his way round the edge of the draw and waited for the herder, who rode +slowly up to meet him. Then he stared at the stranger's gray-bearded face +with the utmost surprise. + +"Mr. Fowler!" he cried. "What are you doing out here?" + +The older man, in shabby blue overalls and jumper, a black slouch hat +pulled over his eyes, smiled grimly. + +"You have the advantage of me, young man. I don't remember your face." + +"I'm glad you don't!" replied Douglas. "But I've always wanted to tell +you I sure-gawd was ashamed of myself. I was the kid that made you +trouble at Lost Chief seven or eight years ago." + +Fowler's blade brows met as he studied the young rider's frank face. + +"So you are!" he said slowly. "So you are! Well, I'll never have that +kind of trouble again. Have you eaten? I'm late about dinner. Fact is, I +get careless about my meals, living alone!" + +"No, I've been out after wild horses and don't plan to eat till I get +back to camp ten miles yonder on the creek." + +"Better break bread with me," suggested the preacher. + +"That's sure white of you. I don't mind if I do." Douglas returned Mr. +Fowler's grim look with one of wistful curiosity. + +The preacher silently led the way to the sheep-herder's wagon which +perched on the peak of a hill above the draw. "I don't have much to offer +you but beans," he said as they dismounted. + +Douglas looked from the blood-stained gunny-sack to the clergyman's +deep-set eyes, hesitated, then said, "Beans are good and the sheep-man's +staple." He followed into the wagon and sat on the edge of the bunk while +Fowler prepared the frugal meal. + +"Do you mind telling me," asked Doug, "why you are herding sheep instead +of folks?" + +"I couldn't earn a decent living herding folks. My wife died. I took +anything that offered that would take me away from men and their accursed +ways. There was something about sheep-herding that made me think of Jesus +Christ and the country round about Bethlehem. I have found a kind of +peace here." + +Douglas cleared his throat. "How long have you been at it?" + +"A couple of years." + +"How was it you couldn't earn a living, preaching?" + +"It's an age of unfaith," replied the preacher. + +"I don't believe it's, an age of unfaith." Douglas puffed slowly on a +cigarette. "That is, not like you mean. That Sunday, if you'd given us +something we could have set our teeth in, we'd have listened to you. +I remember distinctly, I sat down in the back of the room, saying to +myself, 'Now if this old-timer has something interesting to say, I won't +let the kids in.' But you--excuse me, Mr. Fowler--you just got up and +bleated like a Montana sheep-man." + +The preacher set the coffee-pot on the stove, straightened himself, and +shouted, "I spoke the word of God!" + +"I don't know whether there's a God or not. Probably there isn't any. +But if there is, I'll bet He never talked foolish threats that a fellow +has hard work to understand." Mr. Fowler gasped. "Now wait a moment," +protested Douglas. "Don't get mad and throw me out like I did you! I'm a +man now, and I tell you, Mr. Fowler, I'm troubled about many things and I +want you to let me talk to you." + +The beautiful, sympathetic light of the shepherd of souls shone in the +clergyman's eyes. "Talk on, my boy! I too am troubled about many things. +But not about God. I know Him." + +"How do you know Him?" + +"By His works, the sun, the stars, the universe, through His holy word, +the Bible." + +Douglas waved his hands irritably. "Words! Just words! How can they mean +anything to a hard-headed man like me? Everything came out of a fire +mist. How do you know it was a mind made that fire mist? Why couldn't it +have been a--a--Christ, what could it have been?" Douglas paused with +lips agape with horror as he gazed on the evil of the universe. + +Fowler motioned the young rider to a seat at the table. "God bless our +food and give us understanding," he said. Then he served Doug and sat +staring thoughtfully at his own coffee-cup. "Were you ever in love?" +he finally asked Douglas. + +"Yes." + +"Did she love you?" + +"Not that I can find out!" + +"Does she know that you love her?" pursued the minister. + +"Yes, I told her so." + +"But," said Mr. Fowler, "love isn't something you can put your teeth in. +How can she believe you?" + +"Because, I'm something she can put her teeth in! Believe me, Mr. Fowler, +if God once convinced me He was real, I'd believe anything He told me. +Just give me facts. That's all I want." + +"The universe is a fact." + +"Yes, but the universe being a fact doesn't prove there's any hereafter. +Hang it, Mr. Fowler, can't you preachers get it through your heads that +what people want you to prove to them is that there is a hereafter? +That's all there is to your job. Prove that and you can lead us round by +the nose. But if you can't show us that the soul doesn't die, there is no +meaning in anything, and we might as well be like we are in Lost Chief." + +"What's the matter with Lost Chief?" Mr. Fowler's smile was grim. + +"Peter Knight says it's that we have no ethics. Inez Rodman says it's +that we don't know beauty when we see it." + +"Inez Rodman? O, that woman of the Yellow Canyon! If there were a +minister in Lost Chief, she wouldn't be in the Valley." + +"O, I don't know! Religion doesn't seem to affect her kind, anywhere. But +Peter says we'd ought to have built a church along with the schoolhouse. +I don't see myself how the kind of Bible stuff you teach could help a +hard living, hard thinking kind of people like us." + +"Did you ever read the Bible, Douglas?" asked the preacher. + +"I've tried to. If you ask me to read it like it was only more or less +true history, I could get away with it. But when you tell me it's the +actual word of God and show me a picture of God in long white whiskers +and a white robe, why you can't get away with it, that's all. I know that +nothing like that ever produced Fire Mesa or Lost Chief Range or--or +Judith." + +Mr. Fowler groaned. "Douglas, you are blasphemous!" + +"I'm not. I'm just unhappy. I think I was meant to be a religious guy. +I'm of New England stock and they all depended a lot on religion. But I +just can't swallow it." + +"And you never will as long as you take the point of view you do. You +must wipe your mind clear of all you have read and thought, for God says +that unless we become as little children, we cannot believe. Religion is +not a matter of knowledge and reason. Religion is a matter of hope and +faith." + +Douglas sat turning this over in his mind, his yellow hair rumpled, his +clear eyes, with the sun wrinkles in the corners, fixed on the far snowy +gleam of Lost Chief Range. + +"Hope and faith," he repeated softly. + +There was a shout from without. "O, you Doug!" and Charleton rode up at +a gallop. He stopped before the open door. "I've been trailing you for +two hours. I got three horses penned up in a draw and I need your help. +Hello, Fowler! What the devil are you doing out here?" + +"Come in and have a bite of grub, Falkner," exclaimed the preacher. + +"Don't care if I do!" Charleton threw a weary leg across the saddle and +dismounted. Douglas, who had finished his meal, returned to the bunk and +Charleton took his place. + +"Kind of funny to find you and Doug eating together," said Charleton. + +"He should have given me a swift kick," agreed Douglas. "Instead, he fed +me." + +"That's sound religion, isn't it?" asked Mr. Fowler, pouring Charleton a +cup of coffee. + +"It's sound hospitality, anyhow," replied Charleton. + +"Aw, any one would admit Fowler lives up to his faith," expostulated +Douglas. + +Charleton glanced at the young rider in surprise. "What's happened to +you, old trapper?" + +"Nothing. Only I wish I had the same religion he's got." + +"So's you could herd the sheep?" asked Charleton. + +"So's I could have peace," retorted Douglas. + +"Peace? What does a kid like you want of peace? Anybody that can't find +peace in Lost Chief is a fool." + +"I'm no fool!" contradicted Doug, with a growing irritation at Charleton +for interrupting his talk with Fowler. "And where is there a peaceful +person in Lost Chief?" + +"Douglas," said Charleton, "when you are as old as I am you'll realize +that Lost Chief is as near heaven as man can hope to get. A poke of salt +and a gun on your saddle, a blanket tied behind, a good horse under you, +the Persian poet in your pocket, all time and the ranges before you, and +what more could mortal man desire?" + +"A woman, you've always said before," grunted Douglas. + +"I was holding back out of respect to the sky pilot," laughed Charleton. +"But since you mentioned it, there's Inez, who's always ready for a +trip." + +Mr. Fowler shot a quick look at Douglas, who again grunted indifferently +and rolled a cigarette. + +"Are you and Douglas partners, Falkner?" asked the preacher. + +"Once in a while. Why are you herding sheep, Fowler? This herd yours?" + +"No. They belong to a Denver man. I'm herding because I couldn't keep a +church together." + +Charleton nodded. "The day of the church is over." + +There was silence during which Charleton devoured beans, Douglas smoked, +and the preacher sat with his eyes on the slow moving herd. + +Finally Charleton said, "And why do you think something is the matter +with Lost Chief, Douglas?" + +"In other parts of the country," replied Douglas, his blue eyes fixed +unwaveringly on Charleton's dark face, "among people of our kind and +breed, a girl like Judith couldn't run with a girl like Inez and be +considered decent. And a couple like Jimmy and Little Marion couldn't +have a party a week after they were married, the baby attending, and be +considered O.K. by the so-called best folks and nothing more said." + +Charleton's face grew darkly red. "Who told you that?" he asked in an +ugly voice. + +"I'm not a fool, as I've told you before. And as you very well know, +I've wanted Judith for my wife ever since I was a boy and I haven't +wanted her man-handled. And you know, as Jude said once, a girl has about +as much chance of staying straight in Lost Chief as a cottontail has with +a coyote pack. She's good because, well, because she's Judith, that's +all. Now, I tell you when things are as hard as that for a young girl in +a beautiful place like our valley, there's something wrong. And look at +Little Marion!" + +"Leave her out or you'll regret it," snarled Charleton. + +"I'm not afraid of you, Charleton," said Douglas, with indifference not +at all assumed. "Little Marion is a peach of a girl. She should have been +a big influence. She's--she's had a wrong start." + +"She's got a fine baby and a good husband." + +"I never could argue with you, Charleton. But I know Lost Chief is a bad +place for girls. Why, I'll bet there isn't a finer bunch of girls than +ours in the world, for looks and nerve and smartness. Peter says he's +never seen any that could touch them. And take the stories you read. +Where's a heroine like Judith?" + +There was something so simple and so earnest in Doug's manner and voice +that the red died out of Charleton's face and he said, "I'm with you on +that point, Douglas." + +"Peter told me once," Douglas went on, "that the Greek race was the +finest in the world in their minds and their looks and in every way, +until the Greek women got promiscuous. That as soon as that happened the +race began to decay. And he said that there isn't a nation in the world +any stronger than the virtue of its women." + +"How old are you, Douglas?" asked Mr. Fowler. + +"Twenty-three. I just want to say this one thing more, then I'm through. +When things like that happen to Jimmy and Little Marion, they aren't +doing the right thing by Lost Chief, and"--rising with sudden restless +fire--"I'd like to see Lost Chief be the kind of place my grandfather +Douglas wanted it to be!" + +Charleton yawned. "We'd better be moving along." + +"Don't go for a minute," pleaded Mr. Fowler. "Douglas was right when he +said that the whole world is hungry for a belief in immortality. And as +long as the world exists it will have that hunger. And religion is God's +answer to that hunger. Civilization without religion is the body without +a soul. Religion brings a spiritual peace that man perpetually craves and +that riches or women or horses or the hunt never brought and never can +bring. At heart, there's not an unhappier man than you, Falkner. Why? +Because you have no belief in immortality." + +"Great God, Fowler, how can I believe in it when I can't?" shouted +Charleton. + +"Exactly! How can you?" returned Fowler, deliberately. "No foul-minded +man ever yet had an ear for the word of the living God." + +Charleton jumped to his feet. "What do you mean, you bastard cleric, +you!" + +"Aw, come off, Charleton!" exclaimed Douglas. "I've learned more dirt +from you than I bet Judith ever has from Inez. Come on, let's go get the +horses. Thanks for the grub, Mr. Fowler." + +"You are very welcome. Don't go away angry with me, Falkner. If I called +you foul-minded, you called me by a foul name." + +"I guess we're even," agreed Charleton. "I'm obliged to you for the +meal." He swung out of the wagon, mounted his horse and was off, Douglas +following. + +Charleton had hobbled his capture of horses in a little draw, several +miles from the sheep camp. In the excitement and hard work of herding the +creatures into the camp and re-hobbling them, there was no opportunity +to discuss the visit with the preacher sheep-herder. Nor did Douglas +wish to bring the matter up when, long after dark, they sat down to their +supper of venison and biscuits. He kept Charleton firmly to the story of +his capture of each horse and when this was done and the dishes washed, +he went to bed. + +But long after Charleton had crawled in beside him, Doug lay awake +thinking of Judith and of the preacher. He wondered what influence a +man like Fowler would have on a girl like Judith. He wondered if Judith +would come out with him to call on the preacher. He thought it highly +improbable. And then he thought of Peter and what Peter might have said +that day had he and not Charleton interrupted Doug and the preacher. For +the thousandth time, he thought of Peter's love for his mother and he +wondered how his mother had kept herself fine as Peter said she had. +Perhaps she had had some sort of religious faith. + +"I wish Grandfather Douglas had put the church up with the schoolhouse," +he said to himself. "Maybe it would have saved Judith as well as Scott +Parsons." + +Then he gasped. An idea of overwhelming importance had come to him. He +lay for an instant contemplating it, then he crept from the bunk and the +sheep wagon into the open. It was a frosty, star-lit night. The river +rushed like black oil, silver cakes of ice grinding above the roar of the +current. The Moose was munching on a wisp of alfalfa. Douglas saddled him +and led him softly out of hearing of the wagon, then sprang upon his back +and put him to the canter. + +Two hours later, Douglas was banging on the door frame of Fowler's +sheep-wagon. + +"It's just me, Douglas Spencer," he replied to the preacher's startled +query. "I had to come over to ask you something." + +A light flashed through the canvas. Then the door opened. "Come in! Come +in! Light the fire while I pull my boots on. This is like the days when I +was saving souls and marrying couples." + +Douglas quickly had a fire blazing and pulled the coffee-pot forward. He +pushed his hat back on his head and the candle-light threw into sharp +relief the firm set of his lips. His six-shooter banged on the bench as +he sat down and put one spurred boot on the hearth. The preacher perched +blinking on the edge of the bunk. Through the canvas came the endless +restless movement of myriad sheep. + +"Mr. Fowler," said Douglas, "I own some land that came to me from my +mother when I was twenty-one. If I build you a little church on it, will +you come to Lost Chief and live there and preach? I'll be responsible +for your wages." + +Fowler's face was inscrutable. "Why do you want me to come, Douglas?" + +For the first time, Doug's voice thickened. "I want you to help Lost +Chief and to save Judith." + +"Tell me about Judith." + +Douglas hesitated, then he asked, "Catholics have a thing they call +the confessional, haven't they? Well, it's a good idea if the chap they +confess to is the right kind. I don't believe a word of your religion +and yet I have a feeling that you are the right kind. Judith! She's +twenty-one now. I'm six foot one. She's about two inches shorter. Weighs, +I guess, fifty pounds lighter. Finest gray eyes you ever saw. Red cheeks. +Her mouth used to be too big, but now it's perfect. Rides and breaks a +horse better than any man in the Valley, bar none. Loves animals and can +tame and train anything. A great reader." + +Douglas paused. + +"She sounds very attractive. What's the trouble?" asked the preacher. + +Douglas twisted his hands together. "You know who Inez Rodman is. Well, +she is Jude's best friend! And she has formed all of Judith's ideas about +love and marriage." + +"Yet you say Judith is straight?" + +"She sure-gawd is! But how can it last? She's restless and discontented +and Inez is brilliant, feeds Judith's mind." + +"Has her mother any influence over her?" + +"None at all." + +"How about her father?" asked the preacher. + +"Of course, he's only her foster-father. She likes him and she hates him. +He certainly couldn't help her." + +"And you are sure there is no hope in Judith's mother?" + +"O she's just broken, like a patient fool horse. Good as gold, you know, +but with about as much influence over Jude as a kitten. Judith hasn't any +one to tie to, not any one. Peter is all right but he jaws too much. She +hasn't any one." + +"Doesn't she care for you?" + +"She says she's fond of me. Fond of me! I'd rather she hated me. I'd as +soon have a dish of cold mush from a woman like Jude, as fondness." + +"And do you think I could influence Judith?" + +"I don't know. But I want you to try. And it isn't all Judith with me. I +love Lost Chief. I never want to live anywhere else. And I'd like to see +it the kind of a place my grandfather Douglas wanted it to be. No, it +honestly isn't all for Judith, though she's the beginning and the end of +it." + +There was something almost affectionate in the preacher's deep-set eyes +as he watched Douglas. + +"Do you realize, my boy, what you are asking? When you bring a preacher +into Lost Chief, you are going to rouse an antagonism against yourself +that will astound you. These people are of New England stock. There is +no more intelligent stock in America, nor stock that is more conceited, +more narrow, more obstinate, nor more ruthless. And the farther a New +Englander gets from religion, the more brutal his virtues become. If you +take me into Lost Chief, you are going to start a depth of strife of +which we cannot foresee the end." + +"I hadn't thought of that," said Douglas. He rested his chin on his +palm and eyed the glowing stove thoughtfully. "I guess you are right," +finally; "nothing makes Lost Chief folks so mad as to have some one hint +they aren't perfect." Then he chuckled. "It'll be a real man's fight. I +wonder what Jude will say! Are you afraid, Mr. Fowler?" + +"Afraid? Yes! I'm not as young as I was once and I am not over-anxious +for such a struggle. But this thing isn't in my hands. If ever the +Almighty showed Himself a directing force, He is showing it here. This +is what He ordained from the day you drove me out of the schoolhouse. +Do you remember what I said to you?" + +"You quoted the Bible, I think. I don't remember what it was." + +"I said, 'Ye shall find no place to repent you, though ye seek for it +with tears.'" + +Douglas murmured the words over to himself. His face worked a little. +"It's true! It's the living truth!" he exclaimed unevenly. "Not that I've +got anything to repent--" he hesitated. "What is repentance? What is +life? Where is God, if there is a God? What does it all mean, anyhow?" + +The preacher said slowly, "'There is a Divinity that shapes our ends, +rough hew them as we will.' That's what it all means. When shall you be +ready for me, Douglas?" + +"I think the fall would be best. Suppose we say right after the round-up. +I'll look for you on the twentieth of September." + +"That will suit me. I can then give my boss ample notice." + +"What pay will you want, Mr. Fowler?" + +"Just enough to feed and clothe me. We'll arrange that after we get a +church established." + +Douglas rose with a broad grin. "I sure-gawd have let myself in for +something now," he said. "But I'll take care of you, Mr. Fowler." + +"All right, young Moses," returned the preacher, smiling into Doug's +eager face. "Good-night." + +Charleton was still sound asleep when Douglas at dawn lay down beside him +and slipped into dreamless slumber. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +THE LOG CHAPEL + +"Don't take any responsibility that you don't have to. That's my idea of +a happy life." + +--_Young Jeff_ + + +By eight o'clock the next morning they had broken camp and had started +homeward, with their kicking, squealing herd of wild horses. The little +black mare alone led docilely. It was a difficult trip back to the +valley and Douglas was grateful for this, for it kept Charleton from +airing the cynical comments Douglas knew he was evolving in regard to +the preacher. And Douglas was filled with a new purposefulness that was +almost happiness. He did not want Charleton to obtrude himself upon this +new-found content. + +They reached Lost Chief late one afternoon and Douglas found himself and +the trembling mare at home in time for supper. The family came out to +the corral to examine the prize. + +"She's got some mighty good points," said John; "but I doubt if you'll +ever be able to do anything with her. She's wild. And she'll die of +homesickness for the range. Once in a while you see 'em like that." + +"She has an intelligent eye." Judith was going over the horse eagerly. + +Douglas smiled a little. The range horse, with its slender, hard-muscled +beauty, was no finer drawn than Judith circling carefully about the +corral, the wind whipping her black hair across her thin, vivid face. + +"I don't believe she'll eat with us all watching her," said Mary. "Let's +go in to our own supper." + +"She'll have to eat pretty soon or give up." Douglas followed Judith +into the kitchen. "She hasn't eaten a pound since I caught her." + +"Poor little thing!" exclaimed Judith. + +At supper Douglas gave the details of the hunt, which were greeted by +the family with considerable hilarity. + +"One no-account horse to show for a week's hard work!" laughed John. + +But Douglas was not perturbed. + +"I don't mind," he said. "Wild horses was the least of what I went after +and, as it turned out, the least of what I got. I met Mr. Fowler." + +"The old preacher?" exclaimed Judith. "Where was he?" + +"He starved out at preaching and is herding sheep down in the Green +Thimble country. He fed Charleton and me and we had a long talk." + +"You had nerve to eat with him after what you did to him!" John was +grinning. + +"I felt that way myself," agreed Douglas. "But he didn't hold a grudge +against me. He's not that kind. And I think he was so lonely he'd have +been glad to feed the Old Nick himself." + +"Who is he herding for?" asked Mary. + +"Some one in Denver. He's going to give it up in the fall." + +"What for? Got a church?" John was still grinning. + +Douglas nodded slowly. "Yes, he's got a church." + +"Did he tell you where?" asked Mary. + +"Yes; it's in Lost Chief," replied Douglas. + +"Lost Chief!" roared John. "What are you giving us?" + +"I'm giving it to you straight. I asked him if he would come if I'd +build him a little church up on my part of the ranch and he said he +would." + +There was a stunned silence while the audience of three considered this +reply. Judith eyed Doug intently, then said, "I bite! What is the joke, +Douglas?" + +"No joke. I asked him to come. I want to hear what he has to say." + +"What did Charleton say about it?" asked Mary. + +"Charleton doesn't know. I certainly wouldn't give him a chance to spoil +the trip." Douglas tossed the thick yellow hair from his forehead and +waited for his father's comment. He could not recall ever having carried +on a more difficult conversation than this. There were beads of sweat on +his upper lip. Old Fowler had warned him of the antagonism he would +meet. And here it was. The air was black with it before a hundred words +had been spoken. + +John scratched his head. "You mean you actually asked that old fool to +come here and preach in Lost Chief?" + +Douglas nodded over a piece of pie. "Only," he added, "he's not a fool. +Far from it. We may not agree with him, but he's a wise man. A very wise +old man." + +"And you are going to build a church for him?" John went on. + +Again Douglas nodded. + +"Are you plumb loco?" John's voice began to rise. + +Douglas' color was deepening but he had himself well in hand. "Maybe I +am loco. But it can't hurt any one to have Fowler here, can it?" + +"I guess he won't stay long enough to do any actual harm!" Judith +laughed. + +"He's going to stay quite a spell," returned Doug. "I'm going to see +that he does." + +"But everybody will make fun of him and of you too," volunteered Mary. + +"Probably," agreed Douglas. "But even at that I doubt if they have as +much fun as I do. My sense of humor is my strong point!" + +"Huh!" sniffed Judith. "You'll need more than what you have, Douglas, in +this campaign." + +"Look here, Doug," urged his father with an obvious effort to be +patient, "just what is the joke?" + +"Now listen, Dad! It's not a joke. I'm in deadly earnest. I haven't got +a particle of religion in me but I'm interested in that line of talk to +see if I can discover what other folks get out of it. Peter Knight is +not a fool. He knows the world and he says Lost Chief needs a church. +All right, it's going to have one." + +"Peter Knight is some advocate, all right!" growled John. "He's always +saying he had a religious up-bringing, and look at him! Fourth-class +postmaster in a cow valley!" + +"I don't suppose his religious up-bringing had a thing to do with that," +said Douglas. + +"Then what's the good of a religion?" John's voice was triumphant. +Douglas said nothing and his father went on. "You'll be the +laughing-stock of the Valley. You can let on you won't care, but I know +you will." + +"Yes, I'll care," admitted Douglas. "But that can't be helped. It seems +to be a part of the game." + +"Well, he can't come to this house!" roared John. "I wouldn't have one +of that breed on the place. Mind you keep him off this ranch, Doug." + +"I expected you to say that." Douglas' jaw was set. "That's why I plan +to build him a cabin up on my section. Grandfather's old cabin isn't +worth fixing up." + +He did not look at Judith as he spoke. Had he done so he would have been +puzzled by the wistfulness in her eyes. + +"I sure wonder, Doug," said John irritably, "where you get your crazy +notions!" + +"He's exactly like his grandfather Douglas!" exclaimed Mary. + +"His grandfather Douglas!" cried John. "Why, the old man would kick the +stones off his grave if he knew what his grandson was up to. He used to +boast that he came West just to get rid of the Presbyterians and the +Allopaths. Nothing he hated like a sky pilot!" + +Douglas rose and shrugged his shoulders. "Well," he said, "if I'm as +popular with the rest of the Valley as I am with my family, I'm liable +to have my head turned before this thing is over," and he went out to +attend to his chores. + +As he paused by the corral fence to watch the little wild horse standing +motionless over the untasted hay, Judith joined him. + +"Looks as if Dad might be right about her," he said. + +"I'd like to try my hand at her, Douglas." Judith's voice was eager. + +"You may have her, Jude. I was hoping to bring you in two or three, but +Fate said otherwise." + +"I'm much obliged to you, Douglas," said Judith soberly. "You are always +mighty generous--" She hesitated for a moment. "I wish you weren't going +in for this thing with the preacher, Doug." + +"O well, let's drop the matter!" said Douglas wearily, and without a +word further Judith turned away. + +The next morning at breakfast, John was irritable and would not let the +subject of Fowler's coming rest. + +"What did Charleton say?" he asked. + +"Charleton doesn't know," replied Douglas, patiently. "He wasn't there +when I talked it over with the preacher." + +"I'll bet he wasn't or you never would have gotten away with it," +growled John. + +"Sure! I'm a nervous man about Charleton," grinned Douglas. "Come now, +Dad! Why should you be sore at the idea?" + +"Lots of reasons! I hate a man who thinks he's enough superior to me to +tell me how to behave. And I feel sore as a pup that my son should be +bringing such a man into the Valley. All the folks will say you are +criticizing them. I'm not going to let you do it, Douglas!" + +Douglas gave a short laugh, which was echoed by Judith. + +John grew red. "My father would have thrashed me when I was a grown man +if I'd laughed at him like that!" + +"O well, look at the man he was!" chuckled Judith. + +"Don't you speak that way to me!" roared John. "The children of this +generation certainly are a bad lot! But one thing you two will remember. +I'm master of this house and as long as you stay here you'll obey me! +And you just let me hear you telling anybody, Doug, of your crazy plan +and you'll learn for the first time what I am!" + +"Then you won't help me put up my buildings?" asked Douglas. + +"Not for the use of any fool preacher!" shouted his father. + +Douglas lighted a cigarette and went out. For the first time a sense of +disappointment marred the beauty of the plan he had perfected with the +preacher. He realized now that he had counted on Judith's being +interested even were she antagonistic. But she was indifferent. He would +have preferred that she be resentful like his father. There was nothing +tangible there to struggle against. One could neither fight nor urge +indifference. Then he set his jaws. Judith should see! He knew whither +he was going now. He had found the fine straight line of which Peter had +spoken, long ago, and he would hew to it, at whatever cost. And Judith +could not, must not fail him. If only he knew the things she really +thought! His jaw was still set as he watched the little wild mare, now +ceaselessly circling the corral fence, her face to the hills. Judith +crossed to the bars and Douglas turned away. + +There still was too much frost in the ground for spring work on the +ranch and it would be a month before the cattle could be driven up into +the Reserve. It was during this month that Douglas had planned to put up +two cabins on his ranch, one for the church, the other for himself and +Fowler to occupy. He had accumulated a sufficient number of logs to more +than supply his needs and he had counted on his father's help in +erecting the buildings. He wondered now if Peter would help him, and old +Johnny Brown. That afternoon he rode down to the post-office. + +Peter was breathlessly interested. "You'd better keep it quiet, Doug, +till the old man gets here," he said. "If you get old Johnny up there, +don't give him an inkling." + +Douglas nodded. "Then I can count on you, Peter?" + +The postmaster eyed the young rider keenly. John Spencer had never been +the man his son had grown to be! + +"Do you mean count on me for the plan or the cabins?" asked Peter. + +"Both!" + +"Yes, you can, Douglas! I don't know whether the plan is a good one or +not. But I'm delighted to see you taking a step like this. It's +gratifying to me, Doug. It is indeed; and I know your mother would have +been delighted." Peter's voice broke, and he said harshly, "Now, get +along, Doug. I've got to sort the mail." + +For the first time that day, Douglas' lips wore a little smile. He +whistled to Prince, who had grown too lazy of late to propitiate Sister +as he had in his younger days and who was keeping that growling old +Amazon at her distance by snapping at her viciously. Prince lunged over +to Pard's heels and Doug started off for his call on Johnny Brown. + +"I deponed I'd come, didn't I?" asked old Johnny. "It's been a gregus +long time and I'm only half-muscled as well as half-witted now. But I'll +come. I'd help you build a cabin in hell if you wanted me to. Honest, I +would, Doug." + +Douglas did not laugh. "Thanks, Johnny! Then I'll look for you +to-morrow." + +"I deponed I'd come, didn't I?" repeated the old fellow, and he was +still deponing when Douglas started homeward. + +Peter inveigled Young Jeff into taking the post-office for a couple of +weeks. Post-office keeping did not accord at all with the ideas of +pleasant living of the native-born of Lost Chief. Undoubtedly if Peter +had not offered his services year after year there would have been, a +great part of the time, no post-office in the Valley. But Peter had +means of his own with which to piece out the salary and for some +inscrutable reason he clung to the sort of prestige he enjoyed in the +community as a Federal employee. His friends always protested violently +at substituting for him, but always gave in, fearful lest Peter carry +out his threat of giving up the job. So he appeared at Douglas' ranch, +bright and early, bringing a graphic account of Young Jeff's despair +over a pile of second-class mail. + +Lost Chief Creek bordered one edge of Douglas' acres. Dead Line Peak +pushed an abrupt shoulder into the stream at the northwest corner. Below +this shoulder lay a grove of silvery aspens and of blue spruce, dripping +with great bronze cones. Just above the flood line of the creek, Douglas +trimmed out enough trees from the grove to give elbow-room for the +cabins and corrals. By the end of Peter's two weeks, the heaviest part +of the building had been done. + +On the last day of the fortnight--it had been a very pleasant fortnight +for Peter--he and Douglas dawdled long over their noon meal while old +Johnny began the work he loved, the chinking of the log walls. Leaning +against a log at the edge of the clearing, Lost Chief Valley sloped +below them. A blue line of smoke rose from the Spencer chimney. + +"Dad is sure sore at me this time," said Douglas. "He's hardly spoken to +me for a week." + +"About Fowler, I suppose." + +"Yes. He feels that I am disgracing him. He's sure I'm going to turn +religious. I can't make him believe that that is not why I'm bringing +Fowler in." + +"What is your real reason, Doug?" asked Peter, taking a huge bite of +cold fried beef. + +"I don't want to turn religious. I don't want to be anything that's +queer or unreasonable. What I want is to get to believe--in a future +life." + +Peter laughed. "Isn't that religion?" + +"I don't think so! You can believe in immortality without believing in +miracles and that Eve was made out of a man's rib, and without being +goody-goody." + +Peter made no comment for a moment. He finished his beef and lighted his +pipe before he said, "I have an idea that the kind of a mind that can +believe in the soul's floating around in space can swallow the rib story +without much choking. What I want to see in Lost Chief is the kind of +ethics that Christ taught." + +"Ethics! Ethics!" scoffed the younger man. "Who gives a hang about +ethics if they aren't going to help us live again? You can bet I don't! +Ethics may do for a cold-blooded guy like you, Peter. But me! I want +something as big and as real and as warm-looking as Fire Mesa." + +"Poor old Fowler!" groaned Peter. + +Douglas glanced at the postmaster questioningly; then his eyes wandered +back toward the ranch house. A tiny figure in blue leaped on a horse and +was off at a gallop. + +"Judith's going to Inez' place," said Douglas. + +"She sees too much of Inez!" Peter scowled. "Her mind is getting exactly +Inez' twist to it." + +"There was a time when you told me Inez could give Judith good advice." +Doug's voice was bitter. + +"So she could. But I never said Inez and Jude should be buddies, did I?" + +Douglas threw his cigarette into the creek and rolled over on his face +with a groan. "I'm sick of worrying about it!" he said. + +"Does she still talk about going the round of the rodeos with a string +of buckers?" + +"No. She says that was just kid stuff. She has an idea now she'll breed +thoroughbred horses." Douglas turned over on his back and gazed up into +the heavens, where an eagle hung, motionless. + +"Lord! Breeding horses is no work for Jude!" cried Peter. + +Douglas did not reply. Peter eyed the young man's clean, hawk-like +profile and went on. "What does she say about you and Fowler?" + +"She laughs at me." + +"Do you think you can get her in touch with Fowler?" + +Douglas sat up with a jerk. "Get her in touch with him? Say, what do you +think I'm bringing that sky pilot in here for? You can bet she'll get in +touch with him! I'll show that girl I haven't played all my cards yet!" + +Peter stared long and unblinkingly at Douglas. "Well, I'll be damned!" +he muttered and filled his pipe again. + +The summer passed for Douglas with extraordinary rapidity. Profiting by +the experience of the previous winter, every rancher put in as heavy a +grain crop as he could handle and there was little leisure in the Valley +during July and August. Lost Chief was, of course, immensely interested +in Doug's building operations. He was accused of planning to be married +and conjecture ran rife. When he began work in the interior of the log +chapel, he hung burlap bags over the windows and locked the doors. But +his precautions were futile. By the middle of June, every ranch in the +valley was talking about Douglas Spencer's motion-picture hall and +wondered why he was building it so far from the center of the +community. The truth came out in an entirely unexpected manner. + +About a week before he expected the preacher, Douglas rode down in the +evening for his mail. Peter had gone to Mountain City on a rare visit +and Young Jeff was acting as postmaster again. Scott Parsons was helping +him sort the mail and it was Scott who fell upon a battered suitcase, +tied with frayed rope. + +"What's this mess?" he exclaimed. "Let's see this tag." He shoved the +suitcase close to the lamp. "'The Rev. Mr. James Fowler. Care of Douglas +Spencer.'" Scott looked up with an oath. "What do you know about this!" +he gasped. + +Douglas, standing with his back to the cold stove, said nothing. + +Young Jeff dropped the handful of letters he was distributing, and +examined the tag for himself. "Old Fowler, eh? Thought he was dead long +ago. What's he coming to see you for, Doug? Going to preach--" He paused +and his eyes grew round. "Doug's motion-picture theater! The sky pilot! +That cabin is a church!" + +Scott gave a gasp, followed by a shout of laughter. "How about it, +Doug?" + +Douglas grinned. + +"What are you doing, Douglas? Starting a ranch for broken-down sky +pilots?" asked Young Jeff. + +Still Douglas made no reply. He strode over to the table and put his +hand on the suitcase. + +"Hold on!" protested Scott. "Answer a few questions. What are you trying +to put over on us, Douglas?" + +"You'll know, pretty soon," answered Doug. + +"Well, you always were loco but I never thought you'd get real +dangerous, till now!" exclaimed Young Jeff. "Listen, don't try to put +that guy over on us, Doug!" + +Scott stood eying Douglas with a mixture of curiosity and impatience in +his hard eyes. He had just parted his lips to speak when the door opened +and Charleton and Jimmy came in. + +"Look at here, Charleton!" roared Young Jeff. "Look at the address on +this bag!" + +The two newcomers scrutinized the tag. "Well," said Jimmy, "I'll be +everlastingly dehorned, vaccinated and branded!" + +Charleton's mouth twisted. "So the old fool got you, Doug! You've got +hard nerve, that's all I have to say!" + +"Nerve! I'll say so!" cried Scott. "What's the great idea, Doug? Going +to bring Lost Chief up to your level, huh?" + +Douglas' cheeks were burning. He jerked the suitcase from the table and +started for the door. + +"Believe me, cowman," called Scott after him, "you and the sky pilot +have laid out a course of trouble for yourselves." + +Douglas paused with his hand on the latch. "You are a pack of coyotes!" +he said and he slammed the door after himself. + +And so the secret was out! Nothing that had occurred in the Valley for +years had stirred the ranchers so deeply. There was much joking and +derisive laughter but beneath this was a sense of resentment that grew +day by day. Grandma Brown, Peter of course, and Frank Day were +sympathetic to the idea. Some of the older women wondered if it might +not be a good thing in giving the young fry a place to go on Sundays. +But the young fry, with huge enjoyment not untinged with malice, planned +to run the preacher out of the Valley in short order and to mete out +such treatment to Douglas as would prevent his making a like fool of +himself again. + +Douglas had set up housekeeping in the new cabin now, and on the night +before he expected Mr. Fowler, Judith rode up to see his new home. Old +Johnny had gone down to the post-office and Douglas finished his supper +and was sitting on the doorstep when Judith galloped up, with the Wolf +Cub under the heels of her mount. + +"This is my first real ride on the little wild mare," she said, dropping +from the saddle. + +"Has she gotten over her homesickness, yet?" asked Douglas. + +"I think so. At least, she follows me around about as close as Wolf Cub +does." + +"You are a wonder, Judith! I wish you thought as much of me as you do of +your horses and dog." + +"You wouldn't let me train you, Doug," said Judith plaintively. + +Douglas laughed. "A whole lot you'd think of a man you could train!" + +Judith laughed, too, sitting down on the step beside Douglas. For a +moment she was silent, then she said softly: "How you must love it up +here!" + +"I do! But I'll be glad when old Johnny can be with me all the time. I +don't like this bachelor stuff." + +"You and Scott ought to join forces," Judith's voice was mischievous. +"By the way, Scott's heard of a standard bred mare he can get me for +five hundred dollars." + +"I wouldn't trust Scott to pick a horse for me," grunted Douglas. + +"And you'd be foolish if you did," agreed Judith. "But he'll play fair +enough with me." + +"He will if it's to his interest to do so. If he can make anything off +you by being crooked, he'll be crooked. But I suppose there's no use in +me warning you. Have you got the money for the mare?" + +"Only half of it. All the stock I've been able to raise and sell in the +last five years amounts to about two hundred and fifty-six dollars." + +"I'll lend you the rest," offered Douglas. + +"Dad said he'd let me have it, and so did Inez. But I'd rather borrow +from you." + +Douglas flushed with pleasure. "Had you, Judith? Tell me why!" + +"I don't like to be under obligations to Dad; and Inez' money--well, I +don't feel keen about her money. As for you--Doug, it's queer, but I'd +just as soon ask you for anything. I don't know whether it's a +compliment to you or not." + +"I consider it a compliment," said Douglas softly. "I had no idea you +had that sort of confidence in me." + +"O, I'm not such a wild woman that I don't know a real man when I see +one, Doug,--even if you are making an idiot of yourself just now! You +should have planned to be more tactful about bringing your old sky pilot +in here." + +"Tactful! What a word!" exclaimed Douglas, "For heaven's sake, Jude, +don't you get the idea better than that? This is a matter of--" He +hesitated, at a loss for a moment for a word that should tell Judith +something of the yearning conflict that obsessed him. "This is a +battle," he said finally, "a fight to the finish for--for--" then he +blurted out the word that in Lost Chief was taboo--"for souls!" +exclaimed Douglas. + +Judith looked at him quickly; but to Douglas' vast relief she did not +laugh. Instead, her eyes were deep with some emotion he could not name. + +"I don't think I understand you, Doug," she said at last. "I couldn't +get so worked up over anything that had to do with religion. But I do +see that it means a lot to you and I think you're foolish to trust to a +man like Fowler to put anything over in this valley for you." + +"You don't know my old sky pilot like I do," insisted Doug. + +"Yes, you must have got a deep knowledge of him in one night!" + +"I sure did!" said Douglas simply. + +"You are sure that you realize how bitterly the Valley resents your +doing this?" + +"Yes. And the Valley had better realize, if it plans trouble, that I'm +neither soft, nor easy." + +"I just wish you weren't trying to do it," repeated Judith. + +"What do you want me to do?" asked Douglas. + +"Why, be a first-class rancher, make money, and travel and learn +something about life." + +"That's what I plan to do. But I want to do more than that. I want to +fix Lost Chief so that a couple of kids like you and me don't have to +learn all they know about real things from a woman like Inez and a man +like Charleton. And if a sky pilot can answer those questions right, why +I'm going to have one in here if I have to mount guard on him, day and +night. My kids are going to grow up right here in Lost Chief and they +aren't going round like little wild horses when it comes to asking +questions about love and death. No, ma'am!" + +"Oh! What does old Fowler know about such things?" cried Judith. + +"That's what I aim to find out," replied Doug. + +Twilight was up on the valley, though Falkner's Peak still glowed +crimson in outline, and the Forest Reserve to the east was silver blue, +shot with lines of flame. The evening star trembled above Fire Mesa. Up +on Dead Line Peak behind them, a pack of coyotes barked. + +"We miss you down at the house," said Judith suddenly. + +Douglas' heart suddenly lifted. There was a sweetness in Judith's voice +that he never before had heard there. + +"I miss you, Judith! Every moment of the day I'm missing you. The ache +for you in my heart is as much a part of my life as my very +heart-throbs." + +"I wish you wouldn't, Douglas! I wish you wouldn't! I'm not ready to +talk of those things!" + +"What do you mean, Judith?" + +"I mean that I don't see love as you see it; that even if I did care for +any one, I'm not ready to give way to it." + +She paused as if she too were struggling to express the inarticulate. +"O, I am so disappointed in life! It isn't at all what I thought it +would be! People aren't what I dreamed they were. Everything is hard and +rough and difficult. I don't like life a bit!" + +"I don't like it as it is, either," agreed Douglas. "That's why I'm +trying to change it, here in Lost Chief. But I wouldn't change my love +for you, no matter how it hurts. That's the one beautiful thing in Lost +Chief and in me." + +He turned to the face, so dimly rebellious, so vaguely sweet in the +dark, and his whole soul was in his steady deep voice. + +"Judith, won't you marry me? You are my whole life!" + +Judith's voice rose passionately. "Don't talk about it! Don't! I don't +believe in marriage. I tell you I don't, Douglas!" + +"Why not?" + +"I've told you again and again. Marriage is too hard on a woman. Why +should I want to cook your meals and darn your socks and wash your +clothes for you the rest of my life? Yes, and listen to you swear and +lay down the law and spit tobacco juice? And when I'm a little older and +beginning to get knotty with the hard work, see you take notice of girls +who are younger and prettier than I. No, Doug!" + +"O, love isn't like that!" exclaimed Douglas vehemently. + +"My love won't be like that, I can tell you!" The excitement still was +evident in Judith's voice. "I'm not going to kill it, by marrying." + +"I wish that Inez were dead and in hell!" cried Douglas, with such an +accumulation of bitterness in his voice that Judith drew a quick breath. +"And I wish I could quit loving you! I tried my best to, all the time I +was at Charleton's. But I can't! It just grows as I grow and every day +it's a bigger pain and trouble to me. I wish I could have peace!" + +"I wish I could have it myself!" ejaculated the girl. She rose suddenly. +"I'm so tired of this burning struggle. But I won't settle down to being +an old horse on a ranch. I will do something that gives me a chance to +use my brain. I will!" + +She leaped into the saddle. + +Douglas seized the mare's bridle. "Just what do you mean by being tired +of a burning struggle?" he demanded tensely. "Are you caring for +somebody, Jude?" + +"Let me go, Douglas," said Judith. + +For a moment, the two stared at each other in the fading light, then +Douglas released the bridle and Judith galloped away. + +He stood very still for a long time, gazing down the dim line of the +trail. How lonely, how very lonely Judith appeared to be! How lonely, +for that matter, were most people, pondering in the solitude of their +own minds on all the matters of life that really counted. And how +utterly impossible it seemed to be for him and Judith to cross the +threshold of each other's reticences. More difficult perhaps for Judith +than for him. That, perhaps, was because she did not love him. Or +perhaps, because she was not capable of feeling sympathy for spiritual +hunger. But he put aside this thought, impatiently. No one could have +lived with Judith and not have learned that below her tempestuous nature +must be deeps greater than even she herself had realized. Why, O why, +could he never have more than a glimpse of those deeps! Evidently +something more than love was demanded as a password. + +He had been able, quickly enough, at her request to formulate his own +demands on life. What were Judith's demands? Were they only for a love +that should be unhampered by the ordinary facts of life? He knew that +this could not be so. Yet, he had grown up with Judith, had asked her to +marry him, and had no idea of what her actual mental and spiritual needs +might be. Perhaps they were such that he never could satisfy them. +Perhaps Judith recognized this. Of course, she recognized it!--as a +bitter memory of her picture of marriage in Lost Chief returned to him. +With a groan he bowed his head against the smooth trunk of an aspen. How +utterly inexplicable women were! How bitter and how beautiful was this +scourging fire, called love! + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +THE FIRST SERMON + +"I ain't able to think. That's why I'm pretty generally happy." + +--_Old Johnny Brown_. + + +By dawn the next morning Douglas was half-way up the trail to the Pass. +He did not know at what hour the preacher would arrive, but he did not +propose that the old man should enter Lost Chief without his protection. +When he reached the crest, he unsaddled the Moose and settled himself +against a gigantic jade rock beside the trail and prepared to wait +patiently. + +The sun lifted slowly over the unspeakable glory of the ranges and +poured its glory down upon the Pass, then swung westward, leaving a +chill shadow beside the rock where Douglas was camping. It was +mid-afternoon when the stage came through from the half-way house. Old +Johnny Brown was driving. + +As he pulled up the horses for a rest, he saw Douglas and smiled +delightedly. + +"Waiting for me, Douglas?" + +Douglas shook his head. "I came up to meet a friend, Johnny." + +The little old man stared at Douglas; then he said fretfully, "I don't +see why Grandma Brown had to go and make me drive the gregus old stage +for a week. I deponed to her that I had to get up there and take care of +you. When that preacher comes, you'll need me, Doug. There's lots of +trouble brewing, boy." + +"What kind, Johnny?" + +"They always shut up and look rejus when I come round. But I know enough +to sabez that bunch even if I am a half-wit." + +"I'm not so sure you are a half-wit, Johnny," said Douglas sincerely. + +The old man's face brightened. "That's just the way I feel about it too, +Douglas. You're the only person in the Valley understands me. You could +have my shirt, Doug." + +Douglas nodded. "You get through with the stage as soon as you can, +Johnny. Tell Grandma I expect you on Monday." + +Johnny clucked firmly at his team. "I'll be there. Nothing can't propone +me," and he was gone in a cloud of dust. + +It was an hour later that the preacher rounded the curve to the crest. +Douglas threw the saddle on the Moose and Fowler pulled up his bony blue +roan in surprise. He was thinner and grayer than ever and his blue +jumper was patched with pieces of burlap. But his eyes were bright as he +shook hands with Douglas. + +"I'm the Committee on Welcome!" said the young rider. + +"How long have you been waiting for me, Douglas?" asked Fowler. + +"Since daybreak. I couldn't be sure when you'd come. And I didn't want +you to come into Lost Chief alone." + +"Are you expecting trouble immediately?" asked the preacher. + +"Well," replied Douglas frankly, "the folks are just about as +enthusiastic as if I were bringing a Mormon into the Valley. And I just +don't aim to give them a chance to start anything till we get a little +bit settled." + +The old man's jaw set, under his beard. "Humph! They'll find the Lord +and me both ready for them. I have an idea they are going to be +surprised before they are through with this." + +Douglas nodded and they rode down into the Valley. When they trotted +past the post-office, the usual group was gathered on the steps. Doug +and the preacher nodded but did not draw rein. Old Sister came out +sedately and growled at Prince, but Peter did not leave the doorstep. + +"What's your hurry, old-timers?" shouted Jimmy Day. + +"A long way to go," called Douglas. + +"Your hazer needs a shave!" said some one else. + +"We'll do it for him Sunday!" cried another voice. + +"Oil up your cannon, Doug," laughed Charleton, "and unchain the dogs of +war." + +Douglas trotted sedately on. + +"I wonder why it is! I wonder why!" said Fowler, very real pain in his +voice. + +"They think we're criticizing them," answered Douglas; adding, with his +pleasant grin, "which we are!" + +It was dark when they reached Douglas' ranch. Before they had unsaddled, +Fowler insisted on lighting a lantern and inspecting the chapel. +Douglas, not at all adverse, for he was very proud of this work of his +hands, followed the old man in his microscopic inspection of the little +building. It was small and dim, with a smell of new cedar. To Douglas, +already there was something hallowed about the quiet interior as if +somehow the yearning with which he had builded it had given the +insensate wood a curious high purposefulness. + +Fowler examined the benches and sat for a moment on several of them. He +flashed the lantern along the carefully chinked walls, the rose tints of +the cedar glowing warmly back at him. He walked slowly up and down the +center aisle and paused before the platform, on which was a table and +chair. For a long time he stood with one hand on the table. Then he +said: + +"It's beautiful, Douglas! Beautiful! A chapel for me! Built by a young +man that has faith in me. Wonderful! And built with such free-hearted +care! For me to preach in! Why, a minister of a great metropolis might +well envy me such a gift!" + +He paused again, turning the lantern so that the tapestried colors of +the walls again flashed forth. + +"Stained glass!" half whispered the old man. "Already it has the air of +a church. Douglas, we'll consecrate it now." + +He knelt before the platform and Douglas bowed his head. + +"O God, my Father and my Shepherd," said Fowler, "You have led my +wandering steps to this fragrant evidence of a young man's heart. How +beautiful it is, O God, and how holy, You know. Help me to keep it so, +Heavenly Father, and help me to make Lost Chief find it so. And, O God, +put Your great arm about this young man and keep it there until he +realizes that it is Your arm supporting him. I thank You, O Everlasting +Mercy, for leading me to this resting-place for my soul. Amen." + +And it seemed to Douglas, bowing his head in the dusk, that the chapel +itself was listening in a brooding peace. + +After a moment, the old man rose and led the way out the door, which +Douglas locked, then turned the key over to the preacher. + +"It's yours, now," he said with a little, embarrassed, laugh. "I'm only +the guard." + +Fowler put the key carefully into his pocket. "If anything should +happen to that chapel, it would break my heart," he said. + +"We mustn't let anything happen to it. That's our job," returned Douglas +stoutly. + +The next morning, Saturday, Douglas left the preacher while he went down +to his father's place for his day's work. He was as nervous as a mother +with her first baby all day and he galloped the Moose back up the trail +long before sunset. When Mr. Fowler waved at him from the door of the +cabin, he gave a gusty sigh of relief. + +While Doug was cooking the bacon for supper he asked the preacher what +was to be the subject of the morrow's sermon. + +"I was going to preach on the Golden Rule," replied Mr. Fowler. + +"No," said Douglas decidedly. "You give 'em a talk on the hereafter and +why you think there is one." He lighted a cigarette and cut more bacon. + +"Young man, are you presuming to dictate to me how to preach the word of +God?" + +"I sure am!" grinning with the cigarette between his white teeth. "I'm +in this thing up to my horns and I don't aim to make any false moves +that I can help. I've been reading the New Testament this summer. So +far, the most I've got out of it is that Christ was the most diplomatic +preacher that ever lived. Let's be as diplomatic as we can. What's the +use of preaching slush to a lot of sensible, hard-thinking folks who +don't believe in anything." + +The preacher bit his knuckles and took a turn or two up and down the +cabin. Douglas noted with a little sense of pity the extreme thinness of +the rounded shoulders under the denim jumper. Douglas dished the bacon +and put a loaf of Mary's bread beside the fried potatoes. + +"Show us that our souls go marching on like old John Brown's," said the +young man, persuasively, "and you'll have all Lost Chief eating out of +your hand." + +"You talk of faith," cried Fowler impatiently, "as if it were a problem +in algebra." + +Douglas hesitated. "Maybe I do." His voice suddenly trembled. + +Fowler paused as he was about to seat himself at the table. "I hear a +horse!" he said. + +Douglas went to the door. + +"It's just me!" called Grandma Brown's voice. "Come and help me down. I +was up to see your mother this afternoon," she went on as Douglas helped +her dismount, "and I thought I'd come along up and have a visit with the +preacher." + +"That's fine!" exclaimed Douglas. "Come in, Grandma. We're just drawing +up to the table." + +"Good," sighed the old lady; "I'm half starved. Howdy, Mr. Fowler! +Haven't had enough of Lost Chief yet, huh?" + +The preacher rose and shook hands. "Not yet, Mrs. Brown! Will you draw +up?" + +The old lady plumped down at the table and Douglas, loaded her plate and +poured her a cup of coffee. "The older folks," she said abruptly, "won't +make you any trouble. Charleton Falkner and some of his pals will be +smarty, but the young fry will sure try to break up every meeting you +have." + +"The modern youngster is pretty rough!" sighed the preacher. + +"Here in Lost Chief," agreed Grandma promptly, "they are the most +rough-and-tumble, catch-as-catch-can batch of young coyotes that ever +lived. They don't respect God, man, nor the devil. And why should they? +That's educated into children, not born into them." + +"How do you feel about my coming back, Mrs. Brown?" asked Fowler. + +Grandma hesitated; then she said, "I'm too old to be polite, James +Fowler. I'm a religious woman, myself, and I've often said we'd ought to +have a church in Lost Chief. But it isn't men like you can start a +church here. You are too religious and too goody-goody." + +The preacher winced. Douglas came to his rescue. "We're going to show +Lost Chief that he's not goody-goody." + +Grandma shook her head. "I wish you luck, but, with all the nerve in the +world, you can't preach to them that won't hear." + +"Do you know what deviltry they've planned for to-morrow?" asked +Douglas. + +Grandma shook her head. "All I know is, Scott Parsons is the leader. He +sees a chance to get back at you." + +Douglas finished his bacon thoughtfully. "All right," he said finally; +"let 'em come. I'm waiting." + +"Well," said Grandma briskly, "I didn't come up here to give advice. I +wanted a gossip with an old-timer. Mr. Fowler, you was up in Mountain +City when that Black Sioux outbreak took place. Did you know Emmy Blake, +she that was stolen by old Red Feather?" + +"Yes," replied Fowler, with a sudden clearing of his somber face. "I saw +her when--" and he plunged into a tale that, matched by one from +Grandma, consumed the evening. + +At nine o'clock the old lady rose. + +"I'll ride down the trail with you," said Douglas. + +"You fool!" sniffed the old lady. "Since when have folks begun nursing +me over these trails?" + +"That's not the point," returned Doug. "I want to see Peter." + +"Well, come along, then," conceded Grandma. She pulled on her mackinaw +and buttoned it. The nights were very cold. + +The next morning, a placard on the post-office door announced to Lost +Chief that a meeting would be held in the log chapel on Sunday at two +o'clock; and by that hour every soul in Lost Chief capable of moving was +packed into the little cabin. + +After his talk with Peter, Douglas had changed his program. The +postmaster, not the preacher, sat at the table. He wore a black coat +over a blue flannel shirt, a coat that Lost Chief never saw except at +funerals or weddings. His denim pants were turned up with a deep cuff +over his riding-boots. The preacher sat on a chair, just below the +platform. Douglas occupied a rear pew where he could keep an eye on +Scott Parsons. There was very little talking among the members of the +congregation, but much spitting of tobacco juice into the red-hot stove. + +Promptly at two o'clock, Peter rose and cleared his throat. "Well, +folks, Douglas says he's trying to put into practice some of the stuff +I've been preaching to him. So I suppose I'm to blame for this meeting. +Now, there isn't anybody can accuse me of being religious." + +"A fourth-class postmaster couldn't be religious," remarked Charleton +Falkner. + +"They always go crazy about the second year of office," volunteered John +Spencer. + +Everybody laughed, even Peter. Then he went on: + +"So when I say I'm going to back Doug up in this experiment you none of +you can say it's because I'm pious. It's because I think Lost Chief +ought to have a church to help the young people decide the right and +wrong of things." + +"How come, Peter?" demanded Jimmy Day. "Ain't the young folks round here +pleasing to your bachelor eye?" + +"To my eye, yes!" answered the postmaster. "Best-looking crowd I ever +saw. But to my mind, no! And there isn't one of you over fifteen who +doesn't know what I mean when I say it. Now, Doug's idea seems sensible +enough to me. He says he'd be happier if he could believe in a life +after death. He says if any preacher can prove to him that the soul is +immortal, he is willing to play the game so as to win that future if it +is proved that you have to follow rules to win it. Folks, if there is +anything sissy about that, I'd like to have one of you rear up and say +so." + +"There isn't a preacher in the world can prove that," said Mrs. Falkner. +"If there was, he'd be greater than Christ." + +"Didn't Christ prove it?" cried Mr. Fowler quickly. + +"No!" replied Mrs. Falkner. "He believed it Himself and He lived like He +believed it, but He didn't prove it." + +Fowler jumped to his feet. "He proved it over and over; by fulfilling +the prophecies, by the miracles He performed and by returning after +death." + +"How do you know He returned after death?" asked Mrs. Falkner. + +"The Bible says so." + +"Nonsense!" exclaimed Mrs. Falkner. "The Bible is just history, most of +it hearsay. And I read in the _Atlantic_ the other day that Napoleon +said that history was just a lie agreed upon." + +"This is blasphemy!" shouted Mr. Fowler. "This is--" + +"Wait!" Peter interrupted with a firm hand. "Every one is to say what +they decently please. You'll never get anywhere in this valley, if you +show yourself shocked by anything anybody says." + +"I don't want to shock the preacher, Peter,"--Mrs. Falkner's beautiful +face was wistful--"I'd like to have his faith. I sure-gawd would! But! I +just want to make him see that to folks like us in Lost Chief who read +and think and look at these hills a lot, the Bible never could prove a +hereafter to us." + +"But the Bible is the inspired word of God," insisted Fowler. + +"Who says so?" asked Mrs. Falkner. + +"The Bible." + +"Good heavens, isn't that childish?" she appealed to the congregation. +"Seems to me only God could prove that and we don't even know He +exists." + +There was silence in the room. Douglas, looking over the backs of many +familiar heads, felt a curious yearning affection for these neighbors +who so far had met his experiment so kindly. Then his eyes turned to the +aspens without the window and beyond these to the far red clouds over +Fire Mesa. The first snow of the season was beginning to sift through +the trees. He wished that he had the courage to ask Mrs. Falkner what +she thought of Inez' poem: + +A fire mist and a planet, +A crystal and a cell-- + +but he would rather have cut out his tongue than repeat the verse before +this audience. + +Mr. Fowler was running his fingers through his beard, glancing +hesitatingly from Douglas to Peter. + +"Well, is it the sense of this meeting," asked the postmaster, "to let +the preacher tell us how he feels about it?" + +"Go to it, old wrangler," said Charleton. "I can spout the Persian Poet +to 'em if you run short of Bible stuff." + +"Baa--a--a!" bleated a small boy in the back of the room. + +"I'm going to give the first young one that makes a disturbance a dose +of aspen switch," said Grandma Brown. + +There was a general chuckle that quieted as Mr. Fowler began to speak. + +"Religion doesn't rest on proof. It rests on Faith. And faith is +something every human being possesses. If you plant a seed, you have +faith that it will produce a plant. No power of yours can bring the +plant. But you have faith--in what?--that the plant will appear. Every +night that you go to bed you believe that a new day will come. You +cannot bring that day but you have absolute faith that to-morrow will be +brought by--what? The stars come nightly to the sky, the moon and the +earth whirl in their appointed places. You have absolute confidence that +they will continue to float in the heavens. On what do you place that +confidence? + +"Friends, I cannot prove to you that there is a God. But if you will be +patient with me, I will give you a faith that asks no proof." He opened +his Bible and began to read. + +"And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life; he that cometh to me +shall never hunger and he that believeth in me shall never thirst.... + +"If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. He that believeth +in me, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.... + +"He that believeth in me, believeth not in me but in Him that sent me. +And he that seeth me, seeth Him that sent me. I come a light unto the +world, that whosoever believeth in me should not abide in darkness. + +"I am the resurrection and the life: he that believeth in me though +he were dead, yet shall he live: and whosoever liveth and believeth +in me shall never die." + +Mr. Fowler paused and closed the book. + +"Words!" said Charleton. "Just poetry!" + +"You are speaking of the living words of the Almighty!" shouted the +preacher. "You--" But he was interrupted. There was a sudden unearthly +uproar of dogs without. The door burst open and old Sister, howling at +the top of her lungs, bolted straight up the aisle to Peter. A can was +tied to her tail. Prince, similarly adorned, and ably seconding his old +friend's outcry, followed her. Several cats, all dragging tin cans, were +flung spitting and yowling through a window. + +Chaos reigned. Douglas seized Prince. Peter grabbed Sister. A dozen +people took after the cats. They were not as easy to capture as the +dogs; and during the progress of the chase, a sudden noxious odor filled +the room. Douglas saw a thick black vapor rising from a bubbling mess on +the top of the stove. The congregation bolted, leaving the field to one +lone cat who climbed the wall to the window and disappeared with a final +yowl. + +There was no attempt to bring the audience back, and shortly the trail +was dotted with riders. But that evening as he sat alone with Douglas, +the preacher was not at all sad. + +"You were right," he said to the young man, "in having Peter open the +meeting. The older people were interested. No doubt they were +interested; and in spite of the mischief that broke us up, I feel as if +a start had been made. It's a rarely intelligent group of people. I +admit that." + +Douglas nodded. "We'll wear 'em down. See if we don't. The kids +certainly put it over on me. I was feeling safe as long as I could watch +Scott and Jimmy, and they had Grandma Brown's grandson doing the work +for them." He chuckled and shook his head. "I just can't head them off +on that kind of work. All we can do, as I say, is to wear them down. And +maybe we can win Judith and one or two of the others, right soon." + +Mr. Fowler sighed. "We can certainly interest some of the older people +for a while with a discussion like we had this afternoon. But not the +young people. Beauty and emotion and mystery must make the religious +appeal to young folks. A church can't exist as a debating society." + +Douglas turned this over in his mind, finally focussing his thoughts on +Inez; she who loved beauty and dragged her emotions in the mire. + +"Mr. Fowler," he said finally, "I'll bet Inez would have been a very +religious person if she'd been started with the beauty and emotion and +mystery!" + +"That's a queer thing to say!" The preacher's voice was a little +resentful. + +Douglas went on as if he had not heard. "But you can't get Judith that +way. She hasn't any emotions except temper and a sense of humor!" + +"There isn't a woman born who isn't full of emotion," said Mr. Fowler, +dryly. "And the deeper they conceal it, the more they have. I think I'll +go to bed, Douglas. I feel as if I'd come through a hard day." + +"Same here," agreed Douglas, and shortly the cabin was in darkness. + +For a day or so the preacher stayed quietly in and about the cabin. He +swept the chapel and cleaned out the stove and polished the windows and +each day made a little fire. Douglas frequently found him there at +night, on his knees. At least once a day he said, "It was a wonderful +thing, Doug, for a young man like you to build me this little chapel, in +my old age." He insisted on grace before meals and a chapter aloud from +the Bible before bed. Douglas was embarrassed but entirely acquiescent. +Mr. Fowler was to have a free hand with his spiritual development. + +About the middle of the week, Judith rode down to the post-office with +Douglas. "Well, how's the sky pilot and his disciple?" she asked. + +"I believe the old boy is almost happy," replied Douglas. "He thinks +that little old church I built is pretty fine." + +"Inez says it looks like a big cow stable." + +"That's nice of Inez. Why didn't she tell me how to make it better +looking?" + +"What does Inez care about it? Honest, Doug, you are making an awful +fool of yourself. A man like Fowler can't preach to us." + +"Why, he never had a chance to preach here yet!" exclaimed +Douglas. "And, what do you expect in a place like Lost Chief, a +ten-thousand-dollar-a-year sky pilot? Besides, I don't want preaching +from him. I want just the one thing like Peter said. And Fowler has that +in him just as strong as the highest paid preacher in the world. Give +him a show, Judith. Come up, every Sunday. You might back me that much." + +"And have everybody in the crowd laughing at me like they are at you? +I won't do anything against the old man, Douglas, for your sake. But +that's all I'll promise." + +"I'm not going to let you off that easy, Jude. Come up to supper +to-night. I won't let him talk religion. Honest, he's as interesting as +a book when he gets to telling some of his experiences." + +Judith shook her head. "I'd rather stay at home with 'Pendennis.'" + +"If I get Inez to come, will you?" urged Douglas. + +Judith grinned impishly. "Yes, I'd come with Inez." + +They returned from the post-office via the west trail and stopped at +Inez' place. She was eating a belated dinner in her slatternly kitchen, +and waved a hospitable hand over the table. + +"Thanks, no," said Doug. "I just stopped by to see if you and Judith +wouldn't come up and have supper with the sky pilot and me. I won't let +him talk religion and he's got some good stories to tell." + +Inez looked Douglas over. He and the tall Judith seemed to fill the +kitchen. Doug finally had covered his big frame with muscles and he was +a larger and handsomer man than his father. + +"Doug," said Inez, "I am truly flattered. What are you trying to do? +Convert me?" + +Douglas answered with simple sincerity. "I don't care a hang whether you +get converted or not." + +"O you don't! Well, just to spite you, I'll come and let the old fellow +try his hand!" + +"Not really, Inez?" gasped Judith. + +"I'd do more than that for Doug and for Lost Chief," said Inez soberly, +"Doug isn't the only person who loves this old hole in the hills." + +Judith turned to Douglas with a sudden wistfulness in her eyes, a +sudden flare of a fire he had not seen in them before. He waited for her +to speak but she only turned away toward the door. + +"I'll look for you about six then, Inez," he said, and he followed +Judith. + +When the girls appeared at the cabin that evening, the table was set and +the steak was frying. Inez and Judith winked at each other when Mr. +Fowler said grace but otherwise the meal progressed decorously enough. +It was Inez who brought up the tabooed subject. They had been sitting +round the stove listening to a tale of old lynch law which the preacher +told with real skill, when Inez interrupted him with entire irrelevance. + +"Mr. Fowler, do you really believe there is such a thing as right and +wrong?" + +The preacher paused, studying Inez' face. Her dark eyes were steady and +thoughtful. Her mouth, except for the slightly heavy lower lip, was +sensitive. Her whole expression was one of pride and independence. + +"Yes, I believe in right and wrong," replied Mr. Fowler, deliberately. + +"What makes you believe that a man who lived nearly two thousand years +ago can decide what is right or wrong for Lost Chief?" she asked. + +"The Bible," answered the preacher. + +"But the Bible is full of things that I would call crooked. Those +prophets were always putting slick tricks over on each other and the +people. There was a lot of dirty work done in the name of the Lord by +those ancient Jews." + +The preacher leaned toward the woman. "Do you believe in right and +wrong, Inez Rodman?" + +"No, I don't. I believe in kindness and in beauty. That's all." + +"How does one believe in beauty?" asked Mr. Fowler. + +"I mean," she replied, "that if you fill your mind with the beauty of +this Lost Chief country and with poetry, there is no room for anything +ugly." + +"What would you call ugly?" + +"Being mean to other people is one kind of ugliness." + +"That's what I believe too," said Judith suddenly. + +"Then, of course, neither of you two would have anything to do with the +attempt to run the preacher out," suggested Douglas. + +"No, I wouldn't," replied Inez; "and I told Scott so. That doesn't mean +that I don't consider you plumb loco, Doug. Mr. Fowler isn't the kind to +make the folks see the beauty of these hills. If he was I'd be helping +instead of indifferent." + +"If the folks would let God enter their hearts," cried the preacher, +"they'd see beauty in these hills they never dreamed of." + +"Well, as far as beauty goes, Inez," Douglas spoke thoughtfully, "you +can't say there isn't considerable of that in the Bible. Take the Songs +of Solomon. There never was finer love-making than that!" + +"The Songs of Solomon don't deal with human passion," said Mr. Fowler +hastily. "They are a recital of man's love for the Almighty and His +works." + +"O, no, Mr. Fowler!" cried Doug. "'Behold thou art fair, my loved one, +behold thou art fair. Thou hast doves eyes within thy locks.' No man +ever said that about anything but a woman." + +No one spoke for a moment. Old Prince, who was lying with his head +baking under the stove, growled and barked, then made for the door. Wolf +Cub barked without, and a dog answered. + +"Sister!" exclaimed Inez. "Peter must be coming." + +Douglas opened the door and Prince shot out. Shortly Peter, then +Charleton, came in, stamping the snow from their spurs and pulling off +their gauntlets. + +"Where did you two come from?" asked Judith, as the newcomers +established themselves on up-ended boxes close to the stove. + +"Just met here," replied Peter. "I had supper at Spencer's and came up +to argue with the sky pilot." + +"I'm setting traps up on Lost Chief," said Charleton, lighting a +cigarette. + +"Look out you don't mistake any of Scott's traps for yours," suggested +Inez. + +Everybody chuckled, and Peter said, "Elijah Nelson was down at my place +yesterday. He's a pleasant, easy spoken man. I guess he and Scott have +been having a lot of quiet fighting up there we haven't heard about." + +"Is that what he came to see you about?" asked Doug. + +"No. It seems his trail out to the Mountain City road is snowed up. He +wants to get his mail over here if Scott will let him use his trail. He +wants me to speak to Scott about it." + +"What Scott will claim," Charleton smiled, "is that he positively must +have a retired location and complete privacy on his trail." + +There was another chuckle, during which the preacher looked from one +keen face to another, but he did not speak. + +"What has the scrapping been about, Peter?" asked Inez. + +Douglas turned quietly to look at her. It suddenly occurred to him that +Inez used Peter's name with a cadence that was new to him. He saw that +she was watching Peter's thin sallow face with a shadow of strain about +her eyes. + +"O it's about a bull again," laughed Peter. "It seems that Scott has an +old red bull that Nelson says is one of his, rebranded." + +"But I thought," began Judith; then she caught Charleton's sardonic eye +and subsided. + +"What did you think, Judith?" asked Peter. + +"Nothing. Go on with your story." + +"There is no story to it. Scott's been keeping a six-shooter guard on +the upper springs of Lost Chief, so's old Nelson hasn't had but half his +usual allowance of water for his ditches. He is sorer about that than he +is over the bull, though he certainly is determined to get the critter +back. But he got small comfort out of me. I told him to keep his plural +fingers off of Lost Chief Creek, or he would lose more than an old red +bull." + +"Right-o!" grunted Charleton. + +"Are you going to ask Scott to let Nelson use his trail, Peter?" asked +Inez. + +"Sure! Why not?" laughed Peter. + +"You will make Scott sore at you," replied Inez. "I haven't any quarrel +with Scott myself, but I know he has a mean streak in him. If he thinks +you are in cahoots with Nelson he will make you trouble." + +"I'm not afraid of Scott," said Peter. + +"Well, you'll need to be if you mix up in his affairs. He holds grudges +over nothing." + +"Awful bad man, Scott!" Douglas spoke with his quiet smile. + +"I'm telling you he is!" insisted Inez. "He's been more than half in +love with Judith for years and he'd just as soon double-cross Jude as +anybody else. I want you to let him alone, please, Peter." + +Peter was watching Judith. Only Douglas seemed aware of the concentrated +entreaty in Inez' voice. "Poor Inez," he thought, "if she's caring for +Peter, she'll be having her own little double Hades for everything she's +done." He looked at Peter. Judith was staring thoughtfully at the stove +and the postmaster's deep eyes were fastened on the girl's fine, +clean-cut features, with a burning fire that suddenly brought Doug's +heart to his throat. + +"What's your opinion of Scott, Judith?" asked Peter. + +"The same as Inez'. But I can't help liking him. He's done me lots of +favors and he's kept me from making a fool of myself a number of times, +even if he did double-cross me once. And he admires me. He certainly +does!" She laughed with girlish naïveté and the others joined her. + +"Then you must like me too!" said Peter. + +"You are a nice old gentleman," retorted Judith. + +Peter's lips closed grimly. + +The preacher spoke with sudden vehemence. "Yet you people are allowing +this same Scott to try to destroy Douglas' dream for Lost Chief." + +"I say Scott is a valuable citizen," drawled Charleton. "He guards us +from Mormons, from Christians, and from wild women." + +Douglas did not join in the laugh that greeted this sally. An entirely +new fear had come upon him. He bit his lip and stared from Judith to +Peter and back again. + +Inez rose suddenly. "Well, the moon is up. Come, Judith! It's time for +wild women to retire to their caves." + +Judith gave a gigantic yawn, stretched her beautiful long body till the +tips of her fingers almost touched the low rafters, and said, "It's a +good thing Charleton and Peter will be going along to protect us from +Scott, the bad man." + +The four presently jingled off down the snowy trail. Prince took up his +shivering night-watch on the steps. Douglas and Mr. Fowler looked at +each other soberly and went to bed. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +PRINCE GOES MARCHING ON + +"A wise dog won't tackle a trapped wolverine." + +--_Old Prince_. + + +The next morning Johnny Brown trotted up on his old cow-pony. The +preacher and Douglas were at breakfast. All the world was bristling with +frost and a million opalescent lights danced on every snowdrift. Douglas +swung the door open. + +"Well, Johnny, did you finally break away from everybody?" + +The little old man slid briskly from the saddle, brushed the icicles +from his beard, and grinned broadly. + +"Even Inez, she tried to stop me. Says some one has got to get her some +cedar wood for her heater stove. 'You get you some squaw-wood, Inez,' I +deponed. 'Them that can't make the men chop regular wood for 'em, don't +deserve nothing better than brittle stuff like alder. Get you some +squaw-wood, Inez,' I deponed. Douglas, they are plumb jealous of you. +Since you seen there was something to me beside a old half-wit, they've +all been horning round, jealous like, to get me." + +Douglas, his yellow hair a glory in the rising sun, nodded seriously. + +"Look to your saddle, Johnny, then come in to breakfast. I've got a few +steers I want to dehorn to-day, so you're just in time." + +The preacher was still at breakfast when old Johnny came in. The two old +men stared at each other with unmixed interest. Douglas stood with his +back to the stove, a cigarette drooping from his lips, a remote twinkle +in his eyes. + +Johnny lushed down his second saucer of coffee before he attempted to +marshall his thoughts into speech. But, having accomplished this, he +said, "Doug and me are gregus great friends, Mr. Fowler. There ain't +anybody in Lost Chief thinks as much of him as I do." + +The preacher nodded. "Douglas says he's fond of you." + +"I guess he is," returned Johnny, condescendingly. "I guess if the truth +be deponed he's fonder of me than he is of anybody--excepting maybe +Judith. And Judith, she sure-gawd don't apregate Doug like I do, even if +I am a half-wit. Judith's awful smart but she ain't got much sense." + +"Judith is pretty fine, Johnny!" exclaimed Douglas, with the faint glow +in his blue eyes that mention of her name always brought. + +"Yes, she is," agreed Johnny. "But she's just like her mother was. All +fire. And you can squench fire so it's just ashes. It would be a gregus +good thing for the Valley if John Spencer was to break his neck." + +"Don't say that, Johnny!" protested the preacher. "After all, he's one +of God's creatures." + +Johnny chuckled. "Now, who is half-witted, huh?" + +"Young Jeff back on the mail route, Johnny?" asked Douglas hastily. + +"Yes. Peter Knight, he's awful fond of Judith." + +Douglas looked at Johnny keenly, his jaw setting as he did so. Was +there, he thought, something obvious here, or was it only the half-wit's +curiously sharp but confused intuition at work? At any rate, he must +know the truth. He could not endure this added uneasiness. + +"On second thoughts," he said aloud, "I think I'll not dehorn to-day. I +want to get an order off for a new saddle on to-day's mail stage. +Johnny, one of your main jobs is to guard the sky pilot and the chapel, +when I'm not here. You're not to let anything happen to either of +them." + +"Shall I shoot on sight?" demanded the little old man. + +Mr. Fowler smiled. Douglas shook his head. "No; let's not get into that +kind of trouble. You don't carry a gun anyhow, do you?" + +"No," plaintively. "Grandma won't let me. But I thought you'd loan me +something." + +"I haven't got anything but my old six-shooter, which I can't spare. +Listen, Johnny! When you think somebody needs to be shot, you come to me +and tell me about it, see? You know I know you have a lot more +self-control than these Lost Chief folks think you have. You aren't one +of these guys that shoots first and thinks afterward." + +Johnny turned to the preacher triumphantly. "Didn't I tell you he was my +friend?" he asked. + +"Yes," replied Mr. Fowler, "and he's mine too, and you and I must take +care of him. Lost Chief needs him." + +Old Johnny rose and solemnly offered a gnarled hand to the preacher. +Douglas laughed in an embarrassed way and went out to the corral, to +saddle the Moose. + +Judith was feeding the chickens as he trotted past the Spencer place. He +waved his hand but would not permit himself to stop. He found Peter +alone in his room, mending a belt. + +"Well, Doug," he said, "how does the reform movement progress?" + +"We added Johnny Brown to our side this morning," replied Douglas. "Some +line-up, I'd say!" + +"Old Johnny is certainly your man," Peter chuckled. "How do he and the +sky pilot hit it off?" + +"It's too early to say. By the way, did you have a run-in with Scott?" + +"Not at all. Scott said Elijah was welcome to use the trail if he kept +to it." + +Doug's mouth opened and closed. He took a letter from his pocket and +laid a pile of bills beside it on the table. "Will you send that mail +order off for me to-day, Peter? I'm blowing myself to a new saddle." + +"Must be money in staking a sky pilot," grinned the postmaster. "I +didn't notice you taking up a collection on Sunday, though." + +Douglas laughed. "It pays so well that I've got to ride the traps again +this winter to pay for the grub-stake. Dad is so sore that he isn't +allowing me all he might." + +"I'll help you if you are too much squeezed. I hope you won't be as +bull-headed about taking a loan from me as Judith is. By the way, how +are matters coming between you and Jude, Douglas?" + +"Report no progress!" grunted Doug. + +"She's a restless young colt. I wish she could begin to get a sense of +direction as you are. Maybe she will, now she can get a bird's-eye view +of you. You've always lived too close to each other to understand each +other. You'll learn a lot about Jude and she about you, now you've moved +a few miles away." + +"Do you honestly want me to have Judith, Peter?" asked Douglas with a +sudden huskiness in his voice. + +Peter, who was standing by the window examining the buckles of the belt, +looked up at Douglas with surprise in the lift of his eyebrows. After a +moment, he said, "What are you driving at, Doug?" + +Douglas took a quick turn up and down the room, then halted before +Peter, his sensitive mouth twitching, his blue eyes glowing. It seemed +to him that he could not ask the question that must be asked; but +finally he spoke, in a voice that was tense in the effort for +self-control. + +"Peter, I've thought of nothing else since last night. Something about +the way you looked at her--! You are the best friend that I have, Peter, +but I can't give Judith up, even to you; it would be like trying to tear +the veins out of my body. She's my life, Judith is!" + +The older man put the rider's belt carefully on the window-ledge, walked +over to the table and slowly filled his pipe. When he had filled it, he +laid it down beside the belt, put his hands in his pocket, and turned to +Doug, who, with the cold sweat standing on his forehead, was watching +Peter's every movement. The wind swept snow down through the sod roof. +It hissed faintly on the stove. Peter's long face was knotted and hard. + +"You have given me a shock, Douglas," he said at last. "You've given me +a shock!" + +Douglas' heart thudded heavily. It was true, then! Peter did care, +though perhaps he had not realized it before. + +Peter went on, with painful concentration on Douglas' blue eyes. "I +hadn't known it, till this minute, Doug. I thought I was through. I'm +fifty-six. God! Does life never finish with a man?" He laughed drearily. +"Don't look at me like that, Douglas! You and I will never be rivals! +This sort of thing can't undo me again. I swear it!" + +He paced the room again, and once more paused before the young rider. +"Not that I underestimate the strength of the thing. Who knows so well +as I that love is the most powerful force in the world? Mind you, Doug, +I make a sharp distinction between love and lust. Lust can be controlled +by any one. Love can be controlled by a man as old as I am. But when +love grips a young fellow like you, he is powerless to throw it off. I'd +be a cur, Douglas, at my age, to refuse to throttle a love that would +conflict with you--the man I like best in the world." + +He paused. Douglas did not stir. Peter lifted his pipe, laid it down, +and set a match carefully beside it. + +"Douglas," he said, "my market is made. I sold my birthright for a mess +of pottage. Whatever regrets or grief I may have are just. To +contemplate a girl like Judith having any interest in me, is ghastly. +Judith is yours, whether she realizes it or not. Will you stay for +dinner?" + +He put his pipe in his mouth, and lighted it. Douglas gave a long, +uncertain sigh. + +"No, thanks, Peter! I must get back to my sky pilot. You will be at the +log chapel early on Sunday?" + +"Yes. But you'd better let him handle the meeting. Have him preach on +immortality. You've sort of got them going on that." + +Douglas nodded, put his hand on the door-knob, then turned back. + +"Peter, does life never finish with a man? Don't you find peace anywhere +along the line?" + +"Not your kind of a man. There are a number of sure springs in the +desert, though, where a man can be certain of a mighty pleasant camp. +But it's only a camp." + +Douglas moistened his lips. "What can a fellow do about it?" he +demanded. + +"Well," replied the older man, "he can make up his mind to find it +devilishly interesting, even the dry marches." + +The young rider threw back his head. "Me--I'm going to find more than +interest! I'll find color and some thrills, too. See if I don't!" + +Peter laughed grimly. "Yes, you'll find a thrill or two but always where +you least expect it." + +Douglas' smile was twisted. He opened the door and went out into the +wind-swept day. Smoke drove horizontally from the low chimneys that +dotted the valley. Cattle bellowed as if in disconsolate protest against +the ruthless on-march of winter. Douglas, in spite of the last few words +with Peter, was in a curiously uplifted frame of mind which for some +time he could not dissect. Part of it he knew to be relief from the +sudden suspicion that had overwhelmed him, but he was half-way home +before he told himself that Peter's essential fineness had revived his +faith in the goodness and kindliness in human nature. In a life where +one could know a Peter, he thought, there must be beauty and a kind of +beauty that Inez could neither find nor appreciate. Poor old Inez! + +The dinner hour was long past when he jingled along the trail past his +father's place. On sudden impulse he turned the Moose into the yard. +Judith opened the door. She was in sweater and riding-skirt. Her black +hair was bundled up under a round beaver cap under which her bright +beauty glowed in a way to lift a far less interested heart than Doug's. + +"Hello, Douglas!" + +"Hello, Judith! Where are you going?" + +"Just out to jump the little wild mare. Where have you been?" + +"Down to the post-office. I saw Dad heading for Charleton's." + +"Yes, I'm alone. Mother went over to Grandma's. The old lady is ailing." + +Douglas jumped from the saddle. "You haven't mentioned it, but, thanks, +I will come in. Is there any grub in the house? I haven't had dinner +yet." + +Judith laughed. "I was expecting that! I just finished my own. Come +along!" + +Douglas ate his dinner while Judith watched with speculative eyes. + +"Peter is a funny old duck," she said finally. + +"Funny? How?" + +"O, he's so lonely and so cross and such good company and so kind! I'd +like to have known him when he was young." + +Douglas looked at her closely. "Jude, could you get to care for Peter if +you thought he cared for you?" + +"Who, me? Peter? What's the matter with you, Doug? Why, Peter is as old +as Dad!" + +"What difference does that make?" + +"It wouldn't make any difference if I cared for him," admitted Judith, +tapping thoughtfully on the tablecloth with slim brown fingers. + +"But do you care for him, Judith?" insisted Douglas. + +Judith's fine lips twisted contemptuously. "What an idiot you are, +Doug!" + +"Do you, hang it? Answer me, Jude!" + +"No! No! No! Does that satisfy you?" + +"Well, partially. Guess I'll have to ask Inez the same question." + +Judith smiled and shrugged her shoulders. Douglas went on. + +"I'll bet if you could get the truth out of Inez, Judith, you'd find her +suffering torments because she can't marry." + +"Can't marry? Why can't Inez marry?" demanded Judith belligerently. + +"Because no decent man would marry her," returned Douglas flatly. + +Judith laughed. "You poor old male, you! Will you kindly tell me what +man in this valley you consider more decent than Inez?" + +"I'm decent," said Douglas, flushing, but not the less firmly. + +Judith's eyes softened. "You've kept that promise, Doug?" + +"Yes," briefly. "And I wouldn't have a woman like Inez if she was as +beautiful as Cleopatra and as rich as Hetty Green!" + +"Well," airily, "that eliminates you, of course. But let me warn you, +Douglas, that if Inez Rodman really loved a man and wanted to marry him, +he'd have about as much chance as a coyote used to have when Sister was +young enough to run them. Only, if Inez ever does love a man, she won't +marry him. She'll keep herself a mystery to him. 'And forever would he +love and she be fair.'" + +"What's that you're quoting?" asked Douglas. + +Judith, her eyes on the window through which shouldered the great flank +of Dead Line Peak, repeated the immortal lines. When she had finished, +Douglas sighed. + +"It's very beautiful!" he said. "But life isn't a procession round a +Grecian Urn. It's hard riding from start to finish. And it's a poor +sport that won't accept that fact and ride according to the rules. +Marriage is one of the rules. I believe in it." + +Judith walked slowly round the table and put a hand on either shoulder. +There was a baffling light in her splendid gray eyes as she said, +"Douglas, do you think for a minute that if I told you I loved you +madly, I couldn't persuade you not to marry me?" + +Her touch was flame. Douglas drew a long, uncertain breath. + +"If you said that you loved me madly, you could do almost anything with +me, I suppose. The only thing that keeps me steady is believing that you +don't love me." + +Judith smiled curiously. Douglas lifted her hands from his shoulders. +"Don't torture me, Jude," he said, his voice husky and his fingers +uncertain, as he lighted a cigarette. + +"I wouldn't torture you, any more than I'd torture myself," replied +Judith. + +She leaned against the window-frame, looking out at the serenity of the +mountain. + +"Life," she said suddenly, "is like climbing to the top of Falkner's +Peak. Terribly difficult and frightfully wearing, but O, what marvelous +views as you reach shoulder after shoulder! Inez is beginning to find +life rather a dreary kind of mess. But not I! The Lord knows, my life +looks stupid to every one but me, and the Lord knows, I'm restless and +unhappy. But I never stop thinking for a minute that it's great, just +great to be alive and--and alive." + +Douglas smiled a little uncertainly. "Do you ever think twice the same +way, Jude?" + +"Once in a while! In fact, I'm getting that way more and more. You'll +see! I'm going to get me educated, Douglas, and find me a real job. See +if I don't!" + +Douglas put on his gloves. "I couldn't be any prouder of you, Judith, +if you had all the education in the world. Don't forget to come up on +Sunday." + +"I suppose I'll have to lend my support," said Judith. "But I still +think you are a fool." + +"You can think me all the fools you want to, if you'll just keep backing +me," replied Douglas, striding out to the whinnying Moose. + +He found old Johnny and the preacher on terms of easy friendship. Johnny +was inclined to be patronizing but Douglas caught the twinkle in +Fowler's eyes and made no attempt to control Johnny's manners. + +It was not until nearly bed time that Doug missed Prince. The old dog +was gradually giving up the solitary coyote hunts he had taken in his +younger days and, contrary too, to his earlier habits, he now liked to +sleep indoors. He was usually shivering on the doorstep waiting for a +chance to scramble under the stove when Doug went out to look at the +stock for the night. + +But to-night he was not there, nor did his short bark come in response +to Doug's whistling. Old Johnny and the preacher came to the door. + +"Stop your whistling and listen, Douglas," suggested Fowler. + +Douglas obeyed, and faintly on the frosty air sounded the reiterated +yelps of a dog. + +"That's Prince and he's in trouble!" exclaimed Doug. + +"He's up on the shoulder of Lost Chief, I depone," said Johnny. + +"I'll go up there." Douglas took his rifle from behind the door and +hurried out to the corral. The two men followed him, and by the time +Doug had buckled on his spurs, they had saddled his horse. + +"Either he's got into a trap or he's tackled something too big for +him," said Douglas; "and it's up to me to look out for my pal." + +The moon had risen and the snow was very light. Prince continued to yelp +and it was not long before Douglas found the dog's tracks and was able +to follow them without difficulty. They led up to the tree line on the +east flank of Lost Chief Peak. The yelps appeared to come from not far +within the border of pines. + +Douglas chuckled. "He sure has bitten off more than he can chew this +time! I'll have to tell that old dog that--" + +A revolver shot interrupted his thoughts. The yelps abruptly ceased. +Douglas spurred his horse and in a moment saw the figure of a man +standing beside an outcropping rock. It was Charleton Falkner. Douglas +threw himself from his horse, Prince, his paw in a trap, lay motionless +on the ground beside the badly mangled body of a wolverine. Charleton's +face in the moonlight was coolly vindictive. + +"I'll teach a dog to spoil a pelt for me!" he said. "He didn't realize +there were two traps here." + +"But that was my dog, Prince!" exclaimed Doug. + +"I don't care if it was the Almighty's dog! He can't rob my traps if I +know it!" snarled Charleton. + +Douglas advanced slowly. "You don't seem to get the idea, Charleton. +That was my old dog that grew up with me--the faithfulest little chap in +Lost Chief. I'd have paid you for the pelt and you know it. What did you +shoot him for?" + +Charleton's jaws worked. "I'll show you and Scott and the whole valley +that my traps and my hunts are not to be interfered with!" + +"Still you don't get the idea," Douglas was now not an arm's-length from +Charleton. "You can't shoot a man's dog, at least this man's dog and go +unpunished. You and Dad have bullied this valley long enough, Charleton. +Put up your hands and take your punishment." + +He struck the six-shooter from Charleton's hand and the battle was +joined. Douglas' only advantage over his adversary was in point of +youth, for Charleton was as lean and powerful as a gorilla. But youth +was a powerful ally and eventually it was Charleton who lay in the snow, +blinking at the moon. Douglas, panting and still so angry that it was +difficult for him not to kick Charleton where he lay, released Prince's +paw and threw the familiar gray body across the saddle. Then he mounted, +laying Prince across his knees. + +Charleton sat up slowly. + +"That licking wasn't all for poor old Prince," said Douglas. "Part of it +was for the kid whose mind you deliberately tried to poison, and part of +it is for Inez. You were the first man, you boasted to me, who ever went +to Rodman's. And part of it's for the loneliness you've made in Lost +Chief. What have you got to say--huh?" + +Charleton rose. "Nice young buck you are to attack a man old enough to +be your father! This is what I get for my kindness to you. This is a bad +night's work for you, you young whelp!" + +Douglas, one hand on his old dog's stiffening shoulder, bit back his +resurging wrath and tapped his horse with the spurs. Fowler and Old +Johnny came out to meet him. He gave Prince to Johnny and then +dismounted. + +"Charleton shot my dog!" he said. + +"What shall I do with him?" asked Johnny. + +"Shut him up in the feed shed and I'll bury him in the morning." Douglas +stalked into the house, where the two others shortly followed him. +They looked at his face and for a moment even old Johnny hesitated to +speak. In spite of his cold ride, Doug's face was deadly white, his lips +worked, and his eyes were dark with feeling. He took off his spurs +slowly, and hung them carefully on their nail. Then he sat down on his +bunk and stared at the preacher. + +"What happened, Douglas?" asked Fowler. + +"Prince evidently tackled a wolverine in one of Charleton's traps and +I'm not so sure either but it might have been Scott's. Anyhow he +surprised some kind of a deal Charleton was trying to put over. Then he +got his paw in a free trap and started yelping. Charleton got to him +before I did and shot him." + +"What was he doing riding his traps at this hour?" asked the preacher. + +"I don't know. I loved that dog and so did Jude. It will make her sick +when she hears. He was good for two or three years more and he should +have died like a good rancher, right at home, here." + +"What did you say to Charleton?" + +"I said what I thought beside knocking him down." + +Fowler said nothing more but he put his hand on Doug's knee. Doug +cleared his throat and rose ostensibly to put a stick of wood in the +stove. + +Old Johnny picked up the rifle and started for the door. + +"Where are you going, Johnny?" asked Douglas, huskily. + +"I'm going to watch. Charleton he ain't never going to stop now till he +fixes you. He's got to get me first. Maybe I ain't as smart as Prince +was but I depone I'll do my best." + +Douglas laughed a little brokenly. He put his arm around old Johnny's +shoulder and with his free hand took the gun. + +"Don't you worry about me, Johnny. Your job is the church and the +preacher and you remember you promised not to shoot until you told me +about it." + +"That's right," exclaimed the preacher. "And now I suggest that you let +me read a chapter from the Bible and that we then get to bed." + +Johnny looked at Douglas in embarrassment, but Douglas nodded and his +old guard sat down beside him on the bunk with a contented sigh. + +"'I am the true vine and my father is the husband-man.--As the Father +hath loved me so have I loved you: continue ye in my love.--This is my +commandment, that ye love one another, as I have loved you.--Greater +love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his +friends.'" Fowler closed the book and bowed his head over it. "O God," +he prayed, "give us patience and kindness and understanding. Amen." + +He rose then and Douglas, vaguely comforted by the sympathy of the two +old men, went to bed and to sleep. It had been a day of such stress as +even his young years of mental conflicts had seldom endured. + +The next day, when Douglas went down to the Spencer ranch to borrow the +paraphernalia for dehorning, his father beckoned him mysteriously into +the cowshed. John had been surly for six months and Douglas was +surprised to hear the note of gratification in his voice. + +"What have you been doing to Charleton, Doug?" + +"What does he say I've been doing?" asked Douglas, picking the snow out +of his spurs. + +"He says you knocked him down. He came in here last night breathing +fire." + +"Did he say why I knocked him down?" + +"Yes. Because he wouldn't let your dog rob his traps." + +"Prince got after a wolverine in his or Scott's traps and Charleton shot +the old pup. He'd better be thankful I didn't boot him all the way +home." + +Douglas' face was growing white again. John looked at his tall son with +a mixture of admiration and bewilderment in his eyes. + +"By the Great Sitting Bull, Doug, I can't understand you! Here you go +for six months making a blank sissy of yourself over a sky pilot and +then you give the most dangerous man in the Valley the gol-dingest +mauling and beating he ever had in his life! Why, even I won't go up +against Charleton. He's a bad man!" + +"He's a bag of wind!" said Douglas contemptuously. "I found that out +years ago when his boy was born. Does Jude know?" + +"No; she was asleep and he stayed in the kitchen with me and washed up. +But don't think you've finished with him. He's a mean man, Douglas." + +"Yes, he's mean enough. On the other hand, Charleton knows I've got his +number and he'll let me alone. I'm not worrying about him. That guy +can't even keep his temper. Loan me the tar-pot, will you, and the +searing-iron." + +John suddenly laughed. Douglas grinned faintly, then said, "I know now +how Jude felt when you shot that little old Swift horse." + +"I suppose if you'd been big enough, you'd have treated me as you did +Charleton," said John cheerfully. + +"I sure would have tried to," replied Douglas. "Where's Jude?" + +"Working on the little wild mare in the corral." + +Douglas nodded to his father and went in search of Judith. She nodded +gaily from the saddle. + +"Why so sober, old-timer?" + +"Overwork!" exclaimed Douglas. "Jude, will you come up and help me with +the handful of steers I want to dehorn?" + +"What's the matter with Old Gentlemen's Home?" asked Judith with her +impish smile. + +"They are taken up with reforming each other," replied Douglas; adding +more seriously, "they are too old to be much help with the rope, Jude." + +"I know," she nodded. "I'll come right along." + +It was not until they had nearly reached Doug's corral that he found +courage to tell her about the death of Prince. She said nothing, for a +moment, but she brought the mare up close to the Moose and laid her hand +on Douglas' knee. + +"Dear old boy!" she said. "I know!" Then she sobbed for a moment against +his shoulder. But when he would have put his arm about her she +straightened herself and said, "But weren't you glad you were strong +enough to thrash him!" + +"Yes!" replied Douglas. + +They said no more about it, but after the dehorning was done, Douglas +saw Judith stand for a long time beside the chapel. He knew how her +heart was aching, for she too was a lover of dogs. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +THE BATTLE OF THE BULLS + +"The free plains were wonderful, but Judith's hand on my bit is more +wonderful." + +--_The Little Wild Mare_. + + +Douglas felt somehow, after this day, that Judith was nearer to him. Not +that she changed in her manner at all, but there was an indefinable +something about her that gave him hope: hope strong enough at least to +put up a creditable struggle with the despair that was forever creeping +upon him at unguarded moments. + +He slept in the chapel on Saturday night, just to make sure that no +mischief was done under cover of the darkness. And on Sunday, Mr. Fowler +preached an uninterrupted sermon. Scott was present, giving apparently +an undivided ear to the preacher's discourse. Charleton was there, too. +He ignored Douglas entirely. He had probably told no one of his trouble +with Douglas and, knowing Douglas, he apparently felt that Lost Chief +would remain in ignorance of the fight. So his saturnine face was as +serenely insolent as ever, barring the remains of a very black eye. + +Considered from an entirely detached point of view, the sermon was a +thing of exceeding beauty. Inez should have been satisfied. The old +preacher had a fine voice and he spoke without notes. Many a noted +interpreter of the gospel might have envied him his control of voice and +language. + +The text was one of the most intriguing in the Bible. "Jesus said, I +will not leave you comfortless. I will come to you. Yet a little while +and the world seeth me no more. But ye see me. Because I live, ye shall +live also." Around about this, Mr. Fowler wove picture after picture of +passionate faith in an hereafter. He told of the death of his own +father, who with the death-rattle in his throat had sat erect in his bed +crying, "O Christ, I see your face at last!" + +He told of hardened criminals who had heard God's voice in their dreams. +He told of children, who like little Samuel had been called by the +Almighty in a voice as articulate as that of their own fathers. He told +of the authenticity of the Biblical history of Christ and of the +scientific explanations of Christ's miracles. He told of the faith of +the ancestors of the people of Lost Chief, a faith which had led them +across the Atlantic and through those first terrible years on the bleak +New England shores. He concluded with a prayer for the return of the +sheep to the fold, a prayer delivered with tears pouring down his +weather-beaten cheeks, a prayer delivered in anguish of spirit and in a +voice of heart-moving sincerity. + +At the end, he sank into his chair by the table and covered his eyes +with his shaking hand. Lost Chief sat silent for a moment, then Grandma +Brown said in a quavering voice, "Let us sing _Rock of Ages_." But only +she knew the words, and after a single verse she stopped, in some +embarrassment. + +Charleton coughed, yawned and rose. The little congregation followed him +out into the yard, where horses and dogs were milling the half-melted +snow into yellow muck. + +"Well, Grandma," asked Charleton as he helped the old lady into her +saddle, "what did you think of the sermon?" + +"A pretty good sermon!" replied Grandma. "Made me feel like a girl +again." + +"My gawd, Grandma," exclaimed Charleton, "do you mean to say that an old +Indian fighter like you swallowed that stuff!" + +"I was believing that stuff before you were born, Charleton! If Fowler +is going to keep this pace up, I'll say I'm sorry I ever called him a +sissy. What did you think of it, Peter?" + +Peter was leaning thoughtfully against his horse. "It was interesting. +Ethics, as such, are too cold to interest most folks. So we sugar-coat +'em with flowery speech and sleight-of-hand and try to give 'em +authority with a big threat. Then some hard-head like Charleton says, +because the sugar-coating is silly, that there is nothing to ethics. +Which is where he talks like a fool." + +He whistled to Sister and trotted homeward. There was considerable +elation in Doug's cabin that evening. The preacher said little but old +Johnny was in fine fettle. + +"Guess we showed 'em!" he said, frying the bacon with a skilled hand. "I +bet we had words in that sermon none of 'em ever dreamed of before. +You'd ought to use 'gregus,' Mr. Fowler. It's a hard word and so's +depone. I told Grandma to come up Sunday and we'd have words looked out +that would sure twist her gullet to say." + +Mr. Fowler was seized with a sudden coughing fit from which he merged +into violent laughter. + +"What did your sister say?" he asked when he found his voice. + +"She told me not to go any crazier than I already was, and I deponed to +her how Doug felt about me, and she went home." + +The sermon had indeed gone so well and the week that followed was so +peaceful that Douglas did not sleep in the chapel on the following +Saturday night. When Mr. Fowler unlocked the door on Sunday morning, a +skunk fled from under the pulpit out into the aspens, and there was no +service that day. + +On the next Sunday, Charleton gave an all-day dance in the post-office +hall and only half a dozen of the older people appeared at the chapel, +to listen to a sermon on the Resurrection. He repeated the dance for +three Sundays in succession and Douglas was in despair. Old Johnny was +deeply wrought up over Douglas' state of mind, and one Saturday night he +disappeared, returning at dawn. On that Sunday it was found that the +stove in the dance-hall had disappeared and a check was put upon +Charleton's competition. + +And still, with no dances to rival the sermons, the attendance at the +log chapel grew smaller and smaller. The lack of interest that was +growing, now that the Valley's first curiosity had been satisfied, was +more deadly than open warfare. Douglas saw clearly enough that the +sermons were dull and he spent evening after evening sounding Fowler's +mind to its depths in the endeavor to find some angle in it that would +tempt Lost Chief into the chapel. + +It was a good mind, that of this preacher, stored with a very fair +amount of classical learning and packed with stories of western +adventure. But classical lore had no appeal for modern-minded Lost Chief +and Mr. Fowler's adventure could be surpassed by any man in the Valley. + +Judith treated the sermons with open scorn. "No, indeed; I won't come up +to the chapel," she replied to Doug's appeal. "Why should I suffer when +I don't have to? If it would help you--! But it wouldn't! The sooner you +learn what a fool the old sky pilot is, the better. Or, I tell you, +Douglas! You preach the next sermon and I promise to come and bring the +crowd." + +Douglas grinned feebly. "I value my life," he answered. + +Mary Spencer, who was listening to the conversation which took place in +her kitchen, now made a suggestion. + +"Why don't you feed 'em, Doug? Announce a series of fifty-cent dinners +up at the chapel and while the folks eat, let Mr. Fowler preach." + +Douglas laughed delightedly. "That's a 'gregus' idea! I'll do it. I'll +begin this Sunday with a venison dinner!" + +Mary nodded. "You get the food together and there are three or four of +us women who would be glad to cook it for you." + +"You are a real friend, Mother!" exclaimed Douglas. "I believe you've +solved my problem!" + +And so, in spite of Mr. Fowler's protest, a venison dinner was announced +for Sunday and received by the Valley in a spirit of hilarious +enthusiasm. The preacher refused to deliver the sermon while the meal +was in progress, but it was such a gustatory success that at its close, +the guests sat in complete docility through a sermon on future +punishment. It was a good sermon, quite as modern in most aspects as +Lost Chief. Douglas had seen to that. Mr. Fowler had reached the closing +sentence when a bull bellowed outside and the door opened disclosing +Elijah Nelson, with his horse close behind him. The preacher paused. + +"Excuse me!" exclaimed Nelson. "I thought this was just a dinner!" + +He was a big man, perhaps fifty years of age, with a smooth-shaven +ruddy face. He wore a sheepskin vest over his corduroy coat, and one of +the small boys bleated. Grandma Brown promptly smacked him on the mouth. + +"Will you come in and eat?" asked Fowler. + +"No, thank you," replied the Mormon; adding with a determined thrust of +his lower jaw, "I want Scott Parsons to come out. I won't disturb the +rest of you." + +"What do you want of me?" demanded Scott from his place between Judith +and Inez. + +"Come outside and I'll tell you." + +Scott grunted derisively. "It sure-gawd has got to be something more +than that to win me out of this position. I'm the envy of Lost Chief, +old sheep-man!" + +There was a general laugh. + +"Go on out and see what he wants, Scott," said Peter. + +Scott sighed and detached himself. The congregation waited a moment; +then curiosity had its own way and the chapel emptied itself into the +yard. Several Mormons were sitting their horses before the line of +quivering aspens that bound the little clearing. A big red bull was tied +to the corral fence. Elijah Nelson remained on the doorstep. + +"Well," he began, "since you are all out here, I'll say to all of you +what I rode down here to say to Scott Parsons, he and anybody that may +be helping him are hereby served notice that they've got to keep out of +Mormon Valley. We are decent, God-fearing Americans, and we are not +going to stand being robbed any more." + +"How do you mean, being robbed?" asked Peter Knight. + +"Well, I brought this along as a sample," replied Elijah. "Some five +years or so ago, I had some cattle grazing on Lost Chief and somebody +ran off a dozen head, this bull among the lot. Anybody that can't do a +better job of rebranding than this, ought to try another line of +business." + +There was an interested craning of necks toward the huge brand offered +in evidence; then every one looked at Scott. Scott said nothing, and +Elijah went on. + +"That fellow Parsons patrolled Mormon Creek, that heads up at Lost Chief +Springs, all summer. He built a brush dam and threw the water out of our +creek into his own ditch, whenever he felt like it. I didn't want to +start a fight going. That's not a Mormon's business. We are peaceful +folks, homesteading the wilderness. It was a wet summer and we managed +to get enough water out of White Horse Creek to take care of us. But +right is right and wrong is wrong and we aren't going to stand that next +summer. Last week, a coyote was fastened into my chicken run; and last +night a mountain lion with a trap hanging to his leg got into my corral, +where I had two foals, and he killed them before I could get out. The +trap had Scott Parsons' name cut onto it. I don't know who is helping +him, if any, but I'm here with my neighbors to serve notice that it's +got to stop. I see you've got a preacher here now. I begin to have hopes +you may become peaceable yet." + +A sudden gust of laughter swept Lost Chief. + +"Well, Scott," asked Peter, "what have you got to say?" + +"Me?" asked Scott. "I'm not a preacher or a Mormon. I haven't got the +gift of gab. Charleton is a good talker. Let him say something." + +"All right, old trapper," said Charleton obligingly. He grinned at Inez +and began: + +"Yet, ah, that Spring should vanish with the Rose, That Youth's +sweet-scented manuscript should close,--" + +Elijah Nelson interrupted. "Is this the way you are going to answer a +decent protest against injustice? Is this--" + +"Wait now!" cried Grandma Brown. "Don't get all prodded up. Scott, you +give this man a straight answer." + +"Very well, Grandma; I'll do that little thing for you," drawled Scott. +"Nelson, you and the rest of you Mormons and Jack-Mormons go plumb to +hell, but leave my bull behind." + +One of Nelson's neighbors rose in his stirrups and shook his fist at +Scott. "You dogy-faced Gentile! I've got you marked! You are the one who +ran our cattle off Lost Peak five years ago, and we know who helped +you." + +"Well, I think you Mormons had better get back to your plural wives!" +cried John Spencer. "We've had about enough of this." + +"Judith," said Douglas, "you take your mother and go home." + +Judith turned bright eyes toward him. "Think I'm going to run away? No +sir!" + +Elijah's neighbor laid his gun across his own arm. "Say that again, +Spencer," he suggested, "unless you aren't willing to fight for your +daughter!" + +Mr. Fowler sprang up beside Nelson on the doorstep. "I beg of you all to +disperse to your homes and don't desecrate the Sabbath by such a scene +as this." + +"O, don't talk like a fool, Fowler!" exclaimed Grandma Brown. At this +moment her little grandson came roaring lustily up the trail. He was +covered with muck and snow. + +"Judith's bull has got away from us kids and he's headed this way!" + +"What were you doing with him?" shrieked Grandma, + +"We was going to bring him up here and put him in the church like Scott +paid us for. And he said--" + +But what the child intended to divulge was not to be known, for there +was a bellow from the thickest of blue spruce and Sioux, with various +chains and ropes dangling from his neck and legs, charged into the +clearing. There was a sudden wild scattering of human beings. Judith +whistled shrilly, but Sioux had been goaded beyond her control. + +"Let me get my rope!" she cried. + +"Hold up!" shouted Charleton. "Something's going to happen!" + +The Mormon's bull had broken his halter and had turned to meet the +on-coming Sioux. Sioux's bloodshot eyes fell on the stranger, and +instantly the battle was joined. Snow flew. The buck fence crashed. The +bulls bellowed, locked horns, retreated, charged, slipped, fell, rose +again with a rapidity only equalled by the ferocity of the attack. + +"They'll kill each other if they aren't stopped!" cried Fowler. "Stop +them, Douglas! O God, what a place! What a place!" + +"What a fight, you mean!" laughed Charleton. "I put up ten dollars on +Sioux." + +"Take you!" said Scott. + +"If Spencer's bull kills mine, he'll pay for it!" cried Nelson. + +"If they work into the corral," shouted Douglas, "some of you help me +put up the fence again and we'll have them!" + +"Well, but don't stop the fight." Young Jeff gesticulated excitedly. +"I'm going to put up ten on Sioux!" + +"Take you!" said Scott. + +Nelson's bull ripped Sioux's flank for six inches and blood spurted to +the ground. Both the great heads were undistinguishable masses of +blood. Their hot breath hung frozen in the air. The western sun turned +all the world beneath the aspens to crimson. The betting became more +general and more hectic as the battle waxed more furious. The Mormons +forgot their grievance for the moment and backed their bull freely. + +Suddenly Sioux freed himself, retreated and charged with the full force +of his two thousand pounds. He caught Nelson's bull on the fore +shoulder. The visitor slid sideways, stumbled to his knees and rose, +shaking the blood from his eyes. He gave a look at Sioux, who was +preparing to charge again, and turning he fled along the trail toward +Scott's ranch, uttering as he went the longdrawn and continuous bellow +of the defeated bull. + +Douglas, Judith, and John Spencer immediately roped Sioux. Scott spurred +his horse across the trail and drew his gun. "Get back!" he said to two +of the Mormons. "That's my bull!" + +"No gun-play, Scott!" called Peter. + +There was a sudden exodus of women and children down the home trail, but +Judith continued talking soothingly to her bull. + +Scott did not heed the postmaster. He went on, to the Mormons. "You +blank-blanks have trimmed me out of my year's profits! I'm not going to +lose the bull too!" + +"Judith Spencer!" shouted Elijah Nelson, turning his horse toward Judith +and her pet, "is that Scott Parsons' bull?" + +There was sudden silence, broken only by the distant bellow of the +retreating warrior. Judith sat very erect on Buster, her beaver cap on +the back of her head, her wide gray eyes brilliant. She looked at Scott. +His hard handsome face was expressionless. Douglas ran across the yard +and reached up to tap Elijah Nelson on the chest. + +"Don't drag a woman into this, you bastard American, you! I was up there +that summer running your cattle and I lost every one of them, if you +want to know, and there was no woman helping me out, either. Now, what +are you going to do about that?" + +Nelson lifted his hand. + +"Wait a minute!" drawled Charleton.. "It sure-gawd is your bull, Nelson. +Scott ran it up to Mountain City, rebranded it there, and brought it +back here in the spring." + +"Why, you traitor!" roared Scott. "You staged the whole play, and I'll +bet you staged this with your traps." + +"I never let a debt go unpaid," chuckled Charleton. + +"Aw, come off, Scott!" cried John Spencer. "Give them the bull and send +them home. We are sick of your rows in this valley!" + +Scott forgot that he was guarding the trail. He spurred his horse +furiously toward John, flourishing his six-shooter. The two Mormons +slipped quickly away. + +"If you think you can sacrifice me for Jude, John Spencer!" cried Scott. +He got no farther, for Douglas, now on the Moose, cracked him on the +right wrist with the butt of his own gun. At the same time, Peter +knocked John's arm into the air. Scott's weapon dropped into the snow. + +"Now," said Douglas with his quiet grin, "this venison dinner party of +mine is announced as over. You Mormons take yourselves and your dogs off +my place. Frank," to the sheriff, who had been an amused spectator up to +this point, "come over here and soothe Scott. He's a right nervous +cowman to-day. Dad, you take Jude home." + +Frank rode slowly over to take Scott's bridle. + +"Well," said Peter, "looks like our host wants to get rid of us. Come +on, Charleton." + +"I'll get you later, Charleton!" shouted Scott. + +"But how about--" began Nelson. + +Douglas turned in his saddle and faced the older man. His young eyes +suddenly looked grim and hard. "Nelson, you have seen what Lost Chief is +like to-day. We have no fear and we have no friends and we have no God. +But Lost Chief is ours and we intend to keep it. No Mormon is welcome. +Don't use our trails or our range or our herd waters. Now, go!" + +"Those are hard words, such as a man can't afford to speak to a +neighbor," said Elijah, turning his horse slowly. + +Douglas did not reply, and not at all reluctantly the visitors spurred +up the drifted trail. + +"Come on, Judith!" John nodded to the girl. + +"I'm going to stay and doctor Sioux up," she said. + +"Go on home, Judith," urged Douglas. + +"I'll take care of the bull for you," said old Johnny, who had not +spoken a word during the entire episode. + +"Nobody can touch him in the state he's in but me. You know that!" +declared Judith. + +"Judith," repeated Douglas, "you go home." + +"Why?" demanded the girl. + +"You know why, Judith. Go on with Dad." + +Judith set her lips, and slowly, very slowly spurred Buster after John's +horse. Not until she was out of earshot did Douglas say to Scott: + +"Scott, let's you and me settle our differences once and for all." It +was dark now and cold. "You gather up that gun, Johnny, and we'll go +into the cabin where it's warm." + +"I'll not go near your house!" Scott spoke gruffly. + +"Look here, Scott! Don't be a grouch! Let's see if we can't get +together." + +"Get together? What for? Some of this pious stuff, I suppose!" + +"No, it's not! It's just common sense. We both plan to spend our lives +in this valley. Why fight all the time?" + +"You can bet I do plan to spend my life in this valley. Neither you nor +Charleton can run me out. Lost Chief is as much mine as it is yours. +Don't you ever get it into that thick head of yours that you can be Big +Chief here. I am going to have a finger in this pie myself." + +"Aw, draw it mild, Scott!" protested the sheriff. "Nobody's afraid of +your threats. Doug's advice is good. Come out of your grouch and join +the crowd." + +"Whose crowd? Doug's? I didn't know he had one except for idiots," +sneered Scott. + +"No," said Douglas cheerfully, "we don't want any idiots in our crowd. +We want good friends and watchmen, hey, Johnny? Come on in, Scott. The +going is pretty good." + +Scott uttered an oath. Douglas, a straight, rather tense figure in the +dusk, did not speak again for a long moment; then he said quietly, "All +right, Scott! I'm through. Get off my place, quick!" + +He dismounted and unsaddled the Moose. Scott rode off at a gallop. + +"Want any help with the bull, Doug?" asked Frank Day. + +"No, thanks! We'll get him into the stable and then look him over. Get +the lantern, will you, Johnny?" + +"Then I'll be riding," said the sheriff. "My chores should have been +done an hour ago," and he jingled down the trail. + +It was not difficult to lead Sioux into the little log cow stable. But +here all progress ceased. The bull became so frantic whenever they tried +to examine his wounds that after a prolonged struggle they left him. +Johnny and Douglas finished the chores while the preacher went into the +cabin and got supper. They sat long over the meal. Old Johnny was deeply +excited. A fight always upset his poor old tangled nerves. Douglas +finally suggested that he take the lantern and clean up after the +dinner; and the old man, who loved to potter about the chapel almost as +much as did the preacher, acquiesced enthusiastically. + +After he had gone, Fowler said, "Douglas, that little chap is going to +do some one bodily harm if we aren't careful. He is getting fanatically +devoted to you. I had to keep my hand on his arm all the afternoon." + +"The poor old dogy!" Doug shook his head. "We'll keep the guns away from +him, and then he won't get into trouble. I'm more bothered about you and +Scott than I am about me and Johnny, though!" + +"Scott means mischief," said the preacher. + +Douglas nodded. "I don't want you to go anywhere without me. He is +plenty smart enough to know that the best way to get me is through +you--or Judith!" + +"Don't worry about me, Douglas. I heard Bryan say once, 'My body is +covered with the callouses of defeat. No one can hurt me.' I am like +Bryan. No one can hurt me. And I would guess that Judith can look out +for herself." + +Douglas grunted. The two sat staring at the fire in a silence that was +not broken until Judith called from without, "Douglas, I want to see +Sioux!" + +Douglas took up the lantern and, followed by Fowler, went out. Judith +stood beside Buster. + +"You give me the lantern, Doug, and neither of you follow me. I can +manage him best alone." She was not gone long. "He's not as bad off as I +feared," she said when she returned. "I'll let him feed and rest for +another hour, then I'll take him down home where I can tend to him +right." + +"Then let's go in out of the cold," suggested Fowler. + +When they were established around the stove, Judith asked, "How did you +and Scott get along, Douglas?" + +Douglas told her of the conversation. Judith looked serious. + +"You see, Doug, Dad keeps Scott sore all the time about me. I don't +think he'd be half so ugly to you if it were not for that." + +"O yes, he would!" replied Douglas. "Scott and I were born to fight with +each other, just like old Prince and Charleton's Nero. We can't help our +backs bristling when we see each other." + +"Inez could make Scott behave if she cared anything about it. Scott +isn't in love with her, but she has a lot of influence over him, like +she has over the other men in this valley." Judith watched her +hunting-boots steam against the hearth. + +"She has too much influence over you, Judith," said Mr. Fowler. + +"She's my friend," returned Judith briefly. + +"Your friend!" cried Fowler. "Your friend! Do you realize what you are +saying?" + +"Yes, I certainly do, and I don't want a lecture about it either." +Judith sat erect. + +Mr. Fowler leaned forward, his eyes glowing with indignation. "I've +swallowed all I can swallow about Inez Rodman. I allowed Douglas to +bring her to the table and I ate with her though my gore rose in my +throat. Because I felt that my only chance to win the confidence of Lost +Chief was to countenance for a time that which cannot be countenanced. +But I am through. How long do you think you can be a friend to Inez, +Judith, and not become like her?" + +Judith jumped to her feet. "O, I am so sick of this kind of thing!" she +cried. + +"Fowler is dead right and you know it, Judith," said Douglas. + +"You don't dare to say these things to her face!" Judith's eyes were +full of the tears of anger. + +"I'd just as soon," Douglas grinned. + +"I'm going to tell her what I think of her and what she is doing to the +youth of Lost Chief," stated Mr. Fowler. + +"She's not a bit worse for Lost Chief than Charleton Falkner," exclaimed +Judith. "And you don't pick on him!" + +"He couldn't be as bad as Inez," insisted the preacher. "There is +nothing so bad for a community as her kind of a woman." + +"That just isn't so, Mr. Fowler," protested Douglas. "Charleton is worse +than Inez ever thought of being. All I'm complaining about is her +influence on Judith." + +"You both talk as if I had no mind of my own!" Judith said indignantly. +"If you knew the temptations I'd withstood, you'd not be so free with +your comments about me. And if all I'm going to get when I come up here +is criticism, I'm not coming any more. Don't you follow me, Douglas!" +and Judith, in her short khaki suit, swept out of the cabin with a grace +and dignity that would have done credit to a velvet train. + +The preacher was deeply perturbed. He rose and paced the floor. +"Douglas, I've tried to play this thing your way. But now I am through +compromising. There can be no compromise with God. I'm no longer going +to keep silence when events like those this afternoon take place. +Undoubtedly my stay in Lost Chief will be short. But while I'm here I am +going to stand openly and vehemently for the ten commandments." + +Douglas tilted his chair back, folded his arms on his chest, and dropped +his chin. "Something's wrong with your religion," he said. + +"Nothing is wrong with my religion," retorted the preacher. "But Lost +Chief is more wrong than most places. It's a transplanted New England +community, and people who come from Puritan stock can't get along +without God. They are worse than any one else without Him." + +"I'm sick of worrying about it!" cried Douglas irritably. + +"Do you mean you are sick of the fight? That you are going to let Inez +have Judith?" + +Douglas straightened up. "No, by God! Not if I have to shoot Inez! You +go ahead and preach your own way. I'll see that you are not hurt." + +And this was his last word on the subject that night. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +THE FLAME IN THE VALLEY + +"The coyote is a coward, so his bite is the nastiest." + +--_Old Sister, the dog_. + + +The next day when Douglas went down to the ranch to help out with a +day's work for which John had asked him, Judith obviously avoided him. +Douglas made no attempt to enforce a tête-à -tête until mid-afternoon. +Then he followed Jude into the empty cow stable. + +"Jude, I can't bear to have you think I'm not fair about Inez. If that's +what you are sore about." + +Judith laid carefully back the eggs she had taken out of the manger. Her +face was set when she turned to him. "It doesn't matter much, I suppose, +whether you are fair to Inez or not. She can take care of herself. What +I'm angry about is your being so stupid with me, always picking at me +about the things that don't count and so wrapped up in your own ideas +that you can't see what I really need, and why I am so terribly +restless." + +Douglas leaned against the door-post, his face eager, his breath a +little quickened. Now, at last, perhaps he was to win past the threshold +and gaze upon Judith's inner solitude. But he would not crowd her. + +"What is it that makes you so restless, Judith?" he asked gently. + +"Well, it certainly isn't lack of religion and it certainly isn't lack +of marrying," she retorted. "Those are the only suggestions you've ever +been able to make about my state of mind." + +"But, you see," Doug's voice was still gentle, "I don't even know what +your state of mind is! Sometimes you tell me you find life a bitter +disappointment. Sometimes you find it very beautiful. Sometimes you want +to spend all your days in Lost Chief. Sometimes you must sell your +heart's blood to get away from it. All that I really know about your +state of mind is that you are lonely and uneasy, like me." + +Judith watched him with less perhaps of anger than of resentment in her +deep gray eyes. + +"It's the unfairness of it! The utter unfairness of life to women!" she +burst out. "Don't you see?" + +Douglas shook his head. "How can I see? You are very beautiful. You have +the strength of a fine boy. You have a splendid mind. You have a very +special gift in handling animals. You are gay and brave-hearted and +lovable. Why in the world should I feel that life isn't fair to you?" + +"Don't you see?" wringing her hands together. "I have all that, and no +chance to use any of it so that it's put to any sort of big use at all. +I'm buried alive!" + +"Oh!" Douglas gasped. He had indeed seen Judith's trouble. All the vital +beauty, the splendid talents--was marriage to him a big use of them? +"Oh!" he repeated. He brushed his hand across his eyes. "God! Judith," +he muttered, "what can I do?" + +"I don't know," she said, "but at least you can stop trying to thrust +old Fowler down my throat. As for Inez, I judge Inez a good deal more +exactly than you do and in many ways more harshly. But what I do insist +on is that no man in Lost Chief is fit to judge her." + +Judith again picked up the eggs, and went out. + +Douglas put in the rest of the week placing his traps up the canyon, and +purposely avoided talking with Fowler about his next sermon. He was not +surprised, however, when he read the announcement which the preacher +gave him to tack up on the post-office door. The sermon was to deal with +the modern Magdalene. + +Fowler had chosen his subject with the idea of exciting popular +interest: his choice was almost perfect. Every soul in Lost Chief was +packed into the log chapel long before the services began--every soul, +that is, but Inez. Mr. Fowler never had been more eloquent and never, +probably, had preached to a more deeply interested congregation. His +sermon was a vitriolic arraignment, thinly disguised by Biblical +nomenclature, of Inez Rodman. + +When Fowler had finished, Young Jeff rose slowly to his feet. Douglas, +from his usual place in a rear seat, smiled a little. He liked Young +Jeff and liked him best when he rose as now, to do battle for a friend. + +"Fowler," said Young Jeff, "I don't like that sermon. We all know who +you are driving at, and as for me, you make me very sore. That's a Lost +Chief girl and no outsider can come in here and insult her." + +"Right! Right!" called several men. + +"I didn't expect you to like the sermon," said Mr. Fowler. "I'm through +saying pleasant things to you folks. You are going to get straight facts +from now on." + +"That's as it may be. But you keep your tongue off of Lost Chief women." + +"I don't know why you get your back up, Young Jeff!" cried Grandma +Brown. "The people of Lost Chief aren't ignorant. They do what they do +because they prefer it that way. They know what the world calls their +doings. Why be squeamish when Fowler comes in here and just repeats the +world's attitude on such doings? Inez is the ruination of our young +folks, and we all know it." + +"That's right!" called Mrs. Falkner; and Mary Spencer added a low, "Yes! +Yes!" + +"She's better than any man in the room, right now!" cried Judith. "If +you are going to drive her out, you ought to drive the men out." + +"Fine!" called Charleton Falkner. + +There was a quick guffaw of laughter, during which John Spencer rose. + +"Fowler, I don't want to seem to go against my own son, but I want to +say that if you try any more sermons like this one, I'm going to head a +committee to run you out of the Valley." + +"I'd want to be head of that committee myself. Don't be a hog, John!" +drawled Charleton. + +"That's a good idea!" exclaimed Scott Parsons. "If the preacher says, +'Drive Inez out,' we'll say, 'Out with the preacher!'" + +"You're all talking like a parcel of children!" said Grandma Brown. + +"Come on!" shouted Scott. "The Pass is open. Let's send him out now!" + +Douglas slid to the end of the seat. Fowler stood tensely behind the +table, pale, but calm. Peter Knight spoke for the first time. + +"I've got an idea. Let's give the sky pilot just one more chance. Let's +ask him to preach a sermon next Sunday that we can all feel the right +kind of an interest in, or else resign, himself." + +Douglas spoke suddenly, "Just what would that kind of a sermon be about, +Peter?" + +"Well, that's Fowler's job," replied Peter. "He's been at it all his +life. He's probably learned by this time the kind of sermons people +don't like. I don't want to see him driven out of Lost Chief. I want him +to have his chance." + +"That's fair enough," exclaimed Charleton. "This isn't such bad fun. Why +drive him out while the fun lasts? How about it, John?" + +"Fair enough!" agreed John. + +"Nothing doing!" cried Scott. + +"Now, Scott," warned Charleton amiably, "you run the bull business and +you'll have your hands full. We old regulars will handle the preacher." + +"Huh!" sniffed Grandma Brown. "Wonderful! 'Old regulars!' Well, don't +any of you old regulars forget that Douglas Spencer has grown up and +that his brand mark is the same as his grandfather's. I think you all +are acting like a parcel of children!" + +Nobody spoke for a moment. Douglas watched Mr. Fowler anxiously, but the +old preacher appeared to have no weapons with which to meet the +occasion. Douglas felt that the situation was getting out of hand. He +knew how to meet physical resistance, but he realized that he was only a +novice in the sort of strategy that controls by mental superiority +alone. He ground his teeth together. + +"I'm young yet and I'll learn! See if I don't!" Then he pressed his lips +together and waited. + +Peter broke the silence. + +"How about it, Fowler?" + +"I'll agree to nothing. I am through compromising." The old man's eyes +were blazing in a white face. + +"You're foolish!" exclaimed the postmaster. "But we insist on giving you +one more chance. Let's see what you can do for us next Sunday. I move +we adjourn." And the meeting broke up with a considerable amount of +laughter. + +There was very little discussion of the situation in the cabin, that +night. Mr. Fowler seemed inexpressibly tired and broken, and Douglas, +with a sudden welling of pity to his throat, persuaded him to go to bed. +Nor did he, later, interfere with the old preacher's choice of a sermon. +There was a deep conviction growing within Douglas that the religious +issue of the situation was entirely beyond his own directing. + +Peter, however, had no such conviction and he took considerable pains to +try to get Fowler to go back to the subject of immortality. But the old +man had the bit in his teeth and there was no holding him. The +post-office door on Saturday bore the announcement that Sunday's sermon +would be on The Sins of Lost Chief. Just below the preacher's placard +was an invitation from Jimmy Day for Lost Chief to attend his birthday +dance on Saturday evening. + +Douglas told of the invitation at the supper table. Mr. Fowler made no +comment, but old Johnny said, "I suppose Scott will be taking Judith." + +"I don't see why!" exclaimed Douglas suddenly. + +"You're all rejus like in the church now. You ain't got the time for +womaning. Are you still fond of Jude?" peering at Douglas anxiously. + +"I guess you know how I feel about Judith, Johnny," said Doug in a low +voice. + +"Like I used to feel about her mother?" The old man put a hand on Doug's +arm. + +Douglas nodded. + +"And would it break your heart if Scott or any other man got her?" + +Douglas nodded again, then rose. "I think I'll run down to see her a +minute. I won't be gone long." + +Mr. Fowler smiled. "Good luck to you, boy!" + +"Keep your fingers crossed for me," said Doug, slamming out of the door. + +Judith kept her finger in "Vanity Fair." "We were all going in a crowd," +she said. "You've been cutting us a good deal lately. Why not come in +out of the wet and be just one of us?" + +"I want to take you, myself," insisted Douglas in a low voice. They were +standing in the kitchen, with the door into the living-room closed. "I +want you to wear that white dress with the thing-ma-jiggers on the waist +and your hair all loose around your face. And I'm going to make love to +you every minute." + +His eyes were entirely earnest. Judith smiled, then drew a sudden short +breath. The color deepened in her cheeks, then retreated. + +"All right, Douglas! I'll go with you!" she said. + +Douglas looked at her as if he scarcely believed the evidence of his +ears. Then he flushed. "Thank you, Judith," he said. "Good-night!" and +he bolted into the night. + +On Saturday evening, old Johnny was restless. "I have a feeling like I +ought to sleep in the chapel," he said. + +"Pshaw!" exclaimed Douglas, who was knotting a wonderful new blue +neckerchief around his throat. "Everybody will be at the party. You two +keep each other company and have the coffee-pot going for me when I get +home." + +"Charleton ain't going to be at the party," said Johnny. "I heard Jimmy +Day deponing at the post-office to-day that Charleton was still off on a +trip." + +Douglas hesitated and looked at Mr. Fowler. "Go along, Douglas," said +the preacher. "We'll bolt the door and no one is going to bother us two +old men. You can't sit over me like a mother hen all the time, you +know." + +"All right," agreed Douglas. "I suppose I do act like an old woman. I'll +be home a little after midnight." + +The dance was in full swing by the time Douglas and Judith reached the +hall, with all the Lost Chief familiars present except Charleton. Inez +came with Scott. The vague feeling of uneasiness that Johnny's report +had given him did not leave Douglas, not even when he swung into his +first dance with Judith. She looked into his eyes mischievously. + +"This is nice, Doug, but is it what you call making love?" + +Douglas laughed. "Give me time to find words, Jude!" His arm tightened +around her, but his face settled with worried lines. + +"What's the matter, Douglas?" asked Judith. + +"I don't know. I just have the feeling that something is going wrong." + +"It would be a foolish feeling if Charleton were here," said Judith. +"But ever since poor old Prince--you know--I've had the feeling that +Charleton was just waiting for a chance to hurt you." + +"Has he said anything to you?" quickly. + +"Of course not! Charleton is clever. Well, don't let it spoil your +evening, Douglas. You knew you were courting trouble when you took the +preacher in." + +"And I sure have found it!" exclaimed Douglas with sudden cheerfulness. +"If they don't hurt my old sky pilot, I don't care. Come on, Jude, a +little more pep, if you please!" + +Judith chuckled. "Ah! perhaps this is your idea of love making!" + +"You'll recognize it all right when I begin," said Douglas, skilfully +steering Jude past his father, who had been visiting the pail in the +corner and was swinging Inez in a wild fandango down the center of the +room. + +Douglas had not the least desire to dance with any one but Judith, and +when she danced with other men he wandered uneasily around the room. +About eleven o'clock he missed Scott. "Where's Scott gone?" he asked +Jimmy. + +"O he only stayed for the first dance! I guess he and Inez had a row." + +Douglas scowled thoughtfully and wandered over to the phonograph, which +Peter was manipulating. + +"Where's Charleton, Peter?" + +"He went out after a stray stallion he thinks has wandered up on Lost +Chief." + +Douglas gave Peter a startled glance. "Jimmy Day just said he'd gone +into Mountain City." + +Peter shrugged his shoulders. "All I know is what Charleton told me last +Monday." He slid a new record into the machine. + +"Wait a moment!" Douglas put his hand on the starting-lever. "Isn't that +the telephone ringing downstairs?" + +Peter listened; then nodded. + +"I'll answer it!" exclaimed Douglas. + +He dashed downstairs and jerked the receiver off the hook. "I want Doug! +I gotta depone to Doug," came a breathless old voice over the wire. + +"Yes, Johnny, here I am! Where are you?" + +"At Mary's. They got the preacher, Doug!" + +"Who? Be cool now, Johnny, and help me. Who did it?" + +"Two men. They had things over their faces and they were loco and they +never--never--" Johnny's voice trailed into an incoherent muttering. + +Douglas jammed up the receiver and leaped back up the stairs. He spoke +hurriedly to Peter. "They've got the preacher. I can't get sense out of +Johnny. You take care of Jude." + +He jerked on his mackinaw and darted for the door. Peter followed him +into the cold starlight. + +"Wait a moment, Doug. You'd better let me give a general alarm." + +"Maybe they're all in on it!" Douglas paused with his hand on the pommel +of his saddle. Then he gave a hoarse cry, pointing as he did so at Dead +Line Peak. "Peter! There's a fire up there!" + +He leaped into the saddle and drove the spurs home. The Moose broke into +a gallop. A moment later there were shouts on the trail behind him. + +"Keep going, old trapper! The birthday party is with you!" roared Jimmy +Day. + +Douglas did not reply. He saw the flames leap higher as he covered the +miles. He felt rage mounting swiftly within him, rage that was akin to +what he had felt over the shooting of old Prince, but a thousand times +more poignant. But he handled the old Moose coolly. Up the ever-rising +trail, between drifted fences, up and up, with the Moose groaning +for breath, until the quivering aspens showed clear and black against +the leaping flames. + +He threw himself from his horse, conscious now of a confusion of voices +behind him, of dogs barking, horses groaning and squealing, and coyotes +shrieking excitedly from the blue spruce thicket behind the corral. The +cabin and the chapel were in full flame. Old Johnny limped up to +Douglas. Douglas put a gentle hand on the quivering old shoulder. + +"Johnny, when did they come?" + +"Right soon." + +"You mean after I had gone." + +"Yes. They broke the window out. I knew it would happen. This is an +awful gregus bad valley." + +"Steady now, old boy! Did they hurt the sky pilot?" + +"No. They tied him up and took him away. Then I rode down to telephone +and they burned it." + +"Who was it, Johnny?" + +"I don't know but I depone it was Scott and Charleton. They never spoke +but I depone it. Like it was Charleton and John tied me to the mule and +that was how." + +"Steady, Johnny! Which way did they go?" + +"I don't know. I was riding down to Mary. I knew Mary--" + +"Steady, Johnny." Douglas looked up at the circle of faces. + +"Is there anybody friendly enough here, if they knew who did this, to +tell me?" + +There was no reply, and Peter said, "I don't think if it was Scott and +Charleton working together, they'd confide in anybody!" + +There was a murmur of assent. Douglas stood, the kind hand still on +Johnny's shoulder, drawing long shuddering breaths. + +"If they hurt my old sky pilot," he said, "God pity 'em, for I sha'n't. +'Are any of you folks going to help me organize a hunt for him?" + +"How do you know the two old fools didn't set fire to it themselves?" +demanded John thickly. "The sky pilot was in bad and that would be a +good way out." + +Douglas swung himself up on the Moose. In the vivid light his lips were +twisted contemptuously. + +"Glad to help you out personally any way, Doug!" exclaimed Jimmy Day. +"But you'd better let the sky pilot go. They ain't going to hurt him. +You've been the church buildingest damn fool in the Rockies." + +"Speak for yourself, Jimmy!" cried Peter. "I'm with you, Doug." + +"And so am I!" exclaimed Judith. "This is the rottenest trick ever +sprung in Lost Chief!" + +"You will not stir a step after the preacher, miss!" roared John. + +Douglas stood in the stirrups facing his old friends and neighbors. But +words failed him. He spurred the Moose out onto the trail. + +Peter urged his horse up beside the Moose. "Where are you heading for, +Doug? You mustn't go off half-cocked." + +"I'm going down to Inez' place and see if I can sweat the truth out of +her." + +"It's a slim chance!" + +"I don't think so! It's too dark to follow tracks now, and you can bet +they've covered themselves well, anyhow. I have a feeling that Inez +knows. She must have been willing to murder the sky pilot after his +sermon. If we don't get anything out of her by dawn, we'll get Frank Day +and start. I know I can count on him." + +"Well, perhaps you're right. Inez has been venomous about this and I +can't say that I blame her. Easy now, Doug. The Moose is about all in." + +Douglas grunted and the way to Inez' house was covered in silence. +Douglas had no sense of confusion, nor of defeat. He was angry, but with +his anger was a lust for battle and an exultation in the opportunity +for it that smacked almost of joy. I'll get him back, he told himself, +and I'll rebuild the chapel and I'll punish Charleton and Scott. Maybe I +am nothing but a rancher a thousand miles from anywhere but no old +crusader ever fought for the grail harder than I'm going to fight for my +little old sky pilot. And if they hurt him--! Old Moose groaned as +Douglas involuntarily thrust the spurs home. + +There was a light in the kitchen of the Rodman ranch house. Douglas +banged on the door, and when Inez called, he strode in, followed by +Peter. Inez was sitting before the stove, on which a coffee-pot +simmered. Scott Parsons stood beside the fire, coffee-cup in hand. +Douglas helped himself to a chair and Peter imitated him. + +"You folks didn't come up to my fire," said Doug. + +Inez, who had followed his movements intently, smiled sardonically. "Did +you expect either of us?" + +"Not exactly. I didn't expect to see Scott here, either. It was rumored +that you'd had a quarrel and that was why you left the party early." + +Inez shrugged her shoulders. "Where's Judith?" + +"She's probably helping old Johnny up at my place. There didn't seem to +be anybody else likely to stay, after the fireworks." + +"And what are you and Peter doing down here at a time like this?" asked +Inez, looking at the postmaster as she spoke. + +"I was going to get you to tell me what Scott and Charleton had told you +about this partnership affair of theirs. But as long as Scott is here, +I'll just sweat it out of him." + +Scott laughed. + +"What makes you think I know anything about it?" + +"You have cause to hate the preacher more than any one," replied Douglas +simply. + +Inez' chin came up proudly. "I'm glad you realize that!" she exclaimed. + +"But it's not exactly evidence," said Scott suddenly, "that Charleton +and I had anything to do with the affair." + +"No, nor, if they did put over the job, that I knew about it," added +Inez. + +"Which job do you refer to?" asked Peter. + +"Running the preacher," replied Inez. + +"But how did you happen to know he had been run?" Peter's eyes were half +shut. "You came home early and didn't go up to the fire." + +Inez bit her lip. Peter smiled grimly, his long, sallow face wearier +than ever in the lamplight. "You aren't the kind to get away with a +plot, Inez. Leave that to Charleton." + +"No reason why some one couldn't have telephoned, is there?" demanded +Scott. + +"No reason at all," replied Peter, "except that Inez' phone has been out +of order for a week and I promised to come up to-morrow and fix it for +her." + +"I didn't think," said Douglas, "that you were the kind to get mixed up +in a rough deal like this, Inez. I'll admit that Fowler's sermon was raw +and all that, but still you are no hand to blink facts. Didn't you have +it coming to you?" + +Inez' lip twitched. She looked from one man to the other, finally +focussing on Peter. + +"Did I?" she asked. + +"Yes, you did," he answered. "You've got to lay the blame finally on the +women. Otherwise civilization would cease." + +"Oh, forget it!" growled Scott. "What are you dragging Inez in on this +for? She's always been a good friend to you, Peter." + +"I like Inez," said Peter slowly, "but no one is a good friend of mine +who is bucking against Douglas in this stunt he's at himself. Douglas is +easily the coming man of this valley and if I'm not mistaken, of this +State, and I'm back of him, boots, spurs and saddle." + +Douglas flushed and twisted uneasily in his chair. + +Scott sneered, inaudibly. Inez stared at Douglas, nostrils quivering +slightly. "I've always admired Doug," she spoke coolly, "but it wasn't +playing the game for him to let the preacher attack me and I'll never +forgive him for it." + +"I'll never ask you to!" exclaimed Douglas cheerfully. "And I'm not +going to start a debate with you. I know that Charleton and Scott put +over this deal and that you knew about it." + +"I'm going to make just one statement." Inez was looking again at Peter. +"I think whoever set fire to your place, Douglas, was a fool and a +crook." + +Scott buttoned up his mackinaw. "Well, I'll be riding. I'm a long way +from home." + +Douglas stretched his right arm along the table. His six-shooter was in +his hand. "Don't hurry away, old-timer! I want to talk to you." + +Scott stood rigidly, a forefinger in a buttonhole. "Don't get funny, +Doug. This ain't a sheep-herder's war." + +"No, it's more serious than that," agreed Douglas. "You don't get the +idea, Scott. You can't run the preacher out of the Valley, because I +shall keep bringing him back. You can't burn down my chapel, because I +shall keep building it up. Now, you tell me what you know about this +man, because I don't calculate to let you eat, drink, or sleep until you +do tell." + +"You must think I'm a tenderfoot! Inez, you open that door into the +yard." + +"Peter, you engage Inez' attention, will you?" asked Douglas in his +gentle voice. "Now then, Scott, where is Fowler?" + +Peter moved his chair over beside Inez. Scott made a wry face. + +"I ain't his herder. That's your job. But you've sure lost him on the +range, Doug. A religious round-up ain't what you thought it was, huh?" + +"Just keep both hands in the buttonholes. That's right, Scott. Now when +you get ready to tell daddy all your little sins, speak right up." + +"Look here, Doug, don't you start any shooting in my house. I never have +had any trouble here and I'm not going to begin now. You'll never get +anything out of Scott, this way. You let him go." + +Peter took Inez' hand. "My dear girl, you'd better keep out of this. +Douglas is a right nervous rider, to-night." + +Inez attempted to free her hand. Peter smiled. "You can't be my friend +and Scott's too, you know." + +"I don't want to be your friend!" panted Inez. + +"Don't you?" asked Peter, looking at her through half-closed eyes. "Why +not, Inez?" + +Douglas, intrigued in spite of himself by this half-whispered +conversation, glanced toward Inez. Instantly, Scott thrust the table +against him and leaped toward the door. But Doug thrust out a spurred +boot and the two young riders went down among the table legs. Inez +twisted in Peter's grasp, but he pinioned both of her hands and watched +the struggle anxiously. Suddenly he saw Douglas drive his knee violently +into Scott's groin. Scott groaned and went limp. Douglas got to his +knees and tied Scott's hands together with his own neckerchief. Then he +dragged Scott to a sitting position against the wall and again covered +him with his gun. Slowly the agony receded from Scott's face. + +"Where's the preacher?" demanded Douglas. + +Scott did not answer. + +"I'm going to stay here till dawn," said Doug. "If you don't see fit to +answer by then, you'll start on the hunt with me. Think it over." + +Peter, both of Inez' wrists in one of his long, powerful hands, put +fresh wood on the fire, then sat down again. Inez leaned against him, +breathing unevenly. For a long time, no one spoke. Douglas, the sense of +exultation still upon him, lighted cigarette after cigarette and waited +patiently. How long a time went by he did not trouble himself to note, +though he believed dawn could not be far distant. + +The silence was broken by the galloping of a horse up to the door. A +moment later, Mary Spencer burst into the kitchen. She was wind-blown +and wild-eyed. Her coat was open. Her head was bare. + +"Is Judith here?" she cried, without appearing to observe the peculiar +postures of the inmates of the kitchen. + +"No!" exclaimed Inez. "What's happened?" + +Douglas looked at his mother with startled eyes. "I don't know!" cried +Mary, bursting into tears. + +Douglas tore down the roller-towel and tossed it to Peter. + +"Tie up Scott's ankles. Inez won't bother!" + +Inez, indeed, was giving no heed to the men. She ran over to Mary. "For +heaven's sake, what's happened?" + +Mary wiped her eyes and fought to speak calmly. "Up at the fire she +insisted that she was going out to help find the preacher. John had been +drinking and he argued with her, and followed her down the trail. They +quarrel so much I didn't think anything of it. I stayed a long while up +at the fire with the others. Then I went home. I noticed when I turned +old Beauty into the corral that it was empty, and I was surprised. I +hadn't thought Judith would start out till daylight. I rushed into the +house. The living-room table had been tipped over and the chairs pulled +round. I telephoned everywhere, but nobody had seen her. And this 'phone +wouldn't answer. Old Johnny came down and he rode toward the post-office +and I came here." + +Douglas started for the door. + +"Where are you going?" asked Peter. + +"After Judith!" + +"What about Scott and the preacher?" + +Douglas turned to face the others, his lips white, his eyes burning. +"What do I care about them, when Judith is in question!" + +"You go ahead, Doug!" cried Inez. "Don't wait for anything. Judith's +been talking about running away for years, but she never planned to go +off in the winter, I can tell you that." + +"John had been drinking, you must remember," half-sobbed Mary. "He's +always so ugly then." + +Douglas rushed out of the door. Peter followed him. "I'm going up to the +old ranch and see if I can pick up their trail. I need another horse. My +corral is cleared out and Dad's is too. But I--O, Peter!" Douglas' voice +broke. + +"Keep your nerve up, Douglas. I've got a couple of horses in fair +condition down at my place. We'll ride there after we look over things +at your father's ranch." + +They hardly had cleared the corral when Mary overtook them. She was +still crying, but except for her sobs they rode in a heavy silence to +the ranch house. + +Old Johnny was gone. They found a curious note on the kitchen table. +"Going after Jud for Douglas. J.B." + +"She's started for Mountain City, I'm certain," said Mary. "She's been +terribly uneasy ever since Doug left home, always saying a girl had no +chance to make anything of herself here. It would be exactly like her to +lose her temper and start off, hard pelt on that hundred-mile ride with +no preparations at all." + +"That's not what worries me," said Peter. "It's John when he's drunk." + +"It's light enough to start!" exclaimed Douglas. "Mother, you give us +some breakfast. Let's roll up some blankets and take some grub and get +gone, Peter." + +In little more than a half-hour they were on the trail. And all the +exultation which had carried Douglas through the night had fled, leaving +him with the sense of impending calamity that had spoiled the dance for +him. And he knew now that it had been a well-founded prescience. A door +had closed behind him, forever, and, with horror in his heart, he was +facing a void. For something had gone wrong with Judith. And Judith was +his life. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +THE TRAIL OVER THE PASS + +"Some riders' spurs are the lightest when their hearts are the heaviest." + +--_The Moose_. + + +It was a clear day, but in the increasing light, white clouds could be +seen whirling from the crest of Lost Chief. + +"Lost Chief is making snow, but we won't get it before evening," said +Peter, as they dismounted at the post-office corral. "Now we'll just +outfit for a couple of days. I'm believing we'll overtake one or both +before night, but you can't tell. If Jude was crazy enough to run away +in zero weather, she's crazy enough to have taken any kind of a risk and +to be paying for it." + +Douglas went swiftly and silently to work. The sun was just pushing over +the Indian Range when, each leading a pack-horse, they crossed Lost +Chief Creek and started up the long climb to the Pass. Here the wind was +rising and dry snow sifted constantly across the trail, obliterating any +trace of hoofs that might have been there. It was slow going, too, for +there had been much snow on the Pass and the drifts were frequent and +deep. Douglas was extremely sparing of his mount. Nothing that he could +do should interfere with his efficiency in the search, and although his +mad desire bade him rowell the straining brute, he rode light of heel, +resting at frequent enough intervals to satisfy even Peter's large ideas +of what was owing to a horse. + +It was not until they were half-way to the summit, pushing between +towering jade green walls, where the wind was excluded, that Douglas +suddenly pulled up. The snow was level and hard-packed. There were hoof +and wheel marks, leading south. Friday's mail stage. A number of hoof +marks leading north. The two men dismounted and for many minutes studied +these. + +"Here!" exclaimed Peter at last. "Four horses in a walk, up to this +point. Here, they break into a trot; and this is old Johnny on Jingo, +and that is the Wolf Cub. + +"Easy, Doug! Don't kill the horses. It's only a guess you are +following." + +Douglas grunted impatiently and set his horse, Justus, to the trot. At +the summit, still following trail, they pulled up to breathe the horses, +then plunged downward. Half through the afternoon they followed the hoof +marks. The biting wind rose and the sun warmed their backs as they +crested the ridges. The wind fell and the sun darkened as they dropped +into the valleys. Eagles on the hunt hung watchfully in the sky. Coyotes +now and again sneaked across the trail before them. The two men threshed +their arms across their chests or dropped their aching feet from the +stirrups, and still the hoof marks of five horses led on before them. + +Their shadows had grown long and blue-black on the trail before them +when suddenly Douglas pulled Justus up, and Peter pushed up beside him. +About a quarter of a mile farther on lay the half-way house. They were +crossing a broad, flat valley into which the trail dipped lazily. Just +before them, the tracks of two horses and a dog led sharply to the left +and disappeared. Some one had fallen. There was a confusion of tracks, +then a two-horse trail led on toward the half-way house. Without a +word, they put their horses to a gallop that did not ease until they +pulled in at the little log corral, of the half-way house. There were +two horses, John's and old Johnny's, in the shed. + +Crumpled on the doorstep was old Johnny, Doug's shot-gun across his +knees, at first glance, sound asleep. It was bitter cold. Douglas and +Peter pounded their numbed fingers, then examined the little old cowman. +He was, indeed, asleep, but his was the sleep that knows no waking. + +"I thought he knew better than this," said Douglas, pitifully. + +"He hadn't any outside clothes on." Peter fingered the cotton jumper. +"Had a sudden thought and went off as crazy as Jude. Let's lift him into +the house." + +They opened the door. On the floor beside the stove lay John, his right +leg bloody. They laid old Johnny carefully against the wall. Douglas +stood rigidly staring at his father. Peter hurriedly lifted the wounded +man's hands, then forced some whiskey down his throat. + +"Start a fire, Doug!" he ordered. + +Douglas did not stir. He stood, blue eyes haggard, cheeks frost-burned, +staring at his father. John opened his eyes. + +"Get my right boot off, for God's sake!" he said faintly. + +"Wait!" said Douglas peremptorily, when Peter would have obeyed. "Give +him some more whiskey so I can hear the story and be off. Those were +Judith's tracks back, there." + +"The pain is killing me!" protested John. + +"Where is Judith? Have you hurt her?" demanded Doug. + +Peter applied his flask again to John's mouth. John drank, then groaned. +"I was drunk. Awful drunk. If Doug hadn't been so crazy about the +preacher he'd have seen that. Jude went down to the house to get some +warm things while she hunted for the preacher. I followed her. The house +was warm and got me even more fuddled than I was. I don't know what I +said but she came at me like a wild cat. Then she ran out of the house +and me after her. I never touched her. I never saw such riding. I could +just keep her in sight, and it wasn't till daylight that I came up to +her in this valley. After I sobered up I kept yelling at her, trying to +explain. But she didn't even turn her head. Then I rode my horse round +in front of her and she turned that devilish little wild mare loose on +me, kicking and biting my horse like a stallion. In the middle of the +mix-up, that blank old fool of a Johnny gallops up, half-dressed and +shooting in every direction. Jude she takes off up the valley and Johnny +gave me this leg when I tried to follow. I got up here, him following +me, and the fool wouldn't help me. Just sat guard outside the door. I +kept telling him he'd freeze to death. He kept saying he was saving Jude +for Douglas." John ended with another groan. + +Douglas stood clenching and unclenching his gloved hands. Suddenly he +turned on his heel. "Come on, Peter." + +"We can't leave your father this way, Doug." + +"Come on, I tell you!" Doug's low voice was as hard as his eyes. + +"Wait!" cried Peter. + +"Wait! Wait! While Judith freezes to death too!" exclaimed Douglas. + +"She couldn't freeze to death. She's too mad!" groaned John. + +"An hour won't make any difference," urged Peter. "I guess Jude had this +thing planned out." + +"Planned!" Douglas' blue eyes burned. "She's gone off her head with +anger and disgust and she doesn't care where she goes as long as she's +rid of him. I know Jude!" + +"You don't know Jude!" contradicted Peter. "Help me to lift John to the +bunk. He's gat to be taken care of." + +Douglas turned on his heel, took a quilt from the bunk and laid it over +old Johnny, gray and silent against the wall. Then without a word, he +lifted the door-latch. + +"Don't forget that this is your father after all." + +"But I have forgotten!" returned Douglas clearly. + +"Stop that kind of talk," said Peter sharply, "and help me get his boot +off!" + +Douglas gave Peter a long stare of resentment; then, without a word, he +rushed out of the cabin. He watered the horses, mounted Justus, and took +the lead rope of his pack-animal, putting both horses to the gallop. +When he reached the point where Judith had left the main trail he turned +and followed her tracks, which were rapidly drifting over with snow. + +The whole world was white. Lifting from the valley to the right, little +hills rolled over into one another like foaming billows. Beyond these +were distant ranges blue, white, and gold. Judith's trail led along the +base of the little hills into a grove of Lebanon cedars, gnarled and +wind-distorted. There was little snow among the trees and so for a while +the trail was lost. But when the cedars opened out on a circular mesa +where the snow was taking on the saffron tints of the evening sky, he +picked it up again. + +The mesa ended abruptly in a drifted mountain, opalescent pink from its +foot to its cone-shaped head. The snow on the mesa was not deep, and +Douglas realized that Judith had followed an old trapper's trail that +worked south toward Lost Chief Peak. + +By the time Doug reached the foot of the mountain it was so dark that he +barely could discern that Judith had circled to the right, around the +base of the peak. There would be a moon a little later. Douglas +dismounted in the shelter of a huge rock, cut down a small cedar, and +made himself a fire and cooked some coffee. And he fed the horses. + +He sat for an hour over the fire, waiting for the moon. He was not +conscious of weariness. He was not thinking. It was as if there had been +no burning of his ranch, no preacher, no old Johnny. His whole mind was +focussed on finding Judith. On finding her and somehow ending the +intolerable uncertainty and longing which he had endured for so many +years. + +The threatened snow thus far had held off. If the clear weather would +hold for another twelve hours, he was sure that he could overtake her. +He was impatient of delay and watched restlessly for the moon. Shortly +after seven o'clock it sailed over the mountain, flooding the world with +a light so intense and pure that the unbelievable colors of the daytime +returned like prismatic ghosts. + +Douglas mounted and slowly and carefully followed the trail around the +mountain. He found the spot where Judith had made a fire. He paused over +a drift where one of her horses had floundered. He urged his tired +horses to a trot where Judith had followed a beaten coyote trail along a +hidden brook. Hours of this, and then--a thickening cloud across the +moon and a sudden thickening blast of snow in his face. He had been +fearing this all day, yet the moon had risen so clearly that his fears +had been lulled. He pushed on as long as he could distinguish the +trail. Then, with a groan, he pulled up beside a clump of bushes. The +horses sighed gratefully. Justus' shoulders were quivering with fatigue. + +Douglas unsaddled the horses and hobbled them; then he shoveled snow +away from beneath some of the bushes and made a rough shelter over the +open space with a blanket. He built a fire, crept under his rude canopy, +and rolled himself in many blankets. He was very, very tired, and after +a time he dropped miles deep into slumber. + +It was gray dawn when he awoke and he was snug beneath a foot of snow +that had blown over his bed-covering. He crawled out stiffly and made a +fire. Then he fed the horses and ate his breakfast, examining the +landscape as he did so. + +Lost Chief Range rose to the left. To the right lay a broad mesa cut by +impassable canyons. Far to the south and to the right lifted Black Devil +Range, forming, with Lost Chief, a deep valley, the valley in which +Elijah Nelson had settled. From Douglas' camp, the valley was almost +inaccessible: almost, but not quite. Just under the crest of Black Devil +Peak lay a pass. If this could be crossed one dropped southward into a +cup-shaped valley called Johnson's Basin. Beyond the basin a lesser pass +into sheep country, and thence still south to the railroad and the whole +wide world. + +Black Devil Pass was used in summer but only by seasoned hunters and +cattle-men. In winter, it was closed by snow and ice. Yet now, Douglas +was convinced that, unless big snows had stopped her, Judith was +attempting that perilous passage. She was by now cooled down; she would +not turn back. Pride, resentment, restlessness, and that virile love of +adventure which only increased as she grew older, would urge her on and +on. And to cross Black Devil Pass in winter was a feat which even +Charleton would refuse to undertake. Yet, he did not believe that +Judith would attempt such a journey without carefully outfitting. And +where could she have done this? Had she foreseen her flight and cached +food and fodder? Douglas shrugged this suggestion aside as highly +improbable. But she could have gone into Mormon Valley for supplies. It +was possible to reach Black Devil Pass from the upper end of Mormon +Valley, possible in summer at least. Possible also to reach the Pass by +swinging around to the right of the Black Devil Range. + +Douglas, with a grim tightening of his lips, looked over his supplies. +Bacon, coffee, flour, matches; enough for a week if eked out by +cottontails and porcupines. But the horses had only a day's fodder. He +remade the pack, mounted and pushed on through the snows, which grew +deeper as the elevation increased. + +On either hand, the two ranges flung mountain beyond mountain, in shades +of jade, creviced by deep blue snow. The tiny, weary cavalcade wound on +and on with not a trace of Judith to lighten the way. It was noon when +Douglas reached the forest which choked the end of Mormon Valley. He +knew the spot. Nature first had covered the floor of the passage with +boulders. Between the boulders, she had planted the pine-trees. The pine +had grown thick and tall and had waxed old and fallen, and other pines +had grown above the dead tree-trunks. In summer, if extreme care and +patience were used, a horse could be led through this chaos. In winter, +deep-blanketed with snow--! + +Douglas drew up before the pines and dismounted. The snow was +waist-deep. Very slowly, he began to pick a winding, intricate path +between the trees. He fell many times but he finally emerged into the +smoother floor of the valley. Then he turned and followed his own trail +back, kicking and pounding the snow to make better footing for the +horses. He took Justus' reins and led him into the trail. + +Horses hate the snow. These shied and balked, stood trembling and +uncertain, shook their heads and kicked, and Justus nipped at Doug's +shoulder with ugly, yellow teeth. But he pulled them on and by +mid-afternoon they were in the open valley with snow not above the +animals' knees. Gradually the Mormon buck fences appeared, and, just at +dusk, a twinkling light. + +Douglas rode up to the cabin and, dismounting, knocked at the door. + +It was opened by Elijah Nelson, his big bulk silhouetted in the +door-frame. + +"Good-evening!" said Douglas. + +"Good-evening!" returned the Mormon. + +"Did Judith Spencer come through this way?" + +Nelson shrugged his shoulders. "I don't care to hold converse with any +one from Lost Chief." + +Douglas moistened his wind-fevered lips. "I'm not trying to hold +converse with you. My sister has run away from home. I've lost her trail +and I'm scared about her. I won't stop a minute if you'll just answer my +question." + +A woman pushed up beside Elijah. "Who is it, Pa? For pity's sake, young +man, come in! It's a fearful cold night and this open door is freezing +the whole house." + +Elijah stood back and Douglas strode into the kitchen. Several children +were sitting around the supper table. Nelson repeated Douglas' query to +his wife, adding, "He's the young man who brought the preacher into Lost +Chief and who called me a bastard American." + +The woman stared at Douglas. He was haggard and unshaved. Nevertheless, +standing, with his broad shoulders back, his blue eyes wide and steady +yet full of a consuming anxiety, his youth was very appealing. + +"Have you been out long?" she asked. + +"Since Sunday dawn." + +"She's your sister, you say?" + +Douglas looked down at the woman. She could not have been much over +thirty and her brown eyes were kindly. "She's only a foster sister," he +replied, his low voice a little husky. "I--I--" he hesitated, then gave +way for a moment. "If I'd stayed at home as her mother wanted me to, +instead of bringing the preacher in, it never would have happened! +Religion! Look what it's brought me and Judith!" + +"Religion never brought anything but good to any one," said Elijah +Nelson. "It's religion now that makes me allow you within my doors." + +Douglas gave the Mormon a quick glance. Somewhere back of his anxiety it +occurred to him that he would like to ask this man some of the questions +that had troubled him for years. But now he said urgently to the woman, +"If Judith was here, for God's sake, tell me! She must not try to cross +Black Devil Pass." + +The woman turned to Elijah. "Tell him, Pa!" + +Elijah scratched his head, eying Douglas keenly the while. "Peter Knight +told me something about you. You don't seem to have been tarred with the +same brush as the rest of the Gentiles in Lost Chief. That isn't saying +I excuse the way you talked to me up at your chapel, but I guess you're +to be trusted as far as women are concerned. The girl came in here last +night. She was pretty well tuckered but as mad as hops. She told me that +Saturday night she had a violent quarrel with John Spencer and that she +fled from home in a burst of anger that was still on her when she got +here. She's headed for the Pass and the railroad beyond and nothing that +I know of can stop her. My wife and I did all we could to make her give +up the idea but she was sure she could make it. And I almost believe she +can! She's as strong as a young mountain lion: the way God intended +women to be. She stayed here all night and got away about an hour before +dawn. We outfitted her good. She thought maybe she could make through +the Pass by to-night, but I doubt it. Snow is awful deep up on Black +Devil. We've been looking for her back all day." + +Douglas drew a long breath. "Thank you, Mr. Nelson!" he said, and +started for the door. + +"Wait! Wait!" cried Mrs. Nelson. "You must have some supper and you must +rest. You look terrible!" + +Douglas shook his head. "Every minute counts. I'm not tired, only +terribly worried. I couldn't rest." + +Nelson walked over to the door deliberately, and put a big hand on +Doug's shoulder. "You fill yourself with some hot food, Spencer. You +know better than to tackle this job empty. That girl is in a desperate +frame of mind. You are going to have a struggle with her, if you do +overtake her. You must be cool and save your mind and body. How did she +come to be in such, a state of mind?" + +"She wasn't desperate," said Mrs. Nelson, unexpectedly. "She was sort +of--of wild. I can't just find the word for it. But lots of young women +are like that now-a-days." + +Douglas looked at her curiously. Some phrase of Peter's, half forgotten, +came back to him. "Revolt," he muttered. "Revolt, that's it." + +The woman nodded. "Yes, revolt's the word." + +Elijah shook Doug's shoulder. "How many horses have you?" + +"Two." + +"I'll feed 'em. Go sit down to that table and let my wife fix you up." + +Douglas slowly pulled off his gloves, and his voice broke boyishly as he +said, "You folks are awful kind." + +"Yes, I've sometimes suspected that us Mormons was almost human beings," +grunted Elijah as he pulled on his mackinaw. + +Doug's cracked lips managed a shadow of his old whimsical smile. Mrs. +Nelson heaped his plate and filled his cup with scalding coffee. Then +she shooed the children to bed in the next room and, returning, looked +down at Douglas half tenderly. + +"She's a splendid big thing, that girl of yours. If I was a man I'd be +plumb crazy about her. Has to be something fine in a girl to go crazy +mad, just the way she was. It wasn't all about your father. It had +heaped up for years. Though undoubtedly it was your father started her +off this weather." + +Elijah came in and sat down to his interrupted meal. "Good horses you've +got," he said. "But you've worked them hard." + +"Will you sell me some oats?" asked Douglas. + +Elijah nodded. "I'll fix you up. Do you know how to get to the Pass?" + +"No; I've never crossed, even in summer." + +"Well, I can direct you, though I've never made it myself in winter. +After you get over the Pass and into the Basin it will be easy going and +you can get fodder there. A Mormon friend of mine is in the Basin this +winter with sheep. I told Judith that and exactly how to get there." + +"Was she in bad trim?" asked Douglas abruptly. + +"No. A little used up for lack of sleep, that was all," replied Elijah. + +Mrs. Nelson suddenly chuckled. "My, she was mad! It did me good to see +her." + +Her husband looked at her curiously. "How was that, Ma?" + +"It's the way I've wanted to feel, lots of times," said Mrs. Nelson. "Go +on with your directions, Pa. You wouldn't understand in a hundred +years." + +Elijah snorted, then went on. "There's no trail. But if you reach the +summit, get a line on a bare patch in the middle of the basin, that's +the lake, and the highest peak across the basin. It's got the mark of a +big cross on it. You can't miss it. If you keep on this line, it will +bring you out at Bowdin's sheep ranch. I don't know whether the snows +are as bad on the other side of Black Devil as they are on this. +Johnson's Basin drops down to about three thousand feet elevation and +there's not enough snow in the basin itself to stop sheep grazing. But +the climb down is something awful, even in summer. Ma, you put up a +bundle of grub." + +"I've got grub for a week, thanks!" exclaimed Douglas. Then he asked +Elijah, hesitatingly, "Will you tell me why you are so kind to me?" + +"As I said, it's my religion." + +Douglas stared at his host's kindly face. "I'm dog sorry," he said, "for +what I called you. But, how was I to know? I've been brought up to hate +Mormons." + +Elijah nodded. "I guess we're square. What kind of a man is Fowler?" + +"I like him. But I don't know whether he's the man for the job I set +him, or not. But he's going to stay," lips tightening. "I'll see to +that! Have you always been a Mormon, Mr. Nelson?" + +"Brought up in it. And I've brought my children up in it. Judith told us +about the rotten trick they did you over in Lost Chief. What are you +going to do about it?" + +"Get them!" replied Douglas. "That is, after I find Judith. I think I +know the men who did it, and the sooner they get out of our valley, the +more comfortable they'll be and so will I." + +"But where is that poor old man?" cried Nelson. "Have you looked for +him?" + +"I was trying to get a line on him from Scott Parsons when her mother +brought word Judith was gone." Douglas paused and gave Elijah a straight +look. "I wouldn't stop to look for any one on earth, if Judith needed +me." + +"Judith can take care of herself better than that old man," insisted +Elijah. + +"Nothing to it!" grunted Douglas. "He's been in the cow country forty +years. Not but what I know it was a frightful thing to leave him. But it +can't be helped." + +"What shall you do about a church now?" asked Mr. Nelson. + +"Build it again for the hounds to burn again! If I believed in a God I'd +say he was off his job as far as I'm concerned." + +"Humph!" exclaimed Elijah. "If I don't miss my guess, the Almighty is +directing your business these days as he never has before. You are just +about doing what He says and flattering yourself it's your own plan. God +moves in a mysterious way, His wonders to perform." + +"I wish I could believe it," muttered Douglas, starting for the door. + +"Now, I shifted saddle and pack for you to two horses of mine!" said +Elijah. "If you find that girl, bring her back here. I want to have some +talk with you both. You can pay me rent for 'em, so don't waste your +breath arguing." + +"Well, whether you are a Sioux or a Mormon," exclaimed Douglas, "you +sure are white!" + +Elijah grinned broadly. "Well, that's a real concession for a Gentile! +Be sure you stop here on the way out." + +It was Douglas' turn to grin. "We'll sure be glad to head straight for +here. But I'll warn you now. You can't make Mormons of us!" + +"I'm not a-going to try. But I want to say a few things to you. No harm +in that, is there?" + +"None at all!" Douglas shook hands with his host, then turned to Mrs. +Nelson. "I'm sure obliged to you," he said. + +"That's nothing. But look, Mr. Spencer, don't you be too sure you're +going to bring that girl back with you, even if you overtake her." + +Douglas nodded. "I know," he agreed huskily, "I've got my work cut out +for me." Then he went out into the starlight. + +Elijah followed. "The moon will be up by the time you need it. Follow +trail up to the timber line. Skirt the timber line till you reach the +first shoulder of Black Devil. After that, God help you! The horse you +are on is named Tom. If you aren't back in five days, I'll go over to +Lost Chief and get help to look for you." + +"Thanks," said Douglas, and he rode away. + +Warmed, refreshed, and with hope shadowing his anxiety, Douglas turned +the horses southward. Tom horse was a big, broad-hoofed brute, +hard-bitted and not at all enthusiastic about his prospective trip. But +--he was a stronger animal than Justus and Douglas pushed him sharply +through the snow. + +The trail through the fields for three or four miles was easy to find in +the starlight. The valley narrowed as it rose and finally Lost Chief and +Black Devil thrust foot to foot in a narrow canyon. Douglas did not +enter the canyon but twined upward to the right along the timber line +that clothed the ankles of Black Devil. The moon had not yet risen when +the timber disappeared at the foot of the first shoulder. Douglas pulled +up the panting horses, turned back to the wind and rested for a few +moments, then put Tom to the climb. The snow was without crust but it +was knee-deep and Tom didn't like it. He floundered and snorted, but +Douglas spurred him relentlessly and they crested the shoulder without +pause. Here, however, Doug decided to wait for the moon. + +He moved into the shelter of a rock heap, for the wind was huge, and, +beating his arms across his chest, waited with what patience he could +muster. Where was she now? Could even her splendid courage stand up +against the eerie loneliness. If only he could see her now, returning +defeated, though still defiant. But he knew that he would not meet her +so. She would not give up while she had strength to pursue the +adventure. + +There was no view of the peak from this spot. Before him lifted a dark, +shadowy wall, sloping interminably to the remote heavens. To the east, +Lost Chief Range was silhouetted against a faint glow that told of the +coming moon. To the west was a chaos of unfamiliar peaks. When the dusk +of the mountain-slope before him turned to radiant silver, Douglas +started the horses on and spurred Tom relentlessly. And if he had +known how to pray, he told himself, he would have asked the Almighty to +give him strength for the tremendous venture which lay before him. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +BLACK DEVIL PASS + +"They can stand the curse of being women, but they're revolting against +men's being stupid." + +_--The Mormon's Wife_. + + +Douglas spurred Tom relentlessly until the snow was belly-deep and both +animals began to fight obstinately to turn back. Douglas dismounted and +fastened the horses to a scrub cedar. Then he wallowed forward afoot to +break trail. The wind increased constantly with the elevation, but even +higher than its eerie note sounded the wild call of a solitary coyote. +Douglas heard the call but remotely. His mind was fastened on Judith +fighting as he was fighting. He beat trail until his lungs protested, +then he brought the horses forward, halted, and beat trail again. His +nose was bleeding slightly when he at last won to the crest of the first +shoulder. + +This was blown clear of snow and he mounted and rode well up on the +second shoulder before the horses again balked. Lost Chief Range now had +dropped so that dimly beyond he could glimpse the Indian peaks. The +strange peaks to the right were subsiding to be dwarfed by still other +peaks against which the stars floated, pendulous and brilliant. And +still Black Devil's top was invisible beyond the terraced ridge that +opposed the little cavalcade. + +When, after infinite effort, Douglas surmounted the third shoulder, he +paused, appalled by the loneliness and danger of the position. The ridge +had narrowed until its top offered barely a foothold, with sides +dropping to unthinkable depths. The snow had blown clear and the wind +was almost insupportable. A cedar stood before them like a sentinal +guarding the eternal loneliness beyond. Tom made for this as if it were +his last hope. As the horses brought up in the shelter of the tree, +Douglas gave a hoarse cry of relief and dismounted. Some charred sticks +and the remains of a cottontail had not yet blown away. Douglas examined +the traces of the hasty camp, then chuckled. + +"Safe so far! Some girl, my Judith!" + +Then his jaw stiffened and he set the horses to the last shoulder below +the Pass. Groaning, trembling, bloody flanks heaving, fighting +constantly to turn, Tom, when Douglas sought to force him through the +drift that topped the shoulder, deliberately lay down. Douglas freed +himself from the stirrups and jerked the horse to his feet. + +"I wouldn't own an ornery, unwilling brute like you, for a ranch!" he +panted. "Do you think I'm enjoying this, that we are a bunch of dudes on +a summer outing? I'll get angry at you in a moment, fellow!" + +The pack-horse had embraced the opportunity to fall asleep. Tom, +violently affronted by Doug's tirade, did his not inconsiderable best to +kick his mate. Then he snapped at Douglas, who promptly cuffed him on +the nose. Tom reared, fell, and began to roll down the terrible slope. +The pack-horse did not waken nor stir. Doug flung himself after Tom. +Slipping, falling, rolling, he finally caught the reins, and though Tom +dragged him fifty yards on downward, he at last braced his spurs against +a boulder, the reins held and Tom brought up, trembling and coughing. +And now horse and man could only stand for a long time struggling for +breath. When his numbing hands gave warning that his rest period must +cease, Douglas, with the reins caught over his elbow, began a fight back +to the crest of the ridge, a fight to which the previous portion of the +trip had been as nothing. When they reached the led horse, still +sleeping with his nose between his fore legs, there was no more fight +left in Tom, and Douglas dropped into the snow to rest. + +The moon was setting when he led his little train through the gigantic +drift to the long slope which lifted to the Pass. There was no snow +here. The slope, as far as Doug could discern in the failing light, was +a glare of rough ice. Over this he dared not urge the horses until +daylight. He looked at his watch. It was nearly five o'clock. He +fastened the horses to the only cedar in sight, then stood in the wind +debating with himself. + +He was very much exhausted and the rare air and the intense cold were +giving him no chance to recoup. This was no place to make camp. The tiny +cedar offered neither shelter from the wind nor an adequate amount of +fuel. And up here, in this hostile loneliness, his anxiety over Judith +returned threefold. Strong as she was, clever as she was, she was as +open to accidents as he. Supposing her horses had slipped on this ice +and had gone over the black edge! Douglas dropped to his hands and knees +and crept out upon the glassy surface. A hundred yards of this and he +brought to pause before a giant boulder beside which grew several dwarf +cedars. He drew his ax from its sheath and after long effort with his +stiffened fingers, he got the green wood to burning. Dawn, about seven, +found him napping against the warm face of the rock. He brought the +horses up to the camp, fed them and himself, and as the sun shot over +the Indian Range, then prepared to lead the horses onward. + +The crest of Black Devil now lifted immediately above him. Just below +the crest, a ledge broad enough for a pack team led straight into the +blue of the sky. To the right the dark wall of the crest. To the left a +sheer drop where the canyon between Lost Chief Range and Black Devil +yawned hideously. This ledge, this narrow, painful crossing, made the +Pass. + +Douglas drew his ax and prepared to roughen a trail over the ice for the +horses. But to his unspeakable delight, he had not gone far when he +discovered that another ax and other horses had gone over the ice before +him. He was grinning cheerfully as he sheathed his ax and took Tom's +reins in hand. + +It was noon when he reached the Pass. Sheer red walls to the right, +rising to the hovering top of Black Devil. Still the sickening canyon +depths to the left. To the south, myriad peaks, a whole world of peaks, +snow-covered, serene. Far, far below, a blurred green valley, with a +tiny white spot in its center. Johnson's Basin. The slope south from the +Pass was very steep and deep with snow, but Douglas saw Judith's trail +zig-zagging to a low shoulder round which it disappeared. + +He fed the horses, ate some biscuits and bacon, both frozen, and started +downward. Shortly snow began to fall, but he had no difficulty in +following trail until mid-afternoon. Then he paused on the low shoulder. +There were scrub pines in which Judith had made a camp. The snow had +thickened until Doug could see scarcely ten feet ahead. He was utterly +weary and very cold. He knew that he ought to go into camp for the night +but he could not. He tied the horses beneath the trees, a grateful, +windless haven to the poor brutes, and went slowly on to reconnoiter. + +Judith's tracks continued abruptly down the slope. Douglas followed for +a few feet, then stopped. A horse had fallen here and rolled down the +steep left wall. He dropped to his knees and followed the wide, +snow-packed trail. He had not far to go. From the snow drifted over a +rock protruded a horse's hoof. Doug swept the body free of snow. It was +old Buster, with his right fore leg broken and a bullet wound in his +head. Hot tears scalded Doug's wind-tortured eyes. After a moment of +search for further details of the catastrophe, he crawled up the wall +again and, after a frantic hunt, found a blurred single horse trail +leading on from the spot whence Buster had slipped. He went back for his +own horses, mounted Tom and pushed on downward. + +But he could not continue long. It was soon dusk and he dared not risk +losing Judith's tracks. When he came upon the next cedar clump, clinging +precariously to the mountainside, he dismounted. Under the shelter of +the trees, he fastened the horses. He trampled the snow for his +fire-place and chopped a night's supply of wood. After he had eaten a +hot supper, he wrapped himself in his blankets and huddled over the +fire, consumed by anxiety. + +The wind rushed by the cedars without pause. The hard, dry pellets of +snow rattled on the trees. The horses, their chins hung with icicles, +stood with bowed heads, motionless. + +All of Doug's life passed in review before his sleepless eyes. He could +not recall when he had not been shaping his days around Judith. Even +when as children they had lived the snarling life of young pups, she had +been the center of his universe. He wondered if love came to many men as +it had come to him. He had not observed it in any other man in Lost +Chief. Perhaps Peter had cared so. Perhaps in the outside world it was +not infrequent. But whether it was a common sort of love or not, he +could not picture himself without Judith in his life. If he should find +her dead, farther down on this ghastly mountainside, he knew that the +light and warmth within him would go out and that he never would finish +the journey. + +One by one he went over the steps of the past year that had culminated +in this trip over Black Devil Pass. He realized that every step had been +the result of his own years of mental conflict. Yet he could not see how +he could have failed to take each step as he had taken it. His mind +mysteriously refused to present an alternative. And, thinking thus, he +was conscious of a sense of spiritual helplessness as if he were being +borne on and on by forces quite beyond his control. And there came to +him a sudden and shattering conviction that this terrible night of +loneliness had been inevitable since the day of his birth. Call it Fate, +he told himself, call it Destiny, call it what we might, something +stronger than his own will had shaped his days toward this awful +expedition. Awful, he thought, not from the physical aspect--he had +endured as much in other ways--as from the quality of the events that +had brought the expedition about. It was all wrong that Judith should +have been in the state of mind that made it possible for her to put +herself to such a wild flight. Revolt, the Mormon's wife had said it +was. Revolt against what? Surely against something stupendous, +something that a man was powerless to help her to free herself from or +to bear. + +Ah, Judith! Judith! Judith all fire, all wistfulness, all strength and +beauty! What was he, after all, to hope to claim her, or even having won +her, how was he to keep her? How was he to keep within his ken that +restless, soaring spirit? What could he give her that would satisfy, and +hold her? For the first time in many years, Douglas could have wept; +wept for very sadness that Judith should be so lonely and so wistful. + +How long he sat shivering with his burning eyes on the fire, Douglas did +not know. He was roused by a faint cry above the wind. At first he +thought it was a coyote. But when it repeated, he started to his feet +and concentrated in an agony of attention on the sound. Once more it +came, longdrawn, troubled, the howl of a dog. Doug dropped the blankets +and strode from the shelter of the trees to deliver a long coo-ee. The +wind was against him. There was no response. + +He hurriedly dragged his entire supply of firewood before the shelter +and set it to blazing. Then he plunged on foot downward through the +wind-swept, snow-driven darkness. + +It was a terrible journey. He slipped and fell so often and so far that +when the light behind him dwindled to a faint point, he dared continue +no farther. Standing waist-deep in snow, he whistled and called. But the +cyclone wind drove the sound back into his teeth. Sick at soul, he +prepared to turn back. He beat his arms across his chest, stamped his +feet, slipped, and once more rolled downward. He brought up with a crash +in a cedar clump. A dog barked and threw himself against Doug with a +snarl that changed at once to a whine of joy. + +"Wolf Cub! Wolf Cub! Where is she?" + +He grasped the dog's collar. It was very dark beneath the trees. Wolf +Cub led him forward for a few feet. He stumbled over a soft, huddled +form. He rolled to his knees and pulled a blanket aside. Judith!--her +head pillowed on her knees. + +"Judith! Judith!" No reply. Doug put the blanket over her again and, +with hands like frozen clods, jerked out his sheath ax and with infinite +difficulty lopped off a cedar bough and got a fire to going. Sifting +snow pellets, and the little wild mare's beautiful anxious eyes and +drifted forelock, then that form beneath the blanket. Douglas heaped the +fire high, then hurled the blanket away. + +"Judith! Judith! Judith!" Sobbing, he crouched beside her, gathered her +in his arms, laid her cold face in his breast, tried to enwrap her body +with his. + +"Judith! Judith!" + +Wolf Cub whined in eager circles. Douglas laid his cheek against her +lips. A faint warmth. He shook her, frantically, and beat her hands with +his. Then he rose and balanced her on her feet. She hung limply in his +arms. He huddled her before the fire again and forced some whiskey down +her throat. He manipulated her inert body until when he lifted her again +onto her feet she was able to stand. Still half in his arms. Then he +forced her to stumble back and forth beside the fire. + +"Judith! Judith! Judith!" + +"It's you, Doug!" weakly and with bewildered eyes. + +"O Jude, how could you! How could you!" + +"Poor Buster--dead!" muttered Judith. + +"I know! I found him. You must keep going, Judith. Lean on me but keep +going." + +But circulation was returning to her strong young body. Shortly she was +able to stand alone and to ask Doug where he had come from. + +"My camp is up the mountain a ways. Why didn't you have a fire?" + +"Lost my pack when I lost Buster. Lost my match-safe when I fell with +the little wild mare this afternoon." + +"I'm going to take you back up to my camp, Judith." + +"I don't think I can make it, Doug. It would have to be a foot climb." + +"You must make it. There is nothing at all here to keep us both from +freezing to death. We'll start now, while I can still see the fire I +left up there." + +"I can't, Doug! You bring your camp down here." + +"This is no shelter at all. I'm in the big cedars above here. You've got +to have some hot food right off. We will leave the little wild mare here +until morning." + +With Wolf Cub hanging to their heels, they started the upward climb. +Judith gave to the last ounce of her depleted strength. They reached the +still glowing ashes of Doug's fire on their hands and knees, and lay +beside it till the warning chill brought Douglas to his feet. He chopped +more wood, rekindled the fire in the center of the camp, and established +Judith beside it on some blankets. Then he prepared some coffee and +bacon for her. She ate ravenously. Douglas watched her with satisfaction +radiating from every line of his snow-burned face. + +"Are you warm now, Jude?" he asked her when she had begun on her second +cup of coffee. + +"Well, not exactly warm, but I sure am thawing!" + +"As soon as you are warm, I'll let you sleep. That's right, let old Wolf +Cub snuggle up against you. He's better than a hot-water bottle. Are you +surprised to see me, Judith?" + +She looked up at him through weary eyes that still held the old +unquenchable fires in their depths. + +"I didn't know. If you had gone off on a long hunt for the sky pilot, +you wouldn't have heard yet that I was gone. Did you find him?" + +"I never even got to look for him. I was down at Inez' trying to sweat +some truth out of Scott when your mother came in with word you were +gone. Peter and I started after you at once." + +"Peter! Where is he?" + +"Jude, let's keep our stories until morning. Things look different, +then. And you are all in." + +"So are you!" + +"I'm not as bad off as you. Let me tuck you up, dear. When you've had a +sleep, you can give me my turn." + +Too done up to protest, Judith allowed Douglas to wrap her in blankets +and, with the Wolf Cub snuggled against her back, she dropped into +slumber. Douglas set himself to the task of keeping the fire going. The +snow ceased at midnight and the cold grew more intense. Douglas chopped +wood or walked up and down before the fire to fight off the snow stupor +which constantly menaced him. When the lethargy was too heavy to be +controlled by exercise alone, he stooped over Judith and, lifting the +corner of the blanket which covered her face, he would gaze at her with +such joy and thankfulness as he never before had experienced. Whatever +the future might bring forth, he had her safe and warm for to-night. And +he wished that he believed in a God that he might thank Him! + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +ELIJAH NELSON'S RANCH + +"Call it Fate, call it Destiny, something stronger than my own will is +shaping my destiny." + +--_Douglas Spencer_. + + +At dawn Judith stirred, blinked at Douglas, and sat up, staring. Her +eyes were bloodshot and deep sunk in her head, but her look was full of +energy, nevertheless. Douglas was standing on the opposite side of the +fire. + +"Have you been up all night?" she demanded. + +"Had to keep the fire," he mumbled, swaying as he spoke. + +Judith crawled out of the blankets, took Doug by the arm, and pushed him +down in the warm nest she had left. Then she covered him carefully. + +"It's my turn now," she said. + +He slept until noon. When he woke, Judith was making coffee, and the +little wild mare was munching oats with the other horses. The Wolf Cub +was gnawing on a bone, and the sun sifted brilliantly through the +cedars. Douglas got to his feet stiffly and Judith looked up at him from +her cooking with a smile. + +"Nothing like having your breakfast served immediately on waking," said +Douglas. + +"Come and eat, Doug. We must be on our way." Judith poured a tin cup of +coffee and offered Douglas a bacon sandwich as she spoke. + +"You shouldn't have let me sleep so long. A couple of hours would have +kept me going the rest of the day." + +"You talk as foolish as old Johnny!" exclaimed Judith. "You were in +almost as bad shape as I was, and two hours' sleep would have been a +mere aggravation to me. Will you let me have enough grub to see me down +to the Bowdins' ranch, Doug?" + +"No, I won't," replied Douglas succinctly, bracing himself for battle as +he spoke. + +"Don't let's quarrel, Doug." Judith kept her eyes on the fire. "I +haven't any intention of going back to Lost Chief. I've broken away and +I shall stay away." + +"I don't blame you for feeling that way, Jude, but surely you can see +that this is no way to go." + +Judith set her fine jaw firmly. Finally she said, "Where did you pick up +my trail?" + +"Where you left the stage road. Jude, did you know that old Johnny gave +Dad a nasty one above the knee?" + +"No! Old Johnny came to my rescue, but I didn't think he could hit a +canyon wall. Good old Johnny! What became of him?" + +Douglas moistened his lips. "He followed my father to the half-way +house. Dad was all in. Couldn't even build himself a fire. Johnny +wouldn't do a thing for him. He went outside and sat down on the +doorstep with my shot-gun across his knees; every time Dad yelled at him +he said he was saving Jude for Douglas. The last of the afternoon Peter +and I came up and found old Johnny there." + +"Good old Johnny!" said Judith again. + +Douglas nodded, hesitated, then said. "He was asleep and we couldn't +wake him up." + +Judith's eyes suddenly filled with horror. "You couldn't wake him up? +You mean--" + +Again Douglas nodded. "He was gone, poor old Johnny. For you and me. I +came on after you, alone." + +Judith twisted her hands together. "But dead, Doug! And in such a simple +way! O the poor little old chap! I can't forgive myself, Douglas!" + +"It's the way he'd like to have gone. You are not to blame." + +"O, yes, I am. I should have stopped and sent him home. But I was beside +myself, Doug,--O, you don't know! you can't know!" + +"You're not to blame yourself about Johnny, I tell you." + +"Now I never do want to go back! You'll just have to grub-stake me, +Doug. Please!" + +Douglas pushed his hair back from his forehead. If only she would not +plead with him! She never had done that. He did not believe that he +could stand out against it. + +"You mustn't think of going on alone, Jude," he said. + +"Then you come as far as Bowdins' with me and get rested up for your +trip back." + +"I want you to come back with me," repeated Doug. + +"No!" said Judith. "I'm never going back to Lost Chief!" + +"Then come as far as the Mormon's. Get rested and get some clothes +together and I'll take you out to Mountain City, and I'll loan you +enough money to live on while you get a job, or I'll put you through +college. Either you want. You've done a great stunt, Judith, crossing +Black Devil in winter. But putting over a stunt isn't necessarily acting +with judgment." + +"How could I act with judgment, under the circumstances?" demanded +Judith. + +Douglas looked at her with passionate earnestness. + +"Judith," he said, "you must believe that I'm not criticizing you. I'm +just trying to help you do the wise thing." + +"Why can't I go on across the Basin and get the A.B. railroad at +Doty's?" asked Judith. + +Douglas looked down the terrible mountainside. "We aren't equipped for +it, Jude." + +She drew a deep breath. "I don't want to go back where I have to breathe +the same air he does." + +"Judith, what did he do?" Doug's lips were stiff and his eyes contracted +as if with pain. + +"I didn't give him a chance to do anything. I don't want even to talk +about it." + +Douglas sat silent for a moment; then he said huskily, "I'm ashamed of +him." + +Suddenly Judith put her hands before her eyes and began to sob. Douglas +groaned. He put his arms about her and presently she leaned against him +and wept with complete abandonment. Finally she began to talk. + +"He's always worried me, a little--but I wasn't really afraid of him. I +don't want to think about him--or talk about him--to anybody. Up till +Saturday night he was just one of the hard things that heckled me--I +didn't have anybody to go to. If I went to you, you'd want to--marry me. +And--Inez--Inez has gone back on all the ideas she got me to believe. +She's gone--and fallen in love--with Peter! She--she told me not long +ago that she was going to do everything she could to make him marry +her.--Just as soon as something touched her selfish interests she went +to pieces.--I want to get away from Lost Chief!" + +Douglas patted her shoulder in silence. It was inexpressibly sweet to +have her there. + +"A girl has a brain, as well as a man," she went on. "She doesn't want +to be just a servant to a rough old rancher. She wants to live by her +brain as well as he does. What's the use of a woman being fine if that's +all her fineness comes to? You can say she hands it on to her children. +But she don't. It's something she acquires and it's lost--in the +scrubbing pail." + +Douglas listened with the whole of his mind. Judith's sobs had ceased +now, and she went on, slowly. "It's not that I'm against children. I'd +love to have a half a dozen babies. But what I am against is giving all +that is in me--the brain side of me, to something that demands only a +small part of my brain. I want a life like a man's and a woman's too, +that makes me give all, all. Surely I can find a place somewhere where I +can give that." + +Douglas drew an uncertain breath. The Mormon woman had known. A sense of +his own inadequacy settled on him like a cloud. + +"I know you think I'm a fool. Yet you have big dreams for yourself or +you wouldn't have felt as you have about the preacher. One has to have +an ideal to live by. I thought Inez had given me one and--" with a sob +that shook her whole fine body--"I don't see how it can work out!" + +"I suppose," said Douglas, in his gentle voice, "that folks have been +trying out Inez' idea ever since love began, and the homely, every-day +details of living make it impossible." + +Judith drew a long breath and was silent. + +"And so," said Douglas, "you are through with love and marriage. Yet no +human being can be happy without both. Life is like that." + +Judith sprang to her feet and Douglas rose with her. She began to walk +rapidly up and down before the fire. It was so evident that a tempest +was raging within her that Douglas watched her with astonishment and +dismay. The sunshine flickered gloriously through the cedar branches. +Wolf Cub gave cry after a coyote. It might have been a moment or a +lifetime to the young rider before Judith halted in front of him. Her +tear-stained face was tense. Her wide eyes burned with a light he never +before had seen in them. + +"And if," she exclaimed, "I told you that I loved you; that for years I +had fought off a love for you that was like a burning flame in my heart; +if I told you that to me you are as beautiful as all the lovers in the +world; but that I never, never would give myself to you in marriage, +what would you say?" + +Douglas' gloved hands clenched and unclenched, as he fought for self +control. After a moment he managed to return, steadily, "I'd ask you +why?" + +The tensity of Judith's expression did not relax. "I've told you why. I +cannot bear to think of killing love by marriage. And it always works +so. Always. And yet, O Douglas, I love you, love you!" + +Douglas threw back his head with a sudden breath, swept Judith into his +arms and kissed her, kissed her with all the ardor of years of +repression. Judith clung to him as if she could not let him go. And yet, +when he lifted his face from hers, she said, none the less firmly +because her voice was husky: + +"But, Douglas, I won't marry you!" + +Douglas lifted his chin. "Perhaps you won't, my dearest! I'm not going +to let that thought spoil the big moment of my life." + +He put his hands on her shoulders and looked at her, at the long +brilliant face beneath the beaver cap, at the fine steel slenderness of +her, and then he said in his low-voiced way: + +"O Judith! Judith! why didn't you tell me, long ago!" + +"Because nothing would satisfy you but marriage," replied Judith, with a +half sob. + +Douglas smiled wistfully. "But I haven't changed! Why did you tell me +now?" + +"I didn't want to! I didn't mean to! But I couldn't help it. You saved +my life, Doug! It ought to belong to you, but O, I can't give it to you! +I must go on. I must find out what is the thing I'm meant to do. I +must!" + +Douglas turned from her troubled face to gaze at the mad descent that +must be made before Johnson's Basin could be won. Then he put up his +hand and turned her face to follow his glance. + +"Judith, do you think that I can let you go down there? If it was +impossible before, think how I feel about it now I know that you love +me. Somehow we have got to compromise on this thing, my dearest." + +Judith clung to him. "I don't want to leave you, Douglas. But I can't go +back to Lost Chief. I can't!" + +Douglas held her close and for a long moment there was no sound in the +wide solitudes except the Wolf Cub's faint hunting-cry. + +At last Douglas said slowly, "If I give you my word that I'll take you +out to Mountain City as soon as I can outfit, will you come back to +Nelson's with me? Look at me, Jude!" + +Judith lifted her eyes and searched Doug's face long and wistfully. Then +she said, brokenly, "Yes, I'll come, if you will give me your promise. +Not because I think it's sensible but because, now I've given away this +much, I don't want to be separated from you till--till I've unpacked my +heart to you!" + +"And after you've done that," asked Douglas, "do you think I can ever +let you go?" + +"But I thought you were not going to spoil this moment by arguing about +marriage!" exclaimed Judith. + +"I'll not!" cried Douglas. "Truly, I'll not." + +The Wolf Cub trotted importantly into the camp with a scrawny +jack-rabbit dragging against his shaggy gray breast. Douglas gave a +quick look at the sky. + +"Judith, either we must put this place into shape for a night camp or we +must strike out at once so as to get over the Pass to-night." + +"We'd better break camp," said Judith. "It's getting frightfully cold +and there's mighty little fodder left." + +They fell to work swiftly, and before the Wolf Cub had half finished his +meal they were on the march. Douglas led on Tom, followed by his +pack-horse. Judith followed on the little wild mare. The crest of Black +Devil hung over their heads, the purple of his front crosshatched by +myriad crevisses filled with peacock-blue snow. The same strange blue +snow had obliterated their trail, and Tom, his bloody flanks deep in the +drifts, leaped and slid and turned, leaving a wake, Judith said, like +that of a drunken elephant. + +The drifts had blown clear of the narrow ridge down which poor Buster +had slid. They dared not trust the horses here, but dismounted and crept +gingerly across, the animals slipping and snorting behind them. They +rested after the crossing, and Douglas saw that tears were frozen on +Judith's lashes. + +"Judith, I believe the old horse was glad to go in service that way," +he said. + +Judith shook her head. "It's been a terribly expensive trip," she said. +"Old Johnny and Buster." + +"Expensive for them, yes,--poor old scouts both of them," Douglas +sighed, then added, "But, God, what a marvelous trip for me!" + +"And for me!" Judith nodded soberly. + +They beat their hands across their breasts and remounted, silently. + +All the brilliant afternoon, they worked their uneven way upward. Each +of the horses was down again and again. Both Judith and Douglas were +bruised and cut by ice. Both were drawing breath in rapid sobs when, +just before sunset, they fought the last few yards to the level of the +Pass, won to it, and lay on the icy ledge, exhausted. Wolf Cub nosed +them and whined disconsolately. + +"You're right--old hunter--!" gasped Douglas. "If we--don't--keep +moving--the cold--will get us!" + +Judith, who had been lying on her back staring at the sky, rolled over +on her face and struggled to her hands and knees. + +"Keep that--wild--elephant--you call--a horse in a long lead--or he'll +step on you--Doug!" she called. + +"Give me--a long--start, then!" + +Douglas started forward on hands and knees. The little wild mare was as +careful in following Judith as was the Wolf Cub. But Tom gave constant +evidence of an earnest desire to walk on Douglas instead of the trail. +He was too tired now, however, to be ugly, and the Pass was crossed +without accident or incident. + +It was dusk when they made the great rocks where Douglas had camped +before. Judith's strength was gone. She pulled the reins over the little +wild mare's head and tried to pull her ax from its sheath. But her +benumbed fingers refused to act. + +"Keep moving, Jude!" urged Douglas. "Just till I can get a fire started. +Don't stop walking for a moment!" + +When at last a blaze was going before the rocks, Doug unrolled the +blankets from the lead-horse and wrapped Judith in them. She crouched +against the face of the rocks in silence while Douglas put the +coffee-pot to boil and thawed out the bacon. It was not until she had +swallowed a second cup of the steaming beverage that the snow stupor +left her eyes. + +Suddenly she smiled, and said, "It almost nipped us that time, Douglas!" + +"And yet you thought you could make Bowdin's ranch alone!" grunted +Douglas. + +"It would have been getting warmer all the time. There would have been +nothing like this!" shivering as a great blast of wind swept over the +top of the rock heap. + +"You risked death in every step," insisted Douglas. "It was like going +down a canyon wall, not a mountainside. The drifts and ice made it +impossible to tell how your next movement would end." + +"Well," sighed Judith, "I don't think I'm regretting my decision. This +might be worse," stretching out her mittened hands to the blaze. + +"Nice, girlish kind of amusements you enjoy!" grunted Douglas, with a +little grin. "Something quiet and restful about playing games with you, +Jude! Now listen, my dearest, don't close your eyes until I tell you you +may. A night camp under Black Devil Pass is plain suicide, if you +forget for a moment." + +Judith threw off the blankets. "I'll chop some wood and get warmed up." + +"Aren't you warm now?" asked Douglas. + +"All but around the edges," replied Jude. + +"Well, you put the blankets round yourself again and save your strength +for to-morrow. You'll need it. It won't take me long to get things ready +for the night." + +Judith snuggled back in the blankets. "I'm really not a bit more done up +than you are, but it's worth a trip over the Pass to see a Lost Chief +rancher take such care of a girl. I didn't know you had it in you, +Doug!" + +Douglas laughed and began making the camp ready for the night. When he +had finished his preparations, he sat down beside Judith, pulled a part +of the blankets over his shoulders and drew her close against him. The +Wolf Cub lay as close as he could crowd against Judith's other side, his +nose almost in the embers. + +Judith looked into Doug's face attentively. His eyes were heavy and deep +sunk in his head. + +"You are very, very tired, Douglas. Why don't you get some sleep?" + +Douglas shook his head. "To-morrow, if all goes well, we'll reach +Nelson's place. This is to be my one last night alone with you. I'm not +going to sleep until I have to. This camp might seem sort of cold and up +in the air to some people, but to me, it's pretty close to heaven!" + +"I never can connect the man you've grown to be," mused Judith, "with +the horrid boy you were once. I wonder what has changed you so?" + +"Boys are rotten," agreed Douglas cheerfully. "Loving you is what has +changed me most. Everything else came out of that." + +"I suppose," Judith looked at the fire thoughtfully, "that if I'm going +to work in an office, I'd better begin to polish up my manners." + +"You'll be a wonder in an office!" said Douglas. "I can just see you +coaxing and taming a typewriter same as you coaxed and tamed old Sioux. +And just about as easy a job. You won't miss your horses and the Wolf +Cub. You won't be homesick for the range. O no!" + +"I've thought that all out, too," returned Judith coolly. "I'll hate +every moment of it. But I'll be learning." + +"Learning what, Judith?" + +"About life!" + +"About life! Judith, this is life. All of life. This!" He turned her +face to his and kissed her lingeringly. + +She was silent for a moment and there were tears in her eyes. Then she +said, softly, "No, it's only a part of life. Things of the mind count +heavily as you grow older. They count very much with you right now. What +else is your fight for the sky pilot but a thing of the mind?" + +"It's all based on my love for you, Judith," repeated Doug. "Judith, you +never can stay away from Lost Chief." + +"I'll stick it out. See if I don't! Will-power is the best thing I +possess. Inez always said I'd never get up courage to leave. Perhaps I +wouldn't have if I hadn't been so angry. But I did leave. She didn't +know me." + +"I wish Inez had run away. She's been your and my curse." + +"How is she worse than Charleton?" + +"She's more likable and a lot finer and so she has more influence. You +don't really think for a moment that Peter will marry her, do you?" +Douglas spoke contemptuously. + +"Well, if he doesn't marry her, it won't be because he considers that +he's led a perfect life, I hope." + +"That isn't the point. I think that men insist on marrying decent women +because there's a race instinct that makes a man turn to something +better than himself for his mate. It's what lifts the race, keeps the +spiritual side of life moving uphill instead of down. If this wasn't +true, human beings would never have got out of the monkey stage." + +Judith looked at Doug with interest. "That might all be true, but I hope +you don't put that up as an excuse for the double code." + +"No. I don't. I'm just stating one of the selfish, brutal facts of +life." + +Judith made no reply, and for a long time Douglas made no attempt to +break the silence. It was enough to be sitting under the brilliant +heavens with Judith's wonderful body warm against his side. The +far-drawn cry of the coyotes disturbing him now no more than it did the +Wolf Cub listening but unheeding. + +"I can't help thinking about old Johnny," said Judith at last. "It's +going to worry me terribly when I'm by myself again. I should have +stopped and taken care of him." + +"It's not going to worry me," returned Douglas quietly. "The poor old +fellow was unhappy and useless. He died a real hero's death for some one +he loved. Folks in Lost Chief are going to remember that instead of his +poor old feeble mind." + +"I'm glad you were kind to him! You have been wise and kind in many +ways, Doug, and you are only a boy. I believe Peter is right in saying +you are going to be a big man." + +"Shucks! Peter doesn't know that all the good there is in me is built on +you." + +"That isn't true," contradicted Judith. "You're big within yourself. +Even Inez said that." + +Douglas grunted and his voice was without enthusiasm as he said, "Inez +can't see anything straight that is related to love. I'll admit she's +dangerously interesting. If I hadn't always been caring for you, she +might have got me twisted the same as she has you." + +"I'm not twisted," protested Judith stoutly. "I'm just not afraid to see +marriage as it is. Sordid!" + +"Inez!" sniffed Douglas. + +"Let's not begin that again!" exclaimed Judith. "Just love me, Douglas, +and let me go away." + +He drew her closer still. "Love you!" he repeated in his quiet voice. +"You might as well tell me to breathe or my heart to keep on beating. I +haven't done anything else since the day I drove the preacher out of the +schoolhouse. Even when I've tried to stop caring, I couldn't do it!" +with a whimsical smile. "Do you remember how I wouldn't let you go with +Dad to feed the yearlings?" + +"Yes, I remember because from that moment you were a little different +from other Lost Chief men in my mind. Tell me some more." + +Douglas stared at the fire, going in retrospect over the long, long +fight, the fight that still was only half over. + +"I can't put it into words that will make it seem as big to you as it +is to me, Judith. Tell me, have you been lonely all your life?" + +"Yes. Very, very lonely. With the feeling that there was no one to +understand." + +"That's the way it's been with me, only I always knew that if you could +care for me we could understand each other. I want to make you know me +to-night, Jude. I want to fix my real self so in your mind that wherever +you go, you'll have me with you." + +"You did that long ago, Douglas," said Judith softly. + +"Have I?" wistfully. "You see, Jude, you are so mixed up in my mind with +Grandfather's dream of Lost Chief, and mine, and the preacher, and God, +that I don't know myself where one leaves off and another begins. And +to-night, one part of me is on fire with happiness and another is frozen +with discouragement. Are you sure you can care for me, Judith?" + +"Ever since that night in the hay-loft when you kissed me, after your +father shot Swift. I didn't want to love you. There didn't seem much +romance about a boy you'd lived with all your life. I didn't want to +marry. I wanted to give all there was in me to some one big and fine +enough to appreciate it. And after all, it's only you." + +"Only me!" ejaculated Douglas, comically. + +Judith did not smile. "I fought and fought against it. But every year I +saw you growing into a bigger, finer man than Lost Chief ever had +known--a lonely sort of a man, not afraid to be laughed at even when it +was about a matter of religion. I hated to see you making a fool of +yourself, and yet I admired you for it. You grew so straight and +self-controlled, and Doug, you are so wonderful to look at! Your father +never dreamed of being as handsome as you. He's just a great animal. But +no one can look into your eyes and not see how you've fought to make a +man of yourself. I love you, Douglas!" + +They clung to each other in the firelight, heedless of the unthinkable +loneliness that hemmed them in, of the ardors of the day, of the terror +of to-morrow. + +"Judith! Judith! I cannot let you go!" breathed Douglas. + +"I must go!" Judith freed herself suddenly. "Nothing shall persuade me +to go back to the commonness of marriage in Lost Chief." + +"Marriage is exactly what you make it," declared Douglas. "I believe we +can keep it beautiful." + +"I'm afraid!" repeated Judith. "It's hard to do or be anything fine in +Lost Chief. You know that. See what they did to you! Douglas, what are +you going to do about their burning up your ranch?" + +Judith felt his muscles stiffen. "I'm going to fix Scott and Charleton, +once and for all," he replied. + +"Shall you rebuild the chapel?" + +"Yes--" Douglas made the affirmation then stopped, abruptly. Rebuild the +chapel? And Judith not there? Put up the big fight for old Fowler, and +Judith never returning to Lost Chief? Where now was all the zest for the +fight? Why the chapel, why the ranch, why the big dream for the children +who were to grow up properly in the Valley? + +"No!" he exclaimed suddenly. "I shan't rebuild the chapel!" + +"Fowler was the wrong man," Judith said. "You must realize that now. I +wonder what they did with the poor old chap. I don't want any harm to +come to him even if he did make you a lot of trouble." + +"It doesn't matter," muttered Doug. "It's all over for me if you are +going away--" his voice broke and he shivered violently. + +Judith looked into his face with quick anxiety. His lips were blue. "You +go chop some wood!" she ordered. "And when you are warmed up, you creep +into the blankets with Wolf Cub and sleep for four hours. I'll keep the +fire up. You are so tired, Doug, that the cold will get you if you +aren't careful." + +Douglas rose stiffly, and wearily began an attack on another cedar. But +he had not taken a dozen strokes when he began to sink slowly to the +ground. Judith, ran to him and helped him back to the blankets. Then she +covered him snugly, and in a moment he was asleep. + +It was midnight when she wakened Douglas. She was blue and shivering. +"I'm a new man, Judith. Roll in quickly!" and he picked up the faithful +ax. + +It was long and biting cold till dawn. Douglas was too weary, too much +menaced by the cold, to think coherently; for now, conscious of the +depletion of his strength, even his new-found happiness could not blur +the fact that he and Judith were playing with death on Black Devil Peak. +He kept the fire going and fought the desire to sleep until, far below +and to the east, the Indian Range turned black against a crimson sky. +Then he awakened Judith. They made a hasty breakfast, then started the +stiff and weary horses through the drifts toward Mormon Valley. + +But Tom horse, facing homeward, needed none of the rowelling that he had +demanded on the way up. The cold and wind were difficult to bear, for +the two young people were inexpressibly weary of brain as well as body. +By noon they made the valley. It was a slow-moving little outfit that +finally limped past Nelson's corral and was greeted by a shout from the +cabin door. + +Elijah, his wife, and children, rushed out to meet them and led them +into the big bed-living-room off the kitchen. + +"Well," said Mrs. Nelson, "I knew she'd have to come back with you!" + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +HOME + + +Douglas was half blinded by snow-glare and wind, so it was several +minutes before he observed an old man sitting eagerly erect on one of +the beds. Doug started to his feet. + +"Where'd you come from, Mr. Fowler!" + +"From Lost Chief Peak. Get warm and rested, Doug, before you try to +talk." + +"I was starting out after you when I found that Judith--" began Doug. +"And then--" + +"Judith," interrupted Mr. Fowler, "needed you more than I did." + +"Did they hurt you?" insisted Douglas. + +"No. Don't try to talk till you are rested, my boy." + +"That won't take long!" croaked Douglas. + +But, as a matter of fact, it was morning before he heard the preacher's +story or told his own. He was warmed and fed enormously and rolled into +a feather bed. And he knew nothing more until the smell of coffee and +the sound of women's voices roused him. + +The living-room was flooded with sunlight. The preacher was thrusting +wood into the red-hot stove. + +"Where's Judith?" asked Douglas. + +"Helping Mrs. Nelson get breakfast. How are you?" + +"Fine! Do you suppose I can shave before breakfast?" + +The preacher nodded toward a washstand in the corner and Douglas began +to make his toilet. Mr. Fowler made no attempt to talk during this +process but stood before the fire, watching the young man with somber, +wistful eyes. + +It was an exceedingly well-groomed young rider who appeared at Elijah's +long breakfast table a half-hour later. Judith, snow-burned, but +otherwise a very fit young person, gave him an appreciative look and +smile, and left him to the others while she went on with her breakfast. + +They sat long at the table. The children were sent off to school. The +adventure up and down Black Devil Peak was thoroughly discussed. Then +Douglas turned to the preacher. + +"And what did they do to you, Mr. Fowler?" + +The old man smiled grimly. "That won't take long to tell. Old Johnny and +I went to sleep soon after you left, and the first thing I knew I was +being gagged and blindfolded by a couple of fellows in masks. They +carried me out to the corral and fastened me onto a horse. I didn't put +up a fight, Doug. I'm too old. One of the men then led my horse off at a +gallop. What became of the other man and Johnny, I can only surmise from +what Mr. Nelson has told me." + +"Who were the men?" demanded Douglas. + +"I don't know. Of course, I suspect Charleton Falkner and Scott Parsons. +I suppose it was Scott Parsons, though I couldn't prove it. I suppose he +took me along the trail Nelson has kept open past the old Government +corral to get to Scott's trail when he goes for his mail. Anyhow, he +locked me into that old cabin, up in the Government corral. There was +fuel and matches, so he didn't want me to freeze to death. I think he +intended to come back the next day and take me somewhere else before +I freed myself or some one found me. But his plan must have miscarried +for he didn't come back. It was so very cold and I was so lightly clad +that at first I didn't dare to start out even after I'd broken the door +open. But two days of hunger made me desperate. The trail was fairly +well snowed in but I headed for what I thought would be Nelson's ranch. +But in an hour or so I was all in. If Elijah hadn't found me, I'd have +died of the cold up there on the mountainside." + +"I was riding over to Lost Trail for news," explained Elijah. + +"You were riding for God, I'd say," cried Mr. Fowler. "And if I'd been a +Mormon bishop I couldn't have been made more welcome than I have been +here." + +"A preacher's a preacher," said Elijah. "Well, Douglas, what's next on +your program?" + +Douglas looked at Judith. "I've promised to take Judith up to Mountain +City. She's going to get a job up there, and I am too!" + +Judith put down her coffee-cup and her great eyes blazed. "Why, Douglas +Spencer! You are going to do nothing of the sort!" + +"What is Lost Chief to me without you?" asked Douglas, coolly and +entirely ignoring the eager-eyed audience. + +Judith's face expressed entire disapproval. "I never thought you'd let +them run you out, Doug!" She turned to Mr. Fowler. "Don't let him be a +quitter, Mr. Fowler." + +Mr. Fowler was watching Douglas with troubled eyes. "I don't know," he +said, "that I blame Douglas. It seems to me that Lost Chief will have to +become conscious of its needs before it can be helped. I love Douglas +very much. I'd not be sorry to see him get out into the world where +there's a bigger chance for his abilities than in that godless valley." + +Judith turned from the preacher impatiently. "Douglas Spencer! You know +you'll never be happy anywhere else. Lost Chief is your home and the +home of all your people before you." + +"How about its being home to you?" asked Douglas. + +"No place can be home to me that doesn't need all that's in me," replied +Judith. "Lost Chief is no place for me. It's not a woman's country." + +"It ought to be made fit for women and for little children!" cried Mr. +Fowler, with sudden vehemence. "I should have done it. But I failed +there as I have everywhere. I didn't bring God to Lost Chief, nor to +Judith, nor worst of all, to Douglas." + +"Don't you two young people believe in God?" demanded Elijah Nelson. + +They stared at him without replying. + +"Who guided Judith over the Pass?" asked the Mormon. "Her own smartness, +I suppose, or chance, anything but the hand of the Almighty!" + +"It was Destiny. All of it has been Destiny," said Douglas suddenly. + +"And what is Destiny but God?" asked Elijah. + +No one spoke for a moment. Then Elijah went on, with Mr. Fowler's own +vehemence: + +"You folks over in Lost Chief have seen fit to treat us Mormons as if we +were a pack of coyotes bedding down too near your herds. Did you ever +try to find out what kind of people we really are and why we stay and +win out when we settle in a place? I'll tell you. The church makes our +settlements for us. When she calls us to settle in the wild she says, +Go, five families, or ten, or twenty, and settle in such a place. Take +with you your wives and babies. Put your roots deep in the soil. Build +for the future generations. Make a community deep fertilized by the idea +of Mormonism, train your children in it, cling one family to the other +in helpfulness and to the church in faith. Co-operate with each other +and with the church, and the church will stand by you and loan you +money, give you advice, be your very fountain of life. + +"And the church does stand by us and we by it. And we are building up +God-fearing communities all over the West, just like the Puritans once +built up in the East. Why? Because we pioneer, inspired by our church +and the love of God! What Gentile church is doing this, answering the +economic needs of its people as well as the spiritual? Why should a +settlement like yours prosper? Why, the most promising young man in it +is deserting it to chase after a flighty girl! It has no church. It has +no minister. Ha! As long as you Gentiles are so, the Mormons can ride +over you and crowd you out!" + +"You can't do anything of the kind!" declared Judith. + +"Why not?" asked Douglas bitterly. "Of course they can! Nelson is dead +right." + +Elijah gave Judith a scornful glance. "You ought to be satisfied, +Judith. You'll be getting your own way, no matter what becomes of +Douglas. He ought never to leave Lost Chief. Though it will be better +for us Mormons if he does." + +Douglas was following his own line of thought. "The Mormons are right," +he said. "It's the families that count. A man can't do real pioneering +without a woman and Lost Chief is still pioneering. The right kind of a +woman could do more for Lost Chief than a man." + +Judith looked at him with gathering intentness. "How could she, Doug?" + +"Why, look at the influence Inez has! She's thought it worth while to +influence people, so's to justify her way of living. She's beautiful and +she's bad. If a woman who was beautiful and good made up her mind to +make Lost Chief the paradise it ought to be, nothing could stop her." + +"If she had the church to back her," said Elijah Nelson. + +Douglas nodded; then, his face aflame, he jumped to his feet. "If Jude +and I could work together in Lost Chief we'd--My God, do you know what +I'd do? I'd rebuild the cabin and I'd rebuild the chapel. And we'd bring +Mr. Fowler back. And Judith and I would go to church to him and we'd +hunt for God till we found Him! And when we found Him, we'd go out and +bring the children of the Valley to the church. It's the children that +count. We'd dish all this discussion with the grown folks. All the +Scotts and Charletons and Inez Rodmans in the Valley wouldn't count if +the children would be sure of God." He turned to Judith. "You'll admit, +won't you, Jude, that if you and I had had faith, our childhood would +have been a finer thing?" + +"Yes, I think that's true," admitted Judith. "Do you think there's a job +there for me, Mr. Fowler, all faithless as I am?" + +Mr. Fowler nodded. "Yes, I do. Lost Chief offers a full-sized job to a +woman with a brain and the right kind of a vision. She could, indeed, +help to make it a very paradise for children." + +"If the church didn't hamper her too much." Mrs. Nelson spoke for the +first time. "The church and God are both males." + +Judith gave the Mormon wife a sudden appreciative smile. Douglas, +watching the girl's kindling face, said in his gentle way, "I've often +thought if anybody could get the right kind of a moral hold on the kids +of Lost Chief, the greatest horsemanship in the world could be developed +in that old valley." + +"You are dreaming dreams!" exclaimed Nelson. "All this takes time, and +you Lost Chief folks want to realize that the Mormons are coming!" + +Judith eyed her host keenly; then she turned to Douglas with +overwhelming interest welling to her eyes. "This is the first time," she +cried, "that you've ever suggested any kind of a future to me that made +a demand on my intelligence. Mr. Nelson, have you really got your eyes +on Lost Chief Valley, or are you just trying to bluff Douglas into going +back because you like him?" + +The Mormon's eyes narrowed and his jaw set. "I like him, yes, but the +church says we are to take Lost Chief Valley, and we are going to take +it when the time is ripe. I can afford to be as kind as I want to be to +Douglas and Fowler. Nothing can stop us when we cross into your valley +with the church behind us. You folks hang together by habit. We Mormons +are knit together by a divine idea that takes care of every moment of +our lives. Do you think a man like Scott Parsons can guard your gates? +And Douglas is running away!" + +Judith jumped to her feet, indignation flashing from her eyes. + +"He is not! If your Mormon religion can do all you claim for you, then +our religion can do as much for us as it did for our ancestors. I never +did believe there was a God. But that's not saying He's not to be found +if you really hunt for Him." + +"'If with all your hearts ye truly seek me, ye shall ever surely find +me,'" said Mr. Fowler quietly. + +Judith gave him a quick look. "That isn't the kind of a God we young +folks are looking for," she said. + +"What is your idea?" asked Mr. Fowler. + +Judith lifted her chin. + +"A fire mist and a planet, +A crystal and a cell, +A jelly-fish and a saurian +And caves where cave-men dwell. +Then a sense of law and beauty, +And a face turned from the clod, +Some call it Evolution +And others call it God." + +There was quiet in the warm, homely kitchen. Douglas watched Judith with +his heart in his eyes. + +Elijah Nelson cleared his throat. "Nevertheless, Judith," he said, "this +is a fair warning that I'm going to put the Book of Mormon into Lost +Chief." + +Judith flushed, her lips tightened, and she walked deliberately around +the table and took the preacher's hand. "Come, Mr. Fowler, let's go home +with Douglas and get to work!" + +Douglas drew a long breath. + +The preacher rose with alacrity. "Where shall we go?" he asked. + +Douglas answered. "To Peter's until I can rebuild the cabin." + +Elijah Nelson smiled grimly. + +"Let's get started!" urged Judith. + +The breakfast party broke up. The men went out to attend to the horses. +Judith and Mrs. Nelson turned to the dishes. Douglas from the corral +watched the backdoor attentively, and when Mrs. Nelson appeared he +signaled to her to wait for him to speak to her. + +"Send Jude into the living-room for something," he whispered, "and then +keep the folks out while I talk to her for a little while." + +Mrs. Nelson smiled understandingly, and a few moments later Douglas was +standing with his back to the living-room stove, both of his arms about +Judith. + +"I had to thank you," he said, "and you were too stupid to make the +chance. Judith! Judith! You've made the world into heaven for me!" + +"I'm not exactly unhappy, myself!" Judith's eyes glowed as she returned +Doug's look. + +"Judith," he exclaimed, "let's ask Mr. Fowler to marry us now, before we +start home!" + +Judith whitened a little. "O Douglas, you are crowding me, my dear!" + +"But why wait, Judith? Isn't it the only thing to do? Neither of us will +ever go back to Dad's ranch again. We can be married and camp with Peter +until we get the cabin rebuilt. That's won't take a month. O, Judith, +please!" + +"It's--it's too soon!" + +"Too soon for what? We've been caring a long, long time, and we need +each other so!" + +Judith freed herself from Douglas' arms and walked over to the window, +from which one could see Black Devil Peak glowering in the morning sun. +She stood a long time, it seemed to Douglas. He wondered what thoughts +were passing in that fine head outlined against the snowy fields. What +sense of sacrifice, he thought, must a girl like Jude have, in giving up +her life to a man? Then he smiled, half grimly, half tenderly. Judith +would never be any man's really, to know and to hold. Her fiery charm +was a thing ever to pursue, never fully to overtake. "Forever would he +love and she be fair!" He waited silently, his heart thudding heavily. +At last she turned from the window and came slowly toward him with a +look in her eyes he could not pretend to read to its depths. He only +knew that there was faith in him there and a passionate affection. What +more, he was willing to trust to the future. She came and leaned against +him and he knew that at last the long struggle was ended. + +They were married a few moments later, standing before the window, with +Douglas' hair a halo of gold above his steady eyes and Judith's fine +head held high. The Reverend Mr. Fowler performed the rites with a +trembling voice. When he had finished he said to Elijah and his wife: + +"In all my long experience I have never joined together a couple with +such infinite satisfaction as this." + +"That's good," said Mrs. Nelson, wiping her eyes, "seeing that you're +going on the wedding-journey with them!" + +That afternoon, as the shadows on the plains east of the post-office +grew long and blue-black, Judith, Douglas and Mr. Fowler jingled up to +Peter's door. They slung their saddles on the buck fence, turned their +horses into his corral, and went in. Peter was standing by the stove, +dressed for a cold ride. + +"Judith! You are safe!" he gasped, taking both her hands in his, his +sallow face suddenly glowing. "Where did you find her, Doug?" + +"Just the other side of Black Devil Pass!" + +Peter whistled, stared, then turned to the preacher. "And where did you +come from, Fowler?" + +"Elijah Nelson rescued me from the west side of Lost Chief Peak." + +Judith was pulling off her mackinaw and her beaver cap. "We'll tell you +a wonderful story if you'll feed us, Peter." + +Peter undid the silk handkerchief from his ears. "I was outfitting to +follow Doug's trail. We buried poor little old Johnny this morning." + +The quick tears sprang to Judith's eyes; but she said nothing, and Peter +went on, "I got your father home on Monday. My guess is that he is +ashamed enough of himself to last the rest of his life. That's about the +extent of my stories. Have you any casualties to report?" + +"Only poor Buster. He lies in a snowdrift up on the other side of Black +Devil. We put in last night at Elijah Nelson's, where we found Mr. +Fowler. Can we stay with you for a while, Peter?" + +"You sure can. We can use those rooms upstairs for sleeping. Fine! I'll +be glad to have you. You too, Fowler." + +"Where's Scott Parsons?" asked Douglas. + +"He's still with Inez. Seems like you gave him a bad knock-out. He's +having rough going, I can tell you. Inez has turned against him and +Grandma Brown had to go over there and take care of him. And she is in +no frame of mind to stand anything from anybody." Peter chuckled, then +went on. "Charleton says he was in bed and asleep by eleven o'clock +Saturday night, and nobody has been able to prove that he wasn't. I +don't think there is a doubt in the world that it was Scott and +Charleton did the dirty work, but it's going to be hard to prove." + +Peter set a kettle of beans on the stove and Judith prepared a pot of +coffee. + +"Take off your spurs, Fowler," Peter nodded genially at the preacher. +"All's well that ends well. I hope that nothing more than your feelings +got hurt." + +To Peter's utter astonishment Mr. Fowler suddenly laughed heartily. + +"My feelings, Peter," he exclaimed, "were never in better trim than they +are this minute." + +"Nor mine!" agreed Douglas. + +"Nor mine!" added Judith. + +Peter stared from one face to another. "It sort of looks," he said +finally, "as if I had sweated blood for nothing." + +"No, you haven't, Peter!" exclaimed Douglas. "Tragedy certainly stalked +our tracks." + +"Let me have the story," begged the postmaster. "Jude, after you left +John and old Johnny, what happened? You evidently went plumb crazy. +Begin at that point. And don't leave out anything!" + +He lighted his pipe and sat down. Judith, swinging her spurred boots as +she sat on the table, began obediently. She took Peter along every hour +of her trip until she fell into that dreadful sleep on the south slope +of Black Devil. Douglas took up his story there and when he had +finished, Mr. Fowler repeated the account of his adventure. + +Peter heaved a great sigh. "Some adventure! Lord! Lord! What a narrow +squeak! Well, and what did our Mormon friends have to say to all these +doings?" + +Judith and Douglas smiled at each other. Peter, catching that smile, +started forward in his chair, then turned to Fowler. The preacher +smiled broadly. "Let me tell that part of it," he begged. Douglas and +Judith nodded, and the old man plunged with great enjoyment into the +account of the happenings that morning at Nelson's ranch. + +When he finished with the wedding, Peter rose, his face working. He +walked over to Judith and looked deep into her eyes, and without a word +kissed her on the cheek. Then he wrung Douglas' hand. + +"Hang it all!" he said. "There is something startlingly right the way +life works out if you give it a chance!" + +Nobody answered. Douglas and Judith were smiling at each other and the +preacher was engrossed in watching them. Peter cleared his throat. + +"What are you happy idiots going to do about Scott and Charleton?" + +"I had planned to get even with them and run them out of the Valley," +said Douglas; "but, after all, I owe them a debt of gratitude. Even if +they didn't mean it that way!" + +"We'd better not start our new life in the Valley with a fight," Judith +nodded. "Anyhow we've agreed that we aren't concerned right now with the +grown-ups." + +Peter scratched his head. "I guess you are sensible. But I think +pressure can be brought to bear to make Charleton and Scott rebuild the +cabin and chapel for you." + +Mr. Fowler shook his head vehemently. "I wouldn't let their hands +desecrate the chapel! Douglas and I are going to build it." + +"And I wouldn't let them desecrate the cabin," declared Judith. "So I +guess they are out of it. We're going to give them a thorough drubbing +but quite in another way." + +Peter chuckled with huge enjoyment. "What are you going to do about +Elijah Nelson's threat to take Lost Chief Valley over for the Mormons?" + +"I don't know yet," said Douglas; "but we're not going to let him do it, +are we, Judith?" + +"We certainly are not! That's one reason I want to keep Scott in the +Valley. If Scott could get the idea of fighting with his mind instead of +his gun, he'd be a good citizen." + +Peter grinned at Fowler. "The infants are running the Valley already! +Well, why not? They are the new generation." + +"Peter," demanded Judith, "aren't those beans ready yet?" + +The postmaster started to his feet. "I suppose you folks are hungry. +Judith, you set the table. Doug, did you feed the horses well? It's +going to be a bitter-cold night." + +"Yes, we took care of them," replied Douglas, absent-mindedly, his eyes +on Judith. + +"Did you?" Peter turned to Fowler. "I sha'n't take Doug's word about +anything that's happened subsequent to the ceremony." + +"I think you're wise," nodded the preacher. "But as a matter of fact, we +did feed them. Shall I put the chairs up?" + +"Go ahead," said Peter, setting the pot of beans in the middle of the +table. + +Then, as they gathered around the table, the preacher hesitated, looked +from one face to another, and asked, "Do you mind if I say grace?" + +"No," replied Peter firmly, "we don't mind. You can say grace, make +signs, or do anything else that will help you hang on in the big fight +you've got ahead of you. I'll say it too, if it will strengthen your +hands." + +Mr. Fowler shook his head, smiled, and covering his eyes, poured out his +heart to the Almighty. + + +THE END + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Judith of the Godless Valley, by Honoré Willsie + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14331 *** diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7b0904c --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #14331 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/14331) diff --git a/old/14331.txt b/old/14331.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..525a77c --- /dev/null +++ b/old/14331.txt @@ -0,0 +1,13023 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Judith of the Godless Valley, by Honoré Willsie + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Judith of the Godless Valley + +Author: Honoré Willsie + +Release Date: December 12, 2004 [EBook #14331] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JUDITH OF THE GODLESS VALLEY *** + + + + +Produced by Audrey Longhurst, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team. + + + + + + + + + + + + + JUDITH OF THE GODLESS VALLEY + + BY HONORÉ WILLSIE + + Author of "The Enchanted Canyon," "The Forbidden Trail," + "Still Jim," "The Heart of the Desert," etc. + + 1922 + + + + +CONTENTS + + + I LOST CHIEF SCHOOLHOUSE + II OSCAR JEFFERSON + III THE GRADUATION DANCE + IV THE HOUSE IN THE YELLOW CANYON + V THE HUNT ON LOST CHIEF + VI LITTLE SWIFT CROSSES THE DIVIDE + VII THE POST-OFFICE CONFERENCE + VIII JUDITH AT THE RODEO + IX THE TRIP TO MOUNTAIN CITY + X WILD HORSES + XI THE LOG CHAPEL + XII THE FIRST SERMON + XIII PRINCE GOES MARCHING ON + XIV THE BATTLE OF THE BULLS + XV THE FLAME IN THE VALLEY + XVI THE TRAIL OVER THE PASS + XVII BLACK DEVIL PASS +XVIII ELIJAH NELSON'S RANCH + XIX HOME + + + + +JUDITH OF THE GODLESS VALLEY + + + + +CHAPTER I + +LOST CHIEF SCHOOLHOUSE + +"To believe in a living God; to preach His Holy Writ without fear or +favor; to sacrifice self that others may find eternal life; this is true +happiness." + +--_The Rev. James Fowler_. + + +It was Sunday in Lost Chief; Sunday and mid-winter. For the first time +in nearly ten years there was to be a sermon preached in the valley and +every one who could move was making his way to the schoolhouse. + +Douglas Spencer drove his spurs into Buster and finished the last hundred +yards at a gallop. Judith, his foster sister, stood up in her stirrups, +lashed Swift vigorously over the flanks with the knotted reins and when +Buster slid on his haunches to the very doorstep, Swift brought her +gnarled fore legs down on his sweeping tail and slid with him. She +brought up when he did with her nose under his saddle blanket. The boy +and girl avoided a mix-up by leaping from their saddles and jerking their +mounts apart. + +"Now look at here, Jude!" shouted Douglas, "you keep that ornery cow-pony +of yours off of me or I'll make you sorry for it!" + +Judith put her thumb to her small red nose, and without touching the +stirrups leaped back into the saddle. Then she looked calmly about her. + +"First ones here!" she said complacently. "Even the preacher hasn't +come." + +"I suppose,"--Doug's voice was bitter--"that if I rode over toward Day's +to meet Jimmy you'd have to tag!" + +"I sure-gawd would. Swift would like the extra exercise." + +Douglas swept Judith's thin bay mare with a withering glance. "That +thing! Looks like the coyotes had been at it!" + +Judith wore but one spur and this had a broken rowell, but she kicked +Swift with it and Swift whirled against the nervous Buster and bit him on +the cheek. Buster reared. "Take that back, you dogy cowboy you!" shrieked +Judith. + +Douglas brought Buster round and raised his hand to strike the girl. She +eyed him fearlessly. The boy slowly lowered the threatening hand and +returned her gaze, belligerently. + +Prince, a gray, short-haired dog, of intricate ancestry, squatted on his +haunches in the snow with his tongue between his teeth and his eyes on +the two horses. Swift sagged with a sigh onto three legs. Perhaps the +little mare deserved some of the aspersions Douglas and his father daily +cast upon her. She was a half-broken, half-fed little mare which Douglas' +father had cast off. She did not look strong enough to bear even Judith's +slim weight. But as the only horse Judith was permitted to call her own, +the little bay was the very apple of the young girl's eyes, and she +wheedled wonderful performances from Swift in endurance and cat-like +quickness. + +Buster was a black which the older Spencer had bred as a cow-pony but had +given up because he could not be broken of bucking. Doug had begged his +father for the horse, and Buster, nervous, irritable and speedy, was a +joy to the boy's sixteen-year-old heart. + +Douglas sat tall in the saddle. He measured, in fact, a full five feet +ten inches without his high-heeled riding-boots. He was so thin that +his leather rider's coat bellowed in the wind, and the modeling of his +cheekbones showed markedly under his tanned skin. His sombrero, pushed +back from his forehead, disclosed a thick thatch of bright yellow hair +above wide blue eyes that were set deep and far apart. His nose was +high bridged, and his mouth, though still immature, gave promise of +full-lipped strength in its curves. + +Judith was fourteen and only a couple of inches shorter than Douglas. She +was even thinner than he, but, like him, glowing with intense vitality. +She had hung her cap on the pommel of her saddle and her curly black +hair whipped across her face. She had a short nose, a large mouth, +magnificent gray eyes and cheeks of flawless carmine. She wore a faded +plaid mackinaw, and arctics half-way up her long, thin legs. + +"I hate you, Doug Spencer," she said finally and fiercely, "and I'm glad +you're not my real brother!" + +"I don't see why my father ever married a woman with an ornery brat like +you!" retorted Douglas. + +"I wouldn't stay to associate with you another minute if you offered me a +new pair of spurs! I'm going to meet Maud!" And Judith disappeared down +the trail. + +Douglas eased back in his saddle and lighted a cigarette, while he +watched the distant figures approaching across the valley. The glory +of the landscape made little impression on him. He had been born in Lost +Chief and he saw only snow and his schoolmates racing over the converging +trails. + +The Rockies in mid-winter! High northern cattle country with purple sage +deep blanketed in snow, with rarefied air below the zero mark, with sky +the purest, most crystalline deep sapphire, and Lost Chief Valley, high +perched in the ranges, silently awaiting the return of spring. + +Fire Mesa, huge, profoundly striated, with red clouds forever forming on +its top and rolling over remoter mesas, stood with its greatest length +across the north end of the valley. At its feet lay Black Gorge, and +half-way up its steep red front projected the wide ledge on which the +schoolhouse stood. Dead Line Peak and Falkner's Peak abruptly closed the +south end of the valley. From between these two great mountains, Lost +Chief Creek swept down across the valley into the Black Gorge. Lost Chief +Range formed the west boundary of the valley, Indian Range, the east. +They were perhaps ten miles apart. + +All this gives little of the picture Douglas might have been absorbing. +It tells nothing of the azure hue of the snow that buried Lost Chief +Creek and Lost Chief ranches. It gives no hint of the awful splendor of +Dead Line and Falkner's Peaks, all blue and bronze and crimson, backed by +myriads of other peaks, pure white, against the perfect sky. + +It does not picture the brilliant yellow canyon wall which thrust Lost +Chief Range back from the valley, nor the peacock blue sides of the +Indian Range, clothed in wonder by the Forest Reserve. And finally, it +does not tell of the infinite silence that lay this prismatic Sunday +afternoon over the snow-cloaked world. + +Douglas did not see the beauty of the valley, but as, far below, he saw +Judith trot up to the Day's corral, he was smitten suddenly by his sense +of loneliness. Too bad of Jude, he thought, always to be flying off at a +tangent like that! A guy couldn't offer the least criticism of her fool +horse, that she didn't lose her temper. Funny thing to see a girl with a +hot temper. Ordinary enough in a man, but girls were usually just mean +and spitty, like cats. A guy had to admit that there was nothing mean +about Judith. She was fearless and straight like a first-class fellow. +But temper! Whew! Funny things, tempers! He himself always found it hard +to let go of his rage. It smouldered deep and biting inside of him and +hard to get out into words. He usually had to tell himself to hit back. +Funny about that, when his father was always boiling over like Judith. +He wondered if her temper would grow worse as she grew older, as his +father's had. Funny things, tempers! People in a temper always looked and +acted fools. The guy that could keep hold was the guy that won out. Like +being able to control a horse with a good curb-bit. Funny why he felt +lonely. It was only lately that he had noticed it. Here was Buster and +here was Prince, and here was the approaching joke of the preacher. Why +then this sense of loneliness? Maybe loneliness wasn't the right word. +Maybe it was longing. And for what? Not for Jude! Lord, no! Not for that +young wildcat. But the feeling of emptiness was there, as real as hunger, +and at this moment as persistent. Funny thing, longing. What in the world +had a guy like him to long for? + +A long coo-ee below the ledge interrupted his meditation. A young rider +leaped from the trail to the level before the schoolhouse, broke into a +gallop and slid, with sparks flying, to the door. + +"Hello, Scott!" said Douglas, without enthusiasm. + +"I thought Jude was here!" returned Scott. He was older and heavier than +Douglas, freckled of face and sandy of hair, with something hard in his +hazel eyes. + +"He'd better leave Jude alone," thought Douglas, "the mangy pinto!" + +There was a shriek and a gray horse, carrying a youth with the schoolmarm +clinging behind him, flew across the yard and reared to avoid breaking +his knees on the steps. The schoolmarm scrambled down, still screaming +protests at the grinning rider. One after another now arrived, perhaps a +dozen youngsters, varying in age from five to eighteen, each on his or +her own lean, half-broken horse, each appearing with the same flying leap +from the steep trail to the level, each racing across the yard as if with +intent to burst through the schoolhouse door, each bringing up with the +same pull back of foaming horse to its haunches. And with each horse came +a dog of highly varied breed. + +The youngsters had been racing about the ledge for some time before +the grown people began to appear. The women, most of them very handsome, +were dressed dowdily in mackinaws and anomalous foot covering. But the +men were resplendent in chaps and short leather coats, with gay silk +neckerchiefs, with silver spurs and embossed saddles. + +When Judith returned with Maud Day there were thirty or forty people and +almost as many dogs milling about the yard. The log school had weathered +against the red wall of the mesa for fifty years. There probably was not +a person in the crowd who had not gone to school there, who did not, like +Judith, love every log in its ugly sides. Judith caught Douglas' sardonic +gaze, tossed her curly head and urged Swift up the steps, where she +looked toward the road to the Pass, shading her fine eyes with a mittened +hand. + +Finally she cried, "I see the preacher coming!" + +"Somebody ought to go in and build the fire if we ain't going to freeze +to death!" exclaimed Grandma Brown, jogging up on a flea-bitten black +mule. + +"He invited himself. Let him build his own fire!" cried Douglas. + +Grandma pulled her spectacles down from her forehead to the bridge of her +capable nose, and stared at Douglas. + +"Well! Well! Doesn't take 'em long away from the nursing bottle to get +smarty. Where's your father, Douglas?" + +"Home with the toothache," replied Doug, flushed and irritated. + +"Did he bring you up to let a stranger come to the house and build his +own fire?" + +"No, but it's the schoolmarm's job to build this one," replied Douglas. + +"Jimmy Day, you and Doug go in and get that old stove going!" ordered +Grandma. + +Both boys dismounted slowly, tied their horses, and amidst a general +chuckle, disappeared into the schoolhouse. + +Charleton Falkner, a black-browed rider of middle age, with a heavy black +mustache, turned his horse toward Grandma. + +"That's right, Charleton," the old lady went on, "you come over here and +help me off of Abe. I ain't going to stay out here freezing till old +Fowler comes. Riding ain't the novelty to me it seems to be to the rest +of you." + +This was the signal for all the grown people to tie up their horses and +enter the building. Shortly Douglas and Jimmy came out, and scarcely had +remounted when the minister rode slowly up over the ledge. He dismounted +at the door and greeted the youngsters. They replied with cat-calls. +Fowler stared at the group of robust young riders, his gray-bearded face +somber, then he shook his head and opened the door. + +Douglas jumped from his horse and, giving the reins to Jimmy Day, he +followed the minister. The people within were seated quietly, and Doug +slid into a rear bench. His eyes were very bright and he watched the +preacher with eager interest. Mr. Fowler dropped his overcoat on a chair +and strode up to the platform, where he smiled half wistfully, half +benignly at his congregation. Then he raised his right hand. + +"Let us pray!" he said. "O God, help me to speak truth to these people +who ten years ago laughed me from this room. Help me to open their eyes +that they may behold You! Show them that they lead a life of wickedness +from the babes in arms to the very aged, from--" + +"Tain't any such thing!" interrupted Grandma Brown. "There you go again, +after all these years!" + +"If you've come here to preach old-fashioned fire and brimstone, Fowler," +said Charleton Falkner, "you might as well quit now. None of us believe a +word of it. We most of us think everything ends when they plant us in the +cemetery yonder, that is, if they put on enough rocks so the coyotes get +discouraged." + +Douglas shivered. "I wonder if that's what I'll believe when I get to +thinking about such things," he thought. "Hanged if I'll think of 'em +till I'm old!" + +"I'm with you, Charleton!" called Oscar Jefferson, rumpling his silvery +hair with his soft white cowman's hand. + +The Reverend Mr. Fowler leaned over the desk. "Charleton Falkner, aren't +you man enough to admit that you folks here in Lost Chief lead a wicked +life?" + +"How do you mean, wicked?" demanded Charleton. + +"I mean that you steal cattle, that you shoot to kill, that there is +indecency among your children, that your young girls go unguarded and +that your young men are no better than wild horses. I mean that your +little girls drink whiskey. And I defy you to show me two mothers in +the valley who have taught their children to pray and to walk with God." + +"Aw!" sniffed Oscar Jefferson, "if that's what you've come a hundred +miles to tell us, you'd better quit! That may do for foreigners and city +slums, but it won't go down with the Lost Chief cowman. We're Americans, +here." + +"Americans!" cried Mr. Fowler. "How much does that mean?" + +Jefferson rose to his full six feet. "By God, I'll tell you what it +means! It means our ancestors conquered the Indians, in New England, that +we fought the British in the Revolution and the rebels in the Civil War +and the hombres in the Spanish-American War. It means that fifty years +ago the father or the grandfather of every man in this room came out here +and fought the Indians and the wolves and the Mormons--" + +Charleton Falkner interrupted with his twisted smile that showed even, +tobacco stained teeth. "Jeff, this ain't the Fourth of July celebration, +you know!" + +Jefferson somewhat sheepishly subsided to the desk on which he had been +sitting. + +"That's exactly why I came back!" cried the preacher. "I know that you +and Lost Chief belong to the heroic early history of America. This should +be a valley of old Puritan ideals. A church should stand here beside the +school. You never have built a church. You never have allowed a minister +to settle here. You never--" + +Here Grandma Brown's brother-in-law, Johnny Brown, spoke. "I've deponed +that many a time to this crowd of mavericks! You'd ought to--" + +"Keep quiet, Johnny!" ordered Grandma. "Fowler, if you are going to give +us a regular Bible sermon, go ahead. Otherwise, I'm going home. I can +jaw, myself." + +"Also, cuss some, Grandma," suggested a slow voice. Grandma did not heed. + +"If you're going to preach, preach," she said to the minister. + +Mr. Fowler threw his head back. "Ten years ago I let you drive me out of +Lost Chief before I'd preached a sermon. God has never let me rest since, +no matter where I was, and when I was re-appointed to Mountain City, +before I preached my first sermon there, I came out here. You are going +to have the Word of God preached to you to-day if you shoot me for it. +And beware lest you come to Esau's fate for ye know how afterward, when +he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no +place for repentance, though he sought it carefully, with tears." + +He paused, took a Bible from his pocket and opened it. + +Douglas waited tensely. The preacher looked to him as if weighted with +mysterious knowledge, as if something infinitely illuminating were to +issue from his bearded lips. The boy had a sudden conviction that Fowler +was about to say something that would answer the longing that had so +oppressed him lately. He hunched his broad, thin shoulders forward, his +clear blue eyes on the preacher's face. + +Fowler cleared his throat. "'Moreover, the word of the Lord came unto me, +saying, Now thou son of man, wilt thou judge, wilt thou hide the guilty +city? Yea, thou shalt show her all her abominations.'" + +He closed the Bible. "Friends, this is my message and my text. I am going +to show you your abominations of crookednesses. I am going to show you +that hell is yawning for such as you." + +Douglas sighed. "Old fool!" he muttered. "As Grandma Brown says, she can +jaw. He's lost his chance with me." He slipped out of the door, mounted +his horse and nodded to the group of youngsters waiting for him. Then he +urged Buster up the steps, through the door and up the aisle. The others +followed him. A moment later, the schoolroom was chaos. Horses pranced +over the desks. Dogs barked and fought among the horses' legs. Babies +screamed. Oaths filled the air. Lost Chief rocked with laughter. + +Fowler jumped upon the teacher's desk, appealing in dumb show for order. +A plunging horse tipped the desk over and the minister went down among +the prancing legs. In a moment he was up, and again he raised both hands +in a plea for silence. Douglas, laughing gaily, twirled his lariat, and +pinioned the two pleading hands, then, amidst shouts of laughter, he +backed Buster from the room, drawing the minister none too gently with +him. + +Outside, whither the crowd quickly followed, Douglas halted and, still +laughing, allowed the preacher to free his hands. + +"Now go on back to Mountain City, Mr. Preacher," he cried, "and don't +come back till you've learned not to scold like an old woman." + +Fowler pulled on his overcoat which somebody tossed him, and mounted his +horse. Then he stood in his stirrups and pointed a trembling finger at +Douglas. + +"Ye shall find no place for repentance, though ye seek for it with +tears." + +"Why should I repent?" demanded Douglas. + +"Aw, run him! Run the bastard!" shouted Scott Parsons. + +But Doug rode between the preacher and the threatening young rider. "Let +him go, Scott. He's had enough!" + +Fowler disappeared down the trail. Scott turned scowling toward Douglas, +but before he could do more Judith cried, "Come on, everybody! Let's go +down to the post-office and get Peter to open the hall for a dance!" + +"I will if somebody brings whiskey," agreed Scott, turning his horse +toward Swift. + +"I'll go over to Inez Rodman's and get some if Maud will go with me," +volunteered Judith. + +"Let's all go to Rodman's," cried Maud. + +The older people were riding slowly down the trail to the valley. The +youngsters waited until the way was clear before leaving the school-yard, +agreeing in the meantime that Judith and Maud should go after the whiskey +while the others went to interview Peter; and the two girls departed +forthwith. + +"Some one besides me will have to work on Peter," said Scott. "He's sore +at me. I tried to kick Sister." + +"What did you do that for?" asked Jimmy Day. "Are you sick of living?" + +"She bit Ginger on the shoulder. I hate that dog." + +"Jude can handle Peter," said Douglas. "Come on, let's get going." + +The little cavalcade moved noisily down the trail, crossed the deep snows +of Black Gorge and broke into a wild race when the road opened a mile +below the post-office. The horses lunged and kicked through the drifts, +the dogs barked, the girls squealed, the boys shouted. The post-office +lay in the middle of the valley with neither tree nor house in its +vicinity. It was a square log structure, two stories high, originally an +inner fort built as a final retreat from the Indians. The upper room was +now used as a dance-hall. The lower floor contained the post-office, a +general store, and Peter Knight's living quarters. + +Peter Knight was the only outsider in Lost Chief. He had lived there a +scant twenty years. No one knew whence he came, nor why. He was a man +of education and an ardent lover of animals, a somewhat sardonic, very +lonely man, yet somehow having more influence in the valley than any +one save Grandma Brown. He showed no actual fondness for any particular +person save Judith and his big mongrel wolf-hound, Sister, Sister being +every inch a person! Douglas had sometimes thought that Peter showed +a real interest in him, but this interest was shown almost entirely by +scathing vituperations, so the boy made no attempt to form the interest +into friendship. + +The crowd of riders drew up at the post-office, sparks and snow flying, +just as Maud and Judith lashed their horses in from the west trail. +Judith waved a bottle of whiskey. + +"Some providers!" cried Scott, putting out his hand for the flask. +He took a pull, then passed it on. Boys and girls alike took a drink, +then Scott pocketed the bottle. During this procedure, the door of the +post-office opened and Peter Knight appeared. + +He was about forty-five years old, very tall, very, very thin, and +as straight as he was thin. Thick, closely clipped gray hair stood up +straight from his forehead. His eyes were deep sunk in his head and a +piercing, light blue. He possessed a belligerent chin below an obstinate +lower lip and a close-cropped gray mustache. He wore a gray flannel shirt +and blue denim pants turned high over riding-boots. + +He watched the passing of the whiskey bottle without comment. + +"Hello, Peter!" called Judith. "Will you open the hall and let us have a +dance?" + +"What have you been doing to your horse, Jude?" demanded Peter, eying the +panting and dejected Swift. + +"Nothing!" + +"Nothing! I tell you what, the way you little devils treat your horses +would draw tears out of a coyote. Starving 'em, beating 'em, running 'em! +You ought to be thrashed, every one of you worthless young slicks." + +Curiously enough, none of the group which had shown so much temerity in +man-handling the preacher now attempted to reply to Peter. A great shaggy +gray dog, exactly like a coyote except that she was much larger, now +appeared in the door beside the postmaster. A chorus of growls and whines +immediately arose from the dogs congregated among the horses. + +"What happened at the schoolhouse?" asked Peter abruptly. + +"You're always preaching, yourself; I suppose that's why you didn't +attend," grinned Scott Parsons. + +"My Yankee horse is sick," said Peter, "and I couldn't leave him. How did +it go?" + +"We ran him out," laughed Douglas. "We gave him a chance to give us real +talk but he couldn't come across, so we roped him and ran him." + +"I thought that would happen. Poor Fowler!" Peter's voice was grave. + +"Listen, Peter," cried Judith, "I want to ask you a favor." + +She mounted the steps and stood before the man. She was as thin as he and +as straight. Peter looked down at her, still scowling. + +"Now, Peter, listen! You know I love Swift and wouldn't hurt her for +anything." + +"Wouldn't hurt her! Haven't I told you a hundred times that running a +horse through drifts like you do ruins 'em? No, don't try to soft-soap +me, Judith! When you kids want a favor from me, don't come up with your +horses dripping sweat in below zero weather." + +He jerked Sister back into the building and slammed the door. + +Judith turned. "Well, we can all go over to Inez' place. She asked us." + +"Who's there?" demanded Doug. + +"Nobody. She says we can dance if we want to." + +There was a silence, broken after a moment by Jimmy Day. "You can't go, +Maud." + +"I am going if you do!" exclaimed Maud. "Make him let me go, Doug." + +"What's the use of being so fussy about poor old Inez?" asked Scott. +"What harm is there in a dance at her place?" + +"I don't see why, if my mother don't stop me, yours should stop you," +protested Judith. + +"O, your mother couldn't boss a day-old calf!" said Jimmy impatiently. + +"Don't you knock my mother!" shrilled Judith. + +"Your mother--" began Maud. + +"Dry up, Maud, or I'll smack your mouth!" ordered Douglas. + +"No you won't!" cried Jimmy. + +"I will, anybody that says anything against Jude's mother," returned +Douglas promptly. + +"Aw, if you folks are going to start fighting, as usual I'm going home," +growled Scott Parsons. "Every time the crowd gets together, Jude has to +start a scrap. It's getting god-awful cold, anyhow, and I've got chores +to do." He spurred Ginger and was off. + +"Same here!" chimed half a dozen voices, and more horses were spurred +away. + +Douglas glared at Judith. "Always making trouble! I should think you'd +get sick of it." + +"Let 'em not knock my mother, or my horse, or my dog, then," replied +Judith, tossing her head. + +"Your dog! Prince is my dog, miss, and don't you forget it for a minute," +cried Douglas. + +He spurred Buster onto the main trail which lifted gradually toward Dead +Line Peak. Judith, after a pouting moment, followed him. + +Except for this steady lift from seven thousand feet at Black Gorge to +eight thousand feet at the base of Dead Line and Falkner's Peaks, the +valley was as level as a floor. The sun was setting as the two left the +post-office. Lost Chief Range, on their right, was black against fire. +The snow of the valley was as blue as indigo. A gentle but bitterly +cold wind rose from the east. Prince, yelping, set off after a skulking +coyote. When he had disappeared beyond a distant herd grazing through the +snow, Judith pushed her horse up beside Buster. + +"Doug, am I any scrappier than the rest of them?" + +Douglas, his cigarette hanging negligently from a corner of his mouth, +nodded. + +"Well, I have to be, Doug," insisted Judith. + +"No, you don't. You just look for trouble, all the time. Why do you have +to be?" + +"Who is there to look out for me?" demanded the girl, chin in the air. + +"Pshaw! You don't need a guard, do you? Besides, what's the matter with +me?" + +"Huh! You don't really care what happens to me. I'm not your real sister +and you never forget it. I'm lonely." + +Douglas gave her a curious glance. Was she, he wondered, experiencing +that feeling of loneliness and longing which had been haunting him for +months? He wanted to ask her about it but he could not. She laughed at +him too easily. + +They rode on in silence for a while, Judith's thin young body sagging +dejectedly in the saddle. The lavendar twilight was gathering. White +stars hung within hand touch. Prince returned to the trail and a coyote +barked derisively from beyond an alfalfa stack. + +"Douglas," exclaimed Judith suddenly, "if I thought when I got married, +my husband would treat me like Dad does Mother, I'd never get married. +Getting married in real life isn't a bit like the books show it." + +Douglas grunted. "I wouldn't worry about getting married for a few years +yet." + +"I'm fourteen," returned Judith. "I've got a right to think about it. +Don't you ever?" + +"No." + +"You think about girls, though," insisted Judith. + +"That isn't thinking about marrying, is it?" + +"What do you think about mostly, Doug?" + +Douglas sighed. "It's hard to say. I've been awful sad lately. I don't +know why. I think about that and I plan a lot about what I'm going to do +when I finish school." + +"Would you like to marry Maud Day?" + +"Who's talking about marrying!" shouted Doug with sudden and overwhelming +exasperation. "What makes you such a fool, Jude?" + +"How can I help talking about it when it's my mother your father's so +rough with. Of course, you don't care." + +"I do, too, care. I think a lot of her, but he don't mean half he says." + +"Well, he'd better begin to stop knocking me around when he's mad, or +I'll run away." + +"Especially in the winter, I suppose," sniffed Douglas, "when it would be +plain suicide." + +"I don't care if it's in a blizzard," insisted Judith. "When I've had +enough, I'll go." + +Douglas laughed. "Hanged if I don't think you would, too, Jude. You've +got the nerve of a wolverine." + +"I hope Dad's tooth is better," said Judith, as dim buildings and a +lighted window shone though the dusk. + +"Are you really afraid of Dad?" asked Douglas suddenly. + +"No," replied Judith, thoughtfully, "but sometimes I hate him." + +"I think he's a pretty good old scout in spite of his temper," said the +boy. + +"Well," admitted Judith, "I guess I do too. At least, I can see why so +many women like him. He's awful good-looking. I can see that now I'm +growing up." + +"Growing up!" mocked Douglas. + +But before Judith could pick up the gauntlet, the horses came to pause +before the lighted window. Judith jumped from Swift, unsaddled her and +turned her into the corral. Then she went hurriedly into the house. +Douglas unsaddled more slowly, and strode toward the sheds where calves +were bellowing and cows lowing. + +For half an hour he worked in the starlight, throwing alfalfa to the +crowding stock. It was so cold that by the time he had finished he +scarcely could turn the door-knob with his aching fingers. He entered the +kitchen. + +It was a large room, with the log walls neatly chinked and whitewashed. +An unshaded kerosene lamp burned on the big table in the middle of the +room. Judith was cutting bread. The air was heavy with smoke from frying +beef. A tall, slender woman, with round shoulders, stood over the red-hot +stove, stirring the potatoes. She was a very beautiful, very worn edition +of Judith, though one wondered if she ever burned with even a small +portion of Judith's eager, wistful fires. She turned as Douglas came in +and gave him a quick smile. + +"Cold, Douglas?" she asked. + +The boy nodded. "Where's Dad?" + +"In the other room. His tooth still aches, I guess." + +"Is he sore because I'm late?" asked the boy, scowling. + +Judith answered with a curious jerking of her breath. "He tried to kick +me. I hate him!" + +Douglas grunted and marched through the inner door into the one other +room of the house. It was at least twenty-five feet square. The log walls +were whitewashed like the kitchen and from one of the huge pine rafters +hung a lamp which shed a pleasant light on a center table. Beds occupied +three corners of the room. There were several comfortable rocking-chairs, +a big mahogany bureau and a sewing-machine. Over the double bed hung an +ancient saber and over a low bookcase was a framed sampler. There were +several good old-fashioned engravings and some framed lithographs with +numerous books and piles of dilapidated magazines. Doug's father stood +by the table with a book in his hand. + +John Spencer at forty-six was still a superb physical specimen, standing +six feet two in his felt slippers. His face, so like, yet so unlike his +son's, showed heavy lines from the nostril to the corner of the mouth. +Beneath his eyes were faint pouches. The thick thatch of yellow hair had +lost its yellow light and now was drab in tone. His flannel shirt, +unbuttoned at the throat, showed a strong neck, and the rider's belt that +circled the top of his blue denim pants outlined a waist as slim and hard +as Doug's. + +He looked up. "What do you mean by coming in at this hour, you young +hound?" + +"I think I might have Sunday afternoon to myself," said Douglas sulkily. + +"So do I. But that don't mean you are to have all Sunday night, too. Did +you feed the calves?" + +"Yes." + +"Next Sunday you be here by five o'clock, understand?" + +"Yes." + +"Supper's ready!" called Judith. + +The table was covered by a red-checked cloth. A huge platter of fried +beef, another of fried potatoes, another of baking-powder biscuits, and a +pot of coffee steamed on the table. John did not speak until his first +hunger had been satisfied. When he received his second cup of coffee, +however, he said, "Well, my tooth's better. What happened this afternoon, +children?" + +Judith did not reply, but Douglas, with a chuckle, told the story of Mr. +Fowler's discomfiture. John and Mary shouted with laughter. + +"By old Sitting Bull, it serves him right!" John wiped his eyes. "What +became of him?" + +"O, he beat it for the Pass!" replied Douglas. + +"What did you do after that?" inquired Mrs. Spencer. + +"We went up to the post-office to get Peter to let us have a dance, but +there was nothing doing. He just gave us all a jaw because our horses +were sweating." + +"I'll bet Swift was the worst off," chuckled John. + +"That's right! Pick on me!" cried Judith. + +"Judith! Be careful!" protested her mother. + +"Let her alone, Mary." John's blue eyes twinkled as he watched the young +girl. "She's kept out of a row about as long as she can without choking." + +"Some day, when you least expect it," said Judith with a little quiver in +her voice, "I'm going to run away." + +The others laughed. + +"Where to, Jude?" asked her stepfather. + +"To some place where folks like me." + +"I like you, Jude!" protested John. + +Judith turned to him quickly. "Why do you thrash me and kick me, then?" + +"Kids have to be trained, and you are as hard bitted as Buster," answered +John. + +"No such thing!" Judith suddenly rose from the table. "It's just bad +temper." + +"Judith! Judith! Don't!" pleaded her mother. + +"Let her alone!" John's voice was not angry. He was eying Judith with +inscrutable gaze. + +"The next time you even try to kick me, I'm going to run away." + +She paused and suddenly Douglas thought, "Jude knows what real loneliness +is. She's a very lonely person." He leaned forward and watched her with +unwonted sympathy. She swallowed once or twice, and then went on: + +"A woman, a dog, and a horse, you don't kick any of them. Peter Knight +says so. Maud Day's father never kicks her. He hits her with a belt, +maybe, when she doesn't get his horse quickly enough, and maybe he hits +her mother when he's drinking, but that's all." Judith began to gather +up the dishes with trembling fingers. + +"How old are you, Judith?" asked John. + +"You know. I was fourteen last spring." + +"By jove, you are almost a woman grown!" John swept her with a look, then +rose and went into the living room. + +Douglas followed him and, sitting down on the edge of his bed, he +unbuckled his spurs. John settled himself under the lamp with his book, +but he did not begin to read at once. + +"Yes, Doug; that girl is a woman now and she has any woman in Lost Chief +beaten for beauty and nerve." + +Douglas gave his father a startled glance; then he said, with elaborate +carelessness, "Rats! She's just a fighting kid!" + +John chuckled. "I'm glad you're still only a sixteen-year-old fool, +Doug." + +The boy said nothing more. He scowled and sat staring at his father long +after that strenuous person was absorbed in his book. Then he kicked off +his boots, pulled off his vest and trousers and crawled into bed. Not +long after, Mrs. Spencer came in, glanced at her husband, sighed wearily, +then she too went to bed. Judith finished wiping the dishes, sauntered in +to the center table and shortly was absorbed in "Bleak House." Mrs. +Spencer was snoring quietly and Douglas had not stirred for an hour when +he heard his father say in a low voice: + +"Jude, old girl, I'm never going to lay finger on you again." + +Jude gave a little gasp of surprise. "What's happened, Dad?" + +"You've happened! By jove, you've grown to be a beautiful woman!" + +"Huh! Doug says I'm a homely, pug-nosed outlaw." + +"Doug's a fool kid. It takes a man like me that knows women to appreciate +you, Jude." + +"Doug'll hear you," warned the girl. + +"He's been dead for an hour. Give me a kiss, Judith." + +"I don't think I will, I'm too sleepy and tired. Guess I'll go to bed!" +She rose, dropping "Bleak House" as she did so. + +Mrs. Spencer woke with a start. "What's the matter?" + +"Nothing! I just dropped a book." Judith retired to her own corner and +shortly she too was asleep. + +But Douglas, new thoughts surging through his brain, lay awake long after +his father had turned out the light and crawled in beside Mary. Of a +sudden, he had seen Judith through his father's eyes and he found himself +very unwilling to permit John to see her so. Her loneliness had assumed +an entirely new aspect to him. It was the loneliness of girlhood, of +girlhood without father, mother, or brother. That was what it amounted +to, he told himself. He never had been a real brother to Judith, never +had looked out for her as if she had been his sister. And Jude's mother! +Just tired and sweet and broken, about as well fitted to cope with her +fiery daughter as with the unbroken Morgan colt which was John's pride. +As for his father--! Douglas turned over with a deep breath. Let his +father take heed! Judith! Judith with her glowing wistful eyes, her +crimson cheeks, her dauntless courage, her vivid mind! Judith, with her +loneliness, was his to guard from now on. Funny how a guy could feel so +all of a sudden! Funny, if he really should love old Jude, with her +fiery temper and more fiery tongue. And if this were love, love was not +so comfortable a feeling, after all. It was a profound uneasiness, that +uprooted every settled habit of his spiritual being. It was, he told +himself, before he fell asleep, a funny thing, love! + + + + +CHAPTER II + +OSCAR JEFFERSON + +"Help those that need help." + +_--Grandma Brown_. + + +The next morning while Doug was feeding in the corral, his father hitched +a team to the hay wagon. Just as he prepared to climb over the wheel, +Judith came out, ready for her ride to the Days' ranch, where she was +to spend the day. + +"Say, Jude," called John. "I want Doug to go to the old ranch after some +colts. You come with me and help feed. I'm going to get all I can out of +you two until school begins again." + +Judith crossed silently to the wagon and climbed aboard. Douglas dropped +his pitchfork and walked deliberately toward the fence. As he climbed it, +he said, "Judith, you aren't going. You keep your date with Maud." He +dropped from the fence to his father's side. + +John turned to him with a look of entire astonishment. + +"Jude's growing up, as you say," explained Douglas heavily. "If you +aren't going to look out for her, I am." + +"O, you are! And why?" demanded his father. + +"Because!" replied Doug. "Jude, you get down and get started on Swift." + +Astonishment, amusement, anger, pursued their way across the older man's +face. Judith put out her tongue at her brother. + +"Chase yourself, Doug Spencer! You're not my boss, you bet!" + +John put his foot on the hub. "Good-by, Doug; I hope you recover from +your insanity by to-night." + +Douglas put an unsteady hand on his father's shoulder. "She can't go with +you, Dad!" + +His father struck him roughly aside. Douglas ran around the wagon. Judith +was sitting on the edge of the rick. He reached up, pulled her into his +arms, ran her into the feed shed, turned the key in the padlock and +put the key in his pocket. As he turned, his father met him with a blow +between the eyes. Mary Spencer appeared on the doorstep, pale and +silent. + +It was but the work of a moment to subdue the boy, and to unlock the +door. + +"Get into the wagon, Judith!" ordered John. + +Douglas strode uncertainly to his father's side. "Judith, you go get on +your horse!" + +The young girl stood staring at the two, something impish in the curl of +her lips, something wistful and unafraid and puzzled in her beautiful +gray eyes. Back of the two men lay the unblemished blue white of the +snow-choked fields and in awful proximity to these, Dead Line Peak flung +its head against the cloudless heavens. Judith looked from the Peak to +father and son as though deliberately appraising them. John, with ashen +hair, with bloodshot eyes and the tell-tales lines from nose to lip +corner, but handsome, dominating, choleric, with his reputation as a +conqueror of women, as a subduer of horses, as a two-gun man. Douglas, +with his thatch of gold blowing in the cold morning air, thin, awkward, +only a boy but with a spirit glowing in his blue eyes that Judith never +before had seen there. The girls of Lost Chief were sophisticated almost +from the cradle. Judith could interpret the lines in her stepfather's +face. But she did not know what the strange light in Douglas' eyes might +mean. Suddenly she sprang to Swift's back and put her to the gallop. + +"You know what to expect when you come back, miss!" roared John. + +But Judith did not seem to hear. Spencer turned to his son. "Now, sir, +you go into the house and get the whip!" + +Douglas did not stir. "You aren't going to whip me any more, Dad. If you +want to fight me, put up your fists." + +Mary Spencer ran through the snow toward the two. "Don't fight him, John! +Don't! He's just a child!" + +John whirled at her with his fists raised. Douglas jumped before his +step-mother and caught the blow on his raised elbow. + +"And that'll be about enough of that, too, Dad!" + +John caught his breath, then poured out a string of oaths and invectives, +ending with, "Now before I thrash the cussedness out of you, young +fellow, what excuse have you got to put up?" + +"I haven't any." Douglas was still pale and his voice broke, childishly. +"Only, all of a sudden it seems cowardly to me for you to hit Mother. +She's not a child. You haven't got the excuse that you're training her. +And you know she can't hit you. You're a good fighter, but I notice you +don't hit Peter Knight or Charleton Falkner, any time they peeve you a +little. It was all right to lick me and Jude when we were little. But now +I warn you. I'm going to hit back. And you got to leave Judith and her +mother alone." + +John Spencer stood staring at his son. Twice he raised his heavy fist +to strike him. Twice he dropped it. Douglas, still pale and trembling, +wondered at his own temerity. He always had been so terribly afraid +of his father! + +"So you don't intend to obey me any more!" sneered John. + +"Sure I do," replied Douglas. "Only I'm not going to be licked into doing +things blind, and I'm going to take care of Jude." + +John uttered a contemptuous oath. + +Doug swallowed with an effort but his steady temper was well under +control and he went on, "I'd like to be as good a rider and rancher as +you are and handle a gun as good as you do, but I'm hanged if I want my +woman to be as scared of me as Mother is of you." + +"Think yourself a man, eh? Well, I'll tell you, young fellow, as long as +you live in that house, there, you'll obey and take the lickings I give +you. My father built that house and I was born in it and so were you. +Hemen come from our breed and only a sissy refuses to obey. I may not be +as well educated as my ancestors back East were, but I'm just as well +trained as any of 'em and you're going to be too. We Spencers boss our +own households. Go get me that whip!" + +"No, sir, I won't do it," replied Douglas, a steady burning light in his +eyes. + +"You mean you'll stand up to me and fight after you saw the way I could +handle you a few minutes ago?" + +"Yes, sir, I do." + +For a long moment there was silence, while Mrs. Spencer twisted her hands +together and Doug and his father stared at each other. Then John gave a +short laugh. + +"By Sitting Bull! if you haven't got nerve, Doug! Go saddle Buster and +get up to the old ranch after those three-year-olds." Then he climbed +into the hay wagon, shouted at the team and was off. + +Douglas' lips parted. The color returned to his face. Then he sat down +weakly on the lower bar of the buck fence and burst into tears, and he +was more frightened by his own tears than he had been by his father's +anger. Mary Spencer knelt in the snow before him and tried to pull his +head to her shoulder. + +"Doug! Doug! You are a man!" she whispered. "You are a man!" + +Douglas struggled heavily with the strangling sobs and after a moment sat +erect and embarrassed. + +"Douglas, what happened? How did you come to do it?" + +"Something he said to Jude last night scared me," mumbled Doug. + +Mary tightened her hold on the boy's arm. "I've been so afraid! So +afraid! And no one to talk to!" + +"Haven't you ever warned Jude about it?" demanded Douglas, with a sudden +sensing of a debt mothers owed to daughters that Mary might not be +discharging. + +Mary shrank. "O, I couldn't, Doug!" + +Douglas looked at her scornfully. "I don't see why that isn't your job." + +Mary rose from her knees. She twisted her work-scarred hands together and +looked at the boy with pathetic wistfulness. + +"Don't you see, Doug, that I couldn't make her understand? She's still +such a child she'd just laugh at me." + +"Child!" scoffed Douglas, forgetting his own previous estimate of Judith. +"She knows a whole lot more than you do!" + +Mary laughed drearily. "Now you're talking like a child!" Then her voice +cleared with unwonted purposefulness. "No one who hasn't been married can +possibly understand men, or fear them or despise them, like they ought to +be feared and despised. When I think what I was before I married and what +I am now, I feel like I wanted to put Judith where she never could see a +man. It's not right that a woman should suffer so. It's not right to lose +all your dreams like I've lost mine. Marriage was never meant to be so." + +Douglas scowled in his astonishment. Mary had been feeling like this all +along when he'd been thinking of her as without nerve! Here, then, was +somebody else lonely, like himself and Judith. + +"I'm sorry, Mother," he said awkwardly. "I'll do what I can to change +it." + +"You can't do anything, my dear. What I'm suffering is in the nature of +things." + +"Well, anyhow, you ought to warn Jude," repeated Douglas. + +"I can't!" said Mary. "Doug, if I do she'd guess how cowardly I am and +how I suffer--in my mind, I mean," and she put her hands over her face +with a dry sob. + +Douglas put his long young arm about her. "I'll take care of it for you," +he said huskily. "Judith don't know it but she's got somebody besides old +Peter ridin' herd on her now. And you know I'm some little old herder, +Mother!" + +"I know you're a man!" exclaimed Mary. "The kind of a man that's mighty +scarce in Lost Chief Valley." She turned away toward the house. + +Douglas picked a bridle from the fence and started after Buster. + +It was nearly supper time and Doug and his father were reading in the +living-room when Judith returned. The wind had risen and fine particles +of snow sifted under the eaves and over the table. The wood stove glowed +red hot and the smell of cedar mingled with that of frying beef in the +kitchen. + +Judith, without waiting to take off her mackinaw, cheeks scarlet, eyes +brilliant, stood before her father. + +"Here I am, Dad." + +John looked up from his book. "Have you milked yet?" + +"No, sir." + +"Go out and do it." + +"I want to know if you're going to lick me, Dad?" + +"What did I promise you, last night?" he demanded. + +"Do you mean to keep that promise?" asked Judith. + +"Go out and tend to your milking!" roared John, rising to his feet and +throwing the book across the room. "Get out of my sight, you little fool, +you blankety-blank--" But Judith had fled and Douglas retired to the +kitchen. + +Supper was a silent affair. But that evening when the family had gathered +under the lamp to read, Douglas said, "Scott Parsons wants me to take the +mail stage for him Wednesday." + +"Where's he going?" asked John. + +"Out after his registered bull. It's strayed again." + +"Huh!" grunted John. "Are he and Oscar Jefferson still fighting over that +bull?" + +"I guess so," replied Douglas. "Can I go, Dad?" + +"It will put the dehorning off another day, but I guess you can go. That +extra money will come in handy. How would you like to drive the mail +regularly next winter, Douglas?" + +The boy tossed "Treasure Island" on the table. "Do you mean you'd let me +have it?" + +"What would you do with the money?" + +Douglas hesitated. + +Judith spoke. "I know what I'd do. I'd put half the money into books. The +other half I'd use to buy me some buckers and I'd go into training as a +lady bronco buster." + +Everybody laughed, and Mrs. Spencer said, "You won't have time to keep +your nose in a book if you start in that line, Judith!" + +"I'll always read," retorted Judith loftily. + +"I'd buy me a silver-mounted saddle and silver spurs," said Douglas, "and +that dapple gray of Oscar Jefferson's and a good greyhound, and I'd go +into the wild horse catching business." + +John groaned. "We've sure-gawd got an ambitious pair of kids here, Mary! +What about the money you get from this trip, Doug?" + +"Will you let me keep it?" asked Douglas, eagerly. + +"I'll see!" John picked up his book again. + +"Let me go with you, Doug!" pleaded Judith. + +"Nothing doing!" exclaimed her stepfather succinctly. "You go to bed now +before you get me aggravated." + +Judith tossed her head but obediently retired to her corner of the room, +undressed and crawled into her bed. Douglas was not long in following her +example. + +It was about eight o'clock Wednesday morning and twenty below zero when +the mail buckboard driven by Douglas took the rising trail from Black +Gorge eastward over the Mesa Pass. The snow was heavy and the trail +only indifferently opened. To add to the difficulties, Scott had hitched +Polly, a half-broken mule, to the stage in place of the mare who had gone +lame. James, the remaining horse, was steady, however, and Douglas had +only a moderate amount of trouble until the long steep grade up to the +Pass began. Here, after a quarter of an hour of reluctant going, the +mule balked. James did what he could to pull her along, Douglas plied the +blacksnake; but to no avail. When she finally did move it was to lie down +with deliberate slowness. Douglas jumped out into the drifts and by +risking his life among her agitated legs he managed to get her up. An +hour passed in the intense cold before she finally was harnessed and +meekly pulling more than her share. + +At the top of the Pass, Douglas drew up to breathe the team. Bleak, +snow-covered rocks rose on either side of the trail, but opening beyond, +snow-topped ranges in rainbow tints gleamed against a sky of intensest +blue. Behind him, as he turned to look, lay Lost Chief Valley, with blue +clouds rolling from the tops of Dead Line and Falkner's Peaks. Douglas +shivered and urged the team on. But the mule again balked, and as Doug +gathered up the whip a gruff voice cried, "Hold up your hands!" + +A six-shooter in a mittened fist appeared over a rock heap at the +roadside. + +Douglas blanched, then looked keenly at the mitten. "Come out of that, +Jude! Darn it, I thought you'd gone to Grandma Brown's!" + +Judith led Swift from behind the rock, and mounted. Her eyes were bright +with mischief. + +"You turn right round and go home again, miss!" he cried, as Swift ranged +beside the buckboard. + +Judith giggled. "You sure do need a hazer, Doug, while you're driving +that mule! I left a note for Mother." + +"Go home! Don't speak to me. This is no trip for a girl!" + +"You mean you want me to go home and help Dad feed the two-year-olds?" +demanded Judith. + +Douglas glared at her. For all the biting cold, her old knit cap was +hanging to the pommel, her mackinaw was open at the throat. Her cheeks +were deep scarlet, her gray eyes half filled with tears. + +Douglas scrowled and his mouth settled into sullen lines. This was a +man's trip. Judith had no business to make it seem easy enough for a +girl! And with this new feeling for Judith, she was making the adventure +too difficult. Hang it all! The place for a girl was at home! But he knew +Jude and he was not going to try to repeat the triumph of Monday morning. +He called to the team and started on. + +Judith, having won her point, dropped behind the buckboard and the +journey continued in silence. They reached the half-way cabin late in the +afternoon. The little log hut, with a rude horse shelter beside it, stood +in a clump of cedar close beside the trail. The snow was fresh trampled, +for the up stage had left at three o'clock. Judith and Douglas were very +cold. They hastily unharnessed, broke the ice at the little spring and +watered the horses, then rushed into the cabin. There was a bunk, covered +by soiled and ragged quilts, a table, a few cooking utensils, and boxes +for seats. They lighted a candle and unearthed canned beans, coffee, and +canned brown bread from beneath the bunk. After he had eaten his supper, +Doug grinned for the first time. + +"Forgiven me, huh?" asked Judith. + +Douglas nodded. "It would be darned lonely without you. You'd better get +to bed, Jude." + +"Who gets the bunk?" asked Judith. + +"You of course!" Douglas' voice was suddenly harsh again. + +Judith sat down on the edge of the bunk. In the uncertain light of the +candle she looked all eyes. + +"Doug, what is the matter lately? I never know when you're going to take +my head plumb off." + +"Oh, shut up, can't you! I don't see why girls can't let a fellow alone!" + +"Tell me, Doug: Why did you keep me from going with Dad on Monday +morning?" + +Douglas straightened up, his back to the stove, scowled, sighed, then +said, "I feel like I wanted you to be like the girls in books and not +like these wild women round here. And if you don't know what I mean, you +are a fool." + +"Douglas Spencer, you know I'm just as good as any girl that ever lived +in any book!" + +"I know that, and I propose to keep you so." Doug lighted a cigarette. + +"Since when were you so interested, I'd like to know?" + +"That is none of your business. Only, from now on you toe the mark, +miss." + +"You're not my boss, Doug Spencer!" + +"Yes, I am," returned Douglas serenely. He finished making up a bed on +the floor, rolled himself in two of the quilts and pulled the corner of +one over his head. + +Judith put out her tongue at his muffled form and crept under the quilts +that remained on the bunk. By and by the moonlight appeared through the +window. The stove grew cold. The howling of the coyotes circled nearer +and nearer. Suddenly a rifle-shot rung out, then another. The shots did +not waken the sleeping boy and girl, but the mule brayed and began to +kick with the rapidity of machine-gun fire. They both jumped up and ran +out. The mule was just disappearing across the trail. Douglas jumped on +Swift's bare back, catching the lariat from the saddle that lay on the +manger. + +"I'll come too, on James!" cried Judith. "I'll ride to the right!" + +Douglas urged Swift through the drifts, circled a cedar grove, and saw +the mule stop to sniff at a horse which stood beside a dark heap in the +snow. Judith appeared around the opposite side of the grove and the mule +dashed away. They both hurried toward the quiet heap on the ground. A man +lay in the drifts, his rifle beside him. It was Oscar Jefferson, with +blood running out of his temple into the snow. + +"Is he dead?" whispered Judith, crowding James up against Swift. + +"I guess so. Must have been the shot that scared the mule. Come on, +Judith! We've got to get him into the cabin, somehow." + +Judith began to cry. "I couldn't touch a dead man, Douglas!" + +Douglas' own lips were very uncertain in the moonlight but he answered, +firmly enough, "We've got to do it. The coyotes will get him here." + +"They'll say we shot him!" sobbed Judith. + +Doug gave a start. "They sure-gawd will! What shall we do, Jude?" + +"Go off and leave him and say nothing about it." + +"With our horses' tracks all round him! You're crazy! Anyhow, we couldn't +go off and leave a neighbor like this. 'Tisn't Lost Chief manners." + +"All right." Jude wiped her eyes on her sleeve. "Let's put the lariat +round his feet and let Jeff's horse pull him to the cabin. It won't hurt +him in the soft snow." + +"Nothing will hurt him any more, poor old Jeff," said Douglas. + +He dismounted and moved toward the body. Then, with teeth chattering +audibly, he tied the lariat round Jeff's feet and told Jude to get on to +the saddled horse. + +"Guide him easy. I'll walk and lead the other horses and see that nothing +goes wrong." + +Still whimpering, Judith obeyed, and the strange little procession moved +toward the cabin. When they reached the shed, Doug loosened the lariat. +"Judith," he said, "the best thing we can do is to put him in the +buckboard and take him home." + +"I'm so afraid of a dead man, Doug!" + +"So am I. But it's only poor old Oscar, after all, who's been our +next-door neighbor all our lives. We can't leave him here alone, like +a dead horse. We'll take him home. That's what Dad or any of the men +would do. Come on, Jude." + +They established poor Oscar on the floor of the buckboard, among the mail +bags. They hitched up James and Oscar's big black, and tied Swift to the +tail end. All this time the moon shone coldly on the white hills, and the +coyotes howled nearer and nearer. + +"Cover him deep with the quilts, Doug," whispered Judith. "I'm going to +make up a pot of hot coffee, before we start." + +"How about that mule?" whispered Douglas. + +"Let it go plumb to hell!" returned Judith. "Scott's the one should have +been shot, for sending you out with such a brute!" + +"If it hadn't been for the mule, we'd never have found him," muttered +Douglas. + +It was not much after eleven when the two, huddled together on the seat +of the buckboard, started back for Lost Chief. The cold was so intense +that they were obliged to take turns driving. When the road permitted, +they walked until even their hardy lungs demanded rest. Then they huddled +together again, their knees touching the dashboard, lest Oscar's poor +dead feet should thrust against theirs. + +They talked very little except to guess as to the probable name of the +murderer. Toward dawn, when the moon had set and Douglas was trusting the +trail to the horses, he said: + +"Do you remember at the schoolhouse Sunday, when Charleton said he didn't +believe in a hereafter, old Jeff chimed in and said, 'Me too'?" + +"I remember," replied Judith. + +"What do you suppose Jeff thinks about it now?" + +"He ain't thinking. He's gone. There's no hereafter. Dad says so." Judith +huddled still closer. + +"Isn't it horrible!" shuddered Douglas. "Horrible!" + +Judith began to cry again. "If there was just a heaven," she sobbed, "I +wouldn't mind living or dying either." + +"Well, there isn't any." Douglas heaved a great sigh. "I wonder if they +hang kids as young as us for murder?" + +"Let them try hanging me, just once! That's all I've got to say!" +exclaimed Judith stoutly, in spite of her chattering teeth. "The worst +I ever did to Oscar Jefferson was to play bucking bronco on that old +milch cow, Jinny, of his. And she sure-gawd could buck! But I was only +a little girl then and I can prove it." + +"Looks as if we might be in real trouble to me!" muttered Douglas. + +"It's growing daylight and there's the Pass, at last!" suddenly cried +Judith. + +Douglas drew a deep breath and urged on the weary horses. + +It was full nine o'clock when the team drew up at the post-office door. +At Doug's halloo, Peter Knight appeared. Sister crowded out the door past +him, pricked her ears forward and ran to sniff at the rear of the +buckboard. + +"What on earth brings you back at this hour?" demanded Peter. + +"Trouble!" Douglas moistened his frost-cracked lips. "Oscar Jefferson was +shot last night. We got his body here." + +"Who shot him?" asked Peter. + +"We don't know." + +"Where was it? Here, Sister, get back in the house!" Peter jerked the +door wide. + +Judith answered. "Up beyond the cedars, across from the half-way house. +We found him while we were hunting for that devilish old mule." + +Peter looked keenly at the two haggard young faces, then he said, "You +two come in and eat and get warm. I'll do some telephoning." + +"I want to get home to my mother," half sobbed Judith. + +"Sha'n't we take him on to his house?" asked Douglas. + +Peter replied impatiently, "You know he was baching it alone while young +Jeff's in California. You come as I tell you!" + +Stiffly the two stumbled out of the stage and into the warmth of +Peter's quarters. He had just begun his own breakfast and, at his orders, +Douglas and Judith devoured it while Peter went to the telephone. In an +incredibly short time John Spencer and Frank Day, the sheriff, galloped +up to the door. To them and to Peter, the young people told their story. + +The sheriff asked a number of questions. After he had finished Douglas +queried anxiously: + +"You ain't going to try and put it on us, Frank?" + +Frank grinned. "Well, I might, if the suspicions I have as to another +party prove wrong." + +"Don't torture 'em, Frank!" protested Peter. "They've been through a good +deal for kids." + +"Scott Parsons was the only rider in the valley who didn't like Oscar," +said John. "That war they've had for two years over the bull was bound to +end in trouble. I warned Oscar." + +"Oscar was more to blame than Scott," said the sheriff. "He was the +meanest man for hanging out on a fool thing I ever knew. And I'm just as +fond of Oscar as the rest of you. What was a bull to Oscar! He could buy +a dozen of 'em. Scott hasn't a thing on earth except wages for riding and +that mangy little herd of slicks he's picked up." + +"Picked up is right!" grunted John. "That bull, whoever it belonged to, +is standard bred." + +"Scott was born with a nasty temper." Peter spoke thoughtfully. "He told +Oscar in front of me he would get him. That was about two weeks ago." + +"Did Oscar tell any one he was going anywhere?" asked the sheriff. + +"Not me," said Peter. "Why not let the kids go home?" + +"Sure," agreed Frank. "You've done a good night's work, you two. Get some +sleep now." + +"You'll find Buster tied to my saddle, Doug," said John. "Judith, can +Swift still move?" + +"You bet she can!" replied Judith. + +There was a laugh, and the two young people gladly mounted and trotted +into the home trail. + +Oscar's wife had long been dead. His son was on a cattle-buying trip and +could not be reached. Oscar had been one of the richest men in the very +well conditioned valley, so, instead of taking the body up to the lonely +ranch house, it was laid out in state in the post-office. + +Grandma Brown always officiated at deaths and births in Lost Chief. After +it was found impossible to get in touch with young Jeff and after the +sheriff had made a three days' investigation, she ordered the funeral +to take place at once. + +"We could pack him down in the ice till a thaw opens up the cemetery a +little," suggested Charleton Falkner. "You know what a god-awful job it +is making a grave in the cemetery in winter, between the frost and the +rocks." + +"He's going to be buried now, while he's in good trim," declared Grandma. +"I'm not going to have him ruined, waiting for spring. You men get to +work now, in shifts, like you did for old Ma Day." + +Grandma's word was law in Lost Chief, and the grave forthwith was +prepared. John Spencer, Peter Knight, and Charleton Falkner were +appointed by the old lady to do the work, and Douglas accompanied his +father. Old Johnny Brown appeared while the work was in process. + +The cemetery was fenced in, but except for a few simple headstones and +monuments, it was unadorned. + +"Queer the women folks have never fixed this place up a little," said +Peter Knight, standing waist-deep in the grave, with John. "Most places +I've been, women keep the graves like they would a little garden." + +Charleton Falkner, resting on a neighboring headstone, smiled +sardonically. "Lost Chief women have enough to do without dolling +up graves." + +Cold sweat stood on Doug's forehead. He stared from the gaping grave to +the murmuring line of pines that marked the end of the cemetery and the +beginning of the Forest Reserve, and shuddered. He had not been sleeping +well since the night of the murder. Johnny Brown, small and very thin, +with a scraggly iron-gray beard hung with little icicles and his blue +eyes watering with the cold, moved away from the headstone against which +he had been resting after his turn in the grave. + +"That boy," he said, jerking his elbow at Doug, "will be massified for +many a year for driving the preacher out of Lost Chief." + +"How do you mean--massify!" demanded Doug, gruffly. Johnny might be +half-witted, but his remarks were curiously penetrating sometimes. + +"I mean massify," grunted Johnny. + +Peter Knight heaved a great frosted boulder out to the ground level. + +"Charleton," he said slowly, "doesn't the thought of lying in a forgotten +grave give you dumb horrors?" + +"Sometimes," replied Charleton laconically, as he beat his cold hands +together. "But only sometimes." + +Douglas strained forward in the intensity of his interest. + +Douglas' father straightened his broad shoulders. "If I let myself think +about it, I have to go out and get drunk," he muttered. + +"You don't conject right about them things," cried Johnny. "You got to +listen to things." + +No one heeded the sad-faced little man. Peter stooped for another frozen +clod. "I'd give my right hand for my mother's faith in a living God," he +said. + +"But if there isn't any God, what is there?" cried Douglas, with +passionate protest in his voice. + +"Don't you try to discuss matters you ain't old enough to understand, +son," ordered John Spencer. + +"Unbelief is the price we pay for scientific progress," said Charleton. +"Me, I'm willing to pay." + +"I'm not," growled Peter, "but I don't see any way round it. Come on, +Johnny, do your share." + +"I ain't going to dig any more," declared the little man. "You all say +I ain't all here, and the part that ain't here is the part that works. +Sabez?" + +Everybody laughed. + +"And," Johnny went on, seriously, "I ain't sure it's a good idea to plant +'em so deep. It takes a long time to grow up to heaven. It's a gregus far +away place." + +"Right you are, Johnny, old man," agreed Peter. "It sure is gregus far +away." + +Nobody urged Johnny to return to the job and the rest of the work was +finished in silence. + +That afternoon the funeral took place. There were services at the +post-office, where any one who wished spoke in praise of the dead man. +There were many speeches and it was late afternoon when the funeral +cortege reached the cemetery. The Forest Reserve was mysterious with +shadows and with the unending murmur of the pines. Snow gleamed blue over +the valley. The saddle horses and teams were hitched to the stout fence +that surrounded the cemetery, and Lost Chief Valley crowded about the +open grave. + +John Spencer drove Mary down in the old bobsled but Judith and Douglas +rode Swift and Buster as usual. Judith had been nervous and irritable +ever since the trip to the half-way house, but she had refused to admit +that the murder had anything to do with her state of mind. She had a +boyish horror of admitting to fears, mental or physical. She stood +opposite Douglas, with a round beaver cap pulled down over her curly +hair, her cheeks not so red as usual, her dark eyes rimmed and puzzled. +Douglas wondered what she was puzzling over and resolved that after the +ceremonies were over, he would ask her. + +Douglas could not know with what intensity his deep-set eyes turned from +Judith and fastened upon Grandma Brown, who stood at the head of the +grave. There was a contented assurance in the old lady's manner that +was vaguely comforting to the boy. He wondered what she knew that his +father and Peter and Charleton did not know. + +As the coffin was lowered into the grave, Grandma said, "Does anybody +feel like saying a few last words?" + +There was a silence broken only by the murmur of the Forest, then Johnny +Brown cleared his throat. "I might say a whole lot of things. I wasn't so +goldarned proud of Oscar like the rest of you seemed to be. He had a +gregus kind of a temper and oncet--" + +Grandma turned on him. "Johnny Brown, ain't you ashamed of yourself!" + +"No, I ain't! You say I ain't all here, and the part that I'd be ashamed +with is the part that's gone," returned Johnny firmly. + +Judith gave an irrepressible snort, then fastened solemn eyes on the sky. +A restless clearing of throats swept the little assemblage; then Grandma, +indignation still in her kind old voice, spoke once more. + +"Can't any of you men that knew Oscar all his life say something +comforting before you close his grave?" she urged. "Then I'll try to do +it. I was brought up religious, myself." She lifted her serene old face +to the evening sky. "O God, this man wandered far from You like all the +rest of us here. But an old woman like me believes You're there and that +you know Oscar hadn't a really bad hair in his head. Take his soul, Lord, +and be as good to him as You can. I am the Resurrection and the Life, +saith the Lord. He that believeth in me, even though he die, yet shall he +have Eternal Life." + +The tears were running down many cheeks when the old lady finished. +Foolish old Johnny laughed, then he began to sing a hymn in which several +of the women joined. + +"God be with you till we meet again, +By his counsels guide, uphold you, +With his sheep securely fold you, +God be with you till we meet again." + +And so the earthly career of Oscar Jefferson ended. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE GRADUATION DANCE + +"Horses, dogs, guns, women, whiskey, the open country of the +Rockies--enough for any man." + +--_Charleton Falkner_. + + +Instead of riding home with Judith, after the ceremony, Douglas, on +sudden impulse, took a roundabout way to the post-office, thence toward +the Browns' ranch. Dusk was settling in the valley. The quivering aspens +along Lost Chief creek were etched gray rose on the deep blue snow. Far +to the east a single scarlet mountain-top pierced through the twilight +blue. Buster loped swiftly through the swimming landscape. + +When he reached the post-office Douglas did not stop but rode on along +Black Gulch trail to the Browns'. Grandma, returning by the direct route +from the cemetery, had been home for a half-hour before Doug arrived. +She was coming out of the cow stable, lantern in hand, when the boy +dismounted at the corral. Spurs clanking, brave chaps flapping, Douglas +ran to her like a child and caught her apron in his gauntleted hand. + +"Grandma! Tell me something! Did you believe what you said at the grave?" + +The old lady held the lantern up to his face. "Come into the cow stable +out of the wind, Doug." + +Within the dim shelter she hung the lantern on a nail and sat down on a +box, indicating another to the young rider. + +"Yes, I believed it, boy. Didn't you?" + +"No, Grandma! And none of the men do that count in this valley. Is it +just old woman stuff, like they say?" + +"Maybe!" sniffed Grandma. + +"And if you believe it," Doug rushed on, "why did you let us run the +preacher out?" + +"O, the preacher! Pooh! He's nothing but a blankety blank sissy like the +rest of the sky pilots!" + +"But can't I believe like you do, Grandma? I'm just the unhappiest guy in +the world!" + +"You mean," the old lady spoke deliberately, "that this is the first +funeral you've seen that's set you to thinking and the fear of death is +on you for the first time. I hope it'll do you good, Doug. You're an +awful rough little devil." + +Douglas swallowed audibly. "Grandma," he cried passionately, "how can I +get to believe what you do?" + +Grandma looked thoughtfully from her plump milch cow to the lantern, and +from the lantern to Douglas. "Doug, I don't think you can, living among +the folks you do. To have my kind of faith, you've got to have a mother +that breeds it in you from the time you're a baby." + +Douglas, his face looking absurdly young above his broad shoulders, said +despairingly, "I don't believe you want to help me." + +"Well," Grandma was still deliberate, "I don't believe a wild young devil +like you really wants help. You're just scared." + +Douglas rose, drawing himself to his full height. He was deeply offended. +"I thought you might understand me!" he exclaimed. He strode out to +Buster and galloped home. + +It was extremely difficult to find a moment alone with Judith in the +two-room cabin; but the chores were late that night and Judith, instead +of helping her mother with the supper preparations, went out to milk, and +so Doug's second interview that evening was in the cow shed, for when he +reached the home corral, Judith had not finished her task. + +This time, he was not precipitate. He sauntered into the little stable +with a manner of large leisure. + +"Hello, Jude!" + +"Hello, Douglas! Finished feeding?" + +"No. I just got back. What did you think of the funeral?" + +"I'm not thinking of it at all." + +"Jude, don't you believe there's any hereafter?" + +"Doug, I don't want to talk about it." + +"But, Judith, I'm lonely and I've got to talk to some one." + +Judith turned an indignant face toward the tall boy. "Don't you suppose +I'm lonely, too? What good does talk do? Religion is all right for little +kids but you can't believe in fairy tales as you grow up." + +"But what can we do?" insisted Douglas, the sweat breaking out above his +lips again. "Doesn't the thought of no God, no hereafter, just paralyze +you?" + +"I tell you," repeated Judith obstinately, "I just don't let myself think +about it." + +"Then what's made you so cross ever since that night?" + +Judith rose and set the brimming milk pail in a feed box. Her eyes, in +the lantern light, widened with a horror so devastating that Douglas +clutched the manger behind him. + +"How did you know? Doug, that's it and there's no place to go for help +because there isn't any help for that!" + +The sudden revelation of her need roused Douglas. He moistened his lips +and said, "We've got to harden ourselves to stand it, like the rest of +'em do. And when it gets too bad we can talk to each other about it. +That'll help." + +Judith clutched his arm as if she felt the need of touching a human +being. Douglas did not stir but as he stood looking down at her a strange +aching gladness at her nearness and at her splendid girlhood flooded the +horror out of his thought. + +"I'll carry the milk pail in for you, Jude," he said. + +"Fudge!" she returned scornfully. "As if I hadn't carried it in every +night for four years! You'd better do your feeding before Dad gets after +you." + +Douglas suddenly laughed and went out. + +For a day or so he was haunted, particularly after he went to bed, by the +thought of the grave scene and by the comments Grandma Brown had made. +But Doug was only sixteen, after all, and shortly he was absorbed by +other matters: the hunt for Scott Parsons, the preparations for the +dehorning, and his new and thrilling and secret feeling toward Judith. + +The search for Scott delayed the round-up only for a short time. A day +or so after the funeral it snowed and removed the last chance of finding +Scott's tracks. The cold was intense, and the job really belonged to +Sheriff Frank Day, so the posse broke up after a few days and the +dehorning was undertaken. + +Early in the morning, half a dozen young riders helped Douglas and Judith +to cut out of the great herd in the swamp field the steers in need of +dehorning. In proportion to their strength, Lost Chief girls were as +clever as the men in handling horses and cattle. Judith was easily the +best of them. There was a fire and vim about her work, a wild grace, that +the other girls lacked. Douglas, his vision sharpened by his new attitude +toward Judith, thought she never had looked so handsome as she did this +morning, in her beaver cap, her new scarlet mackinaw, curls flying, +sitting the excited little Swift as easily as a boy. + +Out of the circular corral led a smaller one. A cedar fire burned in +the middle of the lesser enclosure. John Spencer and two helpers stood +near the fire, saws at hand, searing-iron heating, tar-pot simmering. +The herd bellowed in the outer corral. The riders, ropes in hand, sat +with laughing faces turned toward Judith, who was to rope the first +steer. Douglas wished that there were not so many of the riders with +admiration in their eyes. Judith sat Swift lightly, edging mischievously +now against one rider, now another. Swift bit Buster, who reared while +Douglas swore laughingly. Magpies swooped from the blue spruce at the +edge of the corral, black and white against pale blue. The cattle, all +Herefords, red and white, milled about and lowed and tossed worried +heads. The riders, sheepskin chaps flapping, bright neckerchiefs +fluttering, shouted and cursed and fingered their lariats. Dogs, yellow +dogs, black dogs, gray dogs, spotted dogs, continuously encroached +from without the fence and were ordered or lashed away. + +Suddenly Swift shot from the group of horses. Judith spun her lariat +and a lusty young steer, well back toward the south fence, turned and +stumbled. Swift sat back on her haunches, turned as she rose and leaped +toward the dehorning corral. The bellowing steer was dragged backward, +his left foot securely roped. He fell as they reached the gate and +skidded helplessly on his side through the trampled yellow snow. + +The men by the fire were ready. One of them perched on the steer's flank +and freed the lariat, while another sat astride his neck and amidst a +gush of blood sawed off the horns close to the head. John seared the +stubs with the hot iron dipped in tar. The poor brute bellowed with +fright and pain. Judith recoiled her lariat and made way for Jimmy Day, +who slid up with a protesting heifer. + +"'Jude!" he shouted. "You're the cow ropingest girl in the Rockies! Say, +Jude, ain't you afraid that baa-baa you're riding will buck with you? +Swift! What a hell of a name for that thing!" + +"She can beat you roping 'em at that, Jimmy!" cried Douglas. + +"Better ride light, Jimmy," warned John. "She thinks more of that mare +than she does of me." + +"All right, John," laughed Jimmy. "Take this heifer, fellows! She thinks +she's a moose!" + +"She'll think she's a kitten when we finish with her," chuckled John. + +There was an uproar now in the two corrals that echoed from mountain to +mountain. The trampled snow was crimson. White angora and sheepskin chaps +were gaumed with thick clots of blood. The horses, half frantic from the +smell of the bleeding cattle, tried every means in their not limited +repertoires to bolt the hateful job. + +The work had gone fast and furiously for some time when Douglas touched +his father on the arm. + +"Dad, look up on the shoulder of old Dead Line!" + +John straightened his back and shaded his eyes. A rider leading a +Hereford was coming down the ridge. + +"That's Scott's horse, Grover," said Douglas. "Can you make out the +rider?" + +"Not yet." John continued to stare intently. Others noticed his posture +and followed his gaze. + +"It's Scott Parsons!" cried Charleton Falkner. + +"Shall we go get him?" exclaimed Jimmy Day. + +"No. He's starved out and giving up. Let's hear what he has to say," said +John. + +The dehorning went on. Half a dozen more bleeding steers had been +turned out before Scott, weary, gaunt, haggard beyond words, leading an +emaciated young bull, drew rein beside the smaller corral. The roping +came to a pause. John twisted a lariat round the neck of a steer he was +working on and led it to the fence. The others followed. + +"Well, why the committee of welcome?" asked Scott hoarsely. His bloodshot +eyes turned from one to another. + +"Where'd you find the bull, Scott?" asked John. + +"First located him on Fire Mesa. Been round about considerable since." + +"Whose bull is it now?" Charleton Falkner pushed Democrat toward the +fence. + +"Mine!" Scott spoke shortly, his freckled face unmoved. + +"Do you think it was worth the price?" demanded Spencer. + +Scott looked searchingly at the crowd before him. The steer John was +holding had been dehorned but not seared. The blood had run down the +brute's white face and formed a crimson icicle on its under lip. John +had run his fingers through his ashen hair, leaving it blood-smeared. +Charleton was lighting a blood-stained cigarette with the hot +searing-iron. Judith pounded her half-frozen ringers together. + +"What price did I pay?" asked Scott. + +"Doug," commanded John, "you tell your story." + +Douglas, with considerable embarrassment and assisted by Judith, told of +their trip with the mail stage. Scott listened with little apparent +interest. He said nothing when the story was done. + +"It's like this, Scott," said John. "It looks like you killed him. You've +got a bad temper. So had Oscar. You fought for over a year about that +fool bull, first one of you branding it, then the other. You're young +and you'd better give yourself up. You'll stand a better chance." + +"Go ahead, Scott!" cried Judith. "I'll stand your friend like you did +mine when I rode old Oscar's milch cow 'most to death!" + +"Shut up, Jude!" exclaimed Douglas. + +"Go ahead, Scott," John half smiled. "You needn't worry. You have a +friend!" + +"A friend won't do him much good, if he's guilty," grunted Charleton +Falkner. + +"Anybody's better off for at least one friend," repeated Judith stoutly. +"Darn it! All of you picking on poor old Scott!" + +"Lean on me, Grandpa!" piped Jimmy Day. + +Scott's haggard eyes focused on Judith. "I'll hold you to that, Jude! By +God, you're the only white man in the valley! I came in to give myself +up, Jude. The cold got me. I shot him, after he'd rebranded the bull +before my eyes and after he'd given me this." + +He ripped open his mackinaw and shirt and tore a rag from his shoulder, +disclosing a vivid wound. "I ain't the only one that's quick on the +trigger!" + +There was a quick murmur among the riders. John and Charleton, the oldest +men in the group, looked at each other. + +"Charleton, you and Jimmy Day ride to Scott's house with him," said John. +"I'll go to the house and telephone to the sheriff." He mounted and rode +off. + +"Can your horse carry you so far, Scott?" asked Judith. + +Scott nodded, with something curiously like tears in his hard hazel eyes. +"You take the bull, Jude," he said. "I'd like for you to have him. He's +standard bred." + +Judith's eyes shone like stars. "If Dad'll only let me! Do you think he +will, Doug?" + +Douglas shrugged his shoulders. The bull was tied to the fence and Scott +rode slowly away with his escort. When John returned from telephoning he +gave a grudging consent to Judith's taking the bull, and the dehorning +went on. Not until the blue velvet shadow of Falkner's Peak lay heavy on +the incarnadined corral and the last bellowing steer had found solace at +the haystacks did the riders start homeward. Douglas followed Judith, as +she led the scare-crow bull. + +"He's a good mate for Swift," he said. + +"You're just jealous!" retorted Judith. + +"Of what?" demanded Douglas. + +"Of me starting a herd before you do!" + +"Ha! Ha!" ejaculated Doug, without a smile, and nothing more was said +until they reached the house. + +At supper that night John asked Judith why she had shown so much +friendship for Scott Parsons. + +"I was sorry for him," she replied. + +"But he killed our old neighbor!" exclaimed John. + +"Yes, and Oscar had a notch on his gun, Dad; and you have one on yours." + +"We put those notches there in the early days," returned John, "when +every cowman carried the law on his hip. It's different now. You're +altogether too highty-tighty, Jude, for a girl. You keep away from Scott +Parsons, or I'll make you regret it." + +Judith made no reply. + +Scott's trial took place in April. It was a matter of deep interest, of +course, to Lost Chief, and every one who could get to Mountain City by +horse, wagon, or automobile, attended the court sessions. Judith and +Douglas were chief witnesses and were royally entertained by young Jeff, +who had returned to Lost Chief a week or so after his father's funeral. + +Scott was acquitted on the plea of self-defense but he did not return at +once to Lost Chief. The attitude of young Jeff did not make an early +return seem diplomatic. + +Douglas, when he came home from the trial, had a curious feeling that the +winter just passed had ended his boyhood. He did not know why. He was not +old enough to realize that when the fires of desire and the fear of death +begin to sear a boy's mind, adolescence is passing and manhood has all +but arrived. + +Judith, who had accomplished her fifteenth birthday in March, a day or so +before Doug arrived at the dignity of seventeen, had changed too. She had +been less profoundly affected by the murder than Douglas; not that she +was less sensitive or intelligent than he, but she was far less +introspective than her foster-brother. And Judith had two unfailing foods +for all hungers of the mind. One was her love of reading, the other, her +love of riding; both absorbing, to the elimination of self investigation. + +Douglas read a great deal, himself. Books and magazines furnished the +only mental stimulants in the valley and it was a surprisingly well-read +community. But Douglas, caring for Judith as he did, found it impossible +to become fully absorbed in his old pastimes. He was restless, moody and +lonely as only youth can be. + +He and Judith both graduated from the log school early in June. There was +the usual graduation dance at the post-office at which, as usual, Peter +Knight officiated. It was a heavenly moonlit night. The air was fragrant +from the acres of budding alfalfa and full of the lift and tingle that +can belong to June only in the high altitudes. The ever strong, steady +west wind of Lost Chief summers swirled down the valley. + +The hall was dimly lighted by a single kerosene lamp. Cigarette smoke +mingled with the pungent smell of whiskey, which seemed to be the chief +ingredient of a concoction in a large pail, under the lamp. In the corner +opposite the pail was a phonograph over which Peter presided. + +Everybody danced. Even the dogs were not prohibited the floor. Only when +Sister started a fight with Prince did any one protest and the dogs were +driven back, temporarily, under the benches. + +The schoolgirls in their white dresses were, of course, the belles of the +occasion. Lost Chief, living its intensive life of isolation, probably +did not realize of what superb physique were the youngsters of its third +generation. Jimmy Day devoted himself to Little Marion Falkner, aged +fourteen. Marion was called little to distinguish her from her mother, +also Marion. The daughter at fourteen was five feet ten inches in height, +the mother an inch taller. Even a badly cut muslin dress could not fully +conceal the fine breadth of Little Marion's shoulders nor the splendid +length and straightness of her legs. + +Jocelyn Brown, Grandma's grand-daughter, dancing frequently with +Charleton Falkner, was at twelve only slightly shorter than Little +Marion. She had the face of an angel, the vocabulary of a cowman, and was +built of steel. + +Inez Rodman, very fair and slender, easily five feet nine, was scorned by +the older women but was brazenly popular with their husbands and the +younger set of boys and girls. + +Judith danced all the time but only occasionally with Douglas, who took +her to task for her neglect. + +"But, Doug, you and Dad are no novelty to dance with. What's the matter +with you anyhow? You never used to want to dance with me." + +"I'm just trying to keep you from dancing with all these roughneck +riders." Douglas' chin was in the air above his bright blue silk neck +scarf. + +Judith's eyes swept him appraisingly. His white silk shirt hung loose +on his thin, fine shoulders. His broad rider's belt, studded with blue +enameled rings, encircled a waist almost as slender as Jude's own. His +white duck trousers were turned up to display new riding boots, and his +spurs, a graduation gift, were of silver and chimed at his slightest +movement. + +"You're almost as good-looking as Jimmy Day," she said with a sudden +chuckle. "Run along, Doug. You aren't old enough to protect me from these +bad men!" And she turned to dance with the waiting Jimmy. + +It was nearing midnight when Douglas achieved his first dance with Inez. +She was the best dancer in the room, and Douglas told her so. + +"I'll bet you haven't told that to the other girls," she said with a +flash of her white teeth. + +"I have! I said it to Jude when she turned me down for Dad." + +"Smart! Helps both you and me with Jude, of course!" + +"Much you care about that!" retorted Douglas. + +"I like to be liked, of course," said Inez. + +"You do?" Douglas' voice was so honestly incredulous that Inez exclaimed +resentfully: + +"Am I so much worse than a lot of the kids at school?" + +Douglas shrugged his shoulders and replied, "Judith's straight. I've kept +her so." + +Inez laughed. "Judith's straight because she's that kind of a girl. Why +don't you watch your dad instead of Jude?" + +Douglas' lips tightened and Inez studied his face in silence for a +moment; then she went on, "Pretty fond of Jude, aren't you, Doug? Your +father is a devil with women--that big, bossy, good-looking kind always +is. I tell Jude so every time I see her." + +"How often do you see her?" demanded Douglas quickly. + +"I guess she has a right to come to my house as often as she wants to." + +"No, she hasn't," brusquely. + +Inez sniffed, then smiled. She had a frank and lovely smile. Douglas' +face softened and they finished the waltz in silence. + +Not all the music was of the cheaply popular variety. Between dances +Peter slipped on occasional opera records. He was playing from _Martha_: + +"Ah, so pure, so bright, +Burst her beauty upon my sight, +Ah, so mild, ah, so divine +She beguiled this heart of mine." + +when a man called from the open door, "Good evening, folks!" + +"Why, it's Scott Parsons!" cried Grandma Brown. + +There was a pause, during which the tender voice of the phonograph +thrilled on. Young Jeff, his red face even redder than his visits to the +pail would warrant, put his hand to his hip. Judith darted before him and +ran the length of the room. + +"Hello, Scott! Welcome home! The next dance is yours." + +"No, it's not!" shouted John Spencer. "You let Judith alone, you blank +young outlaw you!" + +"Get out of my way, Jude!" shouted Young Jeff. "I told Scott not to come +back to Lost Chief!" + +He strode down the room, his hand still on his gun. Scott's hand had been +equally quick. Peter Knight turned off the machine. "Hold on, Jeff!" he +cried. "You turned Scott over to the law, and the law acquitted him. If +you'd wanted to take things in your own hands, you should have done so +before the trial. If you kill Scott, you're no better than he is." + +"That's right!" cried Grandma Brown. "And your record ain't so clean, +Young Jeff, that you can afford to start anything!" + +Judith tossed her head. "I don't see why Young Jeff should be allowed to +spoil a perfectly good party." + +"If you can't put him out, Jude, I can!" cried Inez. + +Everybody laughed. Jude seized one of Young Jeff's big hands, Inez the +other. There was an uproarious scuffle which ended in the three, laughing +immoderately, executing a hybrid folk dance to the one-step which Peter +began to play. And Scott danced unmolested during the remainder of the +night. + +Charleton Falkner had drunk a good deal but was as yet little the worse +for it. He and Douglas met at the pail shortly after midnight. Charleton +gave the young man an amused glance. + +"You look sort of bored, Doug! Come outside and talk a little." + +Douglas gave a quick glance around the hall--at Judith, swooping in great +circles with Scott Parsons, at Inez dancing with his father. "All right!" +he said, and followed Charleton out into the moonlight. They perched +on the buck fence and smoked for a time in silence. + +"That's a good horse of Young Jeff's, eh?" said Charleton finally. + +"Not as good as the dapple gray he gave me will be when I get time to +break him," replied Douglas. "I don't know! I'm not as interested in +things as I was." + +"What's the matter?" asked Charleton, sympathetically. + +"I guess Oscar's killing upset me," said Douglas vaguely. + +"I don't suppose you ever heard of Weltschmerz," mused Charleton. "It's a +kind of mental stomach-ache most young fellows get about the time they +begin to fall in love." + +Douglas grunted. + +"Though you were pretty young to run into Oscar that way," Charleton went +on thoughtfully. + +"It isn't that; though I was scared stiff, of course. But it was seeing +Oscar laid in the ground to rot and hearing you and Peter and Dad say +that was all there was to it." + +Charleton nodded. "I know! But you'll reach my state of don't give a +hoop-la, when you're a little older. Wine and women and a good horse. +They help." + +Douglas drew a shuddering breath. "Is that all you've found out? All?" + +"Of course, there's ambition," said Charleton. "I was ambitious, myself, +once. You know my father was a college man and he wanted me to go back +East to school. I almost went." + +"Why didn't you go?" asked Douglas, immensely flattered at the mark of +confidence being shown him. Charleton Falkner was notoriously reticent +about himself. + +"O, it's this easy life of the open! Why should I have gone into politics +as my father wanted me to, when I could be happier with an easy living +right here? And it would all end up there in the cemetery, anyhow. And +what had ambition to offer me in comparison to the sport of running wild +horses on Fire Mesa, or riding herd in the Reserve or hunting deer on +Falkner's Peak. Horses, dogs, guns, women, whiskey, the open country +of the Rockies. Enough for any man." + +"Maybe!" muttered Douglas. + +"What are you going to do now you're through school?" asked Charleton +abruptly. + +"Ride for Dad. He's promised me a herd of my own when I'm twenty-one." + +"Listen!" said Charleton. "How'd you like to do a little business with me +once in a while when John can spare you? You know, cattle, horses and +such!" + +Douglas grinned delightedly. "Do you really mean it? Why, you know, +Charleton, as well as I do, there isn't a young rider in Lost Chief who +wouldn't give anything to go out on trips with you." + +"Fine! I'll be tipping you the wink one of these days. In the meantime, +keep your mouth shut to every one but your father. Come in and we'll have +a drink on the new partnership." + +Douglas had as yet acquired no great taste for such fiery pollutions as +the pail contained. But Charleton now applied himself so strenuously to +the business of getting drunk that shortly he was leaning on the +phonograph and reciting with powerful lungs: + +"'Tis but a tent where takes his one day's rest +A Sultan to the realm of Death addrest; +The Sultan rises and the dark Ferrash +Strikes and prepares it for another Guest." + +No one heeded him particularly. He smiled amiably at Peter, leaned +farther on the machine, and said, "Somebody will have to ease me to my +horse," then he drowsed forward over the phonograph. Douglas and Peter, +laughing, eased him to his horse, and Charleton, his arms around +Democrat's neck, jogged slowly off on the home trail. + +June dawn was peering over the Indian Range when the party broke up. +Scott disappeared with Judith. When John discovered this, he bolted after +the two. + +"You'd better go see that nothing happens, Doug," said Mary Spencer. +"John's drunk too much." + +"I'm going home," declared Douglas. "I got some pride, and Judith's +treated me like a dog to-night. She's too fond of starting something she +don't know the finish of." + +Mary and he were riding alone in the dawn. "You promised me you'd look +out for her. Don't you care for her any more, Douglas?" + +"Yes, I do!" + +"Have you ever told her so?" + +"She's too young." + +"No, she isn't, Douglas. You remember you told me she knew more than I +do." + +Douglas said nothing; and after a moment, his step-mother said, +hesitatingly, "Doug, I hate to see you dancing so much with Inez." + +"What harm was there in it?" + +"I don't know that I can tell you, Doug. When I was a girl, going to the +log schoolhouse, we girls never thought of touching whiskey. Our mothers +would have killed us if we had." + +"The world do move!" grunted Douglas. + +"I don't believe it's the world. Not from the books I read. I think it's +just Lost Chief. The old folks in my day had real influence in the +valley. There were many like Grandma Brown. But now! Why, your father +will never be the good influence his father was, and I'd never be like +Grandma. I don't know why." + +"You can't even train your own daughter," said Douglas with entire +frankness. + +"Can the other mothers?" asked Mary resentfully. "What can I do when the +other mothers are so easy?" + +"It ain't exactly easy." Douglas spoke thoughtfully. "The Lord knows, all +the kids in Lost Chief work hard enough and get walloped enough." + +Mary sighed deeply. Douglas watched her face, so like Judith's but +bearing tragic lines it would have broken his heart to see around +Judith's young lips. With unwonted gentleness he leaned over to put his +hand on Mary's while he smiled at her half sadly. + +"Poor Mother! We are an ornery lot! But you are as good as gold, and Jude +and I both know it!" + +Quick tears stung Mary's gray eyes. She lifted his hand to her cheek for +a moment, then, as he drew it away, she tried to return his smile. But +nothing more was said until they reached home. + +Just as they entered the living-room, Judith rushed in, + +"I hate Dad! I hate him! Scott and I were jogging home by way of the west +trail as peaceful as anything when Dad has to come along and start a row +going!" + +"Anybody hurt?" asked Douglas, watching Judith as she sat down on the +edge of her bed, big tears on her cheeks. + +"No, but no thanks to Dad! Scott turned round and left because I asked +him to. There's Dad now!" + +John clanked in, but before he could speak Judith rose and shook her +forefinger in his face. + +"Now, Dad," she said steadily, "there's going to be no rowing and no +cursing. I'm sick of it! Right here and now I warn you to stop +interfering with me or I'll leave!" + +John raised his ready fist. + +"None of that!" Doug's voice was quiet. "Finish what you have to say, +Jude." + +John scowled, breathing heavily, his eyes never leaving Judith. + +"I'm sick of it," she repeated. "There must be places in the world where +there's something beside family rows." + +"Are you through?" demanded John. + +"Yes, I am." + +"Then I've got one thing to say. You let Scott Parsons alone." John flung +himself on the bed, and before Mary had taken off his spurred riding +boots he was asleep. + +Douglas went out to the corral where, soon after, Judith appeared with +her milking pail. The tender pink mists rolled slowly away from the +yellow wall of Lost Chief range. Judith, with heavy eyes and burning +cheeks, looked from the mists to Douglas, who leaned on the fence and +watched her. + +"Jude," he said, "you are on the wrong foot. You ought to let whiskey and +Inez Rodman alone." + +"Why don't you let 'em alone?" demanded Judith. + +"It's different with a man!" + +"O, don't give me that old stuff!" cried the girl. "We women do men's +work in this valley. We'll have the men's kind of fun if we want it!" + +"That's not the point," returned Douglas. "Women have to pay a price the +men don't and that's all there is to it." + +"It's not fair! It's not fair! I hate the world! I hate it! Looks like +you'd either got to be like Mother or Inez Rodman." + +"Your mother's all right. Only Dad's broke her just like he broke old +Molly horse." + +"Did I ever say my mother wasn't all right? Only I'll tell you one thing, +Doug Spencer, Inez Rodman's given me more sensible warnings about men +than my mother ever did." + +Douglas wore a worried expression. "Seems like there's something wrong +about that. Mother knows all about those things." He cleared his throat. + +The half angry look on Judith's face gave way to a smile. + +"O Doug! Doug! You old owl! What's the matter with you? After all, it's +good to be alive! I wish I had a horse as good as Buster and I wouldn't +ask for much more in life." + +"I'll give you Buster," said Douglas suddenly. + +Judith's jaw dropped. "Give me Buster!" + +"I mean it." + +"But--but--why, Douglas, what's happened to you?" + +"Judith!" Douglas tossed back his yellow; hair and put a brown hand over +Judith's. "Judith! I love you. Won't you be engaged to me?" + +"Love _me_?" Judith's beautiful gray eyes opened their widest. "Why, it +doesn't seem more than yesterday that you were calling me a pug-nosed +maverick. And besides, I'm only fifteen and you're only seventeen." + +"Is it Scott?" asked Douglas. + +"It isn't anybody! Why, Douglas, you must be crazy!" + +"Do I look crazy?" + +Judith stared deep into Douglas' blue eyes. "No," slowly, "you don't." + +"You can have Buster and Prince too," said Douglas. + +"No, sir, Doug! Why, they're all you've got in the world!" + +"I have that dapple gray Young Jeff gave me after the trial. He's old +enough to break now." + +There were tears in Judith's eyes. "Douglas Spencer, you are a gentleman! +If I do have a horse like Buster, I can be lots more help handling the +cattle." + +"He's yours from this minute," repeated Douglas. "And so am I yours. But +I'm not going to nag you about it. I'm just going to try to look out for +you." + +There was something so sober, so gentle, and so determined about Douglas +that for once in her life Judith was at a loss for a reply. She started +slowly for the cow shed. Then she turned back. + +"But I'm not going to take Prince, Douglas. That's too much!" + +"Well," said Douglas. "Maybe I will keep Prince for a while. It'll be +kind of lonesome." + +"Lonesome!" Judith repeated the phrase as though it struck a familiar +chord. "Life is lonesome, isn't it Doug! Seems as though I never dare to +be myself any more, since Oscar's death. That was the first time I ever +realized how lonely you can be." + +Douglas nodded, his eyes full of an understanding that was pitiful. Youth +should not be allowed to contemplate this sort of loneliness. It is soul +searing. + +"But remember, Judith," he said, "that you've always got me." + +She gave him an enigmatic look and returned to her work. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE HOUSE IN THE YELLOW CANYON + +"Beauty: to see it, to hear it, to feel it: that's all that makes life +worth while." + +--_Inez Rodman_. + + +Douglas was both elated and dejected by his conversation with Judith. He +was elated to feel that at last Judith knew his feeling toward her. He +was dejected because he felt that she had no understanding of the depth +and sincerity of this feeling. And with that marvelously naive egotism of +the male, he gave many hours of heavy thought to Judith's weaknesses and +temptations, none at all to his own. Perhaps more than anything, Judith's +friendship with Inez began to worry him. The more he pondered on it, the +more perturbed he became; and finally, a week or so after the dance, he +resolved to ask Inez to break with Judith. + +The Rodman house was built against the sheer yellow stone facing at the +base of Lost Chief range, known incorrectly as the Yellow Canyon. The +house of half a dozen rooms was the most picturesque cabin in the valley, +for Grandfather Rodman had built the roof with an overhang, giving the +house the hospitable shadows of a little Swiss chalet. There were several +hundred acres belonging to the ranch. Free range had grown small before +Inez' father died and he had gotten his acres well into grass and +alfalfa. But when he and Inez' mother were wiped out by smallpox, leaving +the ranch to Inez, the fields rapidly returned to the wild. Inez, fifteen +at the time of her parents' death, was unwilling to lead the life of a +ranch woman and for ten years the ranch had been going to pieces. + +When Douglas rode up to the outer corral in the dusk of the June evening, +he was struck anew by the disorder of the place. Cattle tramped freely +about the house. An old steer was poking his head in at the kitchen +window. Chickens roosted on a saddle, which was flung in the stable muck. +Tin cans, old wagon wheels, the ruin of a sheep wagon, were heaped in +confusion at one end of the cabin. Three or four dogs barked as Doug rode +up on old Mike. He called Prince in and looked inquiringly at two other +horses tied to the dilapidated corral fence. They were Beauty, his +father's horse, and Yankee, Peter's roan. + +As Doug sat hesitating, John and Peter came out of the kitchen laughing. +They swung, spurs clanking, up to the fence. + +"What the devil are you doing here, Doug?" asked Peter Knight. + +"Hasn't he got a right to call on the Harlot of the Canyon?" demanded +John, with a chuckle. "Hustle up, Peter! The crowd'll be there for the +game before you are." + +"They can't get in till I unlock," replied Peter. "Here, John, take the +key and ride on. I want to talk to Doug." + +John caught the key and trotted off. Sister snarled at Prince, who wagged +his tail apologetically. + +"Sister's a shrew, all right," grinned Douglas. + +"She sure can run coyotes, though," said Peter. + +"She and Grandma Brown run this valley," added Douglas. + +Peter laughed. "I'm strong for the ladies! Did you ever watch the moon +rise, Doug, from the top of the bench back of the cabin there?" + +"No," answered Douglas. + +"Come on up! It's not a long ride. I've been wanting to make you a +proposition for some time." + +Douglas followed the postmaster silently. The horses were panting and +sweating by the time they reached the top, and the rim of the moon was +just peering over the edge of the Indian Range. All the valley lay in +darkness. The two dismounted and threw themselves down on the ledge. +Douglas lighted a cigarette while Peter filled his pipe. + +"What are you planning to do with yourself now you're through school, +Douglas?" + +"Ride for Dad." + +"How'd you like to go East to school?" + +"Nothing doing! I've got more education now than I'll need as a rancher." + +"Well, I guess that's not particularly so," said Peter. "I was +thinking--you know I'm alone in the world--that I might help you out if +you had any leaning toward college or a profession." + +"Ranching is good enough for me, thank you all the same, Peter." + +For some moments Peter did not speak again. Coyotes wailed in the peaks +above them. The moon showed more of its golden face. + +"Does your father ever talk to you about your own mother, Doug?" + +"No; I quit asking him questions years ago. Peter, all I know about my +mother is that her name was Esther, that the smallpox wiped her folks +out, and that they owned the north half of our ranch. There's an old +photograph of her in Dad's bureau drawer. She was awful pretty." + +"She was more than that, Doug! I knew her well. You see, I'm the only man +in the valley that's a stranger, as you might say. I've only lived here +twenty years. So I could appreciate your mother more than the natives. +I came here a roundabout way from Boston. So did your mother's folks, +about forty-five years ago. She looked as Yankee as her blood, thin and +delicate, with a refined face. And all the coarse work women have to +do in Lost Chief didn't coarsen her." + +"How do you mean, coarse work?" asked Doug. + +Dimly in the moonlight he saw the postmaster rub his hand across his +forehead. + +"Why don't you put Buster to hauling and plowing?" asked Peter. + +"Too light and nervous." + +"So was your mother too light and nervous for the kind of ranch work +women have to do here. Women with blood and brains like most of the Lost +Chief women are best used to keep alive the decencies and gentler things +of life. Men lose those things in a cattle country unless the women keep +'em alive. If you keep women too close to the details of handling cattle +and horses, they get rough and coarse too. And I calculate that Lost +Chief and the world needs some decency and delicacy." + +Douglas pondered over this for a long time, his eyes on the glory of the +Indian peaks. Then he said, "You knew my mother well?" + +"Yes. I'd have married her, Doug, if she hadn't already married your +father. She--she was so devilishly overworked and unhappy! But she never +complained. Your father was crazy about her but he treats a woman like he +does a horse. He doesn't know any different." + +"O, don't tell me any more!" said Douglas brokenly. "The poor little +thing! Seems as if I couldn't stand it. Peter, I'm glad she died!" + +The older man was silent for a time, then went on. "Your mother came of +good people. Her grandfather was a friend of Emerson's. Tucked away +somewhere she had some letters the two men exchanged. Your grandfather +dreamed dreams about establishing a new New England out here. Those +letters should have been saved for you." + +The radiant light now swept across Lost Chief creek and to the foot of +the wall, drenching the Rodman ranch in beauty and mystery. Sister +crowded against her master's back and snored. Prince whined dolefully as +he always did at the moon. + +"So taking one thing with another," Peter Knight explained, "I thought I +might see if you had anything in your head except horse wrangling; +whether you're as much your Dad inside as outside." + +"I don't see why ranching isn't a good enough profession for any one!" +protested the boy. + +"In lots of places it is. But it's not in Lost Chief." + +"I don't see why," repeated Douglas. + +"It's awful hard here on the women is one reason. I never heard your +mother swear or use a foul word," said Peter. "I've been on ranches in +other places where the women would have been shocked at the idea. How +about Judith?" + +"You know she only curses like the other women do around here." + +"Do you like it?" asked the postmaster. + +"I never thought anything about it." + +"There you are!" groaned Peter. "If I can only make you see! Doug, a +woman lets down the first bar when she begins to swear and drink. She +begins where Judith is beginning. She's mighty apt to end where Inez is +ending. You just think about ranching in Lost Chief from your mother's +point of view. It's a rough kind of a community, Douglas, compared with +the same class of people in other communities. The talk itself is rough; +how rough you can't appreciate because you've never heard anything else." + +There was another silence. Then Douglas asked heavily: "Peter, what am I +going to do to keep Judith from going to Inez for advice?" + +"Might not be such bad advice! Inez has no illusions about what she's +doing or what she's paying." + +"You don't mean to say Judith ought to go there?" + +"No, I don't! But if a kid like you goes there himself, how can you +preach to Judith? And she only goes there for the dancing and fun." + +"But I'm a man!" + +"I don't care what you are. You can't preach good sermons with a foul +tongue. You ought to have the nerve to look at yourself as you are before +you try to bring up Judith. Lost Chief is still fairly honest. Even your +father calls Inez Rodman by her right title. There's hope in that!" + +"But what shall I do about Judith, Peter?" + +"Might make a man of yourself, Doug!" + +"What's the matter with me?" demanded Doug, indignantly. + +"Douglas, you haven't a clean-cut idea to your name. And a kid of +seventeen as self-satisfied as you are isn't worth baiting a coyote trap +with." + +"There's not a guy in the valley works harder than I do!" + +"Right! Nor uses his brain less!" + +"I suppose you mean I ought to go to college and let Judith go to the +devil." + +"Judith's pretty good stuff, herself," protested Peter. "A half-baked kid +like you can't influence Judith!" + +Douglas started to his feet. "By God, I will! You'll see!" + +"There's only one way. Show yourself fit to influence her. Don't get a +grouch at me, Doug. I've come a long, hard, lonely road. And all because +I thought everybody was wrong but myself. I don't want your mother's son +to make the same mistake, if I can help it." + +"I'm the unhappiest guy in the world!" cried Douglas, passionately. + +He mounted his horse and, followed joyfully by Prince, turned down the +trail. Peter did not stir. For a long time he sat with his arm around +Sister. The moon was high over the valley before he said aloud: + +"O Esther! Esther! The years are long!" Then he too mounted and rode +away. + +As Doug trotted through Rodman's door-yard, Inez crossed toward the +corral. + +"Hello, Doug! Where've you been? What's the matter with Buster?" + +Douglas drew up. "I gave him to Judith." + +"Why, you blank little fool! It must have hurt you deep!" + +"I guess Judith's worth it! Say, Inez, is there anything I can do for you +to get you to keep Judith away from here?" + +"I won't hurt her, Doug." + +"Aw, Inez, what's the use of saying that! Make out you're sore at her." + +"I could, but that won't do so much for her. Judith ought to have +something to look forward to beside breeding calves and wrangling +firewood for some lazy dog of a rancher, before she or any other Lost +Chief girl will think keeping away from here is worth while." + +There was a depth of bitterness in the woman's voice which Douglas felt +rather than understood. He sat in awkward silence. Inez put her hand on +his knee and looked up at him. Her face was tragically beautiful in the +moonlight. + +"Douglas, do you ever stop to think how beautiful Lost Chief country is?" + +"Not often," admitted Doug. + +Inez went on. "Peter Knight's been all over the United States and he says +there's no place passes it in beauty. Sometimes when I see the valley +looking like it does to-night, I cry. Doug, you are more promising than +these other kids. When you ride round on the range try to keep your mind +a little bit off cattle and horses and women and keep it on that line of +the Forest Reserve the way it looks to-night. Or the way this yellow wall +looks in the snow and the sunrise on it. And then, when you get that +habit, tell Judith about it and get her to thinking the same way. Beauty +can't live on rot, Douglas. I know that now. I don't care what Charleton +quotes." + +"Inez," asked Douglas huskily, "why don't you burn that old cabin up?" + +"It's too late," replied Inez shortly; and she turned on her heel and +left him. + +Douglas rode thoughtfully along the home trail. He was angry with Peter +and sorry for Inez, and he missed his mother as he never had missed her +before. He had been only a baby at the time of her death. This was the +first time that he had been told of the type of woman she was though he +had heard much of his mother's father, old Bill Douglas. He went to bed +that night with an entirely new set of thoughts. + +The heaviest ranch work of the year was now at hand. The hay harvest was +begun. From dawn until dusk, Doug and Judith worked in the fields and +tumbled to bed at night as soon as the chores were done. They had many +opportunities during the day for conversations, however, for after the +hay was raked, Douglas and Judith drove one rick team, John and old +Johnny Brown the other. Heavy work it certainly was, but work of what +fragrance, under skies of what an unbelievably deep blue, in air of what +tingling warmth and clearness! What unthinkable distances were glimpsed +from the wild hay patch on the flank of Dead Line Peak! It seemed to +Douglas, lying at length, chin elbow-supported, on the top of the last +load, which Judith had insisted on driving, that he never before had +sensed the beauty of the haying season in Lost Chief Valley. And again +he seemed to see Inez's tragic eyes, which had shed tears over the beauty +of these very hills. He turned the memory of those eyes over in his mind +with a memory of the sardonic twist of Charleton's mouth as he had +uttered his philosophy of life, and suddenly Doug wished that he dared +to talk to his father about these things. He had asked John about the +Emerson letters but John professed never to have heard of them. And +Douglas fell to wondering about his grandfather's dream for Lost Chief. + +They were pulling through the swamp road above the home corral. It was +heavy going and when they reached the shade of a little clump of blue +spruce and aspen, Judith pulled the team up for a short rest. She pushed +her broad straw hat back from her face and half turned to look at +Douglas. + +"Have you seen that new litter of pups of Sister's?" she asked Douglas. + +He shook his head and Judith went on. "Peter says I can have the pick of +the lot, but there's only one I'd look at. He's the image of Sister. I'm +going to train him so's I can take him out to run wild horses with me +when he grows up." + +"Wild horses! The last time it was bronco busting you were going into. +What's it all about, anyhow, Jude?" + +"You don't suppose I'm going to spend my life in Lost Chief, do you?" +demanded Judith. + +Douglas swept the landscape with a lazy glance. "I don't see how you +could beat it." + +"O, for looks and stunts, yes!" Judith's voice was impatient. "But it's +no place for a woman! I'm going to earn enough money to take me out where +I can go on with my education and amount to something." + +"I guess Peter's been talking to you," said Douglas. + +Judith nodded. "Yes, and he offered to loan me the money for college. But +I won't be beholden to a man outside the family. I'll earn it myself." + +"What'll you do with a college education after you get it?" Doug's glance +was not lazy now, as it rested on the young girl's eager face. + +"I'll do something beside cooking and horse wrangling for some old Lost +Chief rancher, I can tell you that!" cried Judith. "I'm going to get out +and see the world and know life!" + +"And give up your horses and dogs and the big old mountains? Jude, you'll +never do it. I'd like to get out myself sometimes, but I know I'll never +be happy anywhere else." + +"I don't expect to be happy, but I've got to know things." + +"What things, Judith?" + +The girl turned from Douglas to gaze at the far light on Fire Mesa. + +"The truth about things," she said at last. "Inez says there's just one +big fact at the bottom of everything and that is sex, and that there's +only one thing worth living for, to make sex beautiful." + +"She's a liar!" exclaimed Douglas indignantly, as if Inez had said +something shameful. "Where does she get that rotten stuff?" + +"From Charleton and poetry, I guess. How do you know she's wrong, Doug?" + +Douglas sat up, his clear eyes blazing like blue stars out of his +sunburned face. "Because I know! I want to have the biggest, finest ranch +in the Rockies. Is that sex? You want a good education. Is that sex? +Peter wants me to carry on some dreams my mother and grandfather had. Is +that sex? What does that woman think the world was made for, I'd like to +know?" + +"That's just it," Judith sighed with all the sadness of sixteen, "what is +it made for?" + +There was silence for a moment on the hay rick while the two young +questioners gazed at the incomparable grandeur about them. And as he +gazed there returned to Douglas the sense of panic that had harassed him +after Oscar's death. What did it all mean? Whither was he directed and by +what? How long before he too would be swept into the awful void beyond +the grave? + +"That's what religion did for folks all these years," he said suddenly. +"They never asked these questions, I'll bet. I wish I had it." + +"I don't want to believe fairy tales just because I'm scared!" Judith +tossed her head stoutly. + +"I don't either," agreed Douglas dejectedly. + +"I'm going to drive on home and get something to eat," said Judith, +lifting the reins. "Food's the only thing that'll rid me of the dumb +horrors." + +Douglas settled back against the hay, and the rest of the ride was +continued in silence. + +Old Johnny Brown stayed on for a day or so to clean up odd jobs neglected +during the haying season. He was a gentle, timid little chap, the butt of +the entire valley, of course, and particularly of John Spencer. Douglas +often wondered why old Johnny consented to work each year at this season +for his father. This wonderment was solved the day after Doug's and +Jude's conversation on the load of hay and in a manner destined in a +small way to have its influence on Douglas' affairs in the years to come. + +Just before supper Judith returned from the post-office and rushed into +the kitchen with a huge, long-legged, ugly puppy in her arms. She set him +on the floor where his four knotty legs pointed in four different +directions and where his long back sagged like the letter U. He was +covered with rough gray hair and his eyes were huge and brown. + +"Isn't he a perfect lamb? He's mine!" cried Judith, squatting beside him. + +"Oh! A lamb!" grunted John, who was combing his hair at the wash-basin in +the corner. "I thought it was a buffalo calf." + +"Don't be stupid!" cried Judith. "Of course, you're no judge of dogs, but +Peter says he's just like Sister was at two months, only bigger." + +Mary Spencer looked him over critically, coffee-pot in hand. "Isn't he +awful homely, even for a mongrel, Judith?" she asked. + +"Mongrel! What is the matter with all you folks?" exclaimed Judith. "He's +no more mongrel than anybody else! Come here to your missis, you +precious!" and she gathered the great pup into her lap, where he sat +complacently, his legs in a hopeless tangle. + +"What's his name?" asked old Johnny, mildly. + +"Wolf Cub. And you wait till I'm through with him! You'll see the best +trained dog in the valley, like Sioux will be the best trained bull and +Buster the best trained horse. O, look, Doug!" as Douglas came in. "See +what I've got!" + +"I dare you to name its pedigree, Doug!" chuckled John. + +Douglas lifted the pup to the floor and ran his hands over its skull, +along its back, and down its erratic legs. "Some dog, Judith! You'll have +to muzzle him by the time he's six months old." + +Judith smiled triumphantly. "No, I won't! Wait till you see how I train +him." + +"You get that from your mother, Judith. She was always gregus smart with +critters," said old Johnny. + +Judith laughed skeptically. "She was!" The little old man nodded his +head. "I remember. I deponed that same thing to Peter the other day. How +Mary could break anything when she was a girl, like you." + +"Well, but Mother won't touch anything that isn't broke now!" exclaimed +Judith. + +"Just what I deponed," nodded Johnny. "John broke her just like he broke +old Molly horse, so she lost her nerve. I deponed just that. An awful +rough breaker. I deponed just that." + +"O dry up, Johnny!" grunted John, drawing his chair up to the table. +"I've put up with an awful lot of drool from you, and I'm getting sick of +it." + +Old Johnny was always most explanatory when he was most frightened. "I +wasn't drooling, John. I was just deponing. Any one can do that, can't +they? And Mary did used to be like Judith." + +"Will you shut up!" shouted John. + +The puppy, startled, gave a sudden loud howl. + +"Put that thing out and come to supper, Jude! If he howls to-night, I'll +shoot him." Judith left the house indignantly. + +"No, you won't, Dad," said Douglas quietly, as he buttered a biscuit. + +"If you're going to give me back talk, young fellow, you leave the table +now, before I lose my temper." + +"I'm not giving you any more back talk than you deserve," replied +Douglas. "Any man that would threaten to shoot a pup because it howls +deserves something more than back talk. Let's forget it. Johnny, how +about this stunt of Mother's breaking horses?" + +Old Johnny gave John a timid glance. "I don't remember," he muttered. + +Mary laughed. "What's the use of a woman breaking horses when she's got a +man to do it for her?" + +"Did you ever see her break a horse, Johnny?" insisted Doug. + +"Once," said the old man, "a lot of the boys tied me on a mule and the +mule ran away. It wasn't broke, that mule. Seem like it had run a gregus +long way when Mary come along. She was just a walking and she reached up +and grabbed the mule and she rode him back with me. And she made them +untie me. And I loved her ever since. I came up here every year to see +how John is treating her. I depone--" + +John rose and, striding around the table, he seized the old man by the +collar. Douglas put his hand on his father's arm. + +"Drop it, Dad, or I swear I'll think old Johnny is a better man than you. +I asked him to tell. Throw me out if you want to. Keep your hands off +this little chap. One thing is sure. He appreciates Mother more than any +of the rest of us have." + +"Get the half-wit out of my sight, then," growled John, returning to his +seat. + +"I wish a lot of folks with whole wits knew how to be as good a friend as +Johnny," said Douglas stoutly. + +"So do I!" Mary's voice trembled, but her glance at the little old man +was very lovely. + +The rest of the meal was finished in silence, Douglas turning over in +his mind this strange new picture of Judith's mother. Could anything, +he wondered, change Judith so? A curious anger against his father's +stupidity was at that moment born in Douglas' heart, an anger that never +was wholly to leave him. + +That evening, as Douglas sat in his favorite place beside the alfalfa +stack, old Johnny led up his little gray mare. + +"I'll be cowling myself along home now, Doug," he said. "John is awful +insidious to me. I just want to say, Doug, that you're the first man in +this valley ever stuck up for me and some day I depone I'll get even +with you." + +"Good for you, Johnny!" nodded Douglas. "When I get my old ranch going, +you come up and work for me." + +"I will so do," replied the old man solemnly, and he rode away in the +moonlight. + +And Douglas returned to the new theme old Johnny had given him. Of +what were women made that they could be over-broken as his father had +over-broken Mary? And why should Lost Chief, so small that control was +simple, permit such a thing to be? + + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE HUNT ON LOST CHIEF + +"A guy that don't rustle cattle when the rustling is good, is a fool." + +--_Scott Parsons_. + + +One hot afternoon in August Douglas had just unhitched the panting team +from the plow in the new oat field when Charleton Falkner trotted up on +Democrat. + +"How's the fall plowing, Doug?" + +"Just out of the woods, Charleton." + +"Your father says he can spare you for a day or two. I wish you'd come +down to my place to-night. I'm planning a trip. I don't suppose John +would loan you Beauty for a couple of days?" + +Douglas shook his head. + +"Well," Charleton went on, "I guess Buster can stand up under the work." + +"Buster belongs to Judith now. I've been trying to get time to break that +dapple gray Young Jeff gave me, after the trial. He's a good horse. +Darned if I don't think I can ride him now!" + +"I know that horse and he is a good one," agreed Charleton. "Ride the +young moose if you can stick on him. You'll need all his wind and limb on +this trip!" and Charleton trotted away. + +It was full starlight that night when Douglas freed his feet from the +stirrups before Charleton's door and jumped like lightning from the +saddle. His horse jumped with him, landing in the kitchen as Douglas +brought up against the door-jamb. There was a roar of laughter from +within, and as the horse lunged backward out of the door, Charleton +appeared. + +"So you and the moose are here! Better hobble him, Doug!" + +Douglas laughed and tied the rearing horse to a hayrack. Then he followed +Charleton into the kitchen. Scott Parsons was sitting by the table, hat +on the back of his head, spurred boots on the cold stove hearth. Mrs. +Falkner was just finishing the supper dishes. She greeted Douglas with +a tired smile. + +Douglas, with a resentful glance at Scott, shifted his gun belt, shoved +his own hat to the back of his head, and sat down. Mrs. Falkner pitched +the dish water out the back door and went into the next room. + +"Well, fellows," said Charleton cheerfully, as he tipped back his chair +and established his spurs beside Scott's, "there's a neat little job on +the horizon. You both know the big canyon beyond Lost Chief Peak, that +has the little creek that disappears under the range?" + +The young men nodded, and Charleton continued. + +"A Mormon named Elijah Nelson has settled there. I'm not certain of all +he intends to do but I know this much: He's to homestead that canyon up +there and hog the water rights on the creek. He's to be followed by nine +other Mormon families. Some of 'em are going to raise cattle in the +canyon. Some of 'em are going into the sheep business in the plains +country beyond the canyon, where we Lost Creek folks have been in the +habit of wintering our herd when the snow's too deep here. Some of us +older Lost Chief men realize that these folks are the beginning of a +march of Mormons up from Utah to run us Lost Chief folks out. And we're +going to harry them till they are sick of living. Mormons and sheep must +keep out of this country." + +Douglas' eyes burned and his breath came quickly. Scott's hard young eyes +did not flicker. + +"We're going to ride over the range to-morrow night and the next morning +gather up what we can of Nelson's herd that's grazing on Lost Chief. +We'll bring 'em to a certain place I know of. I'll divide half to me, +the other half to you two. Are you game?" + +"I sure am," said Scott. "How many do you think we can gather in?" + +"Not so many on one trip. Perhaps fifteen if we have good luck. A big +herd leaves a big trail." + +"There's an old corral up near the Government elevation monument," said +Douglas. "It's all overgrown with bushes and young aspens so's I don't +think one person out of twenty, knows it's there. Maybe we could corral +'em there?" + +Charleton gave Douglas a quick glance. "How'd you come to know about it?" + +"I happened on it last summer tracking a bear." + +"That's what I planned to use," nodded Charleton. "We'll make a real +cowman out of you yet. So you're ready to go, Doug?" + +Douglas' eyes were blazing. "Go! You couldn't pay me enough to keep me +away! Nothing ever happens in this old valley." + +"All right! Be here by nine o'clock to-morrow night, wearing chaps. It'll +be rough riding and that Moose of yours will be quite considerably broke +by the time we get back, Doug. I'll supply the grub." + +"Fine!" said Scott, rising. "If that's all, I'll be running along. Stage +was late to-night and the crowd'll be there getting mail. I'll be with +you on time, Charleton." + +"Me too!" exclaimed Douglas, following Scott. + +Weary as he was, Douglas was long in getting to sleep that night. +Charleton Falkner was deeply admired by all the young men of Lost +Chief. Not only was he of the ultra-sophisticated type, dear to +adolescence, not only was he by far the cleverest hunter in the valley, +but, most important of all, his name was whispered in connection with +horse and cattle deals, never called questionable by Lost Chief but +always mentioned with a wink and a chuckle for their adroitness. To have +been asked by Charleton to go as a partner on one of his mysterious trips +was intoxicating enough to take the sting out of the fact that Scott met +Judith that evening at the post-office and rode home with her. + +The next day Judith several times tried to discover where Doug was going +and with whom. + +"Don't you try tagging me again, like you did on the trip to the half-way +house," he said with a warning grin, when they were finishing the evening +chores together. + +"No danger! I got a date of my own!" This with a toss of her curly head. + +"Who with?" + +"Don't you wish you knew! Other folks beside you can have interesting +deals, Mr. Douglas Spencer!" + +"Huh! Some little stunt with Maud, I suppose." + +"No, it isn't either. Say, Doug, did you know Maud is going up to +Mountain City to stay with her aunt and go to school there?" + +"I suppose that's what you'd like to do?" Doug watched the eager face +closely. + +"Well, not just now," replied Judith with a little grin. "I want to keep +my date, first." + +"Well, don't get into mischief, daughter; that's all I have to say about +your mysterious deal," said Douglas paternally. + +Judith laughed and carried her pail of milk into the kitchen. + +It was after ten o'clock that night when Charleton led his two young +henchman along the west trail, past Rodman's and up the canyon toward +the first shoulder of Lost Chief Peak. The Moose did not approve of +the trip. He showed his disapproval by plunging and side jumping with +nerve-racking persistency. Ginger and Democrat gave him ample turning +room, biting or kicking him if he drew too near them. Midway in the +canyon Charleton left the trail and turned abruptly to the left, up +the sheer shoulder of the mountain. + +"Need a hazer, Doug?" he called. + +"Where are you going to camp, Charleton?" laughed Douglas, as the Moose +refused the trail. + +"On the west shoulder of the peak, just under the elevation monument." + +"I'll find you there. I may be delayed for a while!" + +Charleton laughed too. "Just so you get there by dawn!" he called; and +Douglas saw the two figures, dim in the starlight, move upward on the +barren shoulder of the mountain. He allowed the Moose to circle for a +moment, then he drove the rowells deep. The snorting horse leaped up the +steep incline, at a pace that shortly left him groaning for breath. But +Douglas spurred him relentlessly to the far tree line. Here he permitted +him to breathe while he listened to the receding thud of hoofs above. + +When his horse had ceased to groan, Douglas turned him toward the dark +shadow of the forest. The Moose reared and turned, falling heavily. Doug +was out of the saddle when it cracked against the gravel and in it when +the trembling horse rolled to his feet. Doug brought the knotted reins +smartly across the animal's reeking flanks. + +The Moose bolted. Doug laughed and swore and for a time made no effort +to guide his mount. The Moose leaped fallen trunks and low bushes. He +jumped black abysses. He thrashed into trees and rocks. But he could not +dislodge the figure that clung to his back with knee and spur. Douglas +did not know how long this mad fight lasted, but he was beginning to be +exhausted, himself, when the Moose stopped on the edge of a black drop. +The horse was shaking and groaning. + +"Now listen here, you Moose," said Douglas. "If you expect to be friends +with me, you've got to begin to show some interest in me. I sure do +admire your speed and your nerve. You're a better horse than Buster, +and I don't want to break you more than I have to. But how about showing +interest in me? I'm here to stay, you know, so you might as well begin to +put me in your calculations. Now, just to show you're a changed horse, +suppose you push up here to the right. I think there's a clear space +there where I can see the stars and locate ourselves." + +The Moose turned slowly under the rein, and carried Doug cleverly into an +open park. Here Doug studied the brilliant heavens. + +"We'll just move south, old Moose," he announced, "climbing uphill all +the time, till we run into something." + +The Moose worked steadily enough now, but it seemed a long time to +Douglas before he saw the faint glare of a fire through the trees. +Charleton and Scott looked up grinning as he rode into the circle of +light. Wide bare patches showed on Doug's chaps. One sleeve of his +flannel shirt was hanging by a thread. His face was bleeding from many +scratches, but he grinned amicably as he slid wearily from the saddle. + +"Hello, Doug! Is your horse broke yet?" asked Charleton. + +"Some," replied Douglas. + +"We thought we heard you a while back!" said Scott. "Sounded as if a +grizzly had been bitten by a hydrophobia skunk." + +"He ain't as nervous as he was," grinned Douglas. "Anything to drink?" + +Charleton indicated the coffee-pot and said, "It's only a short time to +dawn. Better get what sleep you can!" + +Douglas nodded, drank a tin cup of coffee, and then unsaddled the Moose. +Scott, rolled in his blanket, watched him with a twisted grin. + +"Some horse to take on a trip like this," he said. "A half-broke mule +couldn't be worse. Funny if Doug don't gum the whole game for us, +Charleton." + +"You go to hell, Scott!" grunted Douglas. + +Scott sat up with a jerk. Charleton spoke sharply. "No scrapping! You two +get to sleep!" + +Scott lay down reluctantly. Doug shrugged his broad shoulders, and +shortly, head in his saddle, feet to the fire, he was fast asleep. + +The trees were black against gray light when Charleton called the two +young riders. + +"Let's eat and be off," he said briefly. + +Breakfast was a short affair of bread, bacon and coffee. While they were +bolting it, Charleton outlined the campaign. + +"You'll see Nelson's cattle have been all through here. No one else +grazes hereabouts. Don't rope any cows with calves following 'em. They +make too much bellowing. Get what steers you can by mid-morning into the +old corral. There isn't one chance in a thousand we'll meet any one. +Nelson's making hay five miles below here. But if any one should come +along when you've roped a steer, get him to examine the brand for you, +and of course if the brand isn't yours, let the critter go." + +"Where is the old corral from here?" asked Scott. + +"Show him, Doug," ordered Charleton. + +The camp had been made just within the tree line below the peak. Above, +against the glowing pink of the heavens, was etched the suave line of the +peak and topping this a heap of rocks, surmounted by a staff. West of the +staff and below it projected the top of a dead spruce on which sat an +eagle. To this Douglas pointed. + +"Down the mountain on a line with the staff and the dead spruce in a +thick clump of young aspen, about an acre of it. The old corral is +there." + +Scott nodded. They broke camp at once and trotted off, each one for +himself. The Moose was not yet a cow-pony, but, from Doug's viewpoint at +least, he was now quite manageable. Any one in Lost Chief could rope a +steer from a well-trained horse. Douglas proposed to repay Scott's sneer +by bringing in on his half-broken mount as many animals as either of his +companions on their seasoned cow-ponies. And although Doug risked his +life a hundred times, four of the dozen fat steers that were milling +about in the old corral by nine o'clock had been dragged in by the +snorting, trembling Moose. + +When Doug closed the bars on his fourth steer, he waited for a short time +for Charleton and Scott, but as neither appeared, he set off after +another brute. He had ridden a good mile from the corral when he heard +the bellow of a bull and a shout from Charleton. He spurred the Moose in +the direction of the cry. Democrat was standing with the reins over his +head. Under a giant pine close by, Charleton was clinging desperately +to the horns of a red bull. Blood was running over the back of his gray +shirt. The bull was stamping in a circle in the vain attempt to trample +his victim. + +"Don't shoot!" gasped Charleton. "Rope his hind legs and throw him! By +God, I'll keep him now!" + +Twice Doug's lariat darted through the air before the loop caught. But +the third attempt was successful and he raced the half-maddened Moose +away and jerked the bull off his feet. Charleton rolled to his own lariat +lying on the ground near Democrat. He grasped the rope, rose to his knees +and twirled it. It twisted about the bull's mighty neck. Charleton sank +back to a sitting position and pulled the rope taut. + +"Dismount and come up on him, Doug, and hog tie him," he panted. + +Douglas obeyed, and shortly the bull was helpless although he continued +to bellow threateningly. + +"He'll have Nelson up here even if he is five miles off," said Douglas +anxiously. "Better let him go." + +"Take a look at my ankle, Doug," ordered Charleton. "If it's nothing +worse than a sprain, I'm in luck." + +With many oaths on the part of Charleton, the high riding-boot was worked +off, disclosing an ankle already puffed and discolored. + +"A sprain! Well, I can sit Democrat with that. Now take a look at my +shoulder." + +Doug turned back the bloody shirt. The bull's horn had grazed the +shoulder but not deeply. Doug tied the wound up with Charleton's +neckerchief. He had just finished and was beginning with his own scarf on +the ankle when Scott galloped up. + +"Say, you can hear that bull for a thousand miles! What the devil are you +up to? I want you both to come and help me get three I've roped down the +draw a couple of miles below here." + +Douglas explained the accident. + +"My gawd, Charleton, don't you know enough not to tackle a bull on foot?" + +"How'd I know there was a bull around?" retorted the wounded man. "I +dropped my rope and when I dismounted to pick it up, he came after me +like a Kansas cyclone." + +"Well, I'll take the bull to the corral and come back here for grub if +Douglas will fix it up. We will put plenty of whiskey and hot coffee in +you, Charleton. Do you think you can get home, while Doug and I ride +herd?" + +"I sure can! Go ahead, Scott. You'd better blind the bull." + +Scott nodded, and picking up several handsful of dry dirt, he threw them +into the bull's wide, bloodshot eyes. The animal snorted and tossed his +head. Scott continued with handful after handful until the bull's eyes +were only muddy blanks under his tossing forehead. His bellowing ceased. +Then Scott removed the ropes from his hind legs and, mounting, led him +away. The bull was silent and entirely occupied in attempting to rub the +dirt out of his streaming eyes. + +"Make it as quick as you can, Scott," called Charleton. Then to Douglas, +"Get busy with the whiskey and coffee, Doug. He ought to be back by the +time you've fixed up a snack." + +But Scott was long in returning. + +"Oughtn't he to be back?" asked Doug, when the bacon was ready. + +Charleton looked at his watch. "He's been gone over an hour. After you +eat, you go see what kind of trouble he's in, Doug." + +Douglas devoured the bacon and bread, then mounted and rode slowly +through the silent, scented forest. His blue eyes danced with excitement, +his tanned cheeks burned as he guided the Moose through the quivering +aspens to the corral. Here he pulled up with a sudden oath. The corral +was empty, the fence torn open in half a dozen places. + +"That blankety-blank old bull must have started a stampede!" gasped +Douglas. "I wouldn't have thought Scott would have left him free in +here!" + +He rode through and around the corral. Cattle tracks led in every +direction. He trotted in widening circles. Perhaps a mile north of the +corral, he pulled up and looked closely at the ground. Single cattle +tracks here converged and a herd track led on northward. As he stared +at it, the bull came thundering down the trail. Doug put the Moose after +him but had not followed him for five minutes when Scott broke into the +chase from the right. + +"What do you think you've done, blank you?" he shouted. "What have you +done with the rest of the herd?" + +"Done with the herd?" roared Douglas. "What are you talking about?" + +"I know you, you dogy rider, you! I told you that wild horse of yours +would gum the game. There ain't a steer left! What do you mean by riding +him into the corral?" + +"You're drunk!" retorted Douglas. "You'd better ride after that bull or +Charleton will pull a gun on you." + +"Ride after nothing! Chase him yourself!" + +"On second thoughts, I think I will. It's your turn to play nurse. Go on +back and tell Charleton what's happened." + +"Don't get fresh, young fellow!" snarled Scott. + +Douglas pushed back his hat and the noon sun glimmered through the pines +on his yellow hair. His clear blue eyes studied Scott appraisingly. +Finally, he said, "I guess, on third thoughts, I'll take you back to +Charleton." + +Scott laughed. "Now you're drunk!" + +Douglas' six-shooter appeared casually between the Moose's twitching +ears. "Hold up your little brown hands, Scott, till I reach me your gun. +Fine! Now ride ahead of me till we reach Charleton. Some boy I am on the +draw, eh, old-timer?" + +Scott swore, but rode ahead at a steady trot until they reached the +noonday camp. Charleton looked at them in astonishment. + +"Call this damn fool off my back, will you, Charleton?" drawled Scott. +"He's mad because I called him for letting that wild cayuse of his +stampede the herd." + +"He's a liar! This is as good a cow-pony as he ever rode and better. +Ain't a better horse in Lost Chief than this same Moose. He was after the +bull like a hound after a coyote when Scott broke in on us, the dirty--" + +"Hold on," interrupted Charleton, "What's your story, Scott?" + +"The corral is broke in forty places and all the stock gone. I suppose +this fool rode his wild horse into the herd and stampeded it. I found him +running the bull like he and his horse was both loco." + +Douglas uttered an oath. "Nothing of the kind! When I got there, the herd +was gone and I'd just picked up the trail when the bull came along." + +Charleton looked from one young man to the other. Doug with his long face +entirely expressionless, sitting easily sidewise in his saddle; Scott, +face flushed, eyes angry, standing tense in the stirrups. There came an +ugly twist to Charleton's lips, but after a moment he spoke coolly. + +"You fellows help me up on Democrat and we'll beat it for home." + +"But you don't believe the Moose--" began Doug. But Charleton +interrupted. + +"If I wasn't crippled I'd mighty soon show you fellows what I believed. +As it is, I'm going home. But if I find either of you has double-crossed +me, I'll square accounts." + +There was that in Charleton's eyes which caused the two riders to +dismount without a word. They heaved him into his saddle and, with his +lariat, arranged a sling for his injured ankle. When they had made him as +comfortable and secure as possible, Scott said politely: + +"You don't need two of us, Charleton. I think I'll go after a bear I saw +in the raspberry patch beyond the corral." + +"Nothing doing, Scott!" grunted Charleton. + +"You've fallen down on the job, Charleton," Scott laughed, "so you've +lost your right to boss." + +"No, he hasn't," said Douglas. "You come along!" + +But this time Doug's six-shooter flashed no more quickly than Scott's. +Charleton, his face twisted with pain, waited for a thoughtful minute +before he said: + +"Put up your guns, boys. Let him go, Doug," and he turned his horse +eastward. + +Douglas reluctantly returned his gun to his hip and Scott disappeared at +a canter. The Moose followed after Democrat. + +"What did you do that for, Charleton?" demanded Douglas, resentfully. +"That's just giving him the herd." + +"If he has double-crossed me," returned the older man, "I'm in no shape +to handle him just now. He never came back to meet you till he'd turned +the herd over to an accomplice. In any case, I lose on this trick." + +"But he didn't know you were going to meet up with a bull!" + +"No, but he was going to keep us away from the corral, somehow. You +remember he said he'd come back to get us to help him bring in some +steers. Of course, you and he might be in cahoots on this, but Scott's +tricky so I'm giving you some of the benefits of the doubt." Charleton +turned in his saddle to favor Douglas with a suspicious stare. + +"I didn't double-cross you, Charleton," said Douglas, not without a +simple dignity that may or may not have impressed his mentor. At any +rate, Charleton made no reply. + +Douglas was entirely deflated. He drooped dejectedly in the saddle, +guiding the stiff and weary Moose without interest. His wonderful +expedition by which he was to establish his standing as a man with his +father and Judith had ended in ignominy. He watched Charleton's painfully +rigid back but he did not dare to speak to him until they were nearly +home. As they neared the edge of the first line, the ground became +tapestried with lilies, yellow, white and crimson. Tree-trunks turned +blue against the blue skies that belled over the valley. As they +descended, the Forest Reserve lifted gradually, a black green sea beyond +the burning brown level of the ranches. But Douglas was in no frame of +mind either to seek or to see beauty. He had a guilty sense that +Charleton believed that he had failed him, and finally he summoned +courage to call, "Doggone it, Charleton! I wanted to put it over, don't +you suppose?" + +Charleton did not answer, and when they crossed the canyon back of +Rodman's, Douglas, hurt and resentful, turned the Moose onto the home +trail. He had gone almost beyond hailing distance before Charleton +called, "Come down and see me soon, old cattle rustler!" + +Instantly Doug's spirits soared. He waved his hand with a grin and put +the Moose to a trot. + +It was supper time when he clanked into the kitchen. His father and +mother were at the table. + +"You're early, Doug!" exclaimed John. + +Doug nodded. "Where's Judith?" + +"Keeping that mysterious date of hers. Maud, of course! She won't be home +till late. I hope it's not with Inez. You look tired, Doug." + +"I am. Jude makes me sick. She's harder to watch than a boy!" + +John laughed enigmatically and went out to finish his chores. Shortly, +Douglas followed him and told the story of the miscarried adventure. + +"I told Charleton not to let Scott in on it," exclaimed John. "Serves him +right. I sure got the laugh on Charleton this time." + +"He's awful sore! Acts kind of suspicious of me," said Douglas ruefully. + +"A guy like Charleton don't even trust himself." John pitched down a +forkful of hay. "Have you any idea what Maud and Jude are up to?" + +"No, sir. Are you worried about her?" + +John laughed. "As long as Scott Parsons was with you, why worry? We'd +ought to let Young Jeff run that crook out of the valley." + +"I'll do it myself, some day." Douglas squared his big shoulders as he +spoke. He was still very thin and his clothes hung loose on him. But his +father, looking him over, did not smile. + +"Go to it, boy," he said. + +Douglas had planned to lie awake until Judith returned. But the minute he +touched his pillow he dropped into dreamless slumber from which he did +not waken until breakfast time. John was scolding Judith when Doug +reached the table. + +"That's all right, to be so highty-tighty. You can get away with that +with your mother but not with me. It was nearly three o'clock this +morning when you came in." + +"O, no, John! It wasn't that late," protested Mary anxiously. + +"Now, Mary, don't put up one of your fool lies for the little devil. +I know what time it was. What excuse have you, miss?" + +Judith, who was looking tired, but singularly self-satisfied, answered +demurely, "I was out on business, Dad. And I'm going to get pay for it, +too. A horse that will really buck." + +John's face was flushing when Douglas spoke. "Aw, let her keep her +secret, Dad! I don't think she's done a thing but rope a stray pony." + +Judith protested quickly. "Nothing of the kind! If you three just knew +what I have done, you'd respect me. Anyway, Doug, I know where you were. +Over on Fire Mesa with Charleton Falkner." + +"Who told you that?" grinned Douglas. + +"Somebody that knew. Dad, why don't you get after Doug like you do after +me? What was he doing over on Fire Mesa, all night?" + +"That's right, Doug! What were you doing on Fire Mesa?" asked John, all a +broad smile now that infuriated Judith. + +She jumped up from the table, took down her milking pail and went out. +Nor did she give Douglas opportunity to talk to her during the rest of +the day. Not until twilight had settled in the valley did Douglas find +her alone. Then, searching for her, he discovered her behind the corral, +curled up against the new alfalfa stack, her eyes on the sunset glow +above Lost Chief Peak. + +Douglas sat down beside her. "I didn't mean to tease you, this morning, +Jude. I was just trying to steer Dad off." + +"But you always do think my stunts never amount to anything, Doug!" + +"Have I said a word like that, lately? I can't help being anxious, can I, +when a girl like you stays out until three in the morning?" + +"Yes, you were so anxious your snores shook the house!" returned Judith. +"Now admit, Doug, that you really think it was nothing worth worrying +about." + +"Well, I don't see how it could be anything so very important." + +"There, I knew it! Doug, I'm so proud of myself that if I don't tell some +one, I'll burst. Give me your word of honor you'll never give it away and +I'll tell you." + +"I swear I'll die before I'll peep!" + +"Still think it's funny, don't you! All right, mister, prepare to faint! +I was out helping Scott Parsons run cattle." + +Douglas gasped. + +"There, Doug Spencer! You're such a wonder! Of course," honestly, "I +didn't do the hardest part. Scott had got 'em all together in a corral +before I got there. But I held the herd in a little canyon for a couple +of hours while he got old Nelson off the scent. Then we drove 'em across +the ridge, down into the desert country west of Mesa Pass. He's going to +sell 'em in Mountain City and my share is a good bucking horse, like I +told you." + +Douglas sat perfectly still, so torn by conflicting emotions that for a +time he was speechless. Finally, from the chaos of his mind rose an +overwhelming anger. + +"Do you think that's a decent thing to do? A girl, running cattle and +with a confessed murderer at that? I sure am ashamed of you, Jude!" + +"Can you beat a man!" cried Judith to the flaming heavens. "He won't even +give me credit for being a cattle wrangler! And he says he loves me!" + +Doug's voice was furious. "You ought to be ashamed of yourself, stealing +cattle and running round with that Inez Rodman!" + +"You just be careful of what you say, Doug Spencer!" "Careful! Why should +I be careful. You aren't careful!" + +"I'm a whole lot better than you, at that! If it's so smart for you to do +all these things, why isn't it for me?" + +"A woman has to be good. It's her job to be good. If she isn't good in a +cattle country like this, everything goes to pieces." + +"It's a wonder you men don't set us women an example," said Judith +coolly. + +"Don't I try to keep you straight?" + +"Yeh! A wonderful example you set me!" + +Douglas' voice broke with anger. "Don't talk like a fool! The world isn't +like that! The women have to be good. The men want 'em to be, no matter +how hard they try to make the women bad. And the more you care for a +girl, the more you want her to be perfect." + +"The world is plumb loco and you with it!" + +"You're as cold as a dead rabbit!" exclaimed Doug, + +Judith laughed mirthlessly. "Yes, I'm cold! I'm as cold as fire!" And +suddenly she put her head down on her knees and burst into tears. + +Instantly Douglas melted. He put his arms about. Judith and drew her head +to his shoulder. "O Jude! Don't! If I could only make you see it's my +love for you makes me so mad!" + +"You,--you don't want me to have any fun!" sobbed Judith. "How'd you like +to be asked to give up everything yourself and stay home like a woman?" + +"I wouldn't like it. But a regular girl oughtn't to want to do such +things." + +"Why not? I like horses and dogs and the wind on Fire Mesa just as much +as you do. And dancing and hunting by moonlight and getting away with +somebody else's cattle and all of it. I love it! And you ask me to give +it up because you want me to be good. What do you call good, anyhow?" + +Douglas did not answer at once. In the first place, Judith's flushed +cheek in his neck upset his equilibrium, and in the second place he was +overwhelmed with a sudden consciousness of the truth of Peter's +statement, that he had not a clean-cut idea to his name. + +But finally he stammered, "Well, I call being good not drinking or +stealing or being loose with men or any of those things--for a girl." + +"And for a man?" asked Judith, sitting erect. + +"Aw, who wants a man to be good?" laughed Douglas. + +"I do," replied Judith, with a sudden thrilling intensity in her young +voice. "I want his strength to be as the strength of ten, because his +heart is pure," + +"Judith, you really do?" + +"Yes, I really do." + +Douglas drew a long breath. "Judith, would you want me to be that way?" + +"I sure would." + +"Well, then, Judith, so help me God, I will be!" + +Judith put her slender, muscular hand on Doug's, swallowed hard once or +twice, but said nothing. Then the tense moment past, she asked, "Honest, +Doug, don't you think that was kind of a smart stunt of mine?" + +"I certainly do," with heart-felt conviction. "But I want you to promise +me one thing. That you won't run any more cattle. Will you, Jude?" + +"I'll promise you, if you'll promise me," returned Judith promptly. + +"But it's different with a man," repeated Douglas. + +"But you promised about that other." + +"That was different. It was something personal between you and me. The +other is business." + +"All right! I don't promise unless you do." + +"I can't promise, Jude. Honest, I can't." + +Jude laughed and jumped to her feet. "You are a goose, Doug, but I sure +am fond of you." Then she left him. + +Douglas sat still, his head pressed against the indescribable sweetness +of the alfalfa hay, eyes on the wonder of the stars. Finally he said +aloud, "I wish there was somebody a fellow could talk to that knows +things. I wish my grandfather Douglas was alive. Peter jaws too much. +What I want is to know facts, then judge for myself." + +His father passed by the haystack, pitchfork on shoulder. "Who are you +talking to, Doug?" he asked. + +"The biggest fool in Lost Chief," replied Douglas, rising and following +his father to the house. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +LITTLE SWIFT CROSSES THE DIVIDE + +"Ride 'em till they drop, then break another. That's what Nature does and +that's what I do." + +--_John Spencer_ + + +The following afternoon when Douglas rode after the mail he went round by +the west trail to call on Charleton. He found the crippled philosopher +propped up in bed, reading the _Atlantic Monthly_ and smoking a pipe. +Mrs. Falkner and Little Marion were in the corral doing the chores. + +"Well, how's the Moose after his disappointment?" asked Charleton. + +"Going strong! Any news of Scott?" + +"No; I don't expect any news for a week till I get on my feet." + +"I guess we might as well let him go and try again without him," said +Doug, looking out the door at Little Marion, who was astride a saddleless +mule which was doing its best to climb the corral fence. + +Charleton grinned. "No one can double-cross me without my taking the +trouble to show him he can't do it twice, can they, Marion?" as his wife +came in with an armload of wood she had just split. + +"You are as revengeful as a wolf, if that's what you mean," replied Mrs. +Falkner. "Not that you've tried it on me." + +Charleton gave her an amused glance not unmixed with admiration. + +"I don't know that even a wolf would tackle a lynx cat," he chuckled. + +Douglas looked from the beautiful woman around the homelike room. "You're +a lucky chap, Charleton," he said suddenly. + +Mrs. Falkner had picked up her sewing-basket. "Nobody with a mind like +Charleton's is so awful lucky," she said. + +"Ouch!" grinned Charleton, and lighted his pipe afresh. + +Douglas pondered on Mrs. Falkner's remark on his way back to the +post-office. Peter was sitting on the doorstep with Sister. The mail +had been distributed and most of Lost Chief had come and gone. + +"That horse is tired, Doug," said Peter. "What have you been doing? +Running him to break him?" + +"Aw, he's all right," protested Douglas. "Don't climb a tree about him, +Peter. I want to talk to you. Make Sister move over." + +"Sister," said Peter, "don't you want to go down and speak nice to your +old friend Prince?" + +Prince, standing before the platform with slavering tongue, bright eyes +shining, wagged his tail in a conciliatory manner. Sister sniffed, +growled, whimpered, then walked deliberately down the steps and said +something to Prince. He barked and they trotted over to the plains east +of the post-office. + +"She's got a dead coyote she keeps up there for her special friends," +said Peter. "What's your trouble, Doug?" + +Douglas sat down in Sister's place. "I've been over to see Charleton, and +his wife said something that struck me as queer." He repeated Marion's +comment. + +Peter laughed. "The women in this valley beat any bunch I've seen +anywhere. If the men were their equals, there wouldn't be a spot in the +world could touch Lost Chief. What do you think of Charleton's mind, +Doug?" + +"I think he's a wonder. He's lived, that guy." + +"Any guy of forty has lived. It's the way they look at life that makes +men different. Charleton hasn't any faith in anything good. That's why +he's unlucky. Don't let him influence you too much, Doug. I like +Charleton but he's not good medicine for a boy of your kind. Have you +thought anything about my offer of a couple of months ago?" + +"Not much. I'm putting in most of my time worrying about Jude." + +"Has she been doing anything special?" + +"Well, yes. If I could just make her care for me, it would be easy. But, +Peter, she cares a lot more for that poor old broken down Swift than she +does for me." + +"She's just a child. You'll have to be patient, Doug." + +"I am patient, Peter. But, in the meantime, Scott, or--" He hesitated, +then went on. "I tell you, this caring for a woman who don't care for you +is hell, Peter!" + +Peter stared off toward Fire Mesa, with its rolling clouds of red, and +answered seriously, "Yes, it is, Douglas. But I told you in June all that +I could think of, in regard to Judith, and you got sore at me." + +"Well, I'm not sore now. I was a fool. Here comes Jimmy Day. Give me my +mail, Peter, and I'll beat it. I'm in no frame of mind to talk to a kid." + +Jimmy, who was perhaps a year older than Douglas, pulled his sweating +horse to its haunches. His dog, a mongrel collie, ran up the trail to +meet the returning Sister and Prince. There was a whining colloquy, then +the three dogs turned back. + +"Must be a scandal somewhere," suggested Jimmy. + +"No, just a dead coyote," said Peter. "Sister ran him down yesterday. +Ain't a dog in the State outside of a greyhound can touch her." + +Douglas made a flying leap into the saddle while the Moose whirled on his +hind legs. + +"Some horse, Doug!" exclaimed Jimmy. "I'll swap this and a two-year-older +heifer for him." + +"I'm afraid he might hurt you. He's a regular man's horse, Jimmy." Doug +lighted a cigarette while the Moose reared. + +"Thanks," grunted Jimmy. "Say, did you know Scott Parsons has had four +young calves by one milch cow, all the same age? Ree-markable man, +Scott. Say, I was by there the other day and there sat Scott in the +corral on Ginger cracking a black snake at this fool cow to make her +let those four slicks eat. He'll die rich, Scott will. He's the +calf-gettingest rider in the Rockies." + +Douglas turned the Moose into the home trail. When he reached the ranch, +Judith was strolling in the main corral with her arm about the neck of +the bull Scott had given her. He would follow Judith about like a pet dog +but would allow no one else to touch him. + +"When he is a little older, you won't be able to play with him that way, +Jude," said Douglas, eying the pair with admiration not untinctured with +apprehension. + +It was a brilliant afternoon, with the western sun throwing long +golden shadows across old Dead Line Peak. The corral with its fringe of +quivering aspens a silvery lavender; the great red bull; the young girl +with her noble proportions, rubbing the brute's ferocious head with one +slender brown hand, made an unforgettable picture. The puppy, Wolf Cub, +was chewing an old boot beside the alfalfa stack. + +"He'll always be fond of me if I handle him right," said Judith. "Won't +you, Sioux? I'm going to saddle him, some day, Doug." + +"Well, not while I'm around," exclaimed the young rider, as he pulled the +bridle over the Moose's head. "Say, have you seen Scott yet?" + +"No. Why?" + +"I pity him. Charleton sure is after him." + +"Charleton? Why?" + +Douglas shrugged his shoulders. "You ask Scott why," and he strode off to +his chores. + +Doug did not see Charleton again for several days. But one afternoon, +about a week after the return from the hunt, they met at the post-office +and Charleton, who wanted to see John, rode home with him. + +"Scott is back," said Doug. + +"Yes; I saw him yesterday." Charleton smiled. "I found out who was his +helper on that little deal." + +"You did! How?" Douglas' voice was so sharp that the Moose jumped +nervously. + +"I bought the information. Swapped him something for it." + +"Who was it? Do you believe him?" Doug spoke a little breathlessly. + +"I don't know. I'm going to check up on it now." + +"Charleton, who did he say it was? Please, Charleton!" + +The older man turned to look suspiciously at Doug. "How long have you +known it?" + +"You've no call to speak that way to me," cried Douglas. + +"Humph! Well, he says it was that young devil of a Jude." + +"Look here, Charleton, don't say anything to my father about it. He'll go +crazy." + +"I don't know what I'll do. I'll talk to Jude, first." And Charleton +would say no more. + +He found Judith in the milking shed, and while he talked to her there +Douglas engaged his father's attention in the living-room. Here Judith +swept upon them. + +"Doug Spencer, as long as I live, I'll not speak to you again! You +promise breaker, you--" + +"Wait, Jude! I haven't told anybody. Did I tell you, Charleton?" + +"I've told her that you didn't but she won't believe me," grinned +Charleton. + +"Scott wouldn't have told. Doug was the only one that knew!" Judith paced +the floor. + +"What the devil has broke loose?" demanded John. + +"Now you have started something, Jude," groaned Douglas. + +"Judith! Do calm down!" pleaded her mother, who had taken her hands out +of the biscuit dough and now stood, twisting her fingers, in the doorway. + +"Well," said Charleton, "I don't know any reason why I should keep quiet +after the pretty names Jude has called me. It was Judith that helped +Scott double-cross us up on Lost Chief Peak. She claims she didn't know +it was our deal." + +"She didn't, either!" cried Douglas stoutly. + +John gasped, "Jude! She got away with your cattle, Charleton? That +sure-gawd is funny! Jude! O Lord!" And John burst into a tornado of +laughter that lasted until he dropped weakly on his bed. + +Judith stared at him, uncertainly, as did her mother. Douglas scowled. +Charleton lighted a cigarette. "Of course, it has its humorous side," +said Charleton, as John's shouts died down. "But I've served notice on +Scott and I serve notice on Judith now, that I'm not the man who kisses +the hand that spoils his deals." + +This remark sobered John. "You're right, too, Charleton. Jude, how'd you +come to do such a fool thing?" + +"How'd Doug and Charleton come to do such a fool thing?" asked Judith. +"Scott and I had as good a right to run cattle off them as they had off +Elijah Nelson." + +"O Judith! Judith!" exclaimed her mother. + +"You know how I feel about Scott Parsons!" cried John. "Jude, I'm going +to punish you for this so you'll never forget it.'" + +"In other words, if Doug runs cattle, he's admired. If I run cattle, I'm +punished!" Jude's fine eyes were flashing, her tanned cheeks burning. + +"Doug's a boy; you're a girl," replied John. "And I've told you to let +Scott Parsons alone." + +"I wish I were dead!" exclaimed Jude. + +"Well," said Charleton casually, "I must be getting back home." No one +heeded him as he clanked out the door. + +"How are you going to punish Jude, Dad?'" demanded Douglas. + +"Doug," cried Judith, "you keep out of my affairs from now on! I'll show +you that you can't break a promise to me." + +"Judith, I tell you that I never breathed a word." + +"I know better. Scott wouldn't be such a fool. And he told me not an hour +ago that Charleton said you'd given me away. And, anyhow, I think more of +Scott Parsons than I do of you and Dad put together! He's not always +jawing at me. He thinks I'm just right as I am." + +Douglas drew himself up, angry and offended. + +"You'll come after me, miss, before I speak to you again!" + +"That's exactly what I want!" retorted Judith. + +During this dialogue, Mary stood with the tears running down her cheeks, +begging the two to stop quarreling. John leaned against the table, his +eyes half closed, his mouth distorted. + +"So that's how the land lies with Scott?" he shouted suddenly. + +"Yes, and if you lay hands on me, I'll shoot you," said Judith +succinctly. + +"I know how to get you, miss," sneered John. + +He rushed out of the house. A moment later he galloped past the window on +Beauty. Judith walked defiantly to the door and looked after him. Douglas +went out to the corral. Shortly, John returned, leading Swift. He pulled +up in front of the door and dismounted. He kicked Swift in the haunch to +make her turn, and before Judith could do more than start toward him from +the door, he put his six-shooter to Swift's patient little head and +pulled the trigger. Swift dropped to her knees and rolled over. + +"Now, Jude, try it again and I'll give Buster a dose," said John, +standing tense as he waited for the girl's attack. + +But with a look of such horror that John recoiled, she stopped in her +tracks. She threw her arms about her head with a groan, ran across the +yard to the stable and climbed into the hay-loft. Douglas stood for a +moment as if turned to stone. Then he picked up a bridle and went into +the corral for the Moose. As he adjusted the saddle, John led Beauty to +the fence. + +"You finish those chores, Doug!" + +Douglas went on tightening the cinch. + +"It was just a broken-down cow pony that should have been shot long ago," +said John, sullenly. + +Douglas leaped into the saddle, took the fence like a swallow, and was +gone. Prince yelped on the trail before him. + +Where he was going, Doug did not know. He thrust the spurs into the +Moose and set him straight up the sheer barren side of Falkner's Peak +until the Moose was winded, then he dismounted and led him up and up +until they both were exhausted. Then Doug looped the reins over a clump +of sage-brush and dropped to the ground. Prince squatted beside him, +panting. + +A blind despair had engulfed Doug. He could think of nothing to do. +Nothing that would adequately punish his father, nothing that would +solace Judith or bring her to her senses. + +Nothing is so intolerably bitter to youth as its first realization of the +fact that one is helpless to change life as it is. Douglas, biting his +nails and railing at the heavens, was draining one of life's bitterest +drinks. He was in deep trouble, utterly alone, and he had no spiritual +star for guidance. + +But when he finally descended the mountainside he had taken a resolve. He +was going to leave home for a while. He was going to work for Charleton, +who was greatly in need of a rider. He was not yet of age, but he was not +afraid of John's forcing him to return. + +His father and mother were in bed when he reached home. Judith's bed was +empty. Douglas went out to the stable and climbed noiselessly to the +loft. On the hay close to the open door lay Judith, her face dimly +outlined in the moonlight. She was still sobbing in her sleep. Douglas +stood looking down on her till his own eyes were tear-blinded. Then he +knelt in the hay and kissed her softly on the lips. She stirred but did +not open her eyes, and he slipped back to the ladder and down, without a +sound. + +He went to bed at once but was up in the morning before his father, +leaving a note on the kitchen table: + +I am going to work for Charleton till things are better here at home. + +_Douglas._ + +He found Charleton grooming Democrat. "Charleton," he said, "you made a +lot of trouble for Jude last night." + +"What happened?" asked Charleton. + +Douglas told him. + +"That was a rotten trick!" exclaimed Charleton. "I just thought he'd lick +her. John's got a mean temper." + +"I want to work for you a while, Charleton. I'm sick of the rows at +home." + +"John willing?" + +"I haven't asked him." + +Charleton grinned. "I need a rider, sure. You finish currying Democrat +while I go in and talk to the missis. Little Marion's visiting at Lone +Bend. Maybe my wife will think it's too much cooking for two men." +But he came back in a little while, smiling cheerfully. "Come on in to +breakfast. It's all right." + +So Douglas settled to riding for Charleton Falkner. His father did not +come after him, and when the two met on the Black Gorge trail a day or so +after Doug's departure, John returned Douglas' muttered greeting with a +silent, ugly stare. There was comment and conjecture in Lost Chief, but +the fall round-up was coming and this soon engrossed the attention of the +community. Of Scott, Douglas saw nothing. + +The fall slipped into winter, which in Lost Chief country begins in +September, and Christmas passed with none of the Spencers at the +schoolhouse party excepting Judith, who attended with Scott. February +slipped into March and Douglas' eighteenth birthday passed unnoticed. +The snows were too deep to allow Charleton to undertake any of those +mysterious missions for which he was so much admired, and Elijah Nelson +was allowed to flourish unmolested. It was reported that the Mormon had +accused Lost Chief of running some of his cattle, but he evidently had no +desire to start a controversy with the valley. And Douglas came more and +more under Charleton's influence. + +Peter Knight, watching the boy more closely than Doug at all realized, +was deeply troubled by what he felt might permanently distort Doug's +ideas of life. + +"How are you and Judith making it, Doug?" Peter asked him one Sunday +afternoon early in April, when he and the young rider were sunning +themselves in the post-office door. + +"You know Judith hasn't spoken to me since last August," replied Doug +impatiently. + +"Too bad!" grunted Peter. + +"O, I don't know," replied Douglas. "I don't see much to this marriage +game anyhow. Look at the couples round here and point me out any of 'em +that's been married over five years that're really in love. Just a +houseful of brats and a woman to nag you." + +"Dry up, Doug! You are just quoting Charleton Falkner. I've heard plenty +of his empty ideas in the last twenty years. You've worked for him long +enough, anyhow. Better go back to your home; or if you're through with +Jude, take my offer and go East to school." + +"Forget it, Peter! As soon as Fire Mesa opens up, I'm going after wild +horses with Charleton. And you can roast him all you want to, but he +knows life." + +"Knows your foot!" snorted Peter. "If anybody could catch Charleton with +his skin off, we'd find he gets happiness and sorrow out of the same +things the rest of us do. He's just a big bluff, Charleton is." + +"He's lived too much to let anything get him," said Douglas stoutly. + +Peter laughed. "Nobody can accuse you of having lived too much, Douglas." +Then he added soberly, "You're disappointing me a lot, Douglas. I never +thought you'd let go of Jude." + +"Jude let go of me," replied Douglas. "I suppose she thought I'd come +running back to her, but she's mistaken. I'm through with women." + +"Don't talk like an idiot, Doug," said Peter, after a long careful look +at Douglas' face. "I know you. You are breaking your heart this minute +for Judith. And she misses you a whole lot more than she'll admit." + +"How do you know? Have you talked to her?" asked Douglas quickly. "How +are things going up there?" + +"Yes, I've talked to her. She's all right, but she's getting too many of +Inez' ideas in her head. She says John doesn't say ten words a day. You'd +better go back, Doug." + +"Go back! With Jude believing I double-crossed her and nothing but rows +going all the time? I'll admit I'm unhappy, but at least it's peaceful at +Charleton's. He and his wife don't fight. I tell you that if home's just +a place to fight in, I don't want a home." + +"What do you want, Douglas?" asked Peter. + +"I don't know," muttered the young rider. + +"I know," said Peter softly. "You want a guiding star, you want something +that's not to be found in this valley, an ideal fine enough to save your +soul alive. You come of stock that lived and died by a spiritual idea, +Doug, and you are going to be unhappy till you find one." + +Douglas turned this over in his mind soberly for a few minutes. "Have you +got one, Peter?" he finally asked, wistfully. + +"No! I might have had if your mother had lived. She was an idealist if +ever there was one. Work yourself out a plan, Doug, that is based on +something fine, then fight to put it over. That's the only way you'll +ever be contented." + +"What I want," cried Douglas, "is something to take away this emptiness +inside of me." + +"Exactly! And I'm telling you how. And the reason I know is because I +started out in life with the idea that women and the day's work were +enough. Maybe they are for a man like your father, though I doubt it. +But a man like you or me isn't built for promiscuity either in love or in +work. We are the kind that have to choose a fine, straight line and then +hew to it, keep our faith in it, never leave it." + +He paused for so long a time that Douglas stirred uneasily, then said, +"How did you learn different, Peter?" + +"By doing all the things that impulse and youth suggested, regardless of +any suggestions or advice, and arriving at middle life with my mind and +heart as empty as yours. Don't do it, Doug. It makes tragedy of old age." + +Douglas rose slowly. "I don't see what in the world I can do with +myself," he said heavily, and he rode back to Charleton's ranch. + +Books had perhaps been Douglas' greatest solace that long winter. +Charleton had a good many, mostly representing his young delvings +into the realms of agnosticism. His later purchases simmered down to +a few volumes of poetry. There were several of Shakespeare's plays +around the cabin and these Douglas read again and again. He did not see +much of Little Marion, who was a great gad-about, and who, when she was +at home, was monopolized by Jimmy Day. Mrs. Falkner he found immensely +companionable. She had a half-caustic wit which he enjoyed, but he liked +best to have her argue with Charleton on what she called his dog-eat-dog +theory of life. + +He had reason, not long after his conversation with Peter, to recall the +postmaster's comments on Charleton. Very early one morning Charleton +roused him and told him to ride like forty furies after Grandma Brown. + +Douglas obeyed him literally and arrived at the Brown ranch with the +Moose in a sweating lather. When he banged on the door, Grandma, +clutching her nightdress at the throat, put her head out. + +"The baby, I suppose!" she snapped. "Is Little Marion there?" + +"Yes!" + +"Well, let me dress." + +"Hurry, please, Grandma! Charleton seemed awful scared." + +"Charleton! Huh! I'm going to get my proper clothes on and drink my +coffee, no matter how Charleton Falkner worries. He always was a baby. +You go saddle Abe." + +Abe was saddled and the Moose was breathing normally before Grandma +appeared, plump and calm. Nor would she allow Abe to be hurried out of +his usual gentle trot. + +"Douglas, when you've seen as many new eyes open and old eyes close as I +have, you'll quit hurrying," she said. "The Almighty generally looks out +for mothers, anyhow." + +So, sedately, in the glory of the sun bursting over the top of the Indian +range, they trotted up to Falkner's cabin. + +Charleton burst out of the door. "Where in the blank-blank have you been? +Hurry, Grandma! I've been nearly crazy!" + +"I'll bet your wife ain't crazy." Grandma dismounted with Doug's help. +"Now, Douglas, you keep this lunatic outside, no matter what he says or +does. It's just the way he acted when Little Marion came." She stamped +into the house and closed the door. + +"Let's go do the chores!" suggested Douglas. + +"Chores! Chores! Don't you know that--" + +"Yes, I know all about it," interrupted Doug. "Come on and get the +milking done. Are you afraid your wife will die, Charleton, or what?" + +"Or what!" gasped Charleton. "You poor, half-baked idiot!" + +For an hour, Douglas sweated with Charleton. Then, as they rested for a +time on the corral gate, the kitchen door opened and Grandma's head +appeared. + +"You go, Doug," said Charleton feebly. + +But Grandma did not wait. "It's a boy, Charleton!" she shrieked. "A fine, +big boy!" And she closed the door. + +Charleton sat perfectly still on the fence. His lips moved but for +several seconds no sound came forth. Then he said, "Charleton Falkner, +Jr.! Charleton Falkner, Jr.! All my life I've been waiting for this +moment!" Tears were on his cheeks. "Doug, you go up and ask 'em how my +wife is and give her my love." + +Douglas stared at his mentor, wonderingly, unwound his long legs from the +fence and crossed the yard. Grandma answered his timid rap. + +"Charleton says how's his wife and sends his love." + +"O, he does!" witheringly. "Why don't he go over to the post-office and +telephone us? You tell him she did fine like she always does everything. +You folks go up and get Peter to give you some breakfast." + +"I'm not going near Peter till I see the boy and my wife!" called +Charleton. + +Grandma slammed the door. + +"I wouldn't go near the post-office," said Douglas, established again on +the fence beside Charleton. + +"Why not?" + +"If--if I felt like you do, I'd want to stay by myself, just take a ride +alone up to the top of Fire Mesa." + +"I don't care what I do as long as the boy's here. Charleton Falkner, +Jr.! I'll tell you, Doug, you'll never know what happiness life can hold +for you till a woman like Marion gives you a son." + +"Say!" cried Douglas in an outraged voice. "What's all this talk you've +been giving me for a year about whiskey and women and horses?" + +Charleton did not hear him. "Charleton Falkner, Jr.!" he was murmuring +over an unlighted cigarette. + +It seemed a very long time before they were admitted to the baby and +breakfast. Douglas was entirely unimpressed by the squirming red morsel +of humanity that Little Marion proudly brought into the kitchen for their +inspection. But Charleton was maudlin with admiration. It was, it seemed, +easily the first child ever born in Lost Chief, not excepting Little +Marion who had been a wonderful baby herself. + +Douglas listened, eating his breakfast grimly the while, filled with an +embarrassed consternation at last beholding his mentor with, as Peter had +said, his outer skin off. + +This, then, was what Charleton really wanted; not whiskey, or promiscuous +women, or wild horses, or Omar Khayham. What he wanted was a son, bone +of his bone, flesh of his flesh, to carry on his name. And yet what had +Charleton ever done to that name except to besmirch it? For Douglas now +in his heart had no illusions about the proper nomenclature for his +mentor's mysterious little deals. + +"Charleton," he demanded suddenly, "do you want the kid to grow up to be +just like you?" + +Charleton looked at Douglas in astonishment. "Like me? Listen, Doug, +old-timer, I'm going to spend the rest of my life licking out of him +anything I see in him like me!" + +Douglas gave up in despair and went out to finish the chores. + +It was a disjointed day, of course. In the afternoon Charleton went to a +choice gathering of spirits at the post-office; and Douglas, feeling +particularly lonely and unsettled, rode up the south trail after three of +Charleton's young mules which had strayed. He felt somehow that, with the +dereliction of Charleton, the last hold he had on reality had gone. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE POST-OFFICE CONFERENCE + +"Ride with your finger on the trigger--but smile before you shoot." + +--_Sheriff Frank Day_. + + +Douglas had no luck at all on his mule hunt. And as if to add to his +discomfort, while climbing down the trail from the cemetery, he saw +Judith on Buster, accompanied by the leaping Wolf Cub, overtake Scott +Parsons and saw them race toward the post-office. Twilight came on, with +the mud of the trail stiffening in the frosty air. An overpowering sense +of loneliness urged Douglas across the valley and brought him to pause +beside the Rodman corral. He dismounted at the buck fence and stood for a +moment in the shadow of the Moose, wondering why he had stopped here. He +had stood thus but a few moments when two riders came up the trail. They +trotted into the door-yard. + +"I don't think I want to dance, after all, Scott," said Judith's voice. + +"What harm is there in it?" demanded Scott. + +"I make it a point never to go in here except when Inez is alone." + +"I suppose you're afraid to meet Doug!" exclaimed Scott. "He's here half +the time." + +Douglas leaped over the fence, rushed to Scott's side and struck him +twice. + +"That's a lie! Get down and fight with your fists, you thief and +murderer!" Doug's voice was low with passion. + +There was a quick movement of Scott's right hand to his hip and Douglas +felt a stinging pain in his left shoulder. Simultaneously with the shot, +Scott put the spurs to Ginger, and Doug reeled as the mare's shoulder +thrust against him. Judith jumped from Buster. + +"Doug, did he get you?" + +Douglas had not fallen. He pushed the girl aside and ran to the plunging +Moose. Inez Rodman called from the door. + +"Who's shooting?" + +Still without speaking, Douglas threw himself on his horse and was off +after the dim figure that raced down the west trail which led to the +Pass. He did not heed Judith's call nor the quick patter of hoofs behind +him. On and on through the frosty April night, Prince barking joyfully +before, the Moose galloping at top speed, the stars sliding overhead. On +past the Browns' noisy corral, past Falkner's brightly lighted cabin, and +up the lifting trail to the Pass. The broken black line of the Pass, +usually so clean-cut against the stars, looked wavering and uncertain. +Douglas dropped forward and put his arms about the neck of the Moose. + +Once in a while a horse is born with as much acumen as a mule plus the +sensibility of a dog. The Moose, when he felt Doug's arms about his neck, +dropped from a gallop to a trot and from a trot to a walk. Shortly, when +Judith called, "Whoa-up, Moose!" he stopped and stood nickering uneasily. +Judith dismounted and pulled the reins over Buster's head. Then she ran +up to put her hand on Doug's knee. + +"Doug! Doug! Where did he get you?" + +"Don't hold me back, Jude!" said Douglas thickly. "Tie me onto the Moose +and leave me after him. I'm going to finish him, now." + +"You can't catch him. You're hurt too bad. Let me take you home, Doug." + +There was no reply for a moment. The Moose moved his head uneasily up and +down. Then, breathing heavily and brokenly, Douglas said, "Not--while +you--think I told--Charleton." + +That was the last he knew for some time. When he returned to +consciousness, Peter and Judith were half dragging him, half lifting +him into the post-office. + +"I don't care what you want, Jude," Peter was saying, "you aren't going +to drag him another hour over the trail. We'll get him onto my bed and +see how bad off he is." + +"My shoulder!" grunted Douglas. + +"All right, Doug! Now, Judith, one more heave onto the bed. Get off +there, Sister. Jude, pass me that bottle of whiskey, then go lock the +outside door so's no one can bother till I've finished. Then come back +here." + +Judith, her eyes wide and brilliant, her cheeks feverish, obeyed without +a word. She drew off Doug's short leather rider's coat and cut off his +blood-saturated shirt and undershirt. Douglas watched her with beads of +sweat on his lips. Peter in the meantime had thrust his late supper back +from the front of the stove and had put a couple of disreputable looking +towels to boil in the dishpan. When Judith had finished and Doug's +beautiful thin torso lay white against the dingy Indian blanket, Peter +scoured his hands and examined the hole in the shoulder from which the +blood pulsed slowly. + +"It's gone clean through from front to back," said Peter cheerfully. +"Guess I can fix him. Eight years in the regular service is useful +sometimes. Come here and hold him, Jude. I'm going to clean this hole +with peroxide and he'll try to climb the wall." + +"No, I won't! Go to it!" whispered Douglas. + +Nor did he, for as Peter, with a piece of stove-pipe wire he had boiled +as a probe, began his very thorough process of sterilization, Douglas +quietly fainted. When he came to his senses, his shoulder was bandaged +and Judith was pulling an old shirt of Peter's over his head. + +"Now, Judith, make a fresh pot of coffee and drink some of it," said +Peter. "You are as white as a sheet. How are you, Doug, my boy?" + +"Fine! Peter, you get me drunk. I'm going after Scott to-night." + +"Let's have the story." Peter's lips were grim, "You begin, Judith." + +Judith set the coffee-pot on the red-hot stove and perched on the edge +of the bed. She was wearing a middy blouse of dull blue. It was small for +her and showed her fine shoulder and full-muscled throat and chest. She +drew a deep breath and began at once. + +"I was riding past Inez' place with Scott. He teased me to go in for a +dance. When I wouldn't go, he asked me if I was sore at Inez because +Douglas spent half his time there with her. Doug must have been behind +his horse. He came out like a crazy man, called Scott a liar and told him +to come down and fight, and hit him. Scott drew on him and shot him. Then +he rode away like mad, and Doug after him. I followed and caught Doug +part way up the Pass and brought him here." + +Judith paused and Peter turned to Douglas. "All correct, Doug?" + +But the young rider was staring at Judith. "Did you believe Scott, +Judith?" he demanded. + +"How do I know what you've been up to? You were there to-night." + +"I hadn't seen Inez. I haven't been near her place since I made you a +promise, once. I went over to-night because I was discouraged. I'd made +up my mind that there wasn't anything real about anybody. Even Charleton +isn't real. Now, Peter, you give me a quart of whiskey and help me onto +the Moose. I'll--" + +"You'll calm down, that's what you'll do," said Judith succinctly. "Won't +he, Peter? When Scott finds he hasn't killed you, he'll be back and then +you can settle with him. Peter, you telephone my mother I'm going to stay +down here for a while and take care of Doug." + +Peter hesitated. "I don't need you, Jude, though of course, it'll be +pleasant to have you here." + +"It's just as well you feel that way," said Judith, "because I intend to +stay, anyhow." + +Douglas blinked round eyed at Judith, then smiled seraphically and +closed his eyes. He was asleep before Peter had succeeded in getting +Mrs. Spencer on the telephone. All Lost Chief was on a party line and he +carried on his conversation not without difficulty. Judith sat listening +with a broad grin of appreciation. + +"Hello, Mary. This is Peter Knight. Doug had an accident and I have +him here with me--O, Inez telephoned you. Well, Judith overtook him +and brought him here. He's in no particular danger--That you, Grandma? +How's Marion?--No, it was Scott drew on Doug.--Wait a minute till I +finish with his mother.--Listen, Mary! Don't get excited--You keep +quiet, Inez.--Everybody butt out! Now, listen, you folks, if you've got +to, but don't interrupt!--Scott said something that riled Doug and Doug +hit him. Scott drew and got Doug through the left shoulder, bad, but +clean, and I've got the wound dressed.--Say, if you women don't keep +quiet, I'll sure-gawd hang up. O, hello, Charleton! Yes, Scott made a +clean get-away.--Now, listen, Mary. I'm going to keep Judith here +to-night to help me and you can come down to-morrow.--Yes, that you, +John? Well, you come along now, but not Mary. She's too weepy.--What's +that you say, Inez? The sheriff and Jimmy gone out after Scott? When did +they start--Hello, Mrs. Day. Half an hour ago? That's good. Now, listen, +John. You stop by here before you go crazy. Understand me? All right! +Good-night, everybody!" + +He turned from the telephone with a wry smile. "John's coming down." + +"He's been worse than a wolverine since Doug left," said Judith. + +"How do you and he get along?" asked Peter, sitting down to his belated +supper. + +"O, I patch along for Mother's sake. But it's no way to live! I don't see +what Dad gets out of his own ugliness." + +"You'd probably find out, if he'd tell you the truth, that John doesn't +consider himself ugly-tempered. He'd admit he was firm and misunderstood +and unappreciated." Peter smiled grimly. + +Judith laughed. "Well, thank heaven John doesn't belong to me, and I +don't belong to him!" She sipped a cup of coffee slowly, her eyes on +Douglas in his uneasy sleep. + +He was still asleep when John came in. He nodded to Peter then strode +over to the bed, where he stood for a moment scowling down at his son, +his lower lip caught between his teeth. Douglas opened his eyes. + +"Douglas," said John hoarsely, "before I go out after Scott, tell me all +is straight between you and me. Judith made up, long ago." + +"That's a whopper!" exclaimed Judith. "I'll never forgive you as long as +I live! I'm just sticking round for Mother's sake. My mother that once +could ride an unbroken mule. When I think of that--" She paused as Peter +laid a hand on her arm. + +"It's not a matter of making up," said Douglas. "It wasn't a thing you +could make up. It was just one more fact to knock a fellow's faith in +life's being a straight deal." + +John did not answer for a moment, but something very like a blush rolled +over his tanned face. For the first time in his life, perhaps, he felt +that he had done something shameful. But he made no admission. + +"You'll come home and let us nurse you, Doug?" he asked when the blush +had gone. + +"I guess I'd better stay with Peter. I never want to come home while +Judith believes I squealed to Charleton." + +"Jude doesn't believe anything of the kind. She's just a flighty, fool +girl." + +"Thanks, dear Father!" sniffed Judith. + +John did not glance at the girl. He was watching Douglas eagerly. "I +thought it was me that kept you away from home. I can make Jude apologize +as soon as I get Scott back here. If I clear that up, then will you come +home, old boy?" + +"Yes, I guess so. But that won't keep me from settling with Scott for +to-night." + +"Sure! But you get well, Dougie!" John turned from the bed with the look +of sullenness wiped as by magic from his face. + +Douglas stared at Judith. His mind was confused but he realized that the +loneliness and despondency of the day was gone. He was blindly angry with +Scott yet grateful to the event which had brought Judith to his aid. + +John held a low-voiced colloquy with Peter as to the nature of Douglas' +wound; then with a cheerful goodnight, he went out. Douglas closed his +eyes. + +"You fix yourself up a bed on the floor, Judith," said Peter. "I'll keep +the fire going and an eye on Douglas. To-morrow you can take your turn." + +Judith answered pleadingly, "I'm not tired or sleepy, Peter. And I almost +never get a chance to talk alone with you. Let me sit up with you!" + +Peter's long, harsh face softened. "All right, Jude! We'll keep the old +coffee-pot going and make a night of it. Then--" + +He was interrupted by the sound of wordy altercation among the dogs +outside. Judith cocked a knowing ear. "Wolf Cub's in trouble! I'd better +let him in, Peter. He and Sister will snarl and quarrel all night. They +get along about like Dad and I do." + +"It'll break Sister's heart, but go ahead. I always tell her, guests +first," said Peter. + +Judith opened the door a crack and whistled. There was a rush outside of +many paws, and Wolf Cub's long gray muzzle appeared in the narrow +orifice. There was a scramble, a yip from Wolf Cub, and he was inside, +licking Judith's hand and trying to climb into Peter's lap at the same +time. He was two-thirds grown now and as big as a day-old calf. Judith +gazed at him with utter pride. "Isn't he a lamb, Peter? Now, you get +over in the corner, Wolf, and don't let me hear a sound from you +to-night!" + +The great puppy looked up into her face with ears cocked, then turned +slowly and crept into the corner indicated and with a groan lay down. +Peter jerked his head in admiration. + +"You are some person, Jude! Keep boiling water going. I'm going to wash +that wound of Doug's every hour. This cattle country is the devil for +infection." + +"Oughtn't we to take him up to Mountain City?" asked Jude, in sudden +anxiety. "We could get Young Jeff's auto." + +"At the first sign of trouble, I will," replied Peter. "But I think I've +had more experience with gunshot wounds than Doc Winston's had." + +There was a renewed sound of scratching and whining at the door. Douglas +opened his eyes. "Better let Prince in long enough to see that I'm all +right," he said. + +Peter groaned. "Another insult to Sister! However, if he and the pup +won't fight--" + +"I'll answer for Wolf Cub." Judith tossed a warning glance at the corner +where gray ears were twitching restlessly. + +Peter opened the door carefully. Sister and Prince stormed in. There was +a mix-up, during which the pup did not stir from his corner and Sister +was shoved out the door, snapping at Prince as she went. Prince wagged +his tail at Judith and Peter, then put his forepaws on the bed and gazed +anxiously at Douglas. He sniffed at the wounded shoulder, wriggled and +gave a short, sharp bark. + +Doug opened his eyes. "It's all right, Prince." + +Prince licked Doug's cheek. + +"So that's understood," said Peter, taking Prince by the collar, "and you +can just step out and talk it over with gentle little Sister." + +Douglas closed his eyes again. Judith sat down on the floor, her back +against the bed. Peter lighted his pipe and put a fresh panful of towels +on to boil, before settling himself in his homemade armchair. + +"I understand Scott gave you a little blue roan that's a real bucker," he +said. + +"He didn't give him to me. It was pay for some work I did for him." + +"Uhuh! What do you aim to do with him?" + +"Keep him unbroke for the Fourth of July rodeo. And, Peter, I'm going to +enter my Sioux bull for some stunts." + +"Dangerous work, I'd say. What kind of stunts?" + +The young girl chuckled. "You wait and see! That Sioux weighs a good two +thousand pounds and he thinks he's a bear cub!" + +"Bear cub! I don't know what John Spencer's thinking of!" grunted Peter. + +"John doesn't think. He just feels," said Judith. There was a short +silence which the girl broke by saying, "Peter, were you ever in love?" + +The postmaster took his pipe from his mouth, stared at Judith's earnest +eyes, put the pipe back and replied, "Yes." + +"How many times?" + +"How many times? Can you really be in love more than once, Judith?" + +"Now, what's the use of saying that to me, Peter? I'm not a baby!" + +"In many ways you are," returned Peter, serenely. "Why this interest in +love? What's his name?" + +"I'm not sure it's any one. But of course I think a lot about it. You +aren't laughing, are you, Peter?" + +"God forbid! I feel much more like crying." + +Judith smiled up at him, doubtfully. + +"Crying?" + +"Yes; you are so young, Jude. I hate to think of your dreams going by +you." + +"Well, I'm not such a kid as you think I am. I'll bet I know all there is +to know about love." + +"My God, Judith, you don't even know the real thing when it's offered +you. All you know is the rot you've seen all your life. Love!" Peter +snorted derisively. + +Judith gave a little shiver of excitement. "Well, if you know so much +about love, Peter, what is it?" + +"I don't know what it is, except that all of it, every aspect of it, +understand, is bred right here." He tapped his forehead. "It begins in +the brain, not in the body. Love is not lust, Judith." + +Judith scowled thoughtfully. Peter let the thought soak in; then he said, +"And when real love comes, it takes possession of your mind and turns it +into heaven and hell." + +"Is that the way it came to you, Peter?" + +"Yes!" + +"How many times?" + +"Twice. And I wouldn't want to endure it again." + +"There's a poem like that," said Judith, somewhat blushingly, "Do you +mind poetry? I read lots of it." + +"One should at sixteen," returned the postmaster. "No, I don't mind +poetry. What were you thinking of?" + +Judith, still blushing, gave a cautious glance at the bed and began: + +"He who for love hath undergone + The worst that can befall, +Is happier thousandfold than he + Who never loved at all. + +A grace within his soul hath reigned + Which nothing else can bring. +Thank God for all that I have gained + By that high suffering!" + +Peter, watching Judith with something deeply sad in his blue eyes, nodded +when she had finished. "Youth!" he muttered. "Youth!" + +"Do you believe it, Peter?" demanded Judith. + +"Yes, I do. Girl, how much high suffering will you get out of your goings +on with Scott?" + +"None at all, Peter." + +"I wish I were twenty years younger," said Peter. + +"If you were twenty years younger you wouldn't be as wise as you are +now." + +"And what happiness has wisdom brought me?" exclaimed Peter. + +"It must be mighty fine to really know things," said Judith. + +"What kind of things?" + +"O, love and all that kind of thing." + +"I'd like a drink of water, please!" Douglas opened his eyes. + +"Have you been listening, Douglas?" demanded Judith. + +"I don't think I missed any of it," Doug smiled. "You're growing up, +Jude." + +Judith tossed her head. "I think it was rotten of you to listen to my +conversation with another man!" And although she and Peter talked in a +desultory way until dawn, the vasty subject of love was not mentioned +again. + +About ten o'clock the next morning Charleton Falkner came to see Douglas. +He hardly had established himself when the thunder of many hoofs sounded +without, a wrangling of dogs began, and John Spencer thrust open the door +to Peter's living quarters. He was spattered with mud from head to foot. +So was Scott Parsons, who followed him, as well as Sheriff Frank Day +and Jimmy Day, who brought up the procession. + +Judith, who had been washing dishes, hastily dumped the dish-water out of +the window. Charleton, with his familiar, sardonic grin, propped Douglas +up on a pillow. + +"What're you bringing him in here for, John?" demanded Peter harshly. +"Doug's in no state for a row." + +"I don't know why not!" exclaimed Douglas coolly. "I don't have to talk +or listen with my shoulder. Where'd you pick him up, Dad?" + +"Never mind that!" replied John impatiently. "He's here. What do you want +done with him, Doug?" + +All eyes focused on Scott. In mud-spattered chaps and leather coat, his +sombrero on the back of his head, a cigarette hanging from his hard, +handsome mouth, Scott leaned easily against the table, eying Judith. +Douglas looked from Scott to Judith and from Judith out of the window +where beyond the yellow green of rabbit bush that carpeted the valley +there lay the green shadow of the Forest Reserve. After a moment's +thought he said: + +"What made you draw on me like that, Scott?" + +"I thought you'd pulled your gun." + +"I punched you right and left. You knew I hadn't pulled a gun. As far as +I'm concerned, you're too free and easy with that six-shooter of yours." + +"Me, too," agreed the sheriff, scratching Prince's ear. + +"He's the gun pullingest guy in the Rockies," volunteered Jimmy. + +"All I want to say," Doug announced, "is that when I get use of my +shooting arm again, I'm going to pot Scott on sight." + +Peter looked at Douglas' tanned face beneath the tumbled golden hair. + +"Let's sit down," said Peter, "and go over this thing carefully. Scott's +leading with the wrong foot in this valley, but I don't know as shooting +him on sight is the answer." + +Scott and Jimmy perched on the table, John and Judith on the foot of the +bed. The others found chairs. Doug stared at Peter, at first with +resentment, then with an air of curiosity. + +"Don't you try any soft stuff, Peter!" protested John. "Scott's worn his +welcome out in Lost Chief and that's all there is to it." + +"My folks came here a year before yours did, John," retorted Scott. "I've +got as good a right in this valley as anybody." + +"Nobody that makes a nuisance of himself has got any rights in this +valley," asserted Douglas. "I suppose you think because your grandfather +killed Indians here you've got a right to shoot white men. Well, sir, +I'm going to teach you different." + +"Pot-shooting at him isn't going to teach him anything except perhaps +what is over the Great Divide, Doug," said Peter dryly. + +Scott laughed sardonically. + +"The law has got something to say in this case," announced the sheriff, +lighting a small black pipe. + +"No, it hasn't," exclaimed Douglas; "not if I don't want it to." + +"You aren't the whole of Lost Chief, Doug," said Charleton. "I've got a +small grudge to settle with Scott, myself." + +"And I've got several," added John. + +"Enjoy yourself, folks," suggested Scott, winking openly at Judith over +the cigarette he was lighting. + +This infuriated John. "Jude, you clear out! Scott, you blank-blank--" + +Douglas flung up a protesting hand. "O, cut that, Dad! Judith, you stay +right where you are. You're at the bottom of this whole trouble and I +want you to see and hear it." + +"Draw it mild, Douglas!" protested the postmaster. + +"Don't bother about me," said Jude. "I sure-gawd can take care of +myself." + +"What happens next?" inquired Jimmy Day. + +Nobody spoke for a moment; then very deliberately, Peter turned to the +sheriff. + +"You remember Doug's mother, don't you, Frank? I can't help thinking how +much he looks like her, to-day, although he's the image of John." + +"Remember her! I tried for five years to get her to marry me. But her old +dad wouldn't stand for it." + +"You mean she couldn't see you because of me, Frank!" exclaimed John, a +sudden light in his handsome eyes. + +Douglas again favored the postmaster with a contemplative stare. + +"Some old wolf, her dad, I've heard," Peter went on. + +"He was," agreed the sheriff. "He ran the valley and he ran it right. +Every Fourth of July he made a speech about making Lost Chief the +Plymouth Rock of the West." + +Charleton Falkner roared. "I remember those speeches!" + +Peter was grinning. "But in spite of them, from what I've heard I believe +he came mighty near being a great man, old Bill Douglas." + +"What did he lack?" demanded Douglas suddenly. + +"Religion!" answered Peter, promptly. + +"Religion? What's that?" asked John with a guffaw. "You never had any, +Peter." + +"Right!" agreed Peter. "Worse luck for me that I didn't have that kind of +a mind. But I know any kind of a social idea fails without it. And I know +if old Bill Douglas had built a church up there beside the schoolhouse, +the chances are that Scott wouldn't have plugged Douglas last night. And +mind, I don't believe in God, or the hereafter, or any of the dope they +drug you with." + +"What the hell are you driving at, Peter?" demanded Charleton. + +"Say," shouted John, "is this a trial or a sermon?" + +"It's neither," replied Peter. "We're just talking things over. My idea +is that Doug shall sort of sit in judgment on Scott and the rest of us +abide by his decision." + +"Now, listen here!" exclaimed Scott. "This may be a funny joke, but I +don't see it!" + +Charleton laughed. "I'm with you, Peter. Only that won't pay my grudge." + +John laughed too, with a little glance of pride toward his son's set, +white face. "I'm on! Make it include his leaving Jude alone." + +"Aw, you folks act plumb loco!" snarled Scott. + +"Wait and see! Wait and see!" protested Peter. "And while Doug thinks it +over, let me add something to what we were saying about old Bill Douglas. +He used to act as a kind of unofficial judge in the valley?" + +The others nodded. + +"Did he ever," Peter went on, "make an important decision that he didn't +try to look to the good and the future of Lost Chief? At least, I +gathered that from the things Doug's mother used to tell me about the old +man's pipe dreams." + +John spoke soberly. "He was a just man. They don't make 'em that way any +more." + +"He was more than just," insisted Peter. "He was forward looking. But he +led with the wrong foot. He laughed at the church." + +"Sure he did," agreed Charleton. "Why not? Remember old Fowler? A fine +sample of the church!" + +Peter rose and paced the floor a minute. "Let me tell you folks +something. I laugh at the cant they've wrapped the church up in. But +I don't laugh at the system of ethics Christ taught. I'm here to tell +you folks, He put out the finest, most workable system of ethics the +world has ever known. And folks can't live together without a system +of ethics." + +"It's a wonder you don't subscribe to 'em, Peter," jibed Charleton. + +"It's too late. But that don't say that I don't realize clearly that I've +failed in life because of it. What do you say to that, Charleton?" + +Charleton's lips twisted. + +"Why all the Saints and Sages who discuss'd +Of the two Worlds so wisely--they are thrust +Like foolish Prophets forth: their Words to Scorn +Are scattered and their mouths are stopt with Dust." + +John laughed. Peter shrugged his shoulders and said, "Suit yourselves. As +for me I believe everybody is destined sooner or later to deal squarely +with right and wrong. Sooner or later every community has to wrestle +with the question of social ethics, or fail. Fate has written it of Lost +Chief. You'll see." + +"I'm with you there." Frank Day spoke soberly. "I believe in fate. You +can't ride these hills and not. It's all written beforehand." + +Douglas cleared his throat. "I've got an idea," hesitatingly. "I've been +thinking for a long time that somebody in Lost Chief that has a homestead +right ought to homestead that shoulder of Lost Chief mountain that cuts +off Elijah Nelson from our valley. If we don't, he will. I can't do it +because I'm not of age. But Scott can, and he can find plenty of work for +that six-shooter of his, worrying the Mormons and keeping 'em out of Lost +Trail. I'll agree to let Scott alone if he'll let me alone and undertake +that job." + +There was silence, Scott staring at Douglas with a mixture of contempt, +belligerency and surprise in his face. + +"But," protested John, "that's no punishment, and it don't say a thing +about Judith!" + +Douglas shifted his feet impatiently. "I'm not going to punish any guy +for running after Jude. That's a fair fight. What I'm sore about is his +lying about me and shooting at me when I wasn't armed." + +"I'd planned," said Scott gruffly, "to try to buy back our old place from +the Browns. They've got more than they can carry and I'm sure getting +nowhere renting that piece from Charleton." + +"And," suggested Charleton with a grin, "if you encourage those broncos +of yours, they each might have three or four slicks every spring, and if +you keep up practice with the blacksnake on the old milch cow--" + +"Dry up, Charleton!" exclaimed Peter. "What do you think of the idea, +Frank?" + +"It ain't bad," answered the sheriff slowly, "though I ain't afraid of +the Mormons coming in." + +"That's where you are wrong," said Charleton. "They are going to get Lost +Chief Valley by any straight or crooked method they can think up. With +an ornery devil like Scott to climb over, they won't try to come in that +entrance, that's sure." + +"How about it, Scott?" asked the sheriff. + +"I'd just as soon, and I'd just as soon say that I sure went crazy when +Doug gave me those two good ones and I did what I wouldn't have done if +I'd taken time to think." + +"Well," grinned Douglas, "nobody is going to kick if you don't take time +to think over in the Mormon valley." + +Sheriff Day rose with a laugh. "I've got to get to the alfalfa field I'm +plowing. Come on, Jimmy." + +Jimmy rose to his good six feet of height and pulled on his gloves. "I +feel like I'd been praying," he said. "That is, if I'd ever heard a +prayer, I'd say so." He made a face at Judith and followed his father. + +John Spencer looked from Douglas to Peter and from Peter to Charleton +with a little lift of his chin. Then he said, "When are you coming home, +Doug?" + +"Not till Jude believes I didn't tell on her last summer." + +"I'll get the truth out of Scott!" exclaimed John, drawing his +six-shooter. + +"Aw, put it up, John, you feather-brain you," drawled Scott. "I told +Charleton, Jude. He paid me for the information. I never supposed he'd +hold it against a girl." + +Judith turned very red. "Scott Parsons, I hope you go up that Mormon +valley and that they get you, you blank-blank double-crosser you!" + +Scott shrugged his shoulders. Judith glared at each of the men in turn. +"I hate you all, every one of you!" she cried. "What chance has a girl +among you? You're just like a lot of coyotes after a rabbit!" + +"Rabbit! Say lynx-cat, Jude!" laughed John. + +Judith tossed her head and rushed out of the room. The men laughed hugely +as she banged the door. Only Douglas remained sober. + +"Well," said John, "I suppose you'll be home in a day or two, Doug." + +"If Charleton can find some one I will be." + +"I'll give him half time," volunteered Scott. + +"Nothing doing!" replied Charleton. "Nobody gets a second chance to +double-cross me!" + +Scott flushed angrily but shrugged his shoulders. Charleton went on, "Of +course, Charleton, Jr. won't be able to ride for a month or so but Jimmy +Day will help me out in the meantime." + +"Son smoke yet?" asked Peter. + +"No; I have to spend so much time doing jury duty on my neighbors, I +haven't got round to teaching him. He weighs a big ten pounds, the little +devil." + +"Come on, let's get out," said Scott. + +They clanked out, leaving Douglas alone with Peter, and he fell into a +long sleep. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +JUDITH AT THE RODEO + +"If you break the heart of a thoroughbred, she doesn't even make a good +cart horse." + +--_Mary Spencer_. + + +Late in the afternoon, when Douglas awoke, Judith was sitting beside the +bed, chin in palm. Peter was not to be seen. Douglas stared at the young +girl until her gaze lifted from the floor and she smiled at him. + +"Judith," he said, "it's been a long time, hasn't it?" + +Judith nodded. "I've been sitting here thinking how much you've changed. +You were just a boy, last summer. Now you look like a man, lying there." + +"You've changed yourself. Jude, you're going to be very beautiful." + +Judith chuckled. "You and Scott agree on one point, then!" + +"Jude! Honestly, I don't see how you can stand that crook!" + +"He's a woman's man," said Judith shortly. + +"I can't see it!" + +"Don't let's quarrel the first thing, Douglas. How is Little Marion?" + +"Same as usual. Did you know that she is engaged to Jimmy Day?" + +"I knew she ought to be," said Judith bluntly. "They sure make a +good-looking pair! When will they be married?" + +"When Jimmy has got a good start with his herd. Judith, Charleton isn't a +bit like I thought he was." + +"He's an ornery mean devil, if you ask me," said Judith succinctly. "He's +the worst influence that ever came into your life." + +"Did Peter say that?" + +"No; I said it. You are too good to waste on Charleton. What has finally +waked you up about him?" + +"He's always talked to me against marriage and women and children and +everything like that. Said awful hard things about 'em, Jude. He really +got me to the point this winter where I felt as if marriage was wrong. +But do you know, when the boy was born, yesterday morning, he just went +plumb loco. He cried and was sentimental like these young fathers you +read about in books." + +Judith's great eyes widened incredulously. "He was!" She turned this over +in her mind for some time, then shook her head. "I give it up. I can't +understand men at all. I thought I had Charleton's number. I always did +agree with him about marriage." + +Douglas drew a quick breath. If men were difficult to understand, how +much more so were women, particularly of Judith's type! One never got to +the end of them. + +"How do you mean that, Judith?" he asked. + +"I mean I'd rather be dead than married. Just look at the couples we +know, Doug! Just look at 'em!" + +"I'm looking at 'em! What's the trouble?" demanded Doug. + +"They don't love each other any more. That's all!" Judith tossed her head +knowingly. + +"Pshaw! How do you know?" + +"Because I've watched them for years and studied about it. There is +nothing in marriage, Doug. No, sir!" + +"Pshaw! And you were sitting and quoting love poetry to Peter last +night!" + +"Yes, I was! Certainly! I'm not idiot enough to say there's no such thing +as love. But I do know that a few years of marriage kills it. Yes, sir!" + +Douglas eyed her wistfully. She was so vivid. Yes, vivid, that was the +word. Her eyes glowed as if her brain glowed too, and her lips were so +full of meanings, too changing and too subtle for him to read. If only +they could work out this strange enigma of life together! + +"They can't hold out against the years," Judith repeated dreamily. "It's +as if love was too delicate for every-day use. They get over caring." + +"I wonder why?" said Douglas. + +"I think people get sick of each other, Doug! Why, I think a lot more of +you, since you've been away for a few months. And I get tired of my own +mother, bless her dear old heart, and I love her to death. But she's my +mother and I can't stop loving her. But I certainly couldn't stand a man +around the house, year after year. No marriage for me! No, sir!" + +"But what will you do about love?" asked Douglas. + +Judith's burning eyes grew soft. "Cherish it," she answered in a low +voice. "Keep it forever. Never murder it by marriage. It's the most +wonderful thing that comes into human life." + +Douglas smiled sadly. "You talk as if you were a thousand years old, +Judith, on the one hand and like a baby on the other. What will you do, +marry without love? Somehow the children have got to be cared for by +responsible parties." + +"Responsible parties!" Jude was derisive. "Do you call Dad a responsible +party?" + +"He's fed and clothed us." + +"What does that amount to?" said Judith largely. "An orphan asylum would +do that. The kind of parents kids need are the ones that will answer your +questions. I mean the real questions. The ones we don't dare to ask." + +"About life and sex and all those things!" Doug nodded understandingly. +There was silence, then Doug shook his head. "I don't know how things +would go along without marriage. Just you wait until you fall in love and +see how you feel. You'll want to marry just like all the rest of us." + +"Never! I'm with Inez on that!" + +"Inez!" + +"Yes, Inez! She's got more sense about living than all the women in this +valley put together. And she knows life." + +Douglas sighed. "What are some of Inez' ideas about marriage?" + +"Well, she just says it won't do! She says that the children have got to +be taken care of but that it isn't fair to put the curse of marriage on +parents. And she says her way isn't the answer, either, but that anyhow +it's honest, which is a darn sight more than a lot of marriages in Lost +Chief." + +Judith paused to take breath and Douglas asked, "Say, now listen, Jude, +was Inez ever in love?" + +"She says she's in love right now but she won't say who he is." + +"I don't believe she knows what love is! Her ideas aren't worth anything. +I've lost faith in these folks that tell you they know life. They're +exactly like the rest of us under their skins. I'm getting to believe +that we all get happiness in the same way and over mighty few things. +Loving and having children, that's about all." + +"Inez says it's nothing of the kind; that the only way to be happy is to +know what is beautiful when you see it." + +"I suppose that's smart," said Douglas crossly, "but I haven't any idea +what it means." + +"I know what it means; but you never will until you can ride across Fire +Mesa with your heart aching because it's so beautiful." + +"I don't see where in the world you get the idea that I don't see the +beauty in things!" protested Douglas. "I can't gush like a girl and quote +poetry, but this sure is a lovely country to me. And I want my children's +children to have this valley and hold it till the very bones of their +bodies are made out of the dust of Lost Chief. That's how I feel about +these old hills. More than that, I can see how a marriage here in Lost +Chief might be a life-long dream of beauty." + +Judith looked at Douglas with astonishment not unmixed with admiration. +But she returned sturdily to her own line of defense. + +"Doug, do you see any beautiful marriage around here?" + +Douglas stared at her tragically, then answered with a groan: "No, I +don't! But," with new firmness, "that's not saying I don't firmly believe +I couldn't make marriage a lovely thing." + +"Why, do you think you are cleverer than anybody else?" + +"Not clever, but--but--" Douglas paused, powerless to tell Judith of that +something within him that suddenly told him that his fate was to bring to +Lost Chief the thing of the soul it never had had. How or what this was +to be, he did not know. + +After a time, he said softly, "Judith, were you ever in love?" + +Judith returned his look with a curiously impersonal glance. "I'm not +sure," she answered slowly. "Not what Inez calls love, that's sure." + +"Isn't there any other woman in Lost Chief that could give you ideas +except Inez?" asked Douglas impatiently. + +"What woman would you suggest?" Judith waggled one foot airily and tossed +her head. + +"Charleton's wife. She has brain and she's interesting." + +"She's too old. I mean she looks at everything from an old-fashioned +viewpoint. I wouldn't care what her age was if she could just see things +the way they look to a person sixteen or seventeen years old. Now, Inez +is awfully modern." + +"Modern!" snorted Douglas. "Where'd you read that? It sure is a new word +for Inez' kind!" + +Judith flushed angrily but was denied a retort, for Peter suddenly +appeared in the door. + +"What in the world do you children mean by this kind of talk?" he +shouted. "I couldn't help hearing while I was sorting mail. What do you +mean by thinking such thoughts, Judith? Have you the nerve to admit that +you are patterning your ideas on a woman like Inez?" + +"I don't care what she is," replied Judith obstinately. "She's the only +woman in Lost Chief who can talk about anything but babies and cattle +raising. And more than that, and anyhow, I like her." + +Peter took a turn or two up and down the room. + +"I don't object so much to your liking her," he said, "as I do to your +absorbing her cynical ideas." + +"Pshaw, Peter! I don't notice you're displaying a wife and a happy home +for us to copy after!" sniffed Judith. "What I want you old people to +do is to show me by example how practical and true all these fine old +precepts are that you are so free about laying down for us kids. Where's +your happy marriage, Peter?" + +Peter's lips twisted painfully. "My happy marriage is in Limbo, Judith, +with the rest of my dreams. As for being old--why, Jude, I'm still in my +forties." + +"Forty!" gasped Judith. + +"Yes, forty; and if I hadn't been a fool I'd still be facing the most +useful part of my life. Heaven knows, children, I'm not offering myself +or any one else in Lost Chief as an example to you." + +"What do you offer?" asked Jude with an impish smile. + +Again Peter paced the room before coming to pause by Douglas' pillow. + +"You both heard what I said this morning about the lack of a church in +Lost Chief. That's what you children need for a pattern. Disagree with +his creed as you might, the right kind of a preacher in here could answer +your questions as they should be answered. If the church doesn't form +ideals for young people like you, loose women and loose men will." + +"That might be true, Peter," said Douglas; "but I don't see why you +should expect us to believe the stuff you can't believe yourself." + +Peter winced, then said gruffly, "I don't know as I do. All I know is +that when I was a boy I went to church on Sunday morning with my mother +and that there was an old vicar who would have set me straight on the +things you are talking about, if I'd have let him." + +"Couldn't you believe what he said?" asked Douglas. + +"I never went to him. I preferred my own rotten ideas. I--" He drew +himself up with a sudden expression of disgust. "Faugh! How like a fool +I'm talking!" He stalked out, this time closing the door of the room +behind him. + +"I wonder who Peter really is?" said Judith in a low voice. + +Douglas shook his head. "Dad says he's seen better days. He sure has +suffered a lot over something or other." + +"I wish I knew all about life that he does!" exclaimed Judith. + +"I don't wish either of us did," said Douglas. Then he put out his hand +to touch Judith's knee with infinite tenderness. "Couldn't you manage to +fall in love with me, Jude dear? I'd stay your lover all my life." + +Judith put her hand over Douglas' and her fine eyes were all that was +womanly and soft as she answered, "O my dear, you don't know what you are +talking about. What you promise is impossible." + +"But how do you know, Judith? I am an unchanging sort of a chap. You +realize that, don't you?" + +Judith shook her head. "You don't know what you are promising. You can't +force love to stay, once it has begun to fade." + +"Try me, Judith! Try me, dear!" + +Judith looked at him, lips parted, eyes sad. "Douglas, I'm afraid!" she +whispered. + +And again the sense of loneliness flooded Doug's heart. There was a look +of remoteness in Judith's expression, a look of honest fear that had no +response for the fine assured emotion that had held him captive for so +many years. + +The two were still staring at each other when Peter returned. + +Doug's wound healed quickly and with no complications. He remained +with Peter for a week or so, then returned to his home. Scott Parsons +began preparations at once for carrying out Doug's sentence and for a +time the post-office and the west trail to Inez' place saw him most +infrequently. The excitement over the shooting having abated, Lost Chief +began preparations for the great event of the year, the Fourth of July +rodeo. + +All the world knows the story of a rodeo, knows the beauty and the daring +of both riders and horses, knows the picturesque patois of the sand +corral. But all the world does not know of Judith's performance at this +particular rodeo. + +Mary, lax and helpless enough on most matters concerning her daughter's +conduct, held out on one point. Judith could not enter the Fourth of July +rodeo until she was at least sixteen. But now, at sixteen, Judith asked +permission of no one. She entered the exhibition with Buster and Sioux +and Whoop-la, the bronco Scott had given her. + +The rodeo was held on the plains to the east of the post-office. The +Browns owned the great corral, strongly fenced, and with a smooth sandy +floor bordered by a grandstand weathered and unpainted but still sturdy +enough to withstand the swaying and stamping of the crowd. Neither the +Browns nor any other of the Lost Chief families made money out of the +exhibition. It was a community affair in which was felt an intense +pride. All Lost Chief attended, of course, and people came in automobiles +and in sheep wagons and in the saddle from the ranches for a radius of a +hundred miles. + +Burning heat and cloudless heavens, the high west wind and the nameless +exhilaration and urge of the Rockies at seven thousand feet, this was the +day of the rodeo. The exhibition began at ten in the morning and lasted +all day, with an hour at noon for dinner. + +There was the usual roping and throwing of steers and the usual riding of +bucking broncos by men and women young and old. Douglas rode and rode +well, but he had his peer in Jimmy Day and in Charleton. Judith rapidly +eliminated all the women contestants and then began to vie with the men +in the riding of buckers. By four o'clock as one of the four best riders, +bar none, she was ready to enter the last competition on the program. +This was listed as an original exhibition to be given by each of the four +best riders. Douglas, Jimmy, and Charleton were the other contestants. +Judith entered first. + +She trotted into the sand corral on Buster, leading the blindfolded Sioux +and followed at a short distance by Peter Knight, who was master of +ceremonies for the day. A little murmur went through the grandstand. +Judith's curls were bundled up under a sombrero. She wore a man's silk +shirt with a soft collar. It was of the color of the sky. Her khaki +divided skirt came just below the knee, meeting a pair of high-heeled +riding-boots. Her gauntleted gloves were deep fringed. She rode slowly, +silhouetted against the distant yellow of the plains. Sioux, a russet +red, silken flanks gleaming in the sun, moved his head uneasily, but +followed like a dog on leash. + +Having crossed to the north end of the corral, Judith waited for Peter to +come up on Yankee. Douglas, circling outside the fence uneasily, heard +him say: + +"You are a plumb fool, Judith. Anybody that plays round on foot with a +bull isn't a cowman. It's a life and death matter with a brute like +Sioux, and you know it." + +"You slip his blindfold off when I dismount," she said, and she trotted +back to the south end of the enclosure. Here she dismounted, slipped the +reins over Buster's head and turned to face the bull. Peter jerked the +blindfold from the bull's eyes. The great creature lifted his head and +Peter backed away. Judith spread her arms wide and whistled. Sioux +snorted, pawed the ground, and started on a thundering gallop toward his +mistress. + +There was a startled murmur from the grandstand. Buster snorted and +turned. Without moving, Judith gave a shrill whistle. Buster wheeled and +came back to his first position, where he stood trembling. On came Sioux, +his hoofs rocking the echoes, and with every apparent intention of goring +his mistress. But ten feet from Judith he pulled up with a jerk and with +stiffened fore legs slid to her side, and rubbed his great head against +her shoulder. Judith threw her arm about his neck and hugged him, white +teeth flashed at the grandstand, which rose to its feet and shouted. + +Judith raised her hand for quiet, then leaped to Buster's saddle without +touching the stirrups. She put the uneasy horse to a slow trot and gave a +peculiar soft whistle to Sioux. Obediently he fell in behind the horse, +and Judith gave her audience a unique exhibition of "follow your leader." +Buster trotted, galloped, and backed. Sioux imitated him without protest, +until Judith brought up before the grandstand with both animals kneeling +on their fore legs, noses to the sand. Then Sioux jumped excitedly to his +feet as again applause broke out. Judith took his lead rope now and led +him to the middle of the corral where she blindfolded him and backed to +Peter. Peter strode across the corral carrying a saddle. + +"Once more, Judith," he said, "I ask you not to do this." + +"Saddle him quick, Peter. Then get on Buster and ride him off when I'm +up." + +Peter adjusted the saddle as best he could to the bull's great girth +while Judith rubbed the brute's forehead, talking to him softly. Sioux +stood with head lowered, his red nostrils dilating and contracting +rapidly. But he did not move. When Peter nodded, Judith jerked the +blindfold free and leaped into the saddle. Sioux brought his mighty fore +legs together and leaped into the air. Peter hesitated a fraction of a +minute before putting his foot into Buster's stirrup, and the bull's leap +brought him against the flank of the uneasy horse. Buster reared and +Peter fell, his left foot in the stirrup. The horse started at a gallop, +dragging Peter toward the east gate. + +Sioux, glimpsing from his wild, bloodshot eyes the prostrated figure of +a man, gave a great bellow and charged. Judith brought her quirt down on +the bull's flanks, at the same time whistling shrilly. But Sioux was now +out on his own. He overtook Buster half-way down the corral and thrust a +wicked horn at the wildly kicking Peter. Judith leaped from the saddle +and, running before Sioux, seized his horns and threw herself across his +face. The bull paused. + +At this moment came the full blast of Sister's hunting cry from the west +gate. She crossed the corral like a hunted coyote and buried her fangs in +Sioux's shoulder just as Douglas on the Moose caught Buster's bridle. +Sioux cast Judith off as if she were a rag and gave his full attention to +Sister. Judith picked herself up, rushed to the still plunging Buster and +jerked Peter's foot from the stirrup. She ran to the blindfold lying in +the sand a short distance away, then whistling shrilly above Sioux's +bellowing and Sister's yelping, she again caught one of the bull's horns +in her slender brown hand. Sioux had rubbed Sister free against the fence +and was now charging the dog as she snarled just under his dewlap. + +Again and yet again he flung Judith against his shoulders, but she did +not fall nor lose her grip. Suddenly, so quickly that the grandstand +could not follow the motion, she had wrapped the blindfold over the +burning eyes. As the bull stopped confused and trembling she hobbled his +fore-legs to his head with the bridle-chain. Then she seized Sister's +collar and stood panting, her hair tumbled about her neck. The grandstand +shouted its delight. + +Peter had risen and was wiping the sand from his face. + +"Call Sister, Peter!" cried Judith. "She'll bite me in a minute." + +Peter mounted Yankee, whistled to Sister, and with a rueful grin and +shake of his head for the audience, he trotted from the corral. Judith +loosened the bridle-chain and jumped once more into Sioux's saddle. + +"Pull off his blindfold, Doug!" she cried. + +"Nothing doing," returned Douglas succinctly. "You get off that bull, +Jude, before I take you off." + +"I'm going to ride him up to the grandstand," said Judith between set +teeth. + +She whistled to Sioux and he lunged forward. Doug twisted his lariat. It +coiled round one of the bull's hind legs. Doug brought his horse to its +haunches. + +"You get off that bull, Judith," he said. "You've put up the real show of +the day. Be satisfied before you are killed. Sioux is almost crazy." + +Frank Day, who was one of the judges, now trotted up. "Doug is right, +Jude." + +"There's not a bit of danger," cried Jude, "if you men would do what +you're told to do! Peter had to stop and look instead of hurrying as I +told him." + +Her eyes were full of tears. She dismounted slowly and after freeing +Sioux from Doug's lariat, she led the uneasy bull before the grandstand +and made her bow. Jimmy Day brought her a horse and, mounting, she +trotted out of the corral followed by the now half-crazed Sioux. + +The three men contestants laughingly refused to put on their exhibitions. +There was no hope, they agreed, of competing successfully against Sioux +and Judith; so Judith received the prize, a twenty-dollar gold piece. + +The day ended with this award. It was some time before Douglas and Judith +freed themselves from the crowd. John and Mary, still laughing over +Peter's discomfiture, led the postmaster off that Mary might treat his +really badly skinned face at the ranch. The ranchers who had come from +distant valleys began to scatter toward the Pass. When at last Judith and +Douglas, with their string of horses and the still unchastened Sioux, +started up the trail toward the post-office, they were held up by a +stranger in a smart, high-powered automobile. + +"Listen, Miss Spencer," he called, "how about your riding in the rodeo at +Mountain City, this fall?" + +Doug and Judith both gasped. The rodeo at Mountain City was the ultimate +and almost hopeless dream of every young rider. + +"How do you know they'd let me in?" asked Judith. + +"I'm chairman of the program committee this year," answered the stranger. +"If you are interested, I'll write you details when I get back home. I've +got to run for it now." + +"Interested!" exclaimed Judith. "I guess you know just what it means to +be competing in the Mountain City rodeo!" + +The stranger nodded. "Then you'll hear from me." He turned his panting +car away from the plunging horses and was a receding dot up the trail to +the Pass before Judith and Douglas found their tongues. + +"Well, you deserve it, Judith," cried Douglas. "You beat anything I've +seen. It's not only what you do but the way you do it. You've got to have +a good outfit. I'll help you buy it." + +"Do you really think I'm good enough for Mountain City?" exclaimed +Judith. + +"Good enough for the world!" declared Douglas. + +Judith laughed and gave her attention to the unhappy Sioux. + +Peter was at supper with John and Mary when they reached home. His whole +face was covered with boric powder. Judith and Douglas shouted with +laughter. Peter buttered another biscuit. + +"I never was vain of my looks," he said plaintively. "It was mean of you, +Judith, to ruin what I had." + +"I was never so surprised in my life, honestly, as when you fell, Peter," +cried Judith. + +"O yes; you were more surprised an hour ago," contradicted Douglas. He +turned to his father. "Judith's been asked to ride at the Mountain City +rodeo. The chairman of their program committee stopped us and asked her." + +"Bully for the girl!" cried John. "I'm not surprised, myself. Some show, +Jude!" + +"The Mountain City rodeo is a tough proposition for a young girl to +tackle," said Peter. + +"O, I'll go with her," John spoke quickly, "and let Mary and Doug run the +place for a week. We'll be back in time for the round-up." + +"If Judith goes, I go," said Mary with unwonted firmness. + +"What do you think I am?" demanded John. "A millionaire or a Mormon?" + +Douglas, a little white around the lips, glanced at Judith, who was +calmly devouring the lavish piece of steak which she had served herself. +Peter was rolling a cigarette. + +"If Jude goes," John went on, "she goes with her Dad. And believe me, I +am going to buy her the doggondest best outfit I can glom my hands on." + +Peter caught Douglas' eye and almost imperceptibly shook his head. + +"I'm going too," repeated Mary. + +"You are not!" John's voice thickened. "You and Douglas run the place. If +there's a rancher in the State deserves a vacation more than I do, I wish +you'd name him." + +"Give me a match, John," said Peter; "and if there's no objection, let's +get out of this hot kitchen." + +John tossed a match-box to the postmaster and led the way out to the +corral. Peter and Douglas lined up on the fence beside him. Judith +remained in the kitchen with her mother. + +"Well, it was the best rodeo we ever had," said Peter. + +"Jude was the whole show." John's handsome face showed vividly for a +moment as he lighted his pipe. "I suppose there are other folks that ride +as well, but she does it with an air!" + +"It's her love of it gets across to people who are watching her," mused +Peter. "And she rides with a sort of ease that belongs to Jude and no one +else, to say nothing of her power over animals. There is a lot to Jude. +Too bad she lives in Lost Chief. She hasn't a chance in the world." + +"Just how do you mean that?" demanded John. + +"Exactly as I said it. She hasn't a chance in the world." + +"Chance in the world for what?" John's voice was irritated. "Talk so a +fool like me can understand you, Peter." + +"I guess you understand me, John. Hello, Judith! I should think you'd be +tired enough to go to bed." + +"Who? Me?" Judith perched beside Peter. "I should say not! I'd like to go +to a dance." + +"I sure-gawd will try to give you your fill of dancing for once in +Mountain City." The anger had disappeared from John's voice. + +"Judith's not going unless her mother goes!" said Douglas coolly. + +Judith sniffed. "Her master's voice, again! You'd better horn out of +this, Douglas." + +"I haven't any intention of keeping out," retorted Douglas. + +"You'd better," warned Judith. "If you think I'm going to turn down a +chance for a real outfit, without hearing the argument, you're mistaken." + +"I told you I'd help you," insisted Douglas. + +"You! What could you buy!" jibed the girl. + +"I was thinking, Jude," said John, "why don't you let me get you one of +those regular riding suits like Eastern women wear, pants and one of +those long coats." + +"Everybody would laugh at me." Judith's voice was doubtful but deeply +interested. "What do you think, Peter?" + +"Women's clothes are out of my line," replied Peter. + +"Aw, don't bribe her, Dad," protested Douglas. + +"Bribe her!" snorted John. "For what?" + +Peter gave a sardonic laugh that would have done credit to Charleton. +"I'm going home, John, before I get hauled in on a family row. Doug, I'm +pretty stiff. Will you help me saddle Yankee?" + +Douglas rose reluctantly and followed Peter into the shed where Yankee +was munching hay. + +"Keep your fool mouth shut, Doug," whispered the postmaster. "You've got +from now to September first to sidetrack this thing." + +"If Jude passes her word to him, she'll go. And you know as well as I do, +Peter, that most anybody would sell their soul to ride in that rodeo with +a fine outfit." + +"Certainly, I know it. But you keep out of it for a while." + +"Peter, I can't! When Dad gets to working on Judith, I see red. Listen! +Just listen!" + +Stillness and starlight and John's voice rich and sweet as Peter never +had heard it. + +"You're beautiful, Judith! A beautiful woman! Let me dress you as you +ought to be dressed, give you the right kind of a horse, and the whole of +the rodeo will be yours. I tell you, girl, all you've got to do is to ask +me for what you want." + +"Do other folks call me beautiful, Dad?" Judith's voice was breathless. + +"Why do you call me Dad? I'm not your father, thank God!" + +Douglas strode out of the shed and up to the fence, followed by Peter on +Yankee. + +"I don't want to quarrel with you, Dad--" he began, furiously. + +"Then don't start something you can't see the finish of," interrupted +Judith. "Let me run my own affairs, Doug." + +"That's sound advice." John's voice was cool. "I don't want to quarrel +with you either. But I'm still master of my own ranch and, by God, I'll +knock you down if you interfere in this." + +Peter leaned over and put his hand on Douglas' shoulder. + +"Don't be a fool, Doug! Go off and think before you talk." + +For a moment there was silence. Douglas stood tense under Peter's kindly +hand, his face turned toward the beautiful shadow of Falkner's Peak. The +heavens, deep purple and glorious with stars, were very near. Suddenly +Douglas turned on his heel and clanked into the house, where he threw +himself down on his bed. + +The old, futile bitterness was on him again, and he was quite as bitter +at Judith as at his father. Of what could the girl be thinking? What did +girls think about men like John, or any other men for that matter? If +only there were some woman to whom he might go for advice. Grandma Brown? +No; he had talked to her once and she had failed him. Charleton's wife +had failed with her own daughter. There remained Inez Rodman, who knew +Judith better than any one else knew her. Inez! Doug's mind dwelt long on +this name. But he felt sure that the woman of the Yellow Canyon had +forgotten what she had thought and felt at sixteen. And, after all, he +did not want again to see life through Inez' eyes. Long after the rest of +the family slept, Douglas pursued his weary and futile self-examination, +coming to a blind wall at the end. + +The next day John mentioned casually that he and Judith had settled on +taking the trip to Mountain City together. Douglas made no comment. Not +that he had any intention of allowing Judith to make the trip under such +circumstances, but he knew that for the present he could only bide his +time. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +THE TRIP TO MOUNTAIN CITY + +"Don't think. Just whistle. And always keep your poncho on the back of +the saddle for when it rains." + +--_Jimmy Day_. + + +Lost Chief was very proud of Judith's invitation and deeply interested in +her preparations for the contest. Every day, now, she put Sioux and +Whoop-la through their paces. Late in the afternoon when she was working +the animals in the corral, it seldom happened that one of Lost Chief's +riders was not perched on the buck fence, watching her and criticizing +her and always assuring her, with the cowman's pessimism toward the +outer world, that she had no chance of winning a prize. + +Douglas watched the preparations with deep interest, but said nothing +further against the trip. He usually joined the audience on the buck +fence and smoked as he watched the really wonderful work in the corral. + +One brilliant afternoon Grandma Brown and old Johnny rode up. Jimmy Day +already was perched on the fence. + +"Well," called Grandma, "I hear you've finally reached the goal of your +ambition, Judith." + +Judith, leaving Sioux for the moment, strolled over toward the old lady. +"Who told you that, Grandma?" + +"Well, ain't you?" + +"I don't know what my goal is, but it sure isn't this." + +"I'm glad you haven't lost your head entirely," said the old lady. +"Jimmy, I wish you'd ask Little Marion to come over and help me out for a +day or so. Lulu is coming home for a little visit." + +"I'll ask her," said Jimmy. "But she won't come. She isn't so well. You'd +better stop by and see her." + +Old Johnny suddenly laughed. "He depones like you was a doctor that went +out to make visits, Sister." + +The old lady grunted as she gave Jimmy a keen look. "What's her mother +say about her?" + +"Why, you know Mrs. Falkner isn't back from Mountain City yet. She left +before Charleton went out after wild horses," replied Jimmy. + +"How should I know? I've hardly been off the ranch this summer. I guess I +will stop by." + +Old Johnny cleared his throat. "I was thinking I'd ask John if he'd let +me go along up with him and Judith when they went to Mountain City. I got +quite a gregus sum of money saved up and I never did see Frontier Day +yet." + +"That's right, Johnny! You ask him," said Douglas, with a remote twinkle +in his eye. + +"Johnny, you are a fool, I swear!" exclaimed Grandma. "Let me catch you +lally-gagging off to Mountain City! Come on, let's get started." + +"Anyhow, Doug is my friend," said the old man, belligerently, as he +followed his sister. + +"If I go, I'll take you along, Johnny!" exclaimed Douglas. "See if I +don't!" + +"You sure are crazy, Doug!" laughed Jimmy. + +"I like the old boy," insisted Douglas. "He and I had better go up and +see Jude rake in the prizes." + +"Right now every prize has been doled out to the regulars," cried Jimmy. +"But you should care, Jude! You'll have the grandstand with you, every +minute, if the judges aren't." + +"It will be the big event of my life whether I win or not," said Judith. +"What's the matter with Little Marion, Jimmy? I don't even remember her +at the rodeo." + +"O, she's busy, you see. I never did know a busier girl than Marion. I'm +busy too, with Charleton gone so long. And that fourth-class postmaster +of ours sent a lot of unclaimed magazines and mail order catalogs up +to the house. We've been reading those. Say, I bet I know everything +that's for sale in the United States. I'm the most price-listed rider in +the Rockies." + +"I'll be getting down to see Marion to-night or to-morrow," said Judith. + +"O, you needn't bother," returned Jimmy. "It's a long trip, and she'll be +all right." + +"So you and Little Marion have been baching it!" mused Douglas. "Hang +Charleton, he promised to take me out after wild horses!" + +"He generally goes by himself." Jimmy mounted his horse. "He's a lone +hunter, Charleton." + +"When are you folks going to be married?" asked Douglas. + +Jimmy turned his roan homeward. "I don't know," he answered soberly. + +"I wish I could have gone with Charleton," remarked Douglas, watching +Judith as she rubbed Sioux's head. + +"Charleton! I should think you'd hate a long trip with that old coyote. I +hate him." + +"It isn't to be with Charleton I want to go. I want to get me some wild +horses. But there was a time when I sure was crazy about being with him. +I thought he knew more about how a fellow could get happiness out of life +than any one." + +"Nobody in the Valley knows as much as Inez." + +"Do you call her happy?" + +"No; she's really sad. That's why she knows what real happiness is." + +"Judith, how do you suppose Inez will end?" + +"Over in the cemetery with a coyote-proof grave like the rest of us. And +I ask you, Doug, since that's the end of it, why worry?" + +"That's the very reason I worry! Life is so short and if we don't find +happiness here, we are clean out of luck, forever." + +Judith spurred the nervous Whoop-la into five minutes of active bucking, +then she leaped from the saddle and came to perch on the fence beside +Douglas. Her gaze wandered from his wistful face to the eternal crimson +and orange clouds rolling across Fire Mesa. + +"Outside of my riding," she said slowly, "I get most happiness out of my +eyes." + +Douglas followed her gaze. "Inez likes it too." + +Judith nodded. "She got me to using my eyes years ago. She's a funny +person. Reads almost nothing but poetry. She's got one she always quotes +when she and I are looking at Fire Mesa." + +"What is it?" asked Doug. + +"I don't know but one verse: + +"A fire mist and a planet, +A crystal and a cell, +A jelly-fish and a saurian, +And caves where the cave-men dwell, +Then a sense of law and beauty +And a face turned from the clod, +Some call it Evolution +And others call it God." + +"Say it again, slow!" ordered Douglas, his eyes still on Fire Mesa. + +Judith obeyed. + +"I didn't know Inez had got religious," he said, when Judith finished. + +"She hasn't. She doesn't believe anything except that beauty is right and +ugliness is wrong." + +"Then she'd better clean up her door-yard!" exclaimed Douglas. + +"O darn it!" sighed Judith. "I can't even discuss poetry with you without +your heaving a brick." + +"I'm not heaving bricks. O Judith, I'm so devilishly unhappy!" + +"You ought to quit thinking so much and have something you are crazy +about doing. When I get blue, I put Whoop-la to bucking." + +"I'm crazy about something, all right. Judith, don't you think you're +ever going to care about me." + +"I don't know, Doug. Who does know, at sixteen?" + +"I did." + +"I wouldn't marry a man that expected me to be a ranch wife in Lost +Chief, if I loved him black in the face." Judith jumped down from the +fence and turned Whoop-la free for the night. + +Douglas sat staring at her, wondering whether or not to mention the +subject of the trip to Mountain City. He was firmly resolved that unless +Judith gave in to her mother on the matter, he was going with her and his +father. But finally he decided that he would not end their friendly +conversation with a row and he clambered down and went about his chores. + +And so the days passed and the time grew close for the departure to +Mountain City. One evening, two days before the start, Douglas and Judith +went to call on Little Marion and Jimmy. When they reached the ranch +house, they found Little Marion in the big bed in the living-room and +Jimmy sitting beside the unshaded lamp, reading to her. + +"Well!" exclaimed Douglas. "What's happened to you, Marion?" + +Marion put back her great braid of hair, but what answer she might have +made they were not to know, for at that moment Charleton returned from +his wild horse hunt. Dust-covered and sunburned he strode into the room +with a pleasant grin. + +"Hello, folks! Why, Marion, are you sick?" + +"Kind of. What luck, Dad?" + +"Fair. Brought in a good stallion and some weedy stuff. How's the ranch, +Jimmy?" + +He asked this with his eyes still on his daughter. + +"O.K., Charleton," replied Jimmy. + +"You made a long trip, Charleton," said Douglas. + +"Left the day after the rodeo," tossing his hat and gloves on the floor +and sitting down on the edge of the bed. "I remember Little Marion was +laid up then with a sprained ankle or something. What do you hear from +your mother, Marion?" + +"She's well and so's the baby. They'll be home anytime now." + +"What's the matter with you, Marion?" + +"O, I'm sort of used up." + +"How do you mean used up? I don't like your looks. I'm not a fool, you +know." + +Marion burst into tears. "You know what it is!" + +Charleton made a sudden spring at Jimmy; but Douglas caught him by the +arm. + +"Hold on, Charleton!" cried Doug. "If things have gone wrong, you're as +much to blame as any one." + +"You clear out of here, Doug!" shouted Charleton. + +"Don't you go, Doug and Judith!" sobbed Marion. "I need some one to stand +by me." + +"I'm standing by you, Marion," said Jimmy, who had not stirred from his +chair. "I'd just as soon you'd beat me up, Charleton. A little sooner. +But that isn't going to help matters." + +Charleton stood glaring at his prospective son-in-law. + +"Come off, Charleton!" cried Douglas disgustedly. "You are a fine one to +raise trouble over a situation like this. Strikes me you've done +everything you could do to bring it about." + +Charleton did not seem to hear. His face was cold and hard. "Marion, you +and Jimmy pack up and get out of here!" + +"I can't, Dad! I'm too sick!" sobbed the girl. + +"Sick or no sick, you get out of here!" + +"Don't you do it, Marion!" cried Judith. "No man's got a right to act so +at a time like this. I'll stick by you. Jimmy, you go get Grandma Brown. +I'll bet she can fix Charleton." + +Jimmy rushed out of the house. + +"Now, Doug," Judith went on, walking over to take Marion's hand, "you and +Charleton go on out while I have a talk with Marion." + +"This happens to be my house," said Charleton. "Marion, get up and get +out!" + +"I can't!" repeated the girl. + +"You are a fine guy to tell a fellow how to live on wine, women and +horses," exclaimed Douglas, "and then raise the devil when your chickens +come home to roost. We all know Little Marion was born a month before you +were married." + +Charleton gave Douglas an ugly look. "I'll settle with you, for that, +young fellow!" He stepped toward the bed. "Are you going to get out, +Marion?" + +"No, she isn't!" snapped Douglas. He made a sudden rush at Charleton and +pushed him into the kitchen, Judith slammed and locked the door behind +them. + +It was on this scene that John Spencer appeared, closing the outer door +innocently behind him. + +"I wanted to borrow your buckboard for a couple of weeks," he began. Then +he paused and looked inquiringly from his son to his old friend. + +"Marion's in trouble," said Douglas, "and Charleton is trying to drive +her out. Jude and I won't let him." + +"Why should you butt in?" demanded John. + +"Anybody with a decent heart would," replied Douglas. + +"Get your kids out of here, John!" roared Charleton. "Judith's in there +with the door locked!" + +"Judith!" called John. "'Come here!" + +"I can't, Dad. I promised Marion to stick by her." + +"You come out or I'll break the door down and bring you!" + +"If you do, I'll not go to Mountain City with you!" + +John hesitated, though his face was purple. + +"You couldn't keep her away from the rodeo and you know it," sneered +Charleton. "Fetch her out, John, unless you're afraid of Doug." + +"Jude, are you coming?" shouted John. + +"No, sir." + +John heaved against the flimsy door and it broke on its hinges. He rushed +into the inner room. Judith, her great eyes blazing, stood with one hand +on Marion's shoulder. + +"Aren't you ashamed of yourself, Dad! You put a finger on me or Marion if +you dare!" + +"Don't touch her, Dad!" Douglas' voice had the old note of warning in it. + +But John, furious that his children should be defying him in public, was +quite beyond any effort at self control. He rushed on toward the bed. + +"You blank-blank!" screamed Judith. "You aren't fit to touch Little +Marion's feet! You or Charleton either!" + +John seized Judith's arm. Quick as a lynx-cat, Douglas leaped across the +room, seized his father from behind and was dragging him toward the door +when Grandma Brown ran in. + +"Now," she cried sternly, "what does this mean? Every one of you get out +of here as fast as your feet will carry you!" + +John stood up, sheepishly, Douglas eying him belligerently. + +"Look here, Grandma," Charleton shook his finger in the old lady's face, +"I want you to understand that--" + +"Understand!" shrilled Grandma. "Understand! You have the face to try to +say anything to me, Charleton Falkner? Do you think any man in this +valley can have anything to tell me I want to hear, least of all you, +Charleton Falkner? I know your history, man! And yours too, John Spencer. +And you can either get out or listen while I tell these children a few +facts about you." + +Charleton put a cigarette between his teeth, handed one to John, lighted +his own, gave a light to John and, John at his heels, walked out into the +night. + +"You and Douglas go home, Judith," said Grandma briskly. "Jimmy, I want a +talk with Little Marion. You put that door back on the hinges, then +disappear." + +So Judith and Douglas rode away. It was a heavenly night, with more than +a hint of frost in the air, and the horses were as frolicsome as Prince. + +"Now, will you tell me," asked Judith as she brought Buster back into the +trail for the third time, "just why Charleton acted so?" + +"It's just like I told you once," replied Douglas. "A man wants his own +women to be straight no matter how much he does to make 'em crooked." + +"Men are yellow," said Judith succinctly. "What's the use of +Charleton--" She paused as if words failed her, and they rode their +prancing horses in silence till John galloped up and pushed Beauty +between them. + +"I hope you two fools feel better!" he shouted. "You've got a row going +with Charleton." + +"Lot I care!" chuckled Judith. "I'll sic Grandma Brown on him again if he +bothers me." + +"I'd rather have a wolverine after me than Charleton," John went on +excitedly. "You both ought to be licked!" + +"Try it," suggested both the young people together. + +"I've a notion not to take you up to Mountain City and I wouldn't if--" + +Judith interrupted him. "You're not going to take me. I'm going with +Doug." + +"O, no, you're not!" snarled John. + +"And I'm not going to quarrel with you," Judith went on. "I'm sick of +men. I don't like the way you acted to me to-night. I told you if you +broke that door down I wouldn't go with you, and I always keep my word. +I'm not going to take money from Douglas, either. I'll borrow from Inez. +And I don't want to hear another word from you about it." + +She put the spurs to Buster and was gone into the starlight. The men +spurred after her, but she reached the home corral before they did. And +John could storm only at the deeply perturbed Mary, for Doug and Judith +went to bed, pulled the covers over their heads and were heard no more +that night. + +The next morning, before breakfast, half of Lost Chief had called the +Spencers on the telephone to tell them that Little Marion had a daughter. +The dominant note in the reports was one of huge laughter. Judith was +serene, and so was John. But the serenity was not to last. When she went +out to the corral to look after Sioux she came back stormily. + +"Where's Sioux and Whoop-la?" she demanded of John, who was mending a +spur strap. + +"Put away!" + +"Have you killed them?" + +"No. I'll produce them as soon as you agree to keep your promise to go to +Mountain City with me." + +"I never promised. I intended to go with you, but I never promised." + +"Remember if we don't get started by to-morrow," roared John, "we can't +get there in time." + +"I said I wouldn't go with you after last night, and now, I wouldn't go +with you if you were the last man on earth." + +She rushed from the house, and Douglas followed her. + +"I'll help you hunt for them, Judith," he said. + +She turned to him, white to the lips. "We're not going to hunt for them. +There are other Mountain City rodeos coming. If he thinks I'm going to +make a joke of myself rushing round the neighborhood after my outfit, +he's mistaken! I'm not a child. Don't bother me, Douglas; I'm going to +Inez." + +She put Buster to a gallop and was off, the dust following her in a +golden, whirling spiral. Douglas went into the house and stood before his +father, face flushed, golden hair rumpled, soft shirt clinging to his big +gaunt chest. + +"Dad, that's a rotten deal to put over Judith." + +John rose slowly to his full height and the two men looked levelly into +each other's eyes. John's expression was curiously concentrated. He +tapped Douglas on the arm. + +"Doug, you keep out of this, or I'll forget you are my son. You're smart +and you've got a bossy way with you. But I'm still master here. There +never was a Spencer that didn't rule his own family. Now, understand +me. Keep out of this matter between me and Jude. I'm going to break that +highty-tighty filly; and by God, she knows it!" + +"You'll never break her while I'm alive," said Douglas, and he walked out +of the house. + +Mary, coming from the cow shed with a pail of milk, looked at him +anxiously. "Let it go, Doug," she said in a low voice. "It's hard on +Judith, but she's been very headstrong and she's point-blank disobeyed me +in the matter. She deserves what she's got. Let it go." + +Douglas looked at Mary's care-worn face, so appealingly like, yet so +unlike Judith's. Suddenly his tense muscles relaxed. "I guess you are +right. I'd better be thankful it is as it is. But it sure is a rotten +trick of Dad's." + +Mary shrugged her shoulders and went on into the house. Douglas went off +to bring up horses for the fall round-up. A number of people rode up +during the morning to see the start for Mountain City. They found the +ranch deserted, except for Mary, who pleaded a sick headache and refused +to talk. Inez had no such reticence, however, and at the post-office that +night Judith's troubles ran neck and neck in popular interest with Little +Marion's. Both situations were of a nature to appeal to Lost Chief's +sense of humor. Douglas appeared during the session and learned that +Charleton's wife had come home. + +"I hope she won't go crazy too," he said. + +"No danger!" Peter tossed a letter to Frank Day. "Charleton'll be in line +by to-morrow. Too bad some one can't hobble John too." + +"Plumb unnecessary, the whole affair," grunted the sheriff. "I suppose +the next thing on the program will be a big wedding." + +"I guess they'll manage it like the Browns did," volunteered Young Jeff, +squirting his quid accurately to the center of the hearth. "Be around +borrowing my car in two or three weeks, run up to Mountain City for to be +married, then give a big party upstairs here, and nobody the worse off +for anything." + +Everybody nodded and grinned. Douglas sat on a pile of mail order +catalogs smoking, his hat on the back of his head, his eyes thoughtful. +"Anybody know how Jimmy's been behaving to-day?" + +Frank Day laughed heartily. "I rode up there this morning after I heard +the news, friendly like, of course. Grandma had Jimmy out in the yard, +washing baby dresses, while she stood in the door giving him what for. +Jimmy was dribbling cigarette ashes over the suds but he sure was game. +He grinned and got red when he saw me. 'I'm the hen-peckedest damn fool +in the Rockies,' he says." + +There was a roar of laughter. + +"What was Charleton doing?" asked Young Jeff, wiping his eyes. + +"I found him in the corral. He'd slept in the alfalfa stack and he wasn't +quoting poetry. I didn't stay with him but a minute." + +Again there was laughter. + +"Big Marion will calm him," said Peter. + +"I know one thing," exclaimed Douglas. "None of us will be saying the +things to Charleton we've been saying behind his back." + +"We sure won't," agreed Frank. "I suppose Judith's all broke up, poor +little devil!" + +Douglas nodded. + +"I saw her and Inez hobnobbing in the Rodmans' corral to-day," said Young +Jeff. "She'd better cut Inez out." + +Douglas stared at the familiar faces around the room as if he never +before had seen them. Peter, thin, melancholy, his long sinewy throat +exposed by his buttonless blue shirt; Frank Day, big and keen of eye, +squatting as usual against the wall; Young Jeff, ruddy and heavy-set, +with his kind blue eyes and heavy jaw. All clean shaven, all in chaps and +spurs, all good fellows, and all as helpless before the nameless mystery +of life as Doug himself. The sweat started to his forehead. He rose, +pulling on his gloves. + +"It's early yet, Doug," said Peter. + +"I'm going to call for Judith," replied Douglas. He went out into the +night, whistled to Prince, mounted the Moose and galloped across to the +west trail. + +It was sharp and frosty but Inez and Judith, in mackinaws, were sitting +on the back steps with a little fire of chips at their feet. Douglas +dismounted and came into the fireglow. The light caught the point of his +chin, his clean-cut nostrils, and the heavy overhang of his brows. + +"Ready to come home, Jude, old girl?" he asked. + +"Sit down and talk to us a little, Douglas," suggested Inez. + +Douglas hauled up a broken wagon seat and sat down. Prince crawled up +beside him and went to sleep with his head and one paw on Doug's knee. + +"I suppose congress was sitting at the post-office, to-night?" said +Judith. + +"Yes. Everybody's strong for you and Little Marion." + +"I don't see why I should be bunched with her. Not that I care though!" +Judith tossed her head and then dropped her chin to the palm of her hand. + +"I swear some one ought to give John Spencer a good thrashing!" exclaimed +Inez. + +"Don't worry!" Judith spoke through set teeth. "I'll be even with him +some day." + +"I just as soon try to lick him," said Doug. "But what good would it do?" + +The three sat in silence for a moment; then Douglas asked suddenly, +"Inez, do you believe that poetry about the Fire Mist that you taught +Judith?" + +"No; but I think it's a beautiful poem, just the same." + +"Say it all for me, will you, Inez?" + +Inez, in her soft contralto, repeated the lines. + +"And you don't believe it?" Douglas' voice was wistful. "Don't you wish +you did?" + +"I don't know as I do," replied Inez. + +"But don't you see," urged Douglas, "that without believing it, there's +no meaning to anything?" + +"Well, what of it?" asked Inez. + +"I'm the kind of a guy that has to see a purpose to things, I guess," +replied Douglas, heavily. "Peter is dead right. Lost Chief is a rotten +hole." + +"It's a rotten place for women and a paradise for men," stated Judith +flatly. + +"Never was any place in the world more beautiful," mused Inez. "If you'd +just see the beauty all around you, Doug, you'd do without the religion." + +"I do see the beauty," replied Douglas. "I've been seeing it ever since +you told me to look for it. But it just makes me blue." + +"You're no cowman, Douglas," Inez spoke thoughtfully. "You ought to go +East to college and get into politics or something!" + +Douglas shook his head. "I'm like Charleton. I couldn't leave these hills +and plains for anything the East has to offer me." He rose slowly, and +Inez stared up at him. Tall, slender, straight, his young face a little +strained, a little wistful, he was to the older woman something finer +than Lost Chief knew. + +"Judith," she said suddenly, "you're an awful fool!" + +Judith grunted, immersed in her own troubles. + +"Come, old lady," said Douglas. "We must get home." + +"I'm going to stay all night with Inez." + +"No, you're not, Jude," said Douglas quietly, and he stood waiting. + +"Let her stay, Doug. She'll be all right," urged Inez. + +"No," replied the young rider, with the familiar straightening of his +chin. "Come, Judith!" + +The tall girl rose, shrugged her shoulders, and followed slowly to the +corral after Douglas. Inez did not move and shortly they trotted away, +leaving her alone in the firelight. + +The next day, sullenly enough, John ordered Doug to make the horses ready +for the round-up. Frost had set in and he suddenly announced himself as +fearful lest snows catch the herds high on the mountains. So Douglas +and Judith spent the day bringing in several stout horses from the range. +On the morning following, before breakfast was finished, Scott Parsons +hallooed from the corral. The family went to the door. + +Scott was leading Sioux and Whoop-la. + +"Found these in the old Government corral up on Lost Chief Mountain," he +said laconically. + +"I suppose you're going to get something worth while from Dad for this!" +cried Judith passionately. + +Scott looked at the girl curiously. "You sure are crazy, Jude! Do you +suppose I'd help John Spencer do you like that? John's a blank-blank and +he knows it." + +Douglas moved to stand by Ginger's head. + +"No man says that to me without a grin." John drew his gun. + +"Jude!" said Doug sharply. He reached up and seized Scott's hand and with +a sudden twist relieved him of his six-shooter. + +Judith struck up her father's arm and a shot scattered dust from the sod +roof of the cabin. John smacked Judith on the cheek. She threw herself on +him like a fighting she-bear. John dropped his gun to seize her wrists +and Mary promptly picked the weapon up and gave it to Douglas. + +"Now," said Doug, when Judith stood panting like a young Diana, her eyes +black with anger and excitement, "if you two men want to fight, take your +fists and go to it!" + +John suddenly grinned, his eyes on Judith. "I don't see anybody spoiling +for a fist fight but Judith. You little lynx-cat! You get handsomer every +day!" + +"I'd hate to let a woman make putty of me like that," sneered Scott. "Let +me have my shooting-iron, Doug." + +Douglas had broken the revolver and unloaded it. He gave it back, +receiving the lead ropes of the two animals in return, and Scott trotted +away. + +"I'm much obliged to you, Scott!" shrieked Judith. "I'll ride up and tell +you all about it, some day." + +Scott waved his hand but did not look back. John, still holding Judith's +wrists, suddenly drew her to him and kissed her full on the lips. Then, +with a laugh, he freed her and returned to his breakfast. Douglas swore +under his breath and turned the uneasy Sioux and Whoop-la into the +corral. The day went forward as if nothing had happened. + +That night, Charleton and John appeared at the post-office gathering for +the first time since the birth of Little Marion's baby. Only Peter had +the intrepidity to comment on recent events. + +"I didn't want Judith to go alone with you to Mountain City, John," he +said. "But, all the same, that was a rotten deal you gave her." + +"She's a disobedient little hussy," John's voice was truculent, "and it +was the only way I could get at her." + +"You mean the fight she put up to help Little Marion?" demanded Peter. + +"O, dry up, Peter!" exclaimed Charleton. "Me, I'm sick of the sound of a +woman's name. They're all alike, ungrateful minxes." + +"Ungrateful is the word," agreed Peter grimly. "But I'd like to know just +what Marion was under obligation to you for?" + +Charleton did not reply. + +"When are they going to be married?" asked Peter, after a moment. + +"First of the month. We'll give 'em a party up here in the hall that Lost +Chief will never forget. John, do you ride to-morrow?" + +"Yes, Charleton. Everybody's reported but you." + +"I'll be there. Start from your place, as usual?" + +John nodded, and the rest of the evening was given over to a discussion +of details of the round-up. + +The fall round-up was always a long and arduous affair. The cattle were +scattered all through the ranges covered by the Forest Reserve. Slowly +and with infinite labor and skill, they were sought out and herded down +into Hidden Gorge Canyon, below Fire Mesa. Thence, they were driven to +the plains east of the post-office, where the riders cut out their own +cattle. + +The weather held for two weeks, star-brilliant at night, with the low of +mother-cows separated from their calves from mountain to mountain, with +the crisp wind bringing down the frosted leaves of the aspens, and at +noon the hot dust swirling up from the horses' hoofs into the sweating +faces of the riders. + +Perhaps thirty men rode in the Lost Chief crowd. The work was more or +less solitary by day, but at night over the camp-fires, there was society +enough. Douglas enjoyed it all to the very tips of his being. He was +coming now into the great strength that belonged to his height and could +do his full share of the heavy work. He had thought that, rolled in his +blankets, under the stars, he would find inspiration that would help him +solve the problem of life. But long before the camp-fire was low, he +would drop into slumber that ended only when his father shook him at +dawn. + +When the round-up reached the plains, the women set up a camp kitchen and +served hot meals. The weather this year held clear to the last day, when +a blizzard swept down from Dead Line Peak and the last of the cutting out +was finished in blinding snow. Douglas and John, after putting the last +of their yearlings into the cut over fields, staggered into the warm +ranch kitchen half-perished with the cold. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +WILD HORSES + +"If I could believe in God and a heaven I'd ask nothing more of life +except a good-saddle-horse." + +_--Charleton's Wife_. + + +And so another long winter was upon Lost Chief. It was much like other +winters for Douglas except for the fact that he began systematically to +trap for pelts. It was a heavy winter and game was plentiful, with pelts +of exceptionally fine quality for which there was a good market in St. +Louis. Douglas worked hard and began the accumulation of a sum of money +which he planned to use eventually to start his own ranch on the old +Douglas section, which was to be his when he came of age. + +But although to the young rider the money earned seemed the main aspect +of the winter's work, the important result really lay in the deepening it +gave to his appreciation of the beauty and mystery of this mountain +valley. + +Lost Chief was lovely in the summer with its crystal glory of color on +hill and plain. But Lost Chief in winter was awe-inspiring in its naked +splendor. Dead Line Peak and Falkner's Peak, barren save for the great +blue snows and for the black shadows that crept up and down their +tremendous flanks, were separated from each other by a long, narrow, +slowly rising valley. Down this valley rushed a tiny brook whose murmur +the bitterest weather could not quite still. Along this brook grew +quivering aspens, and beside it coyotes kept open a little trail. Along +this trail, Doug set his traps, as well as up on the wall of the +mountains where lynx-cats and wolverine were hid. + +Each day at noon, mounted on the Moose, with Prince at heel, he rode the +circuit of the traps, seldom reaching home until long after supper was +cleared away. There were days when, on leaving the ranch for the long, +bitter-cold ride, it seemed to Douglas that he never could come back +again, that the pain of living in the same house with Judith in her +girlish indifference was to be endured no longer. The primitive intimacy +in which the family dwelt made every hour at home a sort of torture to +him, a torture that he did not wish to forego yet that he scarcely could +endure. One cannot say how much of Douglas' self-control was due to +innate refinement, how much to expediency, how much to the male power of +inhibition when fighting to win the love of a woman. + +But, whatever the cause, Douglas was developing a power of self-control +possessed by no other man in the valley. It made him, even at eighteen, a +little grim, a little lonely, a little abstracted. And he rode his traps +like a man in a dream. He thought much, but not constantly, of Judith; +though she perfumed all his thoughts. For the most part he pondered on +the blank mystery of life and on the enigma of love, which to him seemed +far more productive of pain than of joy. Little by little, he found +himself eager to get into the hills. Quite consciously he left the ranch +each day with the thought that when he reached the crest of old Falkner's +lower shoulder, where his lynx trap was set, and beheld the unspeakable +strength and purity of the far-flung ranges, to whose vastness the Lost +Chief peaks were but foothills, he would find a wordless peace. + +And thus the winter slipped away and blue-birds dipped again in the +spring beyond the corral. And again alfalfa perfumed the alkaline dust +that followed the birds into the Reserve; and then again, frost laid +waste the struggling gardens of high altitudes; and for another winter +Doug followed traps, varying the monotony by getting out pine-logs for +his ranch house. + +The winter that Judith was twenty and Douglas twenty-two was one of the +most severe ever known in Lost Chief country. It was preceded by a summer +of drought and the alfalfa and wild hay fields failed. Feed could not be +bought. Steers and horses died by the score. Doug did little trapping. +He and his father spent the bitter storm-swept days fighting to save +their stock. By March they were cutting young aspens and hauling them +to the famished herds to nibble. Coyotes moved brazenly by day across +the home fields, stealing refuse from the very door-yards. Eagles +perched on fence-posts near the chicken runs. Jack-rabbits in herds of +many score milled about the wind-swept barrens, gnawing the grass already +cattle-cropped to the roots. The cold and snow persisted till mid-April, +and even then Lost Chief was only beginning to thaw on its lower northern +edge. + +It was a winter of tremendous nerve strain. There had been little +opportunity for the neighbors to get together, and the battle with the +cold never ceased. John Spencer, always at his best when great physical +demands were being made upon him, came through the winter better than +Douglas, whose profound restlessness was beginning to tell even on his +youthful strength. It was almost as much of a relief to Doug's family as +to Doug to have Charleton Falkner insist, late in April, that Doug go on +a wild horse hunt with him. + +It was like the opening of a prison door to the young rider. He had dwelt +within himself too much, had seen too much of Judith, had been too deeply +perplexed by his own relation to life. He resolved that during the week +they were to be out on the hunt, he would not once permit himself a +serious thought. + +They left Charleton's ranch early one morning, driving a sheep wagon +which trailed four saddle horses. On the tail-board of the wagon were a +bale of alfalfa and several bags of oats, for which Charleton had scraped +Lost Chief to the bottom of its bins. + +The snow was running off the trail in roaring streams. There was +brilliant sun. Magpies dipped across the blue. Charleton drove while +Douglas lay across the bunk, his spurred boots resting on an embroidered +sofa cushion which he had purloined from Mary for lack of a pillow. He +lay thus all day, except at meal time, neither man caring to talk. All +day long, they pushed north, over the hills, each hill and valley lower +than the last. When they made their night camp, the snows were gone. The +next day, too, they pursued ever-dropping trails, that disappeared toward +noon, leaving Charleton to find his way through barren hills that were +criss-crossed only by antelope and coyote tracks. At mid-afternoon, from +the crest of one of these hills they beheld a winding, black river with a +flush of green along its borders. They covered the miles to this at a +trot and made their camp beside the rushing waters. The eager horses +almost rended harness and halter in their desire to taste the budding +grass around the sage-brush roots. + +They carried food and fodder only for a week, so they dared allow but two +days for the actual hunting. At dawn they had finished breakfast and were +riding up into the rolling hills to the west. Brown hills against a pale +blue morning sky, then a sudden flood of crimson against a high horizon +line. Against this crimson, a row of grazing horses! + +"We'll separate now," said Charleton. "Do like we always do. Pick out one +horse and ride him down. They will be awful soft after such a winter. +Don't get side-tracked from one horse to another. They'd kill the Moose +off at that. He's getting pretty old for this kind of thing. I'll see you +at camp to-night." + +Douglas dropped into a valley which twisted under the hill where the wild +horses were grazing. Here he dismounted and, leading his horse, began to +snake his way upward through the sage-brush which covered the hillside. +When he was within a hundred yards of the herd, he paused. There were +fifteen horses, of every kind and color. Douglas selected a jet black +mare with a wonderful tail and mane. Then he turned to mount. Charleton, +at this moment, appeared on the far side of the hill. The Moose nickered, +and the herd tossed heads and broke. + +The mare dropped over the east side of the hill as if she had been shot. +Douglas turned the Moose after her and they hurled down the steep slope +with thundering hoofs. For some moments, the Moose sought to turn hither +and yon as different horses flashed across his vision. But Doug held him +to the black mare, and once the Moose realized that she alone was their +quarry Douglas was able to give almost all his attention to watching her +strategy. + +She did not show fight nor did she double on her tracks. Fleet as a bird, +she flew over the hills, dropping into canyons, leaping draws, jumping +rock heaps, until little by little she drew ahead of the Moose until she +became no larger than a black coyote against the yellow hills. But +Douglas would not allow the Moose to break from his swift trot. As long +as he could keep the mare in sight he was content. + +The sun was sailing high and the Moose was winded when the mare, +cantering painfully along the ridge of a hill, stumbled and fell. She +was up again at once but her gait slowed, perceptibly. In less than a +half-hour Doug was within roping distance of her. As the lariat sung +above her head, she half turned, gave Doug a look of anguished surprise, +leaped sideways and disappeared up a crevice in a canyon wall. Douglas +spurred the Moose in after her. They were in a little valley, thick +grown with dwarf willow. The mare was not to be seen. + +Now began a search that persisted till the Moose's sturdy legs were +trembling. Douglas threaded the valley again and again. There was no exit +save through the one crevice by which they had entered. He had all but +concluded that the mare had been swallowed up by the earth when he found +her trail, turning up the south wall. He spurred the Moose upward, and +there in a clump of cedars he found her hiding. With a laugh he again +twirled his rope and it slipped over the tossing black head. As the Moose +turned and the rope tightened, the mare gave a scream that was like that +of a human being in dire agony. For a moment she dragged back, then, +head drooping, trembling in every muscle, she followed in. + +Dusk was falling when Douglas made the camp. Charleton already had +started a fire in the little cook-stove. He came out and examined the +mare as well as the failing light and her extreme timidity permitted. + +"She's a beauty, Doug. Don't believe she's over four years old. Any brand +on her?" + +"No. From the looks of her hoofs, I'd say she'd been born with the herd. +What luck did you have, Charleton?" + +"None at all. I took after a young stallion and he wore my horse out. I +know where he's bedding down to-night and I'll get him to-morrow or shoot +him." + +"You'll get him," said Douglas. + +Charleton chuckled. "Nice thing if the mare is all we bring in. Make some +coffee, Doug. The biscuits are baking. I could eat one of Sister's +coyotes to-night." Charleton jammed another sage-brush knot into the +little stove. + +They were off at dawn. Douglas rode this day a young bay horse he had +recently broken and named Pard. But though Pard was strong and willing, +he lacked the skill of the Moose in running this rough country, and by +noon Douglas was obliged to give up the pursuit of a dapple gray he had +selected. He was far out on the plains when he made the decision to turn +campward. To the distant south, in the Lost Chief ranges, a snowstorm was +raging; but Pard and Douglas were dripping with sweat, under a sweltering +sun. Strange, thimble-shaped green hills, dotted the plains about them. +Douglas drew up at the base of one of these to rest his horse. Scarcely +had he done so when a tiny herd of antelope trotted casually round the +neighboring hillock. They halted, sniffed, and turned, but not before +Douglas had drawn his saddle gun and fired at the leader. The creature +went lame at once but disappeared with his fellows among the green hills. + +Douglas followed and shortly found a spot of blood that was repeated at +irregular intervals for a mile or so. Pard was grunting now, but Douglas +rowelled him and pushed on until he saw the antelope kneeling in the lee +of an outcropping of rock. It struggled to its feet and fell again, its +beautiful head dropping against its crimsoned breast. + +"Wonder if I can get you home alive to Judith?" said Douglas. + +After a moment of thought, he loosened his lariat, swung and roped the +antelope around the horns, dragging it from its futile sanctuary. Then +he dismounted and removed the lariat. The antelope bleated but lay +trembling, making no attempt to rise. Douglas examined the shattered +shoulder. + +"You poor devil!" he said. "Even if you weren't hurt so badly, you'd die +of fright before I could get you home. Well, of course I'm sorry venison +is out of season, but a man must eat!" He put his gun to the delicate +head, and an hour later Pard was snorting under a gunny-sack of venison. +Douglas lighted a cigarette and, whistling gaily, started once more for +camp. + +But this, if not a day of what Lost Chief would call real adventure, was +at least to be a day of episode. About mid-afternoon Doug heard the +tinkle of a sheep-bell. He was not surprised, for he knew that he was +well within sheep country. He followed the tinkle and came shortly to a +wide draw where moved a mighty gray mass of sheep. The herder, on a bay +horse, responded to Doug's halloo with a wave of his hand. Douglas made +his way round the edge of the draw and waited for the herder, who rode +slowly up to meet him. Then he stared at the stranger's gray-bearded face +with the utmost surprise. + +"Mr. Fowler!" he cried. "What are you doing out here?" + +The older man, in shabby blue overalls and jumper, a black slouch hat +pulled over his eyes, smiled grimly. + +"You have the advantage of me, young man. I don't remember your face." + +"I'm glad you don't!" replied Douglas. "But I've always wanted to tell +you I sure-gawd was ashamed of myself. I was the kid that made you +trouble at Lost Chief seven or eight years ago." + +Fowler's blade brows met as he studied the young rider's frank face. + +"So you are!" he said slowly. "So you are! Well, I'll never have that +kind of trouble again. Have you eaten? I'm late about dinner. Fact is, I +get careless about my meals, living alone!" + +"No, I've been out after wild horses and don't plan to eat till I get +back to camp ten miles yonder on the creek." + +"Better break bread with me," suggested the preacher. + +"That's sure white of you. I don't mind if I do." Douglas returned Mr. +Fowler's grim look with one of wistful curiosity. + +The preacher silently led the way to the sheep-herder's wagon which +perched on the peak of a hill above the draw. "I don't have much to offer +you but beans," he said as they dismounted. + +Douglas looked from the blood-stained gunny-sack to the clergyman's +deep-set eyes, hesitated, then said, "Beans are good and the sheep-man's +staple." He followed into the wagon and sat on the edge of the bunk while +Fowler prepared the frugal meal. + +"Do you mind telling me," asked Doug, "why you are herding sheep instead +of folks?" + +"I couldn't earn a decent living herding folks. My wife died. I took +anything that offered that would take me away from men and their accursed +ways. There was something about sheep-herding that made me think of Jesus +Christ and the country round about Bethlehem. I have found a kind of +peace here." + +Douglas cleared his throat. "How long have you been at it?" + +"A couple of years." + +"How was it you couldn't earn a living, preaching?" + +"It's an age of unfaith," replied the preacher. + +"I don't believe it's, an age of unfaith." Douglas puffed slowly on a +cigarette. "That is, not like you mean. That Sunday, if you'd given us +something we could have set our teeth in, we'd have listened to you. +I remember distinctly, I sat down in the back of the room, saying to +myself, 'Now if this old-timer has something interesting to say, I won't +let the kids in.' But you--excuse me, Mr. Fowler--you just got up and +bleated like a Montana sheep-man." + +The preacher set the coffee-pot on the stove, straightened himself, and +shouted, "I spoke the word of God!" + +"I don't know whether there's a God or not. Probably there isn't any. +But if there is, I'll bet He never talked foolish threats that a fellow +has hard work to understand." Mr. Fowler gasped. "Now wait a moment," +protested Douglas. "Don't get mad and throw me out like I did you! I'm a +man now, and I tell you, Mr. Fowler, I'm troubled about many things and I +want you to let me talk to you." + +The beautiful, sympathetic light of the shepherd of souls shone in the +clergyman's eyes. "Talk on, my boy! I too am troubled about many things. +But not about God. I know Him." + +"How do you know Him?" + +"By His works, the sun, the stars, the universe, through His holy word, +the Bible." + +Douglas waved his hands irritably. "Words! Just words! How can they mean +anything to a hard-headed man like me? Everything came out of a fire +mist. How do you know it was a mind made that fire mist? Why couldn't it +have been a--a--Christ, what could it have been?" Douglas paused with +lips agape with horror as he gazed on the evil of the universe. + +Fowler motioned the young rider to a seat at the table. "God bless our +food and give us understanding," he said. Then he served Doug and sat +staring thoughtfully at his own coffee-cup. "Were you ever in love?" +he finally asked Douglas. + +"Yes." + +"Did she love you?" + +"Not that I can find out!" + +"Does she know that you love her?" pursued the minister. + +"Yes, I told her so." + +"But," said Mr. Fowler, "love isn't something you can put your teeth in. +How can she believe you?" + +"Because, I'm something she can put her teeth in! Believe me, Mr. Fowler, +if God once convinced me He was real, I'd believe anything He told me. +Just give me facts. That's all I want." + +"The universe is a fact." + +"Yes, but the universe being a fact doesn't prove there's any hereafter. +Hang it, Mr. Fowler, can't you preachers get it through your heads that +what people want you to prove to them is that there is a hereafter? +That's all there is to your job. Prove that and you can lead us round by +the nose. But if you can't show us that the soul doesn't die, there is no +meaning in anything, and we might as well be like we are in Lost Chief." + +"What's the matter with Lost Chief?" Mr. Fowler's smile was grim. + +"Peter Knight says it's that we have no ethics. Inez Rodman says it's +that we don't know beauty when we see it." + +"Inez Rodman? O, that woman of the Yellow Canyon! If there were a +minister in Lost Chief, she wouldn't be in the Valley." + +"O, I don't know! Religion doesn't seem to affect her kind, anywhere. But +Peter says we'd ought to have built a church along with the schoolhouse. +I don't see myself how the kind of Bible stuff you teach could help a +hard living, hard thinking kind of people like us." + +"Did you ever read the Bible, Douglas?" asked the preacher. + +"I've tried to. If you ask me to read it like it was only more or less +true history, I could get away with it. But when you tell me it's the +actual word of God and show me a picture of God in long white whiskers +and a white robe, why you can't get away with it, that's all. I know that +nothing like that ever produced Fire Mesa or Lost Chief Range or--or +Judith." + +Mr. Fowler groaned. "Douglas, you are blasphemous!" + +"I'm not. I'm just unhappy. I think I was meant to be a religious guy. +I'm of New England stock and they all depended a lot on religion. But I +just can't swallow it." + +"And you never will as long as you take the point of view you do. You +must wipe your mind clear of all you have read and thought, for God says +that unless we become as little children, we cannot believe. Religion is +not a matter of knowledge and reason. Religion is a matter of hope and +faith." + +Douglas sat turning this over in his mind, his yellow hair rumpled, his +clear eyes, with the sun wrinkles in the corners, fixed on the far snowy +gleam of Lost Chief Range. + +"Hope and faith," he repeated softly. + +There was a shout from without. "O, you Doug!" and Charleton rode up at +a gallop. He stopped before the open door. "I've been trailing you for +two hours. I got three horses penned up in a draw and I need your help. +Hello, Fowler! What the devil are you doing out here?" + +"Come in and have a bite of grub, Falkner," exclaimed the preacher. + +"Don't care if I do!" Charleton threw a weary leg across the saddle and +dismounted. Douglas, who had finished his meal, returned to the bunk and +Charleton took his place. + +"Kind of funny to find you and Doug eating together," said Charleton. + +"He should have given me a swift kick," agreed Douglas. "Instead, he fed +me." + +"That's sound religion, isn't it?" asked Mr. Fowler, pouring Charleton a +cup of coffee. + +"It's sound hospitality, anyhow," replied Charleton. + +"Aw, any one would admit Fowler lives up to his faith," expostulated +Douglas. + +Charleton glanced at the young rider in surprise. "What's happened to +you, old trapper?" + +"Nothing. Only I wish I had the same religion he's got." + +"So's you could herd the sheep?" asked Charleton. + +"So's I could have peace," retorted Douglas. + +"Peace? What does a kid like you want of peace? Anybody that can't find +peace in Lost Chief is a fool." + +"I'm no fool!" contradicted Doug, with a growing irritation at Charleton +for interrupting his talk with Fowler. "And where is there a peaceful +person in Lost Chief?" + +"Douglas," said Charleton, "when you are as old as I am you'll realize +that Lost Chief is as near heaven as man can hope to get. A poke of salt +and a gun on your saddle, a blanket tied behind, a good horse under you, +the Persian poet in your pocket, all time and the ranges before you, and +what more could mortal man desire?" + +"A woman, you've always said before," grunted Douglas. + +"I was holding back out of respect to the sky pilot," laughed Charleton. +"But since you mentioned it, there's Inez, who's always ready for a +trip." + +Mr. Fowler shot a quick look at Douglas, who again grunted indifferently +and rolled a cigarette. + +"Are you and Douglas partners, Falkner?" asked the preacher. + +"Once in a while. Why are you herding sheep, Fowler? This herd yours?" + +"No. They belong to a Denver man. I'm herding because I couldn't keep a +church together." + +Charleton nodded. "The day of the church is over." + +There was silence during which Charleton devoured beans, Douglas smoked, +and the preacher sat with his eyes on the slow moving herd. + +Finally Charleton said, "And why do you think something is the matter +with Lost Chief, Douglas?" + +"In other parts of the country," replied Douglas, his blue eyes fixed +unwaveringly on Charleton's dark face, "among people of our kind and +breed, a girl like Judith couldn't run with a girl like Inez and be +considered decent. And a couple like Jimmy and Little Marion couldn't +have a party a week after they were married, the baby attending, and be +considered O.K. by the so-called best folks and nothing more said." + +Charleton's face grew darkly red. "Who told you that?" he asked in an +ugly voice. + +"I'm not a fool, as I've told you before. And as you very well know, +I've wanted Judith for my wife ever since I was a boy and I haven't +wanted her man-handled. And you know, as Jude said once, a girl has about +as much chance of staying straight in Lost Chief as a cottontail has with +a coyote pack. She's good because, well, because she's Judith, that's +all. Now, I tell you when things are as hard as that for a young girl in +a beautiful place like our valley, there's something wrong. And look at +Little Marion!" + +"Leave her out or you'll regret it," snarled Charleton. + +"I'm not afraid of you, Charleton," said Douglas, with indifference not +at all assumed. "Little Marion is a peach of a girl. She should have been +a big influence. She's--she's had a wrong start." + +"She's got a fine baby and a good husband." + +"I never could argue with you, Charleton. But I know Lost Chief is a bad +place for girls. Why, I'll bet there isn't a finer bunch of girls than +ours in the world, for looks and nerve and smartness. Peter says he's +never seen any that could touch them. And take the stories you read. +Where's a heroine like Judith?" + +There was something so simple and so earnest in Doug's manner and voice +that the red died out of Charleton's face and he said, "I'm with you on +that point, Douglas." + +"Peter told me once," Douglas went on, "that the Greek race was the +finest in the world in their minds and their looks and in every way, +until the Greek women got promiscuous. That as soon as that happened the +race began to decay. And he said that there isn't a nation in the world +any stronger than the virtue of its women." + +"How old are you, Douglas?" asked Mr. Fowler. + +"Twenty-three. I just want to say this one thing more, then I'm through. +When things like that happen to Jimmy and Little Marion, they aren't +doing the right thing by Lost Chief, and"--rising with sudden restless +fire--"I'd like to see Lost Chief be the kind of place my grandfather +Douglas wanted it to be!" + +Charleton yawned. "We'd better be moving along." + +"Don't go for a minute," pleaded Mr. Fowler. "Douglas was right when he +said that the whole world is hungry for a belief in immortality. And as +long as the world exists it will have that hunger. And religion is God's +answer to that hunger. Civilization without religion is the body without +a soul. Religion brings a spiritual peace that man perpetually craves and +that riches or women or horses or the hunt never brought and never can +bring. At heart, there's not an unhappier man than you, Falkner. Why? +Because you have no belief in immortality." + +"Great God, Fowler, how can I believe in it when I can't?" shouted +Charleton. + +"Exactly! How can you?" returned Fowler, deliberately. "No foul-minded +man ever yet had an ear for the word of the living God." + +Charleton jumped to his feet. "What do you mean, you bastard cleric, +you!" + +"Aw, come off, Charleton!" exclaimed Douglas. "I've learned more dirt +from you than I bet Judith ever has from Inez. Come on, let's go get the +horses. Thanks for the grub, Mr. Fowler." + +"You are very welcome. Don't go away angry with me, Falkner. If I called +you foul-minded, you called me by a foul name." + +"I guess we're even," agreed Charleton. "I'm obliged to you for the +meal." He swung out of the wagon, mounted his horse and was off, Douglas +following. + +Charleton had hobbled his capture of horses in a little draw, several +miles from the sheep camp. In the excitement and hard work of herding the +creatures into the camp and re-hobbling them, there was no opportunity +to discuss the visit with the preacher sheep-herder. Nor did Douglas +wish to bring the matter up when, long after dark, they sat down to their +supper of venison and biscuits. He kept Charleton firmly to the story of +his capture of each horse and when this was done and the dishes washed, +he went to bed. + +But long after Charleton had crawled in beside him, Doug lay awake +thinking of Judith and of the preacher. He wondered what influence a +man like Fowler would have on a girl like Judith. He wondered if Judith +would come out with him to call on the preacher. He thought it highly +improbable. And then he thought of Peter and what Peter might have said +that day had he and not Charleton interrupted Doug and the preacher. For +the thousandth time, he thought of Peter's love for his mother and he +wondered how his mother had kept herself fine as Peter said she had. +Perhaps she had had some sort of religious faith. + +"I wish Grandfather Douglas had put the church up with the schoolhouse," +he said to himself. "Maybe it would have saved Judith as well as Scott +Parsons." + +Then he gasped. An idea of overwhelming importance had come to him. He +lay for an instant contemplating it, then he crept from the bunk and the +sheep wagon into the open. It was a frosty, star-lit night. The river +rushed like black oil, silver cakes of ice grinding above the roar of the +current. The Moose was munching on a wisp of alfalfa. Douglas saddled him +and led him softly out of hearing of the wagon, then sprang upon his back +and put him to the canter. + +Two hours later, Douglas was banging on the door frame of Fowler's +sheep-wagon. + +"It's just me, Douglas Spencer," he replied to the preacher's startled +query. "I had to come over to ask you something." + +A light flashed through the canvas. Then the door opened. "Come in! Come +in! Light the fire while I pull my boots on. This is like the days when I +was saving souls and marrying couples." + +Douglas quickly had a fire blazing and pulled the coffee-pot forward. He +pushed his hat back on his head and the candle-light threw into sharp +relief the firm set of his lips. His six-shooter banged on the bench as +he sat down and put one spurred boot on the hearth. The preacher perched +blinking on the edge of the bunk. Through the canvas came the endless +restless movement of myriad sheep. + +"Mr. Fowler," said Douglas, "I own some land that came to me from my +mother when I was twenty-one. If I build you a little church on it, will +you come to Lost Chief and live there and preach? I'll be responsible +for your wages." + +Fowler's face was inscrutable. "Why do you want me to come, Douglas?" + +For the first time, Doug's voice thickened. "I want you to help Lost +Chief and to save Judith." + +"Tell me about Judith." + +Douglas hesitated, then he asked, "Catholics have a thing they call +the confessional, haven't they? Well, it's a good idea if the chap they +confess to is the right kind. I don't believe a word of your religion +and yet I have a feeling that you are the right kind. Judith! She's +twenty-one now. I'm six foot one. She's about two inches shorter. Weighs, +I guess, fifty pounds lighter. Finest gray eyes you ever saw. Red cheeks. +Her mouth used to be too big, but now it's perfect. Rides and breaks a +horse better than any man in the Valley, bar none. Loves animals and can +tame and train anything. A great reader." + +Douglas paused. + +"She sounds very attractive. What's the trouble?" asked the preacher. + +Douglas twisted his hands together. "You know who Inez Rodman is. Well, +she is Jude's best friend! And she has formed all of Judith's ideas about +love and marriage." + +"Yet you say Judith is straight?" + +"She sure-gawd is! But how can it last? She's restless and discontented +and Inez is brilliant, feeds Judith's mind." + +"Has her mother any influence over her?" + +"None at all." + +"How about her father?" asked the preacher. + +"Of course, he's only her foster-father. She likes him and she hates him. +He certainly couldn't help her." + +"And you are sure there is no hope in Judith's mother?" + +"O she's just broken, like a patient fool horse. Good as gold, you know, +but with about as much influence over Jude as a kitten. Judith hasn't any +one to tie to, not any one. Peter is all right but he jaws too much. She +hasn't any one." + +"Doesn't she care for you?" + +"She says she's fond of me. Fond of me! I'd rather she hated me. I'd as +soon have a dish of cold mush from a woman like Jude, as fondness." + +"And do you think I could influence Judith?" + +"I don't know. But I want you to try. And it isn't all Judith with me. I +love Lost Chief. I never want to live anywhere else. And I'd like to see +it the kind of a place my grandfather Douglas wanted it to be. No, it +honestly isn't all for Judith, though she's the beginning and the end of +it." + +There was something almost affectionate in the preacher's deep-set eyes +as he watched Douglas. + +"Do you realize, my boy, what you are asking? When you bring a preacher +into Lost Chief, you are going to rouse an antagonism against yourself +that will astound you. These people are of New England stock. There is +no more intelligent stock in America, nor stock that is more conceited, +more narrow, more obstinate, nor more ruthless. And the farther a New +Englander gets from religion, the more brutal his virtues become. If you +take me into Lost Chief, you are going to start a depth of strife of +which we cannot foresee the end." + +"I hadn't thought of that," said Douglas. He rested his chin on his +palm and eyed the glowing stove thoughtfully. "I guess you are right," +finally; "nothing makes Lost Chief folks so mad as to have some one hint +they aren't perfect." Then he chuckled. "It'll be a real man's fight. I +wonder what Jude will say! Are you afraid, Mr. Fowler?" + +"Afraid? Yes! I'm not as young as I was once and I am not over-anxious +for such a struggle. But this thing isn't in my hands. If ever the +Almighty showed Himself a directing force, He is showing it here. This +is what He ordained from the day you drove me out of the schoolhouse. +Do you remember what I said to you?" + +"You quoted the Bible, I think. I don't remember what it was." + +"I said, 'Ye shall find no place to repent you, though ye seek for it +with tears.'" + +Douglas murmured the words over to himself. His face worked a little. +"It's true! It's the living truth!" he exclaimed unevenly. "Not that I've +got anything to repent--" he hesitated. "What is repentance? What is +life? Where is God, if there is a God? What does it all mean, anyhow?" + +The preacher said slowly, "'There is a Divinity that shapes our ends, +rough hew them as we will.' That's what it all means. When shall you be +ready for me, Douglas?" + +"I think the fall would be best. Suppose we say right after the round-up. +I'll look for you on the twentieth of September." + +"That will suit me. I can then give my boss ample notice." + +"What pay will you want, Mr. Fowler?" + +"Just enough to feed and clothe me. We'll arrange that after we get a +church established." + +Douglas rose with a broad grin. "I sure-gawd have let myself in for +something now," he said. "But I'll take care of you, Mr. Fowler." + +"All right, young Moses," returned the preacher, smiling into Doug's +eager face. "Good-night." + +Charleton was still sound asleep when Douglas at dawn lay down beside him +and slipped into dreamless slumber. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +THE LOG CHAPEL + +"Don't take any responsibility that you don't have to. That's my idea of +a happy life." + +--_Young Jeff_ + + +By eight o'clock the next morning they had broken camp and had started +homeward, with their kicking, squealing herd of wild horses. The little +black mare alone led docilely. It was a difficult trip back to the +valley and Douglas was grateful for this, for it kept Charleton from +airing the cynical comments Douglas knew he was evolving in regard to +the preacher. And Douglas was filled with a new purposefulness that was +almost happiness. He did not want Charleton to obtrude himself upon this +new-found content. + +They reached Lost Chief late one afternoon and Douglas found himself and +the trembling mare at home in time for supper. The family came out to +the corral to examine the prize. + +"She's got some mighty good points," said John; "but I doubt if you'll +ever be able to do anything with her. She's wild. And she'll die of +homesickness for the range. Once in a while you see 'em like that." + +"She has an intelligent eye." Judith was going over the horse eagerly. + +Douglas smiled a little. The range horse, with its slender, hard-muscled +beauty, was no finer drawn than Judith circling carefully about the +corral, the wind whipping her black hair across her thin, vivid face. + +"I don't believe she'll eat with us all watching her," said Mary. "Let's +go in to our own supper." + +"She'll have to eat pretty soon or give up." Douglas followed Judith +into the kitchen. "She hasn't eaten a pound since I caught her." + +"Poor little thing!" exclaimed Judith. + +At supper Douglas gave the details of the hunt, which were greeted by +the family with considerable hilarity. + +"One no-account horse to show for a week's hard work!" laughed John. + +But Douglas was not perturbed. + +"I don't mind," he said. "Wild horses was the least of what I went after +and, as it turned out, the least of what I got. I met Mr. Fowler." + +"The old preacher?" exclaimed Judith. "Where was he?" + +"He starved out at preaching and is herding sheep down in the Green +Thimble country. He fed Charleton and me and we had a long talk." + +"You had nerve to eat with him after what you did to him!" John was +grinning. + +"I felt that way myself," agreed Douglas. "But he didn't hold a grudge +against me. He's not that kind. And I think he was so lonely he'd have +been glad to feed the Old Nick himself." + +"Who is he herding for?" asked Mary. + +"Some one in Denver. He's going to give it up in the fall." + +"What for? Got a church?" John was still grinning. + +Douglas nodded slowly. "Yes, he's got a church." + +"Did he tell you where?" asked Mary. + +"Yes; it's in Lost Chief," replied Douglas. + +"Lost Chief!" roared John. "What are you giving us?" + +"I'm giving it to you straight. I asked him if he would come if I'd +build him a little church up on my part of the ranch and he said he +would." + +There was a stunned silence while the audience of three considered this +reply. Judith eyed Doug intently, then said, "I bite! What is the joke, +Douglas?" + +"No joke. I asked him to come. I want to hear what he has to say." + +"What did Charleton say about it?" asked Mary. + +"Charleton doesn't know. I certainly wouldn't give him a chance to spoil +the trip." Douglas tossed the thick yellow hair from his forehead and +waited for his father's comment. He could not recall ever having carried +on a more difficult conversation than this. There were beads of sweat on +his upper lip. Old Fowler had warned him of the antagonism he would +meet. And here it was. The air was black with it before a hundred words +had been spoken. + +John scratched his head. "You mean you actually asked that old fool to +come here and preach in Lost Chief?" + +Douglas nodded over a piece of pie. "Only," he added, "he's not a fool. +Far from it. We may not agree with him, but he's a wise man. A very wise +old man." + +"And you are going to build a church for him?" John went on. + +Again Douglas nodded. + +"Are you plumb loco?" John's voice began to rise. + +Douglas' color was deepening but he had himself well in hand. "Maybe I +am loco. But it can't hurt any one to have Fowler here, can it?" + +"I guess he won't stay long enough to do any actual harm!" Judith +laughed. + +"He's going to stay quite a spell," returned Doug. "I'm going to see +that he does." + +"But everybody will make fun of him and of you too," volunteered Mary. + +"Probably," agreed Douglas. "But even at that I doubt if they have as +much fun as I do. My sense of humor is my strong point!" + +"Huh!" sniffed Judith. "You'll need more than what you have, Douglas, in +this campaign." + +"Look here, Doug," urged his father with an obvious effort to be +patient, "just what is the joke?" + +"Now listen, Dad! It's not a joke. I'm in deadly earnest. I haven't got +a particle of religion in me but I'm interested in that line of talk to +see if I can discover what other folks get out of it. Peter Knight is +not a fool. He knows the world and he says Lost Chief needs a church. +All right, it's going to have one." + +"Peter Knight is some advocate, all right!" growled John. "He's always +saying he had a religious up-bringing, and look at him! Fourth-class +postmaster in a cow valley!" + +"I don't suppose his religious up-bringing had a thing to do with that," +said Douglas. + +"Then what's the good of a religion?" John's voice was triumphant. +Douglas said nothing and his father went on. "You'll be the +laughing-stock of the Valley. You can let on you won't care, but I know +you will." + +"Yes, I'll care," admitted Douglas. "But that can't be helped. It seems +to be a part of the game." + +"Well, he can't come to this house!" roared John. "I wouldn't have one +of that breed on the place. Mind you keep him off this ranch, Doug." + +"I expected you to say that." Douglas' jaw was set. "That's why I plan +to build him a cabin up on my section. Grandfather's old cabin isn't +worth fixing up." + +He did not look at Judith as he spoke. Had he done so he would have been +puzzled by the wistfulness in her eyes. + +"I sure wonder, Doug," said John irritably, "where you get your crazy +notions!" + +"He's exactly like his grandfather Douglas!" exclaimed Mary. + +"His grandfather Douglas!" cried John. "Why, the old man would kick the +stones off his grave if he knew what his grandson was up to. He used to +boast that he came West just to get rid of the Presbyterians and the +Allopaths. Nothing he hated like a sky pilot!" + +Douglas rose and shrugged his shoulders. "Well," he said, "if I'm as +popular with the rest of the Valley as I am with my family, I'm liable +to have my head turned before this thing is over," and he went out to +attend to his chores. + +As he paused by the corral fence to watch the little wild horse standing +motionless over the untasted hay, Judith joined him. + +"Looks as if Dad might be right about her," he said. + +"I'd like to try my hand at her, Douglas." Judith's voice was eager. + +"You may have her, Jude. I was hoping to bring you in two or three, but +Fate said otherwise." + +"I'm much obliged to you, Douglas," said Judith soberly. "You are always +mighty generous--" She hesitated for a moment. "I wish you weren't going +in for this thing with the preacher, Doug." + +"O well, let's drop the matter!" said Douglas wearily, and without a +word further Judith turned away. + +The next morning at breakfast, John was irritable and would not let the +subject of Fowler's coming rest. + +"What did Charleton say?" he asked. + +"Charleton doesn't know," replied Douglas, patiently. "He wasn't there +when I talked it over with the preacher." + +"I'll bet he wasn't or you never would have gotten away with it," +growled John. + +"Sure! I'm a nervous man about Charleton," grinned Douglas. "Come now, +Dad! Why should you be sore at the idea?" + +"Lots of reasons! I hate a man who thinks he's enough superior to me to +tell me how to behave. And I feel sore as a pup that my son should be +bringing such a man into the Valley. All the folks will say you are +criticizing them. I'm not going to let you do it, Douglas!" + +Douglas gave a short laugh, which was echoed by Judith. + +John grew red. "My father would have thrashed me when I was a grown man +if I'd laughed at him like that!" + +"O well, look at the man he was!" chuckled Judith. + +"Don't you speak that way to me!" roared John. "The children of this +generation certainly are a bad lot! But one thing you two will remember. +I'm master of this house and as long as you stay here you'll obey me! +And you just let me hear you telling anybody, Doug, of your crazy plan +and you'll learn for the first time what I am!" + +"Then you won't help me put up my buildings?" asked Douglas. + +"Not for the use of any fool preacher!" shouted his father. + +Douglas lighted a cigarette and went out. For the first time a sense of +disappointment marred the beauty of the plan he had perfected with the +preacher. He realized now that he had counted on Judith's being +interested even were she antagonistic. But she was indifferent. He would +have preferred that she be resentful like his father. There was nothing +tangible there to struggle against. One could neither fight nor urge +indifference. Then he set his jaws. Judith should see! He knew whither +he was going now. He had found the fine straight line of which Peter had +spoken, long ago, and he would hew to it, at whatever cost. And Judith +could not, must not fail him. If only he knew the things she really +thought! His jaw was still set as he watched the little wild mare, now +ceaselessly circling the corral fence, her face to the hills. Judith +crossed to the bars and Douglas turned away. + +There still was too much frost in the ground for spring work on the +ranch and it would be a month before the cattle could be driven up into +the Reserve. It was during this month that Douglas had planned to put up +two cabins on his ranch, one for the church, the other for himself and +Fowler to occupy. He had accumulated a sufficient number of logs to more +than supply his needs and he had counted on his father's help in +erecting the buildings. He wondered now if Peter would help him, and old +Johnny Brown. That afternoon he rode down to the post-office. + +Peter was breathlessly interested. "You'd better keep it quiet, Doug, +till the old man gets here," he said. "If you get old Johnny up there, +don't give him an inkling." + +Douglas nodded. "Then I can count on you, Peter?" + +The postmaster eyed the young rider keenly. John Spencer had never been +the man his son had grown to be! + +"Do you mean count on me for the plan or the cabins?" asked Peter. + +"Both!" + +"Yes, you can, Douglas! I don't know whether the plan is a good one or +not. But I'm delighted to see you taking a step like this. It's +gratifying to me, Doug. It is indeed; and I know your mother would have +been delighted." Peter's voice broke, and he said harshly, "Now, get +along, Doug. I've got to sort the mail." + +For the first time that day, Douglas' lips wore a little smile. He +whistled to Prince, who had grown too lazy of late to propitiate Sister +as he had in his younger days and who was keeping that growling old +Amazon at her distance by snapping at her viciously. Prince lunged over +to Pard's heels and Doug started off for his call on Johnny Brown. + +"I deponed I'd come, didn't I?" asked old Johnny. "It's been a gregus +long time and I'm only half-muscled as well as half-witted now. But I'll +come. I'd help you build a cabin in hell if you wanted me to. Honest, I +would, Doug." + +Douglas did not laugh. "Thanks, Johnny! Then I'll look for you +to-morrow." + +"I deponed I'd come, didn't I?" repeated the old fellow, and he was +still deponing when Douglas started homeward. + +Peter inveigled Young Jeff into taking the post-office for a couple of +weeks. Post-office keeping did not accord at all with the ideas of +pleasant living of the native-born of Lost Chief. Undoubtedly if Peter +had not offered his services year after year there would have been, a +great part of the time, no post-office in the Valley. But Peter had +means of his own with which to piece out the salary and for some +inscrutable reason he clung to the sort of prestige he enjoyed in the +community as a Federal employee. His friends always protested violently +at substituting for him, but always gave in, fearful lest Peter carry +out his threat of giving up the job. So he appeared at Douglas' ranch, +bright and early, bringing a graphic account of Young Jeff's despair +over a pile of second-class mail. + +Lost Chief Creek bordered one edge of Douglas' acres. Dead Line Peak +pushed an abrupt shoulder into the stream at the northwest corner. Below +this shoulder lay a grove of silvery aspens and of blue spruce, dripping +with great bronze cones. Just above the flood line of the creek, Douglas +trimmed out enough trees from the grove to give elbow-room for the +cabins and corrals. By the end of Peter's two weeks, the heaviest part +of the building had been done. + +On the last day of the fortnight--it had been a very pleasant fortnight +for Peter--he and Douglas dawdled long over their noon meal while old +Johnny began the work he loved, the chinking of the log walls. Leaning +against a log at the edge of the clearing, Lost Chief Valley sloped +below them. A blue line of smoke rose from the Spencer chimney. + +"Dad is sure sore at me this time," said Douglas. "He's hardly spoken to +me for a week." + +"About Fowler, I suppose." + +"Yes. He feels that I am disgracing him. He's sure I'm going to turn +religious. I can't make him believe that that is not why I'm bringing +Fowler in." + +"What is your real reason, Doug?" asked Peter, taking a huge bite of +cold fried beef. + +"I don't want to turn religious. I don't want to be anything that's +queer or unreasonable. What I want is to get to believe--in a future +life." + +Peter laughed. "Isn't that religion?" + +"I don't think so! You can believe in immortality without believing in +miracles and that Eve was made out of a man's rib, and without being +goody-goody." + +Peter made no comment for a moment. He finished his beef and lighted his +pipe before he said, "I have an idea that the kind of a mind that can +believe in the soul's floating around in space can swallow the rib story +without much choking. What I want to see in Lost Chief is the kind of +ethics that Christ taught." + +"Ethics! Ethics!" scoffed the younger man. "Who gives a hang about +ethics if they aren't going to help us live again? You can bet I don't! +Ethics may do for a cold-blooded guy like you, Peter. But me! I want +something as big and as real and as warm-looking as Fire Mesa." + +"Poor old Fowler!" groaned Peter. + +Douglas glanced at the postmaster questioningly; then his eyes wandered +back toward the ranch house. A tiny figure in blue leaped on a horse and +was off at a gallop. + +"Judith's going to Inez' place," said Douglas. + +"She sees too much of Inez!" Peter scowled. "Her mind is getting exactly +Inez' twist to it." + +"There was a time when you told me Inez could give Judith good advice." +Doug's voice was bitter. + +"So she could. But I never said Inez and Jude should be buddies, did I?" + +Douglas threw his cigarette into the creek and rolled over on his face +with a groan. "I'm sick of worrying about it!" he said. + +"Does she still talk about going the round of the rodeos with a string +of buckers?" + +"No. She says that was just kid stuff. She has an idea now she'll breed +thoroughbred horses." Douglas turned over on his back and gazed up into +the heavens, where an eagle hung, motionless. + +"Lord! Breeding horses is no work for Jude!" cried Peter. + +Douglas did not reply. Peter eyed the young man's clean, hawk-like +profile and went on. "What does she say about you and Fowler?" + +"She laughs at me." + +"Do you think you can get her in touch with Fowler?" + +Douglas sat up with a jerk. "Get her in touch with him? Say, what do you +think I'm bringing that sky pilot in here for? You can bet she'll get in +touch with him! I'll show that girl I haven't played all my cards yet!" + +Peter stared long and unblinkingly at Douglas. "Well, I'll be damned!" +he muttered and filled his pipe again. + +The summer passed for Douglas with extraordinary rapidity. Profiting by +the experience of the previous winter, every rancher put in as heavy a +grain crop as he could handle and there was little leisure in the Valley +during July and August. Lost Chief was, of course, immensely interested +in Doug's building operations. He was accused of planning to be married +and conjecture ran rife. When he began work in the interior of the log +chapel, he hung burlap bags over the windows and locked the doors. But +his precautions were futile. By the middle of June, every ranch in the +valley was talking about Douglas Spencer's motion-picture hall and +wondered why he was building it so far from the center of the +community. The truth came out in an entirely unexpected manner. + +About a week before he expected the preacher, Douglas rode down in the +evening for his mail. Peter had gone to Mountain City on a rare visit +and Young Jeff was acting as postmaster again. Scott Parsons was helping +him sort the mail and it was Scott who fell upon a battered suitcase, +tied with frayed rope. + +"What's this mess?" he exclaimed. "Let's see this tag." He shoved the +suitcase close to the lamp. "'The Rev. Mr. James Fowler. Care of Douglas +Spencer.'" Scott looked up with an oath. "What do you know about this!" +he gasped. + +Douglas, standing with his back to the cold stove, said nothing. + +Young Jeff dropped the handful of letters he was distributing, and +examined the tag for himself. "Old Fowler, eh? Thought he was dead long +ago. What's he coming to see you for, Doug? Going to preach--" He paused +and his eyes grew round. "Doug's motion-picture theater! The sky pilot! +That cabin is a church!" + +Scott gave a gasp, followed by a shout of laughter. "How about it, +Doug?" + +Douglas grinned. + +"What are you doing, Douglas? Starting a ranch for broken-down sky +pilots?" asked Young Jeff. + +Still Douglas made no reply. He strode over to the table and put his +hand on the suitcase. + +"Hold on!" protested Scott. "Answer a few questions. What are you trying +to put over on us, Douglas?" + +"You'll know, pretty soon," answered Doug. + +"Well, you always were loco but I never thought you'd get real +dangerous, till now!" exclaimed Young Jeff. "Listen, don't try to put +that guy over on us, Doug!" + +Scott stood eying Douglas with a mixture of curiosity and impatience in +his hard eyes. He had just parted his lips to speak when the door opened +and Charleton and Jimmy came in. + +"Look at here, Charleton!" roared Young Jeff. "Look at the address on +this bag!" + +The two newcomers scrutinized the tag. "Well," said Jimmy, "I'll be +everlastingly dehorned, vaccinated and branded!" + +Charleton's mouth twisted. "So the old fool got you, Doug! You've got +hard nerve, that's all I have to say!" + +"Nerve! I'll say so!" cried Scott. "What's the great idea, Doug? Going +to bring Lost Chief up to your level, huh?" + +Douglas' cheeks were burning. He jerked the suitcase from the table and +started for the door. + +"Believe me, cowman," called Scott after him, "you and the sky pilot +have laid out a course of trouble for yourselves." + +Douglas paused with his hand on the latch. "You are a pack of coyotes!" +he said and he slammed the door after himself. + +And so the secret was out! Nothing that had occurred in the Valley for +years had stirred the ranchers so deeply. There was much joking and +derisive laughter but beneath this was a sense of resentment that grew +day by day. Grandma Brown, Peter of course, and Frank Day were +sympathetic to the idea. Some of the older women wondered if it might +not be a good thing in giving the young fry a place to go on Sundays. +But the young fry, with huge enjoyment not untinged with malice, planned +to run the preacher out of the Valley in short order and to mete out +such treatment to Douglas as would prevent his making a like fool of +himself again. + +Douglas had set up housekeeping in the new cabin now, and on the night +before he expected Mr. Fowler, Judith rode up to see his new home. Old +Johnny had gone down to the post-office and Douglas finished his supper +and was sitting on the doorstep when Judith galloped up, with the Wolf +Cub under the heels of her mount. + +"This is my first real ride on the little wild mare," she said, dropping +from the saddle. + +"Has she gotten over her homesickness, yet?" asked Douglas. + +"I think so. At least, she follows me around about as close as Wolf Cub +does." + +"You are a wonder, Judith! I wish you thought as much of me as you do of +your horses and dog." + +"You wouldn't let me train you, Doug," said Judith plaintively. + +Douglas laughed. "A whole lot you'd think of a man you could train!" + +Judith laughed, too, sitting down on the step beside Douglas. For a +moment she was silent, then she said softly: "How you must love it up +here!" + +"I do! But I'll be glad when old Johnny can be with me all the time. I +don't like this bachelor stuff." + +"You and Scott ought to join forces," Judith's voice was mischievous. +"By the way, Scott's heard of a standard bred mare he can get me for +five hundred dollars." + +"I wouldn't trust Scott to pick a horse for me," grunted Douglas. + +"And you'd be foolish if you did," agreed Judith. "But he'll play fair +enough with me." + +"He will if it's to his interest to do so. If he can make anything off +you by being crooked, he'll be crooked. But I suppose there's no use in +me warning you. Have you got the money for the mare?" + +"Only half of it. All the stock I've been able to raise and sell in the +last five years amounts to about two hundred and fifty-six dollars." + +"I'll lend you the rest," offered Douglas. + +"Dad said he'd let me have it, and so did Inez. But I'd rather borrow +from you." + +Douglas flushed with pleasure. "Had you, Judith? Tell me why!" + +"I don't like to be under obligations to Dad; and Inez' money--well, I +don't feel keen about her money. As for you--Doug, it's queer, but I'd +just as soon ask you for anything. I don't know whether it's a +compliment to you or not." + +"I consider it a compliment," said Douglas softly. "I had no idea you +had that sort of confidence in me." + +"O, I'm not such a wild woman that I don't know a real man when I see +one, Doug,--even if you are making an idiot of yourself just now! You +should have planned to be more tactful about bringing your old sky pilot +in here." + +"Tactful! What a word!" exclaimed Douglas, "For heaven's sake, Jude, +don't you get the idea better than that? This is a matter of--" He +hesitated, at a loss for a moment for a word that should tell Judith +something of the yearning conflict that obsessed him. "This is a +battle," he said finally, "a fight to the finish for--for--" then he +blurted out the word that in Lost Chief was taboo--"for souls!" +exclaimed Douglas. + +Judith looked at him quickly; but to Douglas' vast relief she did not +laugh. Instead, her eyes were deep with some emotion he could not name. + +"I don't think I understand you, Doug," she said at last. "I couldn't +get so worked up over anything that had to do with religion. But I do +see that it means a lot to you and I think you're foolish to trust to a +man like Fowler to put anything over in this valley for you." + +"You don't know my old sky pilot like I do," insisted Doug. + +"Yes, you must have got a deep knowledge of him in one night!" + +"I sure did!" said Douglas simply. + +"You are sure that you realize how bitterly the Valley resents your +doing this?" + +"Yes. And the Valley had better realize, if it plans trouble, that I'm +neither soft, nor easy." + +"I just wish you weren't trying to do it," repeated Judith. + +"What do you want me to do?" asked Douglas. + +"Why, be a first-class rancher, make money, and travel and learn +something about life." + +"That's what I plan to do. But I want to do more than that. I want to +fix Lost Chief so that a couple of kids like you and me don't have to +learn all they know about real things from a woman like Inez and a man +like Charleton. And if a sky pilot can answer those questions right, why +I'm going to have one in here if I have to mount guard on him, day and +night. My kids are going to grow up right here in Lost Chief and they +aren't going round like little wild horses when it comes to asking +questions about love and death. No, ma'am!" + +"Oh! What does old Fowler know about such things?" cried Judith. + +"That's what I aim to find out," replied Doug. + +Twilight was up on the valley, though Falkner's Peak still glowed +crimson in outline, and the Forest Reserve to the east was silver blue, +shot with lines of flame. The evening star trembled above Fire Mesa. Up +on Dead Line Peak behind them, a pack of coyotes barked. + +"We miss you down at the house," said Judith suddenly. + +Douglas' heart suddenly lifted. There was a sweetness in Judith's voice +that he never before had heard there. + +"I miss you, Judith! Every moment of the day I'm missing you. The ache +for you in my heart is as much a part of my life as my very +heart-throbs." + +"I wish you wouldn't, Douglas! I wish you wouldn't! I'm not ready to +talk of those things!" + +"What do you mean, Judith?" + +"I mean that I don't see love as you see it; that even if I did care for +any one, I'm not ready to give way to it." + +She paused as if she too were struggling to express the inarticulate. +"O, I am so disappointed in life! It isn't at all what I thought it +would be! People aren't what I dreamed they were. Everything is hard and +rough and difficult. I don't like life a bit!" + +"I don't like it as it is, either," agreed Douglas. "That's why I'm +trying to change it, here in Lost Chief. But I wouldn't change my love +for you, no matter how it hurts. That's the one beautiful thing in Lost +Chief and in me." + +He turned to the face, so dimly rebellious, so vaguely sweet in the +dark, and his whole soul was in his steady deep voice. + +"Judith, won't you marry me? You are my whole life!" + +Judith's voice rose passionately. "Don't talk about it! Don't! I don't +believe in marriage. I tell you I don't, Douglas!" + +"Why not?" + +"I've told you again and again. Marriage is too hard on a woman. Why +should I want to cook your meals and darn your socks and wash your +clothes for you the rest of my life? Yes, and listen to you swear and +lay down the law and spit tobacco juice? And when I'm a little older and +beginning to get knotty with the hard work, see you take notice of girls +who are younger and prettier than I. No, Doug!" + +"O, love isn't like that!" exclaimed Douglas vehemently. + +"My love won't be like that, I can tell you!" The excitement still was +evident in Judith's voice. "I'm not going to kill it, by marrying." + +"I wish that Inez were dead and in hell!" cried Douglas, with such an +accumulation of bitterness in his voice that Judith drew a quick breath. +"And I wish I could quit loving you! I tried my best to, all the time I +was at Charleton's. But I can't! It just grows as I grow and every day +it's a bigger pain and trouble to me. I wish I could have peace!" + +"I wish I could have it myself!" ejaculated the girl. She rose suddenly. +"I'm so tired of this burning struggle. But I won't settle down to being +an old horse on a ranch. I will do something that gives me a chance to +use my brain. I will!" + +She leaped into the saddle. + +Douglas seized the mare's bridle. "Just what do you mean by being tired +of a burning struggle?" he demanded tensely. "Are you caring for +somebody, Jude?" + +"Let me go, Douglas," said Judith. + +For a moment, the two stared at each other in the fading light, then +Douglas released the bridle and Judith galloped away. + +He stood very still for a long time, gazing down the dim line of the +trail. How lonely, how very lonely Judith appeared to be! How lonely, +for that matter, were most people, pondering in the solitude of their +own minds on all the matters of life that really counted. And how +utterly impossible it seemed to be for him and Judith to cross the +threshold of each other's reticences. More difficult perhaps for Judith +than for him. That, perhaps, was because she did not love him. Or +perhaps, because she was not capable of feeling sympathy for spiritual +hunger. But he put aside this thought, impatiently. No one could have +lived with Judith and not have learned that below her tempestuous nature +must be deeps greater than even she herself had realized. Why, O why, +could he never have more than a glimpse of those deeps! Evidently +something more than love was demanded as a password. + +He had been able, quickly enough, at her request to formulate his own +demands on life. What were Judith's demands? Were they only for a love +that should be unhampered by the ordinary facts of life? He knew that +this could not be so. Yet, he had grown up with Judith, had asked her to +marry him, and had no idea of what her actual mental and spiritual needs +might be. Perhaps they were such that he never could satisfy them. +Perhaps Judith recognized this. Of course, she recognized it!--as a +bitter memory of her picture of marriage in Lost Chief returned to him. +With a groan he bowed his head against the smooth trunk of an aspen. How +utterly inexplicable women were! How bitter and how beautiful was this +scourging fire, called love! + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +THE FIRST SERMON + +"I ain't able to think. That's why I'm pretty generally happy." + +--_Old Johnny Brown_. + + +By dawn the next morning Douglas was half-way up the trail to the Pass. +He did not know at what hour the preacher would arrive, but he did not +propose that the old man should enter Lost Chief without his protection. +When he reached the crest, he unsaddled the Moose and settled himself +against a gigantic jade rock beside the trail and prepared to wait +patiently. + +The sun lifted slowly over the unspeakable glory of the ranges and +poured its glory down upon the Pass, then swung westward, leaving a +chill shadow beside the rock where Douglas was camping. It was +mid-afternoon when the stage came through from the half-way house. Old +Johnny Brown was driving. + +As he pulled up the horses for a rest, he saw Douglas and smiled +delightedly. + +"Waiting for me, Douglas?" + +Douglas shook his head. "I came up to meet a friend, Johnny." + +The little old man stared at Douglas; then he said fretfully, "I don't +see why Grandma Brown had to go and make me drive the gregus old stage +for a week. I deponed to her that I had to get up there and take care of +you. When that preacher comes, you'll need me, Doug. There's lots of +trouble brewing, boy." + +"What kind, Johnny?" + +"They always shut up and look rejus when I come round. But I know enough +to sabez that bunch even if I am a half-wit." + +"I'm not so sure you are a half-wit, Johnny," said Douglas sincerely. + +The old man's face brightened. "That's just the way I feel about it too, +Douglas. You're the only person in the Valley understands me. You could +have my shirt, Doug." + +Douglas nodded. "You get through with the stage as soon as you can, +Johnny. Tell Grandma I expect you on Monday." + +Johnny clucked firmly at his team. "I'll be there. Nothing can't propone +me," and he was gone in a cloud of dust. + +It was an hour later that the preacher rounded the curve to the crest. +Douglas threw the saddle on the Moose and Fowler pulled up his bony blue +roan in surprise. He was thinner and grayer than ever and his blue +jumper was patched with pieces of burlap. But his eyes were bright as he +shook hands with Douglas. + +"I'm the Committee on Welcome!" said the young rider. + +"How long have you been waiting for me, Douglas?" asked Fowler. + +"Since daybreak. I couldn't be sure when you'd come. And I didn't want +you to come into Lost Chief alone." + +"Are you expecting trouble immediately?" asked the preacher. + +"Well," replied Douglas frankly, "the folks are just about as +enthusiastic as if I were bringing a Mormon into the Valley. And I just +don't aim to give them a chance to start anything till we get a little +bit settled." + +The old man's jaw set, under his beard. "Humph! They'll find the Lord +and me both ready for them. I have an idea they are going to be +surprised before they are through with this." + +Douglas nodded and they rode down into the Valley. When they trotted +past the post-office, the usual group was gathered on the steps. Doug +and the preacher nodded but did not draw rein. Old Sister came out +sedately and growled at Prince, but Peter did not leave the doorstep. + +"What's your hurry, old-timers?" shouted Jimmy Day. + +"A long way to go," called Douglas. + +"Your hazer needs a shave!" said some one else. + +"We'll do it for him Sunday!" cried another voice. + +"Oil up your cannon, Doug," laughed Charleton, "and unchain the dogs of +war." + +Douglas trotted sedately on. + +"I wonder why it is! I wonder why!" said Fowler, very real pain in his +voice. + +"They think we're criticizing them," answered Douglas; adding, with his +pleasant grin, "which we are!" + +It was dark when they reached Douglas' ranch. Before they had unsaddled, +Fowler insisted on lighting a lantern and inspecting the chapel. +Douglas, not at all adverse, for he was very proud of this work of his +hands, followed the old man in his microscopic inspection of the little +building. It was small and dim, with a smell of new cedar. To Douglas, +already there was something hallowed about the quiet interior as if +somehow the yearning with which he had builded it had given the +insensate wood a curious high purposefulness. + +Fowler examined the benches and sat for a moment on several of them. He +flashed the lantern along the carefully chinked walls, the rose tints of +the cedar glowing warmly back at him. He walked slowly up and down the +center aisle and paused before the platform, on which was a table and +chair. For a long time he stood with one hand on the table. Then he +said: + +"It's beautiful, Douglas! Beautiful! A chapel for me! Built by a young +man that has faith in me. Wonderful! And built with such free-hearted +care! For me to preach in! Why, a minister of a great metropolis might +well envy me such a gift!" + +He paused again, turning the lantern so that the tapestried colors of +the walls again flashed forth. + +"Stained glass!" half whispered the old man. "Already it has the air of +a church. Douglas, we'll consecrate it now." + +He knelt before the platform and Douglas bowed his head. + +"O God, my Father and my Shepherd," said Fowler, "You have led my +wandering steps to this fragrant evidence of a young man's heart. How +beautiful it is, O God, and how holy, You know. Help me to keep it so, +Heavenly Father, and help me to make Lost Chief find it so. And, O God, +put Your great arm about this young man and keep it there until he +realizes that it is Your arm supporting him. I thank You, O Everlasting +Mercy, for leading me to this resting-place for my soul. Amen." + +And it seemed to Douglas, bowing his head in the dusk, that the chapel +itself was listening in a brooding peace. + +After a moment, the old man rose and led the way out the door, which +Douglas locked, then turned the key over to the preacher. + +"It's yours, now," he said with a little, embarrassed, laugh. "I'm only +the guard." + +Fowler put the key carefully into his pocket. "If anything should +happen to that chapel, it would break my heart," he said. + +"We mustn't let anything happen to it. That's our job," returned Douglas +stoutly. + +The next morning, Saturday, Douglas left the preacher while he went down +to his father's place for his day's work. He was as nervous as a mother +with her first baby all day and he galloped the Moose back up the trail +long before sunset. When Mr. Fowler waved at him from the door of the +cabin, he gave a gusty sigh of relief. + +While Doug was cooking the bacon for supper he asked the preacher what +was to be the subject of the morrow's sermon. + +"I was going to preach on the Golden Rule," replied Mr. Fowler. + +"No," said Douglas decidedly. "You give 'em a talk on the hereafter and +why you think there is one." He lighted a cigarette and cut more bacon. + +"Young man, are you presuming to dictate to me how to preach the word of +God?" + +"I sure am!" grinning with the cigarette between his white teeth. "I'm +in this thing up to my horns and I don't aim to make any false moves +that I can help. I've been reading the New Testament this summer. So +far, the most I've got out of it is that Christ was the most diplomatic +preacher that ever lived. Let's be as diplomatic as we can. What's the +use of preaching slush to a lot of sensible, hard-thinking folks who +don't believe in anything." + +The preacher bit his knuckles and took a turn or two up and down the +cabin. Douglas noted with a little sense of pity the extreme thinness of +the rounded shoulders under the denim jumper. Douglas dished the bacon +and put a loaf of Mary's bread beside the fried potatoes. + +"Show us that our souls go marching on like old John Brown's," said the +young man, persuasively, "and you'll have all Lost Chief eating out of +your hand." + +"You talk of faith," cried Fowler impatiently, "as if it were a problem +in algebra." + +Douglas hesitated. "Maybe I do." His voice suddenly trembled. + +Fowler paused as he was about to seat himself at the table. "I hear a +horse!" he said. + +Douglas went to the door. + +"It's just me!" called Grandma Brown's voice. "Come and help me down. I +was up to see your mother this afternoon," she went on as Douglas helped +her dismount, "and I thought I'd come along up and have a visit with the +preacher." + +"That's fine!" exclaimed Douglas. "Come in, Grandma. We're just drawing +up to the table." + +"Good," sighed the old lady; "I'm half starved. Howdy, Mr. Fowler! +Haven't had enough of Lost Chief yet, huh?" + +The preacher rose and shook hands. "Not yet, Mrs. Brown! Will you draw +up?" + +The old lady plumped down at the table and Douglas, loaded her plate and +poured her a cup of coffee. "The older folks," she said abruptly, "won't +make you any trouble. Charleton Falkner and some of his pals will be +smarty, but the young fry will sure try to break up every meeting you +have." + +"The modern youngster is pretty rough!" sighed the preacher. + +"Here in Lost Chief," agreed Grandma promptly, "they are the most +rough-and-tumble, catch-as-catch-can batch of young coyotes that ever +lived. They don't respect God, man, nor the devil. And why should they? +That's educated into children, not born into them." + +"How do you feel about my coming back, Mrs. Brown?" asked Fowler. + +Grandma hesitated; then she said, "I'm too old to be polite, James +Fowler. I'm a religious woman, myself, and I've often said we'd ought to +have a church in Lost Chief. But it isn't men like you can start a +church here. You are too religious and too goody-goody." + +The preacher winced. Douglas came to his rescue. "We're going to show +Lost Chief that he's not goody-goody." + +Grandma shook her head. "I wish you luck, but, with all the nerve in the +world, you can't preach to them that won't hear." + +"Do you know what deviltry they've planned for to-morrow?" asked +Douglas. + +Grandma shook her head. "All I know is, Scott Parsons is the leader. He +sees a chance to get back at you." + +Douglas finished his bacon thoughtfully. "All right," he said finally; +"let 'em come. I'm waiting." + +"Well," said Grandma briskly, "I didn't come up here to give advice. I +wanted a gossip with an old-timer. Mr. Fowler, you was up in Mountain +City when that Black Sioux outbreak took place. Did you know Emmy Blake, +she that was stolen by old Red Feather?" + +"Yes," replied Fowler, with a sudden clearing of his somber face. "I saw +her when--" and he plunged into a tale that, matched by one from +Grandma, consumed the evening. + +At nine o'clock the old lady rose. + +"I'll ride down the trail with you," said Douglas. + +"You fool!" sniffed the old lady. "Since when have folks begun nursing +me over these trails?" + +"That's not the point," returned Doug. "I want to see Peter." + +"Well, come along, then," conceded Grandma. She pulled on her mackinaw +and buttoned it. The nights were very cold. + +The next morning, a placard on the post-office door announced to Lost +Chief that a meeting would be held in the log chapel on Sunday at two +o'clock; and by that hour every soul in Lost Chief capable of moving was +packed into the little cabin. + +After his talk with Peter, Douglas had changed his program. The +postmaster, not the preacher, sat at the table. He wore a black coat +over a blue flannel shirt, a coat that Lost Chief never saw except at +funerals or weddings. His denim pants were turned up with a deep cuff +over his riding-boots. The preacher sat on a chair, just below the +platform. Douglas occupied a rear pew where he could keep an eye on +Scott Parsons. There was very little talking among the members of the +congregation, but much spitting of tobacco juice into the red-hot stove. + +Promptly at two o'clock, Peter rose and cleared his throat. "Well, +folks, Douglas says he's trying to put into practice some of the stuff +I've been preaching to him. So I suppose I'm to blame for this meeting. +Now, there isn't anybody can accuse me of being religious." + +"A fourth-class postmaster couldn't be religious," remarked Charleton +Falkner. + +"They always go crazy about the second year of office," volunteered John +Spencer. + +Everybody laughed, even Peter. Then he went on: + +"So when I say I'm going to back Doug up in this experiment you none of +you can say it's because I'm pious. It's because I think Lost Chief +ought to have a church to help the young people decide the right and +wrong of things." + +"How come, Peter?" demanded Jimmy Day. "Ain't the young folks round here +pleasing to your bachelor eye?" + +"To my eye, yes!" answered the postmaster. "Best-looking crowd I ever +saw. But to my mind, no! And there isn't one of you over fifteen who +doesn't know what I mean when I say it. Now, Doug's idea seems sensible +enough to me. He says he'd be happier if he could believe in a life +after death. He says if any preacher can prove to him that the soul is +immortal, he is willing to play the game so as to win that future if it +is proved that you have to follow rules to win it. Folks, if there is +anything sissy about that, I'd like to have one of you rear up and say +so." + +"There isn't a preacher in the world can prove that," said Mrs. Falkner. +"If there was, he'd be greater than Christ." + +"Didn't Christ prove it?" cried Mr. Fowler quickly. + +"No!" replied Mrs. Falkner. "He believed it Himself and He lived like He +believed it, but He didn't prove it." + +Fowler jumped to his feet. "He proved it over and over; by fulfilling +the prophecies, by the miracles He performed and by returning after +death." + +"How do you know He returned after death?" asked Mrs. Falkner. + +"The Bible says so." + +"Nonsense!" exclaimed Mrs. Falkner. "The Bible is just history, most of +it hearsay. And I read in the _Atlantic_ the other day that Napoleon +said that history was just a lie agreed upon." + +"This is blasphemy!" shouted Mr. Fowler. "This is--" + +"Wait!" Peter interrupted with a firm hand. "Every one is to say what +they decently please. You'll never get anywhere in this valley, if you +show yourself shocked by anything anybody says." + +"I don't want to shock the preacher, Peter,"--Mrs. Falkner's beautiful +face was wistful--"I'd like to have his faith. I sure-gawd would! But! I +just want to make him see that to folks like us in Lost Chief who read +and think and look at these hills a lot, the Bible never could prove a +hereafter to us." + +"But the Bible is the inspired word of God," insisted Fowler. + +"Who says so?" asked Mrs. Falkner. + +"The Bible." + +"Good heavens, isn't that childish?" she appealed to the congregation. +"Seems to me only God could prove that and we don't even know He +exists." + +There was silence in the room. Douglas, looking over the backs of many +familiar heads, felt a curious yearning affection for these neighbors +who so far had met his experiment so kindly. Then his eyes turned to the +aspens without the window and beyond these to the far red clouds over +Fire Mesa. The first snow of the season was beginning to sift through +the trees. He wished that he had the courage to ask Mrs. Falkner what +she thought of Inez' poem: + +A fire mist and a planet, +A crystal and a cell-- + +but he would rather have cut out his tongue than repeat the verse before +this audience. + +Mr. Fowler was running his fingers through his beard, glancing +hesitatingly from Douglas to Peter. + +"Well, is it the sense of this meeting," asked the postmaster, "to let +the preacher tell us how he feels about it?" + +"Go to it, old wrangler," said Charleton. "I can spout the Persian Poet +to 'em if you run short of Bible stuff." + +"Baa--a--a!" bleated a small boy in the back of the room. + +"I'm going to give the first young one that makes a disturbance a dose +of aspen switch," said Grandma Brown. + +There was a general chuckle that quieted as Mr. Fowler began to speak. + +"Religion doesn't rest on proof. It rests on Faith. And faith is +something every human being possesses. If you plant a seed, you have +faith that it will produce a plant. No power of yours can bring the +plant. But you have faith--in what?--that the plant will appear. Every +night that you go to bed you believe that a new day will come. You +cannot bring that day but you have absolute faith that to-morrow will be +brought by--what? The stars come nightly to the sky, the moon and the +earth whirl in their appointed places. You have absolute confidence that +they will continue to float in the heavens. On what do you place that +confidence? + +"Friends, I cannot prove to you that there is a God. But if you will be +patient with me, I will give you a faith that asks no proof." He opened +his Bible and began to read. + +"And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life; he that cometh to me +shall never hunger and he that believeth in me shall never thirst.... + +"If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. He that believeth +in me, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.... + +"He that believeth in me, believeth not in me but in Him that sent me. +And he that seeth me, seeth Him that sent me. I come a light unto the +world, that whosoever believeth in me should not abide in darkness. + +"I am the resurrection and the life: he that believeth in me though +he were dead, yet shall he live: and whosoever liveth and believeth +in me shall never die." + +Mr. Fowler paused and closed the book. + +"Words!" said Charleton. "Just poetry!" + +"You are speaking of the living words of the Almighty!" shouted the +preacher. "You--" But he was interrupted. There was a sudden unearthly +uproar of dogs without. The door burst open and old Sister, howling at +the top of her lungs, bolted straight up the aisle to Peter. A can was +tied to her tail. Prince, similarly adorned, and ably seconding his old +friend's outcry, followed her. Several cats, all dragging tin cans, were +flung spitting and yowling through a window. + +Chaos reigned. Douglas seized Prince. Peter grabbed Sister. A dozen +people took after the cats. They were not as easy to capture as the +dogs; and during the progress of the chase, a sudden noxious odor filled +the room. Douglas saw a thick black vapor rising from a bubbling mess on +the top of the stove. The congregation bolted, leaving the field to one +lone cat who climbed the wall to the window and disappeared with a final +yowl. + +There was no attempt to bring the audience back, and shortly the trail +was dotted with riders. But that evening as he sat alone with Douglas, +the preacher was not at all sad. + +"You were right," he said to the young man, "in having Peter open the +meeting. The older people were interested. No doubt they were +interested; and in spite of the mischief that broke us up, I feel as if +a start had been made. It's a rarely intelligent group of people. I +admit that." + +Douglas nodded. "We'll wear 'em down. See if we don't. The kids +certainly put it over on me. I was feeling safe as long as I could watch +Scott and Jimmy, and they had Grandma Brown's grandson doing the work +for them." He chuckled and shook his head. "I just can't head them off +on that kind of work. All we can do, as I say, is to wear them down. And +maybe we can win Judith and one or two of the others, right soon." + +Mr. Fowler sighed. "We can certainly interest some of the older people +for a while with a discussion like we had this afternoon. But not the +young people. Beauty and emotion and mystery must make the religious +appeal to young folks. A church can't exist as a debating society." + +Douglas turned this over in his mind, finally focussing his thoughts on +Inez; she who loved beauty and dragged her emotions in the mire. + +"Mr. Fowler," he said finally, "I'll bet Inez would have been a very +religious person if she'd been started with the beauty and emotion and +mystery!" + +"That's a queer thing to say!" The preacher's voice was a little +resentful. + +Douglas went on as if he had not heard. "But you can't get Judith that +way. She hasn't any emotions except temper and a sense of humor!" + +"There isn't a woman born who isn't full of emotion," said Mr. Fowler, +dryly. "And the deeper they conceal it, the more they have. I think I'll +go to bed, Douglas. I feel as if I'd come through a hard day." + +"Same here," agreed Douglas, and shortly the cabin was in darkness. + +For a day or so the preacher stayed quietly in and about the cabin. He +swept the chapel and cleaned out the stove and polished the windows and +each day made a little fire. Douglas frequently found him there at +night, on his knees. At least once a day he said, "It was a wonderful +thing, Doug, for a young man like you to build me this little chapel, in +my old age." He insisted on grace before meals and a chapter aloud from +the Bible before bed. Douglas was embarrassed but entirely acquiescent. +Mr. Fowler was to have a free hand with his spiritual development. + +About the middle of the week, Judith rode down to the post-office with +Douglas. "Well, how's the sky pilot and his disciple?" she asked. + +"I believe the old boy is almost happy," replied Douglas. "He thinks +that little old church I built is pretty fine." + +"Inez says it looks like a big cow stable." + +"That's nice of Inez. Why didn't she tell me how to make it better +looking?" + +"What does Inez care about it? Honest, Doug, you are making an awful +fool of yourself. A man like Fowler can't preach to us." + +"Why, he never had a chance to preach here yet!" exclaimed +Douglas. "And, what do you expect in a place like Lost Chief, a +ten-thousand-dollar-a-year sky pilot? Besides, I don't want preaching +from him. I want just the one thing like Peter said. And Fowler has that +in him just as strong as the highest paid preacher in the world. Give +him a show, Judith. Come up, every Sunday. You might back me that much." + +"And have everybody in the crowd laughing at me like they are at you? +I won't do anything against the old man, Douglas, for your sake. But +that's all I'll promise." + +"I'm not going to let you off that easy, Jude. Come up to supper +to-night. I won't let him talk religion. Honest, he's as interesting as +a book when he gets to telling some of his experiences." + +Judith shook her head. "I'd rather stay at home with 'Pendennis.'" + +"If I get Inez to come, will you?" urged Douglas. + +Judith grinned impishly. "Yes, I'd come with Inez." + +They returned from the post-office via the west trail and stopped at +Inez' place. She was eating a belated dinner in her slatternly kitchen, +and waved a hospitable hand over the table. + +"Thanks, no," said Doug. "I just stopped by to see if you and Judith +wouldn't come up and have supper with the sky pilot and me. I won't let +him talk religion and he's got some good stories to tell." + +Inez looked Douglas over. He and the tall Judith seemed to fill the +kitchen. Doug finally had covered his big frame with muscles and he was +a larger and handsomer man than his father. + +"Doug," said Inez, "I am truly flattered. What are you trying to do? +Convert me?" + +Douglas answered with simple sincerity. "I don't care a hang whether you +get converted or not." + +"O you don't! Well, just to spite you, I'll come and let the old fellow +try his hand!" + +"Not really, Inez?" gasped Judith. + +"I'd do more than that for Doug and for Lost Chief," said Inez soberly, +"Doug isn't the only person who loves this old hole in the hills." + +Judith turned to Douglas with a sudden wistfulness in her eyes, a +sudden flare of a fire he had not seen in them before. He waited for her +to speak but she only turned away toward the door. + +"I'll look for you about six then, Inez," he said, and he followed +Judith. + +When the girls appeared at the cabin that evening, the table was set and +the steak was frying. Inez and Judith winked at each other when Mr. +Fowler said grace but otherwise the meal progressed decorously enough. +It was Inez who brought up the tabooed subject. They had been sitting +round the stove listening to a tale of old lynch law which the preacher +told with real skill, when Inez interrupted him with entire irrelevance. + +"Mr. Fowler, do you really believe there is such a thing as right and +wrong?" + +The preacher paused, studying Inez' face. Her dark eyes were steady and +thoughtful. Her mouth, except for the slightly heavy lower lip, was +sensitive. Her whole expression was one of pride and independence. + +"Yes, I believe in right and wrong," replied Mr. Fowler, deliberately. + +"What makes you believe that a man who lived nearly two thousand years +ago can decide what is right or wrong for Lost Chief?" she asked. + +"The Bible," answered the preacher. + +"But the Bible is full of things that I would call crooked. Those +prophets were always putting slick tricks over on each other and the +people. There was a lot of dirty work done in the name of the Lord by +those ancient Jews." + +The preacher leaned toward the woman. "Do you believe in right and +wrong, Inez Rodman?" + +"No, I don't. I believe in kindness and in beauty. That's all." + +"How does one believe in beauty?" asked Mr. Fowler. + +"I mean," she replied, "that if you fill your mind with the beauty of +this Lost Chief country and with poetry, there is no room for anything +ugly." + +"What would you call ugly?" + +"Being mean to other people is one kind of ugliness." + +"That's what I believe too," said Judith suddenly. + +"Then, of course, neither of you two would have anything to do with the +attempt to run the preacher out," suggested Douglas. + +"No, I wouldn't," replied Inez; "and I told Scott so. That doesn't mean +that I don't consider you plumb loco, Doug. Mr. Fowler isn't the kind to +make the folks see the beauty of these hills. If he was I'd be helping +instead of indifferent." + +"If the folks would let God enter their hearts," cried the preacher, +"they'd see beauty in these hills they never dreamed of." + +"Well, as far as beauty goes, Inez," Douglas spoke thoughtfully, "you +can't say there isn't considerable of that in the Bible. Take the Songs +of Solomon. There never was finer love-making than that!" + +"The Songs of Solomon don't deal with human passion," said Mr. Fowler +hastily. "They are a recital of man's love for the Almighty and His +works." + +"O, no, Mr. Fowler!" cried Doug. "'Behold thou art fair, my loved one, +behold thou art fair. Thou hast doves eyes within thy locks.' No man +ever said that about anything but a woman." + +No one spoke for a moment. Old Prince, who was lying with his head +baking under the stove, growled and barked, then made for the door. Wolf +Cub barked without, and a dog answered. + +"Sister!" exclaimed Inez. "Peter must be coming." + +Douglas opened the door and Prince shot out. Shortly Peter, then +Charleton, came in, stamping the snow from their spurs and pulling off +their gauntlets. + +"Where did you two come from?" asked Judith, as the newcomers +established themselves on up-ended boxes close to the stove. + +"Just met here," replied Peter. "I had supper at Spencer's and came up +to argue with the sky pilot." + +"I'm setting traps up on Lost Chief," said Charleton, lighting a +cigarette. + +"Look out you don't mistake any of Scott's traps for yours," suggested +Inez. + +Everybody chuckled, and Peter said, "Elijah Nelson was down at my place +yesterday. He's a pleasant, easy spoken man. I guess he and Scott have +been having a lot of quiet fighting up there we haven't heard about." + +"Is that what he came to see you about?" asked Doug. + +"No. It seems his trail out to the Mountain City road is snowed up. He +wants to get his mail over here if Scott will let him use his trail. He +wants me to speak to Scott about it." + +"What Scott will claim," Charleton smiled, "is that he positively must +have a retired location and complete privacy on his trail." + +There was another chuckle, during which the preacher looked from one +keen face to another, but he did not speak. + +"What has the scrapping been about, Peter?" asked Inez. + +Douglas turned quietly to look at her. It suddenly occurred to him that +Inez used Peter's name with a cadence that was new to him. He saw that +she was watching Peter's thin sallow face with a shadow of strain about +her eyes. + +"O it's about a bull again," laughed Peter. "It seems that Scott has an +old red bull that Nelson says is one of his, rebranded." + +"But I thought," began Judith; then she caught Charleton's sardonic eye +and subsided. + +"What did you think, Judith?" asked Peter. + +"Nothing. Go on with your story." + +"There is no story to it. Scott's been keeping a six-shooter guard on +the upper springs of Lost Chief, so's old Nelson hasn't had but half his +usual allowance of water for his ditches. He is sorer about that than he +is over the bull, though he certainly is determined to get the critter +back. But he got small comfort out of me. I told him to keep his plural +fingers off of Lost Chief Creek, or he would lose more than an old red +bull." + +"Right-o!" grunted Charleton. + +"Are you going to ask Scott to let Nelson use his trail, Peter?" asked +Inez. + +"Sure! Why not?" laughed Peter. + +"You will make Scott sore at you," replied Inez. "I haven't any quarrel +with Scott myself, but I know he has a mean streak in him. If he thinks +you are in cahoots with Nelson he will make you trouble." + +"I'm not afraid of Scott," said Peter. + +"Well, you'll need to be if you mix up in his affairs. He holds grudges +over nothing." + +"Awful bad man, Scott!" Douglas spoke with his quiet smile. + +"I'm telling you he is!" insisted Inez. "He's been more than half in +love with Judith for years and he'd just as soon double-cross Jude as +anybody else. I want you to let him alone, please, Peter." + +Peter was watching Judith. Only Douglas seemed aware of the concentrated +entreaty in Inez' voice. "Poor Inez," he thought, "if she's caring for +Peter, she'll be having her own little double Hades for everything she's +done." He looked at Peter. Judith was staring thoughtfully at the stove +and the postmaster's deep eyes were fastened on the girl's fine, +clean-cut features, with a burning fire that suddenly brought Doug's +heart to his throat. + +"What's your opinion of Scott, Judith?" asked Peter. + +"The same as Inez'. But I can't help liking him. He's done me lots of +favors and he's kept me from making a fool of myself a number of times, +even if he did double-cross me once. And he admires me. He certainly +does!" She laughed with girlish naïveté and the others joined her. + +"Then you must like me too!" said Peter. + +"You are a nice old gentleman," retorted Judith. + +Peter's lips closed grimly. + +The preacher spoke with sudden vehemence. "Yet you people are allowing +this same Scott to try to destroy Douglas' dream for Lost Chief." + +"I say Scott is a valuable citizen," drawled Charleton. "He guards us +from Mormons, from Christians, and from wild women." + +Douglas did not join in the laugh that greeted this sally. An entirely +new fear had come upon him. He bit his lip and stared from Judith to +Peter and back again. + +Inez rose suddenly. "Well, the moon is up. Come, Judith! It's time for +wild women to retire to their caves." + +Judith gave a gigantic yawn, stretched her beautiful long body till the +tips of her fingers almost touched the low rafters, and said, "It's a +good thing Charleton and Peter will be going along to protect us from +Scott, the bad man." + +The four presently jingled off down the snowy trail. Prince took up his +shivering night-watch on the steps. Douglas and Mr. Fowler looked at +each other soberly and went to bed. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +PRINCE GOES MARCHING ON + +"A wise dog won't tackle a trapped wolverine." + +--_Old Prince_. + + +The next morning Johnny Brown trotted up on his old cow-pony. The +preacher and Douglas were at breakfast. All the world was bristling with +frost and a million opalescent lights danced on every snowdrift. Douglas +swung the door open. + +"Well, Johnny, did you finally break away from everybody?" + +The little old man slid briskly from the saddle, brushed the icicles +from his beard, and grinned broadly. + +"Even Inez, she tried to stop me. Says some one has got to get her some +cedar wood for her heater stove. 'You get you some squaw-wood, Inez,' I +deponed. 'Them that can't make the men chop regular wood for 'em, don't +deserve nothing better than brittle stuff like alder. Get you some +squaw-wood, Inez,' I deponed. Douglas, they are plumb jealous of you. +Since you seen there was something to me beside a old half-wit, they've +all been horning round, jealous like, to get me." + +Douglas, his yellow hair a glory in the rising sun, nodded seriously. + +"Look to your saddle, Johnny, then come in to breakfast. I've got a few +steers I want to dehorn to-day, so you're just in time." + +The preacher was still at breakfast when old Johnny came in. The two old +men stared at each other with unmixed interest. Douglas stood with his +back to the stove, a cigarette drooping from his lips, a remote twinkle +in his eyes. + +Johnny lushed down his second saucer of coffee before he attempted to +marshall his thoughts into speech. But, having accomplished this, he +said, "Doug and me are gregus great friends, Mr. Fowler. There ain't +anybody in Lost Chief thinks as much of him as I do." + +The preacher nodded. "Douglas says he's fond of you." + +"I guess he is," returned Johnny, condescendingly. "I guess if the truth +be deponed he's fonder of me than he is of anybody--excepting maybe +Judith. And Judith, she sure-gawd don't apregate Doug like I do, even if +I am a half-wit. Judith's awful smart but she ain't got much sense." + +"Judith is pretty fine, Johnny!" exclaimed Douglas, with the faint glow +in his blue eyes that mention of her name always brought. + +"Yes, she is," agreed Johnny. "But she's just like her mother was. All +fire. And you can squench fire so it's just ashes. It would be a gregus +good thing for the Valley if John Spencer was to break his neck." + +"Don't say that, Johnny!" protested the preacher. "After all, he's one +of God's creatures." + +Johnny chuckled. "Now, who is half-witted, huh?" + +"Young Jeff back on the mail route, Johnny?" asked Douglas hastily. + +"Yes. Peter Knight, he's awful fond of Judith." + +Douglas looked at Johnny keenly, his jaw setting as he did so. Was +there, he thought, something obvious here, or was it only the half-wit's +curiously sharp but confused intuition at work? At any rate, he must +know the truth. He could not endure this added uneasiness. + +"On second thoughts," he said aloud, "I think I'll not dehorn to-day. I +want to get an order off for a new saddle on to-day's mail stage. +Johnny, one of your main jobs is to guard the sky pilot and the chapel, +when I'm not here. You're not to let anything happen to either of +them." + +"Shall I shoot on sight?" demanded the little old man. + +Mr. Fowler smiled. Douglas shook his head. "No; let's not get into that +kind of trouble. You don't carry a gun anyhow, do you?" + +"No," plaintively. "Grandma won't let me. But I thought you'd loan me +something." + +"I haven't got anything but my old six-shooter, which I can't spare. +Listen, Johnny! When you think somebody needs to be shot, you come to me +and tell me about it, see? You know I know you have a lot more +self-control than these Lost Chief folks think you have. You aren't one +of these guys that shoots first and thinks afterward." + +Johnny turned to the preacher triumphantly. "Didn't I tell you he was my +friend?" he asked. + +"Yes," replied Mr. Fowler, "and he's mine too, and you and I must take +care of him. Lost Chief needs him." + +Old Johnny rose and solemnly offered a gnarled hand to the preacher. +Douglas laughed in an embarrassed way and went out to the corral, to +saddle the Moose. + +Judith was feeding the chickens as he trotted past the Spencer place. He +waved his hand but would not permit himself to stop. He found Peter +alone in his room, mending a belt. + +"Well, Doug," he said, "how does the reform movement progress?" + +"We added Johnny Brown to our side this morning," replied Douglas. "Some +line-up, I'd say!" + +"Old Johnny is certainly your man," Peter chuckled. "How do he and the +sky pilot hit it off?" + +"It's too early to say. By the way, did you have a run-in with Scott?" + +"Not at all. Scott said Elijah was welcome to use the trail if he kept +to it." + +Doug's mouth opened and closed. He took a letter from his pocket and +laid a pile of bills beside it on the table. "Will you send that mail +order off for me to-day, Peter? I'm blowing myself to a new saddle." + +"Must be money in staking a sky pilot," grinned the postmaster. "I +didn't notice you taking up a collection on Sunday, though." + +Douglas laughed. "It pays so well that I've got to ride the traps again +this winter to pay for the grub-stake. Dad is so sore that he isn't +allowing me all he might." + +"I'll help you if you are too much squeezed. I hope you won't be as +bull-headed about taking a loan from me as Judith is. By the way, how +are matters coming between you and Jude, Douglas?" + +"Report no progress!" grunted Doug. + +"She's a restless young colt. I wish she could begin to get a sense of +direction as you are. Maybe she will, now she can get a bird's-eye view +of you. You've always lived too close to each other to understand each +other. You'll learn a lot about Jude and she about you, now you've moved +a few miles away." + +"Do you honestly want me to have Judith, Peter?" asked Douglas with a +sudden huskiness in his voice. + +Peter, who was standing by the window examining the buckles of the belt, +looked up at Douglas with surprise in the lift of his eyebrows. After a +moment, he said, "What are you driving at, Doug?" + +Douglas took a quick turn up and down the room, then halted before +Peter, his sensitive mouth twitching, his blue eyes glowing. It seemed +to him that he could not ask the question that must be asked; but +finally he spoke, in a voice that was tense in the effort for +self-control. + +"Peter, I've thought of nothing else since last night. Something about +the way you looked at her--! You are the best friend that I have, Peter, +but I can't give Judith up, even to you; it would be like trying to tear +the veins out of my body. She's my life, Judith is!" + +The older man put the rider's belt carefully on the window-ledge, walked +over to the table and slowly filled his pipe. When he had filled it, he +laid it down beside the belt, put his hands in his pocket, and turned to +Doug, who, with the cold sweat standing on his forehead, was watching +Peter's every movement. The wind swept snow down through the sod roof. +It hissed faintly on the stove. Peter's long face was knotted and hard. + +"You have given me a shock, Douglas," he said at last. "You've given me +a shock!" + +Douglas' heart thudded heavily. It was true, then! Peter did care, +though perhaps he had not realized it before. + +Peter went on, with painful concentration on Douglas' blue eyes. "I +hadn't known it, till this minute, Doug. I thought I was through. I'm +fifty-six. God! Does life never finish with a man?" He laughed drearily. +"Don't look at me like that, Douglas! You and I will never be rivals! +This sort of thing can't undo me again. I swear it!" + +He paced the room again, and once more paused before the young rider. +"Not that I underestimate the strength of the thing. Who knows so well +as I that love is the most powerful force in the world? Mind you, Doug, +I make a sharp distinction between love and lust. Lust can be controlled +by any one. Love can be controlled by a man as old as I am. But when +love grips a young fellow like you, he is powerless to throw it off. I'd +be a cur, Douglas, at my age, to refuse to throttle a love that would +conflict with you--the man I like best in the world." + +He paused. Douglas did not stir. Peter lifted his pipe, laid it down, +and set a match carefully beside it. + +"Douglas," he said, "my market is made. I sold my birthright for a mess +of pottage. Whatever regrets or grief I may have are just. To +contemplate a girl like Judith having any interest in me, is ghastly. +Judith is yours, whether she realizes it or not. Will you stay for +dinner?" + +He put his pipe in his mouth, and lighted it. Douglas gave a long, +uncertain sigh. + +"No, thanks, Peter! I must get back to my sky pilot. You will be at the +log chapel early on Sunday?" + +"Yes. But you'd better let him handle the meeting. Have him preach on +immortality. You've sort of got them going on that." + +Douglas nodded, put his hand on the door-knob, then turned back. + +"Peter, does life never finish with a man? Don't you find peace anywhere +along the line?" + +"Not your kind of a man. There are a number of sure springs in the +desert, though, where a man can be certain of a mighty pleasant camp. +But it's only a camp." + +Douglas moistened his lips. "What can a fellow do about it?" he +demanded. + +"Well," replied the older man, "he can make up his mind to find it +devilishly interesting, even the dry marches." + +The young rider threw back his head. "Me--I'm going to find more than +interest! I'll find color and some thrills, too. See if I don't!" + +Peter laughed grimly. "Yes, you'll find a thrill or two but always where +you least expect it." + +Douglas' smile was twisted. He opened the door and went out into the +wind-swept day. Smoke drove horizontally from the low chimneys that +dotted the valley. Cattle bellowed as if in disconsolate protest against +the ruthless on-march of winter. Douglas, in spite of the last few words +with Peter, was in a curiously uplifted frame of mind which for some +time he could not dissect. Part of it he knew to be relief from the +sudden suspicion that had overwhelmed him, but he was half-way home +before he told himself that Peter's essential fineness had revived his +faith in the goodness and kindliness in human nature. In a life where +one could know a Peter, he thought, there must be beauty and a kind of +beauty that Inez could neither find nor appreciate. Poor old Inez! + +The dinner hour was long past when he jingled along the trail past his +father's place. On sudden impulse he turned the Moose into the yard. +Judith opened the door. She was in sweater and riding-skirt. Her black +hair was bundled up under a round beaver cap under which her bright +beauty glowed in a way to lift a far less interested heart than Doug's. + +"Hello, Douglas!" + +"Hello, Judith! Where are you going?" + +"Just out to jump the little wild mare. Where have you been?" + +"Down to the post-office. I saw Dad heading for Charleton's." + +"Yes, I'm alone. Mother went over to Grandma's. The old lady is ailing." + +Douglas jumped from the saddle. "You haven't mentioned it, but, thanks, +I will come in. Is there any grub in the house? I haven't had dinner +yet." + +Judith laughed. "I was expecting that! I just finished my own. Come +along!" + +Douglas ate his dinner while Judith watched with speculative eyes. + +"Peter is a funny old duck," she said finally. + +"Funny? How?" + +"O, he's so lonely and so cross and such good company and so kind! I'd +like to have known him when he was young." + +Douglas looked at her closely. "Jude, could you get to care for Peter if +you thought he cared for you?" + +"Who, me? Peter? What's the matter with you, Doug? Why, Peter is as old +as Dad!" + +"What difference does that make?" + +"It wouldn't make any difference if I cared for him," admitted Judith, +tapping thoughtfully on the tablecloth with slim brown fingers. + +"But do you care for him, Judith?" insisted Douglas. + +Judith's fine lips twisted contemptuously. "What an idiot you are, +Doug!" + +"Do you, hang it? Answer me, Jude!" + +"No! No! No! Does that satisfy you?" + +"Well, partially. Guess I'll have to ask Inez the same question." + +Judith smiled and shrugged her shoulders. Douglas went on. + +"I'll bet if you could get the truth out of Inez, Judith, you'd find her +suffering torments because she can't marry." + +"Can't marry? Why can't Inez marry?" demanded Judith belligerently. + +"Because no decent man would marry her," returned Douglas flatly. + +Judith laughed. "You poor old male, you! Will you kindly tell me what +man in this valley you consider more decent than Inez?" + +"I'm decent," said Douglas, flushing, but not the less firmly. + +Judith's eyes softened. "You've kept that promise, Doug?" + +"Yes," briefly. "And I wouldn't have a woman like Inez if she was as +beautiful as Cleopatra and as rich as Hetty Green!" + +"Well," airily, "that eliminates you, of course. But let me warn you, +Douglas, that if Inez Rodman really loved a man and wanted to marry him, +he'd have about as much chance as a coyote used to have when Sister was +young enough to run them. Only, if Inez ever does love a man, she won't +marry him. She'll keep herself a mystery to him. 'And forever would he +love and she be fair.'" + +"What's that you're quoting?" asked Douglas. + +Judith, her eyes on the window through which shouldered the great flank +of Dead Line Peak, repeated the immortal lines. When she had finished, +Douglas sighed. + +"It's very beautiful!" he said. "But life isn't a procession round a +Grecian Urn. It's hard riding from start to finish. And it's a poor +sport that won't accept that fact and ride according to the rules. +Marriage is one of the rules. I believe in it." + +Judith walked slowly round the table and put a hand on either shoulder. +There was a baffling light in her splendid gray eyes as she said, +"Douglas, do you think for a minute that if I told you I loved you +madly, I couldn't persuade you not to marry me?" + +Her touch was flame. Douglas drew a long, uncertain breath. + +"If you said that you loved me madly, you could do almost anything with +me, I suppose. The only thing that keeps me steady is believing that you +don't love me." + +Judith smiled curiously. Douglas lifted her hands from his shoulders. +"Don't torture me, Jude," he said, his voice husky and his fingers +uncertain, as he lighted a cigarette. + +"I wouldn't torture you, any more than I'd torture myself," replied +Judith. + +She leaned against the window-frame, looking out at the serenity of the +mountain. + +"Life," she said suddenly, "is like climbing to the top of Falkner's +Peak. Terribly difficult and frightfully wearing, but O, what marvelous +views as you reach shoulder after shoulder! Inez is beginning to find +life rather a dreary kind of mess. But not I! The Lord knows, my life +looks stupid to every one but me, and the Lord knows, I'm restless and +unhappy. But I never stop thinking for a minute that it's great, just +great to be alive and--and alive." + +Douglas smiled a little uncertainly. "Do you ever think twice the same +way, Jude?" + +"Once in a while! In fact, I'm getting that way more and more. You'll +see! I'm going to get me educated, Douglas, and find me a real job. See +if I don't!" + +Douglas put on his gloves. "I couldn't be any prouder of you, Judith, +if you had all the education in the world. Don't forget to come up on +Sunday." + +"I suppose I'll have to lend my support," said Judith. "But I still +think you are a fool." + +"You can think me all the fools you want to, if you'll just keep backing +me," replied Douglas, striding out to the whinnying Moose. + +He found old Johnny and the preacher on terms of easy friendship. Johnny +was inclined to be patronizing but Douglas caught the twinkle in +Fowler's eyes and made no attempt to control Johnny's manners. + +It was not until nearly bed time that Doug missed Prince. The old dog +was gradually giving up the solitary coyote hunts he had taken in his +younger days and, contrary too, to his earlier habits, he now liked to +sleep indoors. He was usually shivering on the doorstep waiting for a +chance to scramble under the stove when Doug went out to look at the +stock for the night. + +But to-night he was not there, nor did his short bark come in response +to Doug's whistling. Old Johnny and the preacher came to the door. + +"Stop your whistling and listen, Douglas," suggested Fowler. + +Douglas obeyed, and faintly on the frosty air sounded the reiterated +yelps of a dog. + +"That's Prince and he's in trouble!" exclaimed Doug. + +"He's up on the shoulder of Lost Chief, I depone," said Johnny. + +"I'll go up there." Douglas took his rifle from behind the door and +hurried out to the corral. The two men followed him, and by the time +Doug had buckled on his spurs, they had saddled his horse. + +"Either he's got into a trap or he's tackled something too big for +him," said Douglas; "and it's up to me to look out for my pal." + +The moon had risen and the snow was very light. Prince continued to yelp +and it was not long before Douglas found the dog's tracks and was able +to follow them without difficulty. They led up to the tree line on the +east flank of Lost Chief Peak. The yelps appeared to come from not far +within the border of pines. + +Douglas chuckled. "He sure has bitten off more than he can chew this +time! I'll have to tell that old dog that--" + +A revolver shot interrupted his thoughts. The yelps abruptly ceased. +Douglas spurred his horse and in a moment saw the figure of a man +standing beside an outcropping rock. It was Charleton Falkner. Douglas +threw himself from his horse, Prince, his paw in a trap, lay motionless +on the ground beside the badly mangled body of a wolverine. Charleton's +face in the moonlight was coolly vindictive. + +"I'll teach a dog to spoil a pelt for me!" he said. "He didn't realize +there were two traps here." + +"But that was my dog, Prince!" exclaimed Doug. + +"I don't care if it was the Almighty's dog! He can't rob my traps if I +know it!" snarled Charleton. + +Douglas advanced slowly. "You don't seem to get the idea, Charleton. +That was my old dog that grew up with me--the faithfulest little chap in +Lost Chief. I'd have paid you for the pelt and you know it. What did you +shoot him for?" + +Charleton's jaws worked. "I'll show you and Scott and the whole valley +that my traps and my hunts are not to be interfered with!" + +"Still you don't get the idea," Douglas was now not an arm's-length from +Charleton. "You can't shoot a man's dog, at least this man's dog and go +unpunished. You and Dad have bullied this valley long enough, Charleton. +Put up your hands and take your punishment." + +He struck the six-shooter from Charleton's hand and the battle was +joined. Douglas' only advantage over his adversary was in point of +youth, for Charleton was as lean and powerful as a gorilla. But youth +was a powerful ally and eventually it was Charleton who lay in the snow, +blinking at the moon. Douglas, panting and still so angry that it was +difficult for him not to kick Charleton where he lay, released Prince's +paw and threw the familiar gray body across the saddle. Then he mounted, +laying Prince across his knees. + +Charleton sat up slowly. + +"That licking wasn't all for poor old Prince," said Douglas. "Part of it +was for the kid whose mind you deliberately tried to poison, and part of +it is for Inez. You were the first man, you boasted to me, who ever went +to Rodman's. And part of it's for the loneliness you've made in Lost +Chief. What have you got to say--huh?" + +Charleton rose. "Nice young buck you are to attack a man old enough to +be your father! This is what I get for my kindness to you. This is a bad +night's work for you, you young whelp!" + +Douglas, one hand on his old dog's stiffening shoulder, bit back his +resurging wrath and tapped his horse with the spurs. Fowler and Old +Johnny came out to meet him. He gave Prince to Johnny and then +dismounted. + +"Charleton shot my dog!" he said. + +"What shall I do with him?" asked Johnny. + +"Shut him up in the feed shed and I'll bury him in the morning." Douglas +stalked into the house, where the two others shortly followed him. +They looked at his face and for a moment even old Johnny hesitated to +speak. In spite of his cold ride, Doug's face was deadly white, his lips +worked, and his eyes were dark with feeling. He took off his spurs +slowly, and hung them carefully on their nail. Then he sat down on his +bunk and stared at the preacher. + +"What happened, Douglas?" asked Fowler. + +"Prince evidently tackled a wolverine in one of Charleton's traps and +I'm not so sure either but it might have been Scott's. Anyhow he +surprised some kind of a deal Charleton was trying to put over. Then he +got his paw in a free trap and started yelping. Charleton got to him +before I did and shot him." + +"What was he doing riding his traps at this hour?" asked the preacher. + +"I don't know. I loved that dog and so did Jude. It will make her sick +when she hears. He was good for two or three years more and he should +have died like a good rancher, right at home, here." + +"What did you say to Charleton?" + +"I said what I thought beside knocking him down." + +Fowler said nothing more but he put his hand on Doug's knee. Doug +cleared his throat and rose ostensibly to put a stick of wood in the +stove. + +Old Johnny picked up the rifle and started for the door. + +"Where are you going, Johnny?" asked Douglas, huskily. + +"I'm going to watch. Charleton he ain't never going to stop now till he +fixes you. He's got to get me first. Maybe I ain't as smart as Prince +was but I depone I'll do my best." + +Douglas laughed a little brokenly. He put his arm around old Johnny's +shoulder and with his free hand took the gun. + +"Don't you worry about me, Johnny. Your job is the church and the +preacher and you remember you promised not to shoot until you told me +about it." + +"That's right," exclaimed the preacher. "And now I suggest that you let +me read a chapter from the Bible and that we then get to bed." + +Johnny looked at Douglas in embarrassment, but Douglas nodded and his +old guard sat down beside him on the bunk with a contented sigh. + +"'I am the true vine and my father is the husband-man.--As the Father +hath loved me so have I loved you: continue ye in my love.--This is my +commandment, that ye love one another, as I have loved you.--Greater +love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his +friends.'" Fowler closed the book and bowed his head over it. "O God," +he prayed, "give us patience and kindness and understanding. Amen." + +He rose then and Douglas, vaguely comforted by the sympathy of the two +old men, went to bed and to sleep. It had been a day of such stress as +even his young years of mental conflicts had seldom endured. + +The next day, when Douglas went down to the Spencer ranch to borrow the +paraphernalia for dehorning, his father beckoned him mysteriously into +the cowshed. John had been surly for six months and Douglas was +surprised to hear the note of gratification in his voice. + +"What have you been doing to Charleton, Doug?" + +"What does he say I've been doing?" asked Douglas, picking the snow out +of his spurs. + +"He says you knocked him down. He came in here last night breathing +fire." + +"Did he say why I knocked him down?" + +"Yes. Because he wouldn't let your dog rob his traps." + +"Prince got after a wolverine in his or Scott's traps and Charleton shot +the old pup. He'd better be thankful I didn't boot him all the way +home." + +Douglas' face was growing white again. John looked at his tall son with +a mixture of admiration and bewilderment in his eyes. + +"By the Great Sitting Bull, Doug, I can't understand you! Here you go +for six months making a blank sissy of yourself over a sky pilot and +then you give the most dangerous man in the Valley the gol-dingest +mauling and beating he ever had in his life! Why, even I won't go up +against Charleton. He's a bad man!" + +"He's a bag of wind!" said Douglas contemptuously. "I found that out +years ago when his boy was born. Does Jude know?" + +"No; she was asleep and he stayed in the kitchen with me and washed up. +But don't think you've finished with him. He's a mean man, Douglas." + +"Yes, he's mean enough. On the other hand, Charleton knows I've got his +number and he'll let me alone. I'm not worrying about him. That guy +can't even keep his temper. Loan me the tar-pot, will you, and the +searing-iron." + +John suddenly laughed. Douglas grinned faintly, then said, "I know now +how Jude felt when you shot that little old Swift horse." + +"I suppose if you'd been big enough, you'd have treated me as you did +Charleton," said John cheerfully. + +"I sure would have tried to," replied Douglas. "Where's Jude?" + +"Working on the little wild mare in the corral." + +Douglas nodded to his father and went in search of Judith. She nodded +gaily from the saddle. + +"Why so sober, old-timer?" + +"Overwork!" exclaimed Douglas. "Jude, will you come up and help me with +the handful of steers I want to dehorn?" + +"What's the matter with Old Gentlemen's Home?" asked Judith with her +impish smile. + +"They are taken up with reforming each other," replied Douglas; adding +more seriously, "they are too old to be much help with the rope, Jude." + +"I know," she nodded. "I'll come right along." + +It was not until they had nearly reached Doug's corral that he found +courage to tell her about the death of Prince. She said nothing, for a +moment, but she brought the mare up close to the Moose and laid her hand +on Douglas' knee. + +"Dear old boy!" she said. "I know!" Then she sobbed for a moment against +his shoulder. But when he would have put his arm about her she +straightened herself and said, "But weren't you glad you were strong +enough to thrash him!" + +"Yes!" replied Douglas. + +They said no more about it, but after the dehorning was done, Douglas +saw Judith stand for a long time beside the chapel. He knew how her +heart was aching, for she too was a lover of dogs. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +THE BATTLE OF THE BULLS + +"The free plains were wonderful, but Judith's hand on my bit is more +wonderful." + +--_The Little Wild Mare_. + + +Douglas felt somehow, after this day, that Judith was nearer to him. Not +that she changed in her manner at all, but there was an indefinable +something about her that gave him hope: hope strong enough at least to +put up a creditable struggle with the despair that was forever creeping +upon him at unguarded moments. + +He slept in the chapel on Saturday night, just to make sure that no +mischief was done under cover of the darkness. And on Sunday, Mr. Fowler +preached an uninterrupted sermon. Scott was present, giving apparently +an undivided ear to the preacher's discourse. Charleton was there, too. +He ignored Douglas entirely. He had probably told no one of his trouble +with Douglas and, knowing Douglas, he apparently felt that Lost Chief +would remain in ignorance of the fight. So his saturnine face was as +serenely insolent as ever, barring the remains of a very black eye. + +Considered from an entirely detached point of view, the sermon was a +thing of exceeding beauty. Inez should have been satisfied. The old +preacher had a fine voice and he spoke without notes. Many a noted +interpreter of the gospel might have envied him his control of voice and +language. + +The text was one of the most intriguing in the Bible. "Jesus said, I +will not leave you comfortless. I will come to you. Yet a little while +and the world seeth me no more. But ye see me. Because I live, ye shall +live also." Around about this, Mr. Fowler wove picture after picture of +passionate faith in an hereafter. He told of the death of his own +father, who with the death-rattle in his throat had sat erect in his bed +crying, "O Christ, I see your face at last!" + +He told of hardened criminals who had heard God's voice in their dreams. +He told of children, who like little Samuel had been called by the +Almighty in a voice as articulate as that of their own fathers. He told +of the authenticity of the Biblical history of Christ and of the +scientific explanations of Christ's miracles. He told of the faith of +the ancestors of the people of Lost Chief, a faith which had led them +across the Atlantic and through those first terrible years on the bleak +New England shores. He concluded with a prayer for the return of the +sheep to the fold, a prayer delivered with tears pouring down his +weather-beaten cheeks, a prayer delivered in anguish of spirit and in a +voice of heart-moving sincerity. + +At the end, he sank into his chair by the table and covered his eyes +with his shaking hand. Lost Chief sat silent for a moment, then Grandma +Brown said in a quavering voice, "Let us sing _Rock of Ages_." But only +she knew the words, and after a single verse she stopped, in some +embarrassment. + +Charleton coughed, yawned and rose. The little congregation followed him +out into the yard, where horses and dogs were milling the half-melted +snow into yellow muck. + +"Well, Grandma," asked Charleton as he helped the old lady into her +saddle, "what did you think of the sermon?" + +"A pretty good sermon!" replied Grandma. "Made me feel like a girl +again." + +"My gawd, Grandma," exclaimed Charleton, "do you mean to say that an old +Indian fighter like you swallowed that stuff!" + +"I was believing that stuff before you were born, Charleton! If Fowler +is going to keep this pace up, I'll say I'm sorry I ever called him a +sissy. What did you think of it, Peter?" + +Peter was leaning thoughtfully against his horse. "It was interesting. +Ethics, as such, are too cold to interest most folks. So we sugar-coat +'em with flowery speech and sleight-of-hand and try to give 'em +authority with a big threat. Then some hard-head like Charleton says, +because the sugar-coating is silly, that there is nothing to ethics. +Which is where he talks like a fool." + +He whistled to Sister and trotted homeward. There was considerable +elation in Doug's cabin that evening. The preacher said little but old +Johnny was in fine fettle. + +"Guess we showed 'em!" he said, frying the bacon with a skilled hand. "I +bet we had words in that sermon none of 'em ever dreamed of before. +You'd ought to use 'gregus,' Mr. Fowler. It's a hard word and so's +depone. I told Grandma to come up Sunday and we'd have words looked out +that would sure twist her gullet to say." + +Mr. Fowler was seized with a sudden coughing fit from which he merged +into violent laughter. + +"What did your sister say?" he asked when he found his voice. + +"She told me not to go any crazier than I already was, and I deponed to +her how Doug felt about me, and she went home." + +The sermon had indeed gone so well and the week that followed was so +peaceful that Douglas did not sleep in the chapel on the following +Saturday night. When Mr. Fowler unlocked the door on Sunday morning, a +skunk fled from under the pulpit out into the aspens, and there was no +service that day. + +On the next Sunday, Charleton gave an all-day dance in the post-office +hall and only half a dozen of the older people appeared at the chapel, +to listen to a sermon on the Resurrection. He repeated the dance for +three Sundays in succession and Douglas was in despair. Old Johnny was +deeply wrought up over Douglas' state of mind, and one Saturday night he +disappeared, returning at dawn. On that Sunday it was found that the +stove in the dance-hall had disappeared and a check was put upon +Charleton's competition. + +And still, with no dances to rival the sermons, the attendance at the +log chapel grew smaller and smaller. The lack of interest that was +growing, now that the Valley's first curiosity had been satisfied, was +more deadly than open warfare. Douglas saw clearly enough that the +sermons were dull and he spent evening after evening sounding Fowler's +mind to its depths in the endeavor to find some angle in it that would +tempt Lost Chief into the chapel. + +It was a good mind, that of this preacher, stored with a very fair +amount of classical learning and packed with stories of western +adventure. But classical lore had no appeal for modern-minded Lost Chief +and Mr. Fowler's adventure could be surpassed by any man in the Valley. + +Judith treated the sermons with open scorn. "No, indeed; I won't come up +to the chapel," she replied to Doug's appeal. "Why should I suffer when +I don't have to? If it would help you--! But it wouldn't! The sooner you +learn what a fool the old sky pilot is, the better. Or, I tell you, +Douglas! You preach the next sermon and I promise to come and bring the +crowd." + +Douglas grinned feebly. "I value my life," he answered. + +Mary Spencer, who was listening to the conversation which took place in +her kitchen, now made a suggestion. + +"Why don't you feed 'em, Doug? Announce a series of fifty-cent dinners +up at the chapel and while the folks eat, let Mr. Fowler preach." + +Douglas laughed delightedly. "That's a 'gregus' idea! I'll do it. I'll +begin this Sunday with a venison dinner!" + +Mary nodded. "You get the food together and there are three or four of +us women who would be glad to cook it for you." + +"You are a real friend, Mother!" exclaimed Douglas. "I believe you've +solved my problem!" + +And so, in spite of Mr. Fowler's protest, a venison dinner was announced +for Sunday and received by the Valley in a spirit of hilarious +enthusiasm. The preacher refused to deliver the sermon while the meal +was in progress, but it was such a gustatory success that at its close, +the guests sat in complete docility through a sermon on future +punishment. It was a good sermon, quite as modern in most aspects as +Lost Chief. Douglas had seen to that. Mr. Fowler had reached the closing +sentence when a bull bellowed outside and the door opened disclosing +Elijah Nelson, with his horse close behind him. The preacher paused. + +"Excuse me!" exclaimed Nelson. "I thought this was just a dinner!" + +He was a big man, perhaps fifty years of age, with a smooth-shaven +ruddy face. He wore a sheepskin vest over his corduroy coat, and one of +the small boys bleated. Grandma Brown promptly smacked him on the mouth. + +"Will you come in and eat?" asked Fowler. + +"No, thank you," replied the Mormon; adding with a determined thrust of +his lower jaw, "I want Scott Parsons to come out. I won't disturb the +rest of you." + +"What do you want of me?" demanded Scott from his place between Judith +and Inez. + +"Come outside and I'll tell you." + +Scott grunted derisively. "It sure-gawd has got to be something more +than that to win me out of this position. I'm the envy of Lost Chief, +old sheep-man!" + +There was a general laugh. + +"Go on out and see what he wants, Scott," said Peter. + +Scott sighed and detached himself. The congregation waited a moment; +then curiosity had its own way and the chapel emptied itself into the +yard. Several Mormons were sitting their horses before the line of +quivering aspens that bound the little clearing. A big red bull was tied +to the corral fence. Elijah Nelson remained on the doorstep. + +"Well," he began, "since you are all out here, I'll say to all of you +what I rode down here to say to Scott Parsons, he and anybody that may +be helping him are hereby served notice that they've got to keep out of +Mormon Valley. We are decent, God-fearing Americans, and we are not +going to stand being robbed any more." + +"How do you mean, being robbed?" asked Peter Knight. + +"Well, I brought this along as a sample," replied Elijah. "Some five +years or so ago, I had some cattle grazing on Lost Chief and somebody +ran off a dozen head, this bull among the lot. Anybody that can't do a +better job of rebranding than this, ought to try another line of +business." + +There was an interested craning of necks toward the huge brand offered +in evidence; then every one looked at Scott. Scott said nothing, and +Elijah went on. + +"That fellow Parsons patrolled Mormon Creek, that heads up at Lost Chief +Springs, all summer. He built a brush dam and threw the water out of our +creek into his own ditch, whenever he felt like it. I didn't want to +start a fight going. That's not a Mormon's business. We are peaceful +folks, homesteading the wilderness. It was a wet summer and we managed +to get enough water out of White Horse Creek to take care of us. But +right is right and wrong is wrong and we aren't going to stand that next +summer. Last week, a coyote was fastened into my chicken run; and last +night a mountain lion with a trap hanging to his leg got into my corral, +where I had two foals, and he killed them before I could get out. The +trap had Scott Parsons' name cut onto it. I don't know who is helping +him, if any, but I'm here with my neighbors to serve notice that it's +got to stop. I see you've got a preacher here now. I begin to have hopes +you may become peaceable yet." + +A sudden gust of laughter swept Lost Chief. + +"Well, Scott," asked Peter, "what have you got to say?" + +"Me?" asked Scott. "I'm not a preacher or a Mormon. I haven't got the +gift of gab. Charleton is a good talker. Let him say something." + +"All right, old trapper," said Charleton obligingly. He grinned at Inez +and began: + +"Yet, ah, that Spring should vanish with the Rose, That Youth's +sweet-scented manuscript should close,--" + +Elijah Nelson interrupted. "Is this the way you are going to answer a +decent protest against injustice? Is this--" + +"Wait now!" cried Grandma Brown. "Don't get all prodded up. Scott, you +give this man a straight answer." + +"Very well, Grandma; I'll do that little thing for you," drawled Scott. +"Nelson, you and the rest of you Mormons and Jack-Mormons go plumb to +hell, but leave my bull behind." + +One of Nelson's neighbors rose in his stirrups and shook his fist at +Scott. "You dogy-faced Gentile! I've got you marked! You are the one who +ran our cattle off Lost Peak five years ago, and we know who helped +you." + +"Well, I think you Mormons had better get back to your plural wives!" +cried John Spencer. "We've had about enough of this." + +"Judith," said Douglas, "you take your mother and go home." + +Judith turned bright eyes toward him. "Think I'm going to run away? No +sir!" + +Elijah's neighbor laid his gun across his own arm. "Say that again, +Spencer," he suggested, "unless you aren't willing to fight for your +daughter!" + +Mr. Fowler sprang up beside Nelson on the doorstep. "I beg of you all to +disperse to your homes and don't desecrate the Sabbath by such a scene +as this." + +"O, don't talk like a fool, Fowler!" exclaimed Grandma Brown. At this +moment her little grandson came roaring lustily up the trail. He was +covered with muck and snow. + +"Judith's bull has got away from us kids and he's headed this way!" + +"What were you doing with him?" shrieked Grandma, + +"We was going to bring him up here and put him in the church like Scott +paid us for. And he said--" + +But what the child intended to divulge was not to be known, for there +was a bellow from the thickest of blue spruce and Sioux, with various +chains and ropes dangling from his neck and legs, charged into the +clearing. There was a sudden wild scattering of human beings. Judith +whistled shrilly, but Sioux had been goaded beyond her control. + +"Let me get my rope!" she cried. + +"Hold up!" shouted Charleton. "Something's going to happen!" + +The Mormon's bull had broken his halter and had turned to meet the +on-coming Sioux. Sioux's bloodshot eyes fell on the stranger, and +instantly the battle was joined. Snow flew. The buck fence crashed. The +bulls bellowed, locked horns, retreated, charged, slipped, fell, rose +again with a rapidity only equalled by the ferocity of the attack. + +"They'll kill each other if they aren't stopped!" cried Fowler. "Stop +them, Douglas! O God, what a place! What a place!" + +"What a fight, you mean!" laughed Charleton. "I put up ten dollars on +Sioux." + +"Take you!" said Scott. + +"If Spencer's bull kills mine, he'll pay for it!" cried Nelson. + +"If they work into the corral," shouted Douglas, "some of you help me +put up the fence again and we'll have them!" + +"Well, but don't stop the fight." Young Jeff gesticulated excitedly. +"I'm going to put up ten on Sioux!" + +"Take you!" said Scott. + +Nelson's bull ripped Sioux's flank for six inches and blood spurted to +the ground. Both the great heads were undistinguishable masses of +blood. Their hot breath hung frozen in the air. The western sun turned +all the world beneath the aspens to crimson. The betting became more +general and more hectic as the battle waxed more furious. The Mormons +forgot their grievance for the moment and backed their bull freely. + +Suddenly Sioux freed himself, retreated and charged with the full force +of his two thousand pounds. He caught Nelson's bull on the fore +shoulder. The visitor slid sideways, stumbled to his knees and rose, +shaking the blood from his eyes. He gave a look at Sioux, who was +preparing to charge again, and turning he fled along the trail toward +Scott's ranch, uttering as he went the longdrawn and continuous bellow +of the defeated bull. + +Douglas, Judith, and John Spencer immediately roped Sioux. Scott spurred +his horse across the trail and drew his gun. "Get back!" he said to two +of the Mormons. "That's my bull!" + +"No gun-play, Scott!" called Peter. + +There was a sudden exodus of women and children down the home trail, but +Judith continued talking soothingly to her bull. + +Scott did not heed the postmaster. He went on, to the Mormons. "You +blank-blanks have trimmed me out of my year's profits! I'm not going to +lose the bull too!" + +"Judith Spencer!" shouted Elijah Nelson, turning his horse toward Judith +and her pet, "is that Scott Parsons' bull?" + +There was sudden silence, broken only by the distant bellow of the +retreating warrior. Judith sat very erect on Buster, her beaver cap on +the back of her head, her wide gray eyes brilliant. She looked at Scott. +His hard handsome face was expressionless. Douglas ran across the yard +and reached up to tap Elijah Nelson on the chest. + +"Don't drag a woman into this, you bastard American, you! I was up there +that summer running your cattle and I lost every one of them, if you +want to know, and there was no woman helping me out, either. Now, what +are you going to do about that?" + +Nelson lifted his hand. + +"Wait a minute!" drawled Charleton.. "It sure-gawd is your bull, Nelson. +Scott ran it up to Mountain City, rebranded it there, and brought it +back here in the spring." + +"Why, you traitor!" roared Scott. "You staged the whole play, and I'll +bet you staged this with your traps." + +"I never let a debt go unpaid," chuckled Charleton. + +"Aw, come off, Scott!" cried John Spencer. "Give them the bull and send +them home. We are sick of your rows in this valley!" + +Scott forgot that he was guarding the trail. He spurred his horse +furiously toward John, flourishing his six-shooter. The two Mormons +slipped quickly away. + +"If you think you can sacrifice me for Jude, John Spencer!" cried Scott. +He got no farther, for Douglas, now on the Moose, cracked him on the +right wrist with the butt of his own gun. At the same time, Peter +knocked John's arm into the air. Scott's weapon dropped into the snow. + +"Now," said Douglas with his quiet grin, "this venison dinner party of +mine is announced as over. You Mormons take yourselves and your dogs off +my place. Frank," to the sheriff, who had been an amused spectator up to +this point, "come over here and soothe Scott. He's a right nervous +cowman to-day. Dad, you take Jude home." + +Frank rode slowly over to take Scott's bridle. + +"Well," said Peter, "looks like our host wants to get rid of us. Come +on, Charleton." + +"I'll get you later, Charleton!" shouted Scott. + +"But how about--" began Nelson. + +Douglas turned in his saddle and faced the older man. His young eyes +suddenly looked grim and hard. "Nelson, you have seen what Lost Chief is +like to-day. We have no fear and we have no friends and we have no God. +But Lost Chief is ours and we intend to keep it. No Mormon is welcome. +Don't use our trails or our range or our herd waters. Now, go!" + +"Those are hard words, such as a man can't afford to speak to a +neighbor," said Elijah, turning his horse slowly. + +Douglas did not reply, and not at all reluctantly the visitors spurred +up the drifted trail. + +"Come on, Judith!" John nodded to the girl. + +"I'm going to stay and doctor Sioux up," she said. + +"Go on home, Judith," urged Douglas. + +"I'll take care of the bull for you," said old Johnny, who had not +spoken a word during the entire episode. + +"Nobody can touch him in the state he's in but me. You know that!" +declared Judith. + +"Judith," repeated Douglas, "you go home." + +"Why?" demanded the girl. + +"You know why, Judith. Go on with Dad." + +Judith set her lips, and slowly, very slowly spurred Buster after John's +horse. Not until she was out of earshot did Douglas say to Scott: + +"Scott, let's you and me settle our differences once and for all." It +was dark now and cold. "You gather up that gun, Johnny, and we'll go +into the cabin where it's warm." + +"I'll not go near your house!" Scott spoke gruffly. + +"Look here, Scott! Don't be a grouch! Let's see if we can't get +together." + +"Get together? What for? Some of this pious stuff, I suppose!" + +"No, it's not! It's just common sense. We both plan to spend our lives +in this valley. Why fight all the time?" + +"You can bet I do plan to spend my life in this valley. Neither you nor +Charleton can run me out. Lost Chief is as much mine as it is yours. +Don't you ever get it into that thick head of yours that you can be Big +Chief here. I am going to have a finger in this pie myself." + +"Aw, draw it mild, Scott!" protested the sheriff. "Nobody's afraid of +your threats. Doug's advice is good. Come out of your grouch and join +the crowd." + +"Whose crowd? Doug's? I didn't know he had one except for idiots," +sneered Scott. + +"No," said Douglas cheerfully, "we don't want any idiots in our crowd. +We want good friends and watchmen, hey, Johnny? Come on in, Scott. The +going is pretty good." + +Scott uttered an oath. Douglas, a straight, rather tense figure in the +dusk, did not speak again for a long moment; then he said quietly, "All +right, Scott! I'm through. Get off my place, quick!" + +He dismounted and unsaddled the Moose. Scott rode off at a gallop. + +"Want any help with the bull, Doug?" asked Frank Day. + +"No, thanks! We'll get him into the stable and then look him over. Get +the lantern, will you, Johnny?" + +"Then I'll be riding," said the sheriff. "My chores should have been +done an hour ago," and he jingled down the trail. + +It was not difficult to lead Sioux into the little log cow stable. But +here all progress ceased. The bull became so frantic whenever they tried +to examine his wounds that after a prolonged struggle they left him. +Johnny and Douglas finished the chores while the preacher went into the +cabin and got supper. They sat long over the meal. Old Johnny was deeply +excited. A fight always upset his poor old tangled nerves. Douglas +finally suggested that he take the lantern and clean up after the +dinner; and the old man, who loved to potter about the chapel almost as +much as did the preacher, acquiesced enthusiastically. + +After he had gone, Fowler said, "Douglas, that little chap is going to +do some one bodily harm if we aren't careful. He is getting fanatically +devoted to you. I had to keep my hand on his arm all the afternoon." + +"The poor old dogy!" Doug shook his head. "We'll keep the guns away from +him, and then he won't get into trouble. I'm more bothered about you and +Scott than I am about me and Johnny, though!" + +"Scott means mischief," said the preacher. + +Douglas nodded. "I don't want you to go anywhere without me. He is +plenty smart enough to know that the best way to get me is through +you--or Judith!" + +"Don't worry about me, Douglas. I heard Bryan say once, 'My body is +covered with the callouses of defeat. No one can hurt me.' I am like +Bryan. No one can hurt me. And I would guess that Judith can look out +for herself." + +Douglas grunted. The two sat staring at the fire in a silence that was +not broken until Judith called from without, "Douglas, I want to see +Sioux!" + +Douglas took up the lantern and, followed by Fowler, went out. Judith +stood beside Buster. + +"You give me the lantern, Doug, and neither of you follow me. I can +manage him best alone." She was not gone long. "He's not as bad off as I +feared," she said when she returned. "I'll let him feed and rest for +another hour, then I'll take him down home where I can tend to him +right." + +"Then let's go in out of the cold," suggested Fowler. + +When they were established around the stove, Judith asked, "How did you +and Scott get along, Douglas?" + +Douglas told her of the conversation. Judith looked serious. + +"You see, Doug, Dad keeps Scott sore all the time about me. I don't +think he'd be half so ugly to you if it were not for that." + +"O yes, he would!" replied Douglas. "Scott and I were born to fight with +each other, just like old Prince and Charleton's Nero. We can't help our +backs bristling when we see each other." + +"Inez could make Scott behave if she cared anything about it. Scott +isn't in love with her, but she has a lot of influence over him, like +she has over the other men in this valley." Judith watched her +hunting-boots steam against the hearth. + +"She has too much influence over you, Judith," said Mr. Fowler. + +"She's my friend," returned Judith briefly. + +"Your friend!" cried Fowler. "Your friend! Do you realize what you are +saying?" + +"Yes, I certainly do, and I don't want a lecture about it either." +Judith sat erect. + +Mr. Fowler leaned forward, his eyes glowing with indignation. "I've +swallowed all I can swallow about Inez Rodman. I allowed Douglas to +bring her to the table and I ate with her though my gore rose in my +throat. Because I felt that my only chance to win the confidence of Lost +Chief was to countenance for a time that which cannot be countenanced. +But I am through. How long do you think you can be a friend to Inez, +Judith, and not become like her?" + +Judith jumped to her feet. "O, I am so sick of this kind of thing!" she +cried. + +"Fowler is dead right and you know it, Judith," said Douglas. + +"You don't dare to say these things to her face!" Judith's eyes were +full of the tears of anger. + +"I'd just as soon," Douglas grinned. + +"I'm going to tell her what I think of her and what she is doing to the +youth of Lost Chief," stated Mr. Fowler. + +"She's not a bit worse for Lost Chief than Charleton Falkner," exclaimed +Judith. "And you don't pick on him!" + +"He couldn't be as bad as Inez," insisted the preacher. "There is +nothing so bad for a community as her kind of a woman." + +"That just isn't so, Mr. Fowler," protested Douglas. "Charleton is worse +than Inez ever thought of being. All I'm complaining about is her +influence on Judith." + +"You both talk as if I had no mind of my own!" Judith said indignantly. +"If you knew the temptations I'd withstood, you'd not be so free with +your comments about me. And if all I'm going to get when I come up here +is criticism, I'm not coming any more. Don't you follow me, Douglas!" +and Judith, in her short khaki suit, swept out of the cabin with a grace +and dignity that would have done credit to a velvet train. + +The preacher was deeply perturbed. He rose and paced the floor. +"Douglas, I've tried to play this thing your way. But now I am through +compromising. There can be no compromise with God. I'm no longer going +to keep silence when events like those this afternoon take place. +Undoubtedly my stay in Lost Chief will be short. But while I'm here I am +going to stand openly and vehemently for the ten commandments." + +Douglas tilted his chair back, folded his arms on his chest, and dropped +his chin. "Something's wrong with your religion," he said. + +"Nothing is wrong with my religion," retorted the preacher. "But Lost +Chief is more wrong than most places. It's a transplanted New England +community, and people who come from Puritan stock can't get along +without God. They are worse than any one else without Him." + +"I'm sick of worrying about it!" cried Douglas irritably. + +"Do you mean you are sick of the fight? That you are going to let Inez +have Judith?" + +Douglas straightened up. "No, by God! Not if I have to shoot Inez! You +go ahead and preach your own way. I'll see that you are not hurt." + +And this was his last word on the subject that night. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +THE FLAME IN THE VALLEY + +"The coyote is a coward, so his bite is the nastiest." + +--_Old Sister, the dog_. + + +The next day when Douglas went down to the ranch to help out with a +day's work for which John had asked him, Judith obviously avoided him. +Douglas made no attempt to enforce a tête-à-tête until mid-afternoon. +Then he followed Jude into the empty cow stable. + +"Jude, I can't bear to have you think I'm not fair about Inez. If that's +what you are sore about." + +Judith laid carefully back the eggs she had taken out of the manger. Her +face was set when she turned to him. "It doesn't matter much, I suppose, +whether you are fair to Inez or not. She can take care of herself. What +I'm angry about is your being so stupid with me, always picking at me +about the things that don't count and so wrapped up in your own ideas +that you can't see what I really need, and why I am so terribly +restless." + +Douglas leaned against the door-post, his face eager, his breath a +little quickened. Now, at last, perhaps he was to win past the threshold +and gaze upon Judith's inner solitude. But he would not crowd her. + +"What is it that makes you so restless, Judith?" he asked gently. + +"Well, it certainly isn't lack of religion and it certainly isn't lack +of marrying," she retorted. "Those are the only suggestions you've ever +been able to make about my state of mind." + +"But, you see," Doug's voice was still gentle, "I don't even know what +your state of mind is! Sometimes you tell me you find life a bitter +disappointment. Sometimes you find it very beautiful. Sometimes you want +to spend all your days in Lost Chief. Sometimes you must sell your +heart's blood to get away from it. All that I really know about your +state of mind is that you are lonely and uneasy, like me." + +Judith watched him with less perhaps of anger than of resentment in her +deep gray eyes. + +"It's the unfairness of it! The utter unfairness of life to women!" she +burst out. "Don't you see?" + +Douglas shook his head. "How can I see? You are very beautiful. You have +the strength of a fine boy. You have a splendid mind. You have a very +special gift in handling animals. You are gay and brave-hearted and +lovable. Why in the world should I feel that life isn't fair to you?" + +"Don't you see?" wringing her hands together. "I have all that, and no +chance to use any of it so that it's put to any sort of big use at all. +I'm buried alive!" + +"Oh!" Douglas gasped. He had indeed seen Judith's trouble. All the vital +beauty, the splendid talents--was marriage to him a big use of them? +"Oh!" he repeated. He brushed his hand across his eyes. "God! Judith," +he muttered, "what can I do?" + +"I don't know," she said, "but at least you can stop trying to thrust +old Fowler down my throat. As for Inez, I judge Inez a good deal more +exactly than you do and in many ways more harshly. But what I do insist +on is that no man in Lost Chief is fit to judge her." + +Judith again picked up the eggs, and went out. + +Douglas put in the rest of the week placing his traps up the canyon, and +purposely avoided talking with Fowler about his next sermon. He was not +surprised, however, when he read the announcement which the preacher +gave him to tack up on the post-office door. The sermon was to deal with +the modern Magdalene. + +Fowler had chosen his subject with the idea of exciting popular +interest: his choice was almost perfect. Every soul in Lost Chief was +packed into the log chapel long before the services began--every soul, +that is, but Inez. Mr. Fowler never had been more eloquent and never, +probably, had preached to a more deeply interested congregation. His +sermon was a vitriolic arraignment, thinly disguised by Biblical +nomenclature, of Inez Rodman. + +When Fowler had finished, Young Jeff rose slowly to his feet. Douglas, +from his usual place in a rear seat, smiled a little. He liked Young +Jeff and liked him best when he rose as now, to do battle for a friend. + +"Fowler," said Young Jeff, "I don't like that sermon. We all know who +you are driving at, and as for me, you make me very sore. That's a Lost +Chief girl and no outsider can come in here and insult her." + +"Right! Right!" called several men. + +"I didn't expect you to like the sermon," said Mr. Fowler. "I'm through +saying pleasant things to you folks. You are going to get straight facts +from now on." + +"That's as it may be. But you keep your tongue off of Lost Chief women." + +"I don't know why you get your back up, Young Jeff!" cried Grandma +Brown. "The people of Lost Chief aren't ignorant. They do what they do +because they prefer it that way. They know what the world calls their +doings. Why be squeamish when Fowler comes in here and just repeats the +world's attitude on such doings? Inez is the ruination of our young +folks, and we all know it." + +"That's right!" called Mrs. Falkner; and Mary Spencer added a low, "Yes! +Yes!" + +"She's better than any man in the room, right now!" cried Judith. "If +you are going to drive her out, you ought to drive the men out." + +"Fine!" called Charleton Falkner. + +There was a quick guffaw of laughter, during which John Spencer rose. + +"Fowler, I don't want to seem to go against my own son, but I want to +say that if you try any more sermons like this one, I'm going to head a +committee to run you out of the Valley." + +"I'd want to be head of that committee myself. Don't be a hog, John!" +drawled Charleton. + +"That's a good idea!" exclaimed Scott Parsons. "If the preacher says, +'Drive Inez out,' we'll say, 'Out with the preacher!'" + +"You're all talking like a parcel of children!" said Grandma Brown. + +"Come on!" shouted Scott. "The Pass is open. Let's send him out now!" + +Douglas slid to the end of the seat. Fowler stood tensely behind the +table, pale, but calm. Peter Knight spoke for the first time. + +"I've got an idea. Let's give the sky pilot just one more chance. Let's +ask him to preach a sermon next Sunday that we can all feel the right +kind of an interest in, or else resign, himself." + +Douglas spoke suddenly, "Just what would that kind of a sermon be about, +Peter?" + +"Well, that's Fowler's job," replied Peter. "He's been at it all his +life. He's probably learned by this time the kind of sermons people +don't like. I don't want to see him driven out of Lost Chief. I want him +to have his chance." + +"That's fair enough," exclaimed Charleton. "This isn't such bad fun. Why +drive him out while the fun lasts? How about it, John?" + +"Fair enough!" agreed John. + +"Nothing doing!" cried Scott. + +"Now, Scott," warned Charleton amiably, "you run the bull business and +you'll have your hands full. We old regulars will handle the preacher." + +"Huh!" sniffed Grandma Brown. "Wonderful! 'Old regulars!' Well, don't +any of you old regulars forget that Douglas Spencer has grown up and +that his brand mark is the same as his grandfather's. I think you all +are acting like a parcel of children!" + +Nobody spoke for a moment. Douglas watched Mr. Fowler anxiously, but the +old preacher appeared to have no weapons with which to meet the +occasion. Douglas felt that the situation was getting out of hand. He +knew how to meet physical resistance, but he realized that he was only a +novice in the sort of strategy that controls by mental superiority +alone. He ground his teeth together. + +"I'm young yet and I'll learn! See if I don't!" Then he pressed his lips +together and waited. + +Peter broke the silence. + +"How about it, Fowler?" + +"I'll agree to nothing. I am through compromising." The old man's eyes +were blazing in a white face. + +"You're foolish!" exclaimed the postmaster. "But we insist on giving you +one more chance. Let's see what you can do for us next Sunday. I move +we adjourn." And the meeting broke up with a considerable amount of +laughter. + +There was very little discussion of the situation in the cabin, that +night. Mr. Fowler seemed inexpressibly tired and broken, and Douglas, +with a sudden welling of pity to his throat, persuaded him to go to bed. +Nor did he, later, interfere with the old preacher's choice of a sermon. +There was a deep conviction growing within Douglas that the religious +issue of the situation was entirely beyond his own directing. + +Peter, however, had no such conviction and he took considerable pains to +try to get Fowler to go back to the subject of immortality. But the old +man had the bit in his teeth and there was no holding him. The +post-office door on Saturday bore the announcement that Sunday's sermon +would be on The Sins of Lost Chief. Just below the preacher's placard +was an invitation from Jimmy Day for Lost Chief to attend his birthday +dance on Saturday evening. + +Douglas told of the invitation at the supper table. Mr. Fowler made no +comment, but old Johnny said, "I suppose Scott will be taking Judith." + +"I don't see why!" exclaimed Douglas suddenly. + +"You're all rejus like in the church now. You ain't got the time for +womaning. Are you still fond of Jude?" peering at Douglas anxiously. + +"I guess you know how I feel about Judith, Johnny," said Doug in a low +voice. + +"Like I used to feel about her mother?" The old man put a hand on Doug's +arm. + +Douglas nodded. + +"And would it break your heart if Scott or any other man got her?" + +Douglas nodded again, then rose. "I think I'll run down to see her a +minute. I won't be gone long." + +Mr. Fowler smiled. "Good luck to you, boy!" + +"Keep your fingers crossed for me," said Doug, slamming out of the door. + +Judith kept her finger in "Vanity Fair." "We were all going in a crowd," +she said. "You've been cutting us a good deal lately. Why not come in +out of the wet and be just one of us?" + +"I want to take you, myself," insisted Douglas in a low voice. They were +standing in the kitchen, with the door into the living-room closed. "I +want you to wear that white dress with the thing-ma-jiggers on the waist +and your hair all loose around your face. And I'm going to make love to +you every minute." + +His eyes were entirely earnest. Judith smiled, then drew a sudden short +breath. The color deepened in her cheeks, then retreated. + +"All right, Douglas! I'll go with you!" she said. + +Douglas looked at her as if he scarcely believed the evidence of his +ears. Then he flushed. "Thank you, Judith," he said. "Good-night!" and +he bolted into the night. + +On Saturday evening, old Johnny was restless. "I have a feeling like I +ought to sleep in the chapel," he said. + +"Pshaw!" exclaimed Douglas, who was knotting a wonderful new blue +neckerchief around his throat. "Everybody will be at the party. You two +keep each other company and have the coffee-pot going for me when I get +home." + +"Charleton ain't going to be at the party," said Johnny. "I heard Jimmy +Day deponing at the post-office to-day that Charleton was still off on a +trip." + +Douglas hesitated and looked at Mr. Fowler. "Go along, Douglas," said +the preacher. "We'll bolt the door and no one is going to bother us two +old men. You can't sit over me like a mother hen all the time, you +know." + +"All right," agreed Douglas. "I suppose I do act like an old woman. I'll +be home a little after midnight." + +The dance was in full swing by the time Douglas and Judith reached the +hall, with all the Lost Chief familiars present except Charleton. Inez +came with Scott. The vague feeling of uneasiness that Johnny's report +had given him did not leave Douglas, not even when he swung into his +first dance with Judith. She looked into his eyes mischievously. + +"This is nice, Doug, but is it what you call making love?" + +Douglas laughed. "Give me time to find words, Jude!" His arm tightened +around her, but his face settled with worried lines. + +"What's the matter, Douglas?" asked Judith. + +"I don't know. I just have the feeling that something is going wrong." + +"It would be a foolish feeling if Charleton were here," said Judith. +"But ever since poor old Prince--you know--I've had the feeling that +Charleton was just waiting for a chance to hurt you." + +"Has he said anything to you?" quickly. + +"Of course not! Charleton is clever. Well, don't let it spoil your +evening, Douglas. You knew you were courting trouble when you took the +preacher in." + +"And I sure have found it!" exclaimed Douglas with sudden cheerfulness. +"If they don't hurt my old sky pilot, I don't care. Come on, Jude, a +little more pep, if you please!" + +Judith chuckled. "Ah! perhaps this is your idea of love making!" + +"You'll recognize it all right when I begin," said Douglas, skilfully +steering Jude past his father, who had been visiting the pail in the +corner and was swinging Inez in a wild fandango down the center of the +room. + +Douglas had not the least desire to dance with any one but Judith, and +when she danced with other men he wandered uneasily around the room. +About eleven o'clock he missed Scott. "Where's Scott gone?" he asked +Jimmy. + +"O he only stayed for the first dance! I guess he and Inez had a row." + +Douglas scowled thoughtfully and wandered over to the phonograph, which +Peter was manipulating. + +"Where's Charleton, Peter?" + +"He went out after a stray stallion he thinks has wandered up on Lost +Chief." + +Douglas gave Peter a startled glance. "Jimmy Day just said he'd gone +into Mountain City." + +Peter shrugged his shoulders. "All I know is what Charleton told me last +Monday." He slid a new record into the machine. + +"Wait a moment!" Douglas put his hand on the starting-lever. "Isn't that +the telephone ringing downstairs?" + +Peter listened; then nodded. + +"I'll answer it!" exclaimed Douglas. + +He dashed downstairs and jerked the receiver off the hook. "I want Doug! +I gotta depone to Doug," came a breathless old voice over the wire. + +"Yes, Johnny, here I am! Where are you?" + +"At Mary's. They got the preacher, Doug!" + +"Who? Be cool now, Johnny, and help me. Who did it?" + +"Two men. They had things over their faces and they were loco and they +never--never--" Johnny's voice trailed into an incoherent muttering. + +Douglas jammed up the receiver and leaped back up the stairs. He spoke +hurriedly to Peter. "They've got the preacher. I can't get sense out of +Johnny. You take care of Jude." + +He jerked on his mackinaw and darted for the door. Peter followed him +into the cold starlight. + +"Wait a moment, Doug. You'd better let me give a general alarm." + +"Maybe they're all in on it!" Douglas paused with his hand on the pommel +of his saddle. Then he gave a hoarse cry, pointing as he did so at Dead +Line Peak. "Peter! There's a fire up there!" + +He leaped into the saddle and drove the spurs home. The Moose broke into +a gallop. A moment later there were shouts on the trail behind him. + +"Keep going, old trapper! The birthday party is with you!" roared Jimmy +Day. + +Douglas did not reply. He saw the flames leap higher as he covered the +miles. He felt rage mounting swiftly within him, rage that was akin to +what he had felt over the shooting of old Prince, but a thousand times +more poignant. But he handled the old Moose coolly. Up the ever-rising +trail, between drifted fences, up and up, with the Moose groaning +for breath, until the quivering aspens showed clear and black against +the leaping flames. + +He threw himself from his horse, conscious now of a confusion of voices +behind him, of dogs barking, horses groaning and squealing, and coyotes +shrieking excitedly from the blue spruce thicket behind the corral. The +cabin and the chapel were in full flame. Old Johnny limped up to +Douglas. Douglas put a gentle hand on the quivering old shoulder. + +"Johnny, when did they come?" + +"Right soon." + +"You mean after I had gone." + +"Yes. They broke the window out. I knew it would happen. This is an +awful gregus bad valley." + +"Steady now, old boy! Did they hurt the sky pilot?" + +"No. They tied him up and took him away. Then I rode down to telephone +and they burned it." + +"Who was it, Johnny?" + +"I don't know but I depone it was Scott and Charleton. They never spoke +but I depone it. Like it was Charleton and John tied me to the mule and +that was how." + +"Steady, Johnny! Which way did they go?" + +"I don't know. I was riding down to Mary. I knew Mary--" + +"Steady, Johnny." Douglas looked up at the circle of faces. + +"Is there anybody friendly enough here, if they knew who did this, to +tell me?" + +There was no reply, and Peter said, "I don't think if it was Scott and +Charleton working together, they'd confide in anybody!" + +There was a murmur of assent. Douglas stood, the kind hand still on +Johnny's shoulder, drawing long shuddering breaths. + +"If they hurt my old sky pilot," he said, "God pity 'em, for I sha'n't. +'Are any of you folks going to help me organize a hunt for him?" + +"How do you know the two old fools didn't set fire to it themselves?" +demanded John thickly. "The sky pilot was in bad and that would be a +good way out." + +Douglas swung himself up on the Moose. In the vivid light his lips were +twisted contemptuously. + +"Glad to help you out personally any way, Doug!" exclaimed Jimmy Day. +"But you'd better let the sky pilot go. They ain't going to hurt him. +You've been the church buildingest damn fool in the Rockies." + +"Speak for yourself, Jimmy!" cried Peter. "I'm with you, Doug." + +"And so am I!" exclaimed Judith. "This is the rottenest trick ever +sprung in Lost Chief!" + +"You will not stir a step after the preacher, miss!" roared John. + +Douglas stood in the stirrups facing his old friends and neighbors. But +words failed him. He spurred the Moose out onto the trail. + +Peter urged his horse up beside the Moose. "Where are you heading for, +Doug? You mustn't go off half-cocked." + +"I'm going down to Inez' place and see if I can sweat the truth out of +her." + +"It's a slim chance!" + +"I don't think so! It's too dark to follow tracks now, and you can bet +they've covered themselves well, anyhow. I have a feeling that Inez +knows. She must have been willing to murder the sky pilot after his +sermon. If we don't get anything out of her by dawn, we'll get Frank Day +and start. I know I can count on him." + +"Well, perhaps you're right. Inez has been venomous about this and I +can't say that I blame her. Easy now, Doug. The Moose is about all in." + +Douglas grunted and the way to Inez' house was covered in silence. +Douglas had no sense of confusion, nor of defeat. He was angry, but with +his anger was a lust for battle and an exultation in the opportunity +for it that smacked almost of joy. I'll get him back, he told himself, +and I'll rebuild the chapel and I'll punish Charleton and Scott. Maybe I +am nothing but a rancher a thousand miles from anywhere but no old +crusader ever fought for the grail harder than I'm going to fight for my +little old sky pilot. And if they hurt him--! Old Moose groaned as +Douglas involuntarily thrust the spurs home. + +There was a light in the kitchen of the Rodman ranch house. Douglas +banged on the door, and when Inez called, he strode in, followed by +Peter. Inez was sitting before the stove, on which a coffee-pot +simmered. Scott Parsons stood beside the fire, coffee-cup in hand. +Douglas helped himself to a chair and Peter imitated him. + +"You folks didn't come up to my fire," said Doug. + +Inez, who had followed his movements intently, smiled sardonically. "Did +you expect either of us?" + +"Not exactly. I didn't expect to see Scott here, either. It was rumored +that you'd had a quarrel and that was why you left the party early." + +Inez shrugged her shoulders. "Where's Judith?" + +"She's probably helping old Johnny up at my place. There didn't seem to +be anybody else likely to stay, after the fireworks." + +"And what are you and Peter doing down here at a time like this?" asked +Inez, looking at the postmaster as she spoke. + +"I was going to get you to tell me what Scott and Charleton had told you +about this partnership affair of theirs. But as long as Scott is here, +I'll just sweat it out of him." + +Scott laughed. + +"What makes you think I know anything about it?" + +"You have cause to hate the preacher more than any one," replied Douglas +simply. + +Inez' chin came up proudly. "I'm glad you realize that!" she exclaimed. + +"But it's not exactly evidence," said Scott suddenly, "that Charleton +and I had anything to do with the affair." + +"No, nor, if they did put over the job, that I knew about it," added +Inez. + +"Which job do you refer to?" asked Peter. + +"Running the preacher," replied Inez. + +"But how did you happen to know he had been run?" Peter's eyes were half +shut. "You came home early and didn't go up to the fire." + +Inez bit her lip. Peter smiled grimly, his long, sallow face wearier +than ever in the lamplight. "You aren't the kind to get away with a +plot, Inez. Leave that to Charleton." + +"No reason why some one couldn't have telephoned, is there?" demanded +Scott. + +"No reason at all," replied Peter, "except that Inez' phone has been out +of order for a week and I promised to come up to-morrow and fix it for +her." + +"I didn't think," said Douglas, "that you were the kind to get mixed up +in a rough deal like this, Inez. I'll admit that Fowler's sermon was raw +and all that, but still you are no hand to blink facts. Didn't you have +it coming to you?" + +Inez' lip twitched. She looked from one man to the other, finally +focussing on Peter. + +"Did I?" she asked. + +"Yes, you did," he answered. "You've got to lay the blame finally on the +women. Otherwise civilization would cease." + +"Oh, forget it!" growled Scott. "What are you dragging Inez in on this +for? She's always been a good friend to you, Peter." + +"I like Inez," said Peter slowly, "but no one is a good friend of mine +who is bucking against Douglas in this stunt he's at himself. Douglas is +easily the coming man of this valley and if I'm not mistaken, of this +State, and I'm back of him, boots, spurs and saddle." + +Douglas flushed and twisted uneasily in his chair. + +Scott sneered, inaudibly. Inez stared at Douglas, nostrils quivering +slightly. "I've always admired Doug," she spoke coolly, "but it wasn't +playing the game for him to let the preacher attack me and I'll never +forgive him for it." + +"I'll never ask you to!" exclaimed Douglas cheerfully. "And I'm not +going to start a debate with you. I know that Charleton and Scott put +over this deal and that you knew about it." + +"I'm going to make just one statement." Inez was looking again at Peter. +"I think whoever set fire to your place, Douglas, was a fool and a +crook." + +Scott buttoned up his mackinaw. "Well, I'll be riding. I'm a long way +from home." + +Douglas stretched his right arm along the table. His six-shooter was in +his hand. "Don't hurry away, old-timer! I want to talk to you." + +Scott stood rigidly, a forefinger in a buttonhole. "Don't get funny, +Doug. This ain't a sheep-herder's war." + +"No, it's more serious than that," agreed Douglas. "You don't get the +idea, Scott. You can't run the preacher out of the Valley, because I +shall keep bringing him back. You can't burn down my chapel, because I +shall keep building it up. Now, you tell me what you know about this +man, because I don't calculate to let you eat, drink, or sleep until you +do tell." + +"You must think I'm a tenderfoot! Inez, you open that door into the +yard." + +"Peter, you engage Inez' attention, will you?" asked Douglas in his +gentle voice. "Now then, Scott, where is Fowler?" + +Peter moved his chair over beside Inez. Scott made a wry face. + +"I ain't his herder. That's your job. But you've sure lost him on the +range, Doug. A religious round-up ain't what you thought it was, huh?" + +"Just keep both hands in the buttonholes. That's right, Scott. Now when +you get ready to tell daddy all your little sins, speak right up." + +"Look here, Doug, don't you start any shooting in my house. I never have +had any trouble here and I'm not going to begin now. You'll never get +anything out of Scott, this way. You let him go." + +Peter took Inez' hand. "My dear girl, you'd better keep out of this. +Douglas is a right nervous rider, to-night." + +Inez attempted to free her hand. Peter smiled. "You can't be my friend +and Scott's too, you know." + +"I don't want to be your friend!" panted Inez. + +"Don't you?" asked Peter, looking at her through half-closed eyes. "Why +not, Inez?" + +Douglas, intrigued in spite of himself by this half-whispered +conversation, glanced toward Inez. Instantly, Scott thrust the table +against him and leaped toward the door. But Doug thrust out a spurred +boot and the two young riders went down among the table legs. Inez +twisted in Peter's grasp, but he pinioned both of her hands and watched +the struggle anxiously. Suddenly he saw Douglas drive his knee violently +into Scott's groin. Scott groaned and went limp. Douglas got to his +knees and tied Scott's hands together with his own neckerchief. Then he +dragged Scott to a sitting position against the wall and again covered +him with his gun. Slowly the agony receded from Scott's face. + +"Where's the preacher?" demanded Douglas. + +Scott did not answer. + +"I'm going to stay here till dawn," said Doug. "If you don't see fit to +answer by then, you'll start on the hunt with me. Think it over." + +Peter, both of Inez' wrists in one of his long, powerful hands, put +fresh wood on the fire, then sat down again. Inez leaned against him, +breathing unevenly. For a long time, no one spoke. Douglas, the sense of +exultation still upon him, lighted cigarette after cigarette and waited +patiently. How long a time went by he did not trouble himself to note, +though he believed dawn could not be far distant. + +The silence was broken by the galloping of a horse up to the door. A +moment later, Mary Spencer burst into the kitchen. She was wind-blown +and wild-eyed. Her coat was open. Her head was bare. + +"Is Judith here?" she cried, without appearing to observe the peculiar +postures of the inmates of the kitchen. + +"No!" exclaimed Inez. "What's happened?" + +Douglas looked at his mother with startled eyes. "I don't know!" cried +Mary, bursting into tears. + +Douglas tore down the roller-towel and tossed it to Peter. + +"Tie up Scott's ankles. Inez won't bother!" + +Inez, indeed, was giving no heed to the men. She ran over to Mary. "For +heaven's sake, what's happened?" + +Mary wiped her eyes and fought to speak calmly. "Up at the fire she +insisted that she was going out to help find the preacher. John had been +drinking and he argued with her, and followed her down the trail. They +quarrel so much I didn't think anything of it. I stayed a long while up +at the fire with the others. Then I went home. I noticed when I turned +old Beauty into the corral that it was empty, and I was surprised. I +hadn't thought Judith would start out till daylight. I rushed into the +house. The living-room table had been tipped over and the chairs pulled +round. I telephoned everywhere, but nobody had seen her. And this 'phone +wouldn't answer. Old Johnny came down and he rode toward the post-office +and I came here." + +Douglas started for the door. + +"Where are you going?" asked Peter. + +"After Judith!" + +"What about Scott and the preacher?" + +Douglas turned to face the others, his lips white, his eyes burning. +"What do I care about them, when Judith is in question!" + +"You go ahead, Doug!" cried Inez. "Don't wait for anything. Judith's +been talking about running away for years, but she never planned to go +off in the winter, I can tell you that." + +"John had been drinking, you must remember," half-sobbed Mary. "He's +always so ugly then." + +Douglas rushed out of the door. Peter followed him. "I'm going up to the +old ranch and see if I can pick up their trail. I need another horse. My +corral is cleared out and Dad's is too. But I--O, Peter!" Douglas' voice +broke. + +"Keep your nerve up, Douglas. I've got a couple of horses in fair +condition down at my place. We'll ride there after we look over things +at your father's ranch." + +They hardly had cleared the corral when Mary overtook them. She was +still crying, but except for her sobs they rode in a heavy silence to +the ranch house. + +Old Johnny was gone. They found a curious note on the kitchen table. +"Going after Jud for Douglas. J.B." + +"She's started for Mountain City, I'm certain," said Mary. "She's been +terribly uneasy ever since Doug left home, always saying a girl had no +chance to make anything of herself here. It would be exactly like her to +lose her temper and start off, hard pelt on that hundred-mile ride with +no preparations at all." + +"That's not what worries me," said Peter. "It's John when he's drunk." + +"It's light enough to start!" exclaimed Douglas. "Mother, you give us +some breakfast. Let's roll up some blankets and take some grub and get +gone, Peter." + +In little more than a half-hour they were on the trail. And all the +exultation which had carried Douglas through the night had fled, leaving +him with the sense of impending calamity that had spoiled the dance for +him. And he knew now that it had been a well-founded prescience. A door +had closed behind him, forever, and, with horror in his heart, he was +facing a void. For something had gone wrong with Judith. And Judith was +his life. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +THE TRAIL OVER THE PASS + +"Some riders' spurs are the lightest when their hearts are the heaviest." + +--_The Moose_. + + +It was a clear day, but in the increasing light, white clouds could be +seen whirling from the crest of Lost Chief. + +"Lost Chief is making snow, but we won't get it before evening," said +Peter, as they dismounted at the post-office corral. "Now we'll just +outfit for a couple of days. I'm believing we'll overtake one or both +before night, but you can't tell. If Jude was crazy enough to run away +in zero weather, she's crazy enough to have taken any kind of a risk and +to be paying for it." + +Douglas went swiftly and silently to work. The sun was just pushing over +the Indian Range when, each leading a pack-horse, they crossed Lost +Chief Creek and started up the long climb to the Pass. Here the wind was +rising and dry snow sifted constantly across the trail, obliterating any +trace of hoofs that might have been there. It was slow going, too, for +there had been much snow on the Pass and the drifts were frequent and +deep. Douglas was extremely sparing of his mount. Nothing that he could +do should interfere with his efficiency in the search, and although his +mad desire bade him rowell the straining brute, he rode light of heel, +resting at frequent enough intervals to satisfy even Peter's large ideas +of what was owing to a horse. + +It was not until they were half-way to the summit, pushing between +towering jade green walls, where the wind was excluded, that Douglas +suddenly pulled up. The snow was level and hard-packed. There were hoof +and wheel marks, leading south. Friday's mail stage. A number of hoof +marks leading north. The two men dismounted and for many minutes studied +these. + +"Here!" exclaimed Peter at last. "Four horses in a walk, up to this +point. Here, they break into a trot; and this is old Johnny on Jingo, +and that is the Wolf Cub. + +"Easy, Doug! Don't kill the horses. It's only a guess you are +following." + +Douglas grunted impatiently and set his horse, Justus, to the trot. At +the summit, still following trail, they pulled up to breathe the horses, +then plunged downward. Half through the afternoon they followed the hoof +marks. The biting wind rose and the sun warmed their backs as they +crested the ridges. The wind fell and the sun darkened as they dropped +into the valleys. Eagles on the hunt hung watchfully in the sky. Coyotes +now and again sneaked across the trail before them. The two men threshed +their arms across their chests or dropped their aching feet from the +stirrups, and still the hoof marks of five horses led on before them. + +Their shadows had grown long and blue-black on the trail before them +when suddenly Douglas pulled Justus up, and Peter pushed up beside him. +About a quarter of a mile farther on lay the half-way house. They were +crossing a broad, flat valley into which the trail dipped lazily. Just +before them, the tracks of two horses and a dog led sharply to the left +and disappeared. Some one had fallen. There was a confusion of tracks, +then a two-horse trail led on toward the half-way house. Without a +word, they put their horses to a gallop that did not ease until they +pulled in at the little log corral, of the half-way house. There were +two horses, John's and old Johnny's, in the shed. + +Crumpled on the doorstep was old Johnny, Doug's shot-gun across his +knees, at first glance, sound asleep. It was bitter cold. Douglas and +Peter pounded their numbed fingers, then examined the little old cowman. +He was, indeed, asleep, but his was the sleep that knows no waking. + +"I thought he knew better than this," said Douglas, pitifully. + +"He hadn't any outside clothes on." Peter fingered the cotton jumper. +"Had a sudden thought and went off as crazy as Jude. Let's lift him into +the house." + +They opened the door. On the floor beside the stove lay John, his right +leg bloody. They laid old Johnny carefully against the wall. Douglas +stood rigidly staring at his father. Peter hurriedly lifted the wounded +man's hands, then forced some whiskey down his throat. + +"Start a fire, Doug!" he ordered. + +Douglas did not stir. He stood, blue eyes haggard, cheeks frost-burned, +staring at his father. John opened his eyes. + +"Get my right boot off, for God's sake!" he said faintly. + +"Wait!" said Douglas peremptorily, when Peter would have obeyed. "Give +him some more whiskey so I can hear the story and be off. Those were +Judith's tracks back, there." + +"The pain is killing me!" protested John. + +"Where is Judith? Have you hurt her?" demanded Doug. + +Peter applied his flask again to John's mouth. John drank, then groaned. +"I was drunk. Awful drunk. If Doug hadn't been so crazy about the +preacher he'd have seen that. Jude went down to the house to get some +warm things while she hunted for the preacher. I followed her. The house +was warm and got me even more fuddled than I was. I don't know what I +said but she came at me like a wild cat. Then she ran out of the house +and me after her. I never touched her. I never saw such riding. I could +just keep her in sight, and it wasn't till daylight that I came up to +her in this valley. After I sobered up I kept yelling at her, trying to +explain. But she didn't even turn her head. Then I rode my horse round +in front of her and she turned that devilish little wild mare loose on +me, kicking and biting my horse like a stallion. In the middle of the +mix-up, that blank old fool of a Johnny gallops up, half-dressed and +shooting in every direction. Jude she takes off up the valley and Johnny +gave me this leg when I tried to follow. I got up here, him following +me, and the fool wouldn't help me. Just sat guard outside the door. I +kept telling him he'd freeze to death. He kept saying he was saving Jude +for Douglas." John ended with another groan. + +Douglas stood clenching and unclenching his gloved hands. Suddenly he +turned on his heel. "Come on, Peter." + +"We can't leave your father this way, Doug." + +"Come on, I tell you!" Doug's low voice was as hard as his eyes. + +"Wait!" cried Peter. + +"Wait! Wait! While Judith freezes to death too!" exclaimed Douglas. + +"She couldn't freeze to death. She's too mad!" groaned John. + +"An hour won't make any difference," urged Peter. "I guess Jude had this +thing planned out." + +"Planned!" Douglas' blue eyes burned. "She's gone off her head with +anger and disgust and she doesn't care where she goes as long as she's +rid of him. I know Jude!" + +"You don't know Jude!" contradicted Peter. "Help me to lift John to the +bunk. He's gat to be taken care of." + +Douglas turned on his heel, took a quilt from the bunk and laid it over +old Johnny, gray and silent against the wall. Then without a word, he +lifted the door-latch. + +"Don't forget that this is your father after all." + +"But I have forgotten!" returned Douglas clearly. + +"Stop that kind of talk," said Peter sharply, "and help me get his boot +off!" + +Douglas gave Peter a long stare of resentment; then, without a word, he +rushed out of the cabin. He watered the horses, mounted Justus, and took +the lead rope of his pack-animal, putting both horses to the gallop. +When he reached the point where Judith had left the main trail he turned +and followed her tracks, which were rapidly drifting over with snow. + +The whole world was white. Lifting from the valley to the right, little +hills rolled over into one another like foaming billows. Beyond these +were distant ranges blue, white, and gold. Judith's trail led along the +base of the little hills into a grove of Lebanon cedars, gnarled and +wind-distorted. There was little snow among the trees and so for a while +the trail was lost. But when the cedars opened out on a circular mesa +where the snow was taking on the saffron tints of the evening sky, he +picked it up again. + +The mesa ended abruptly in a drifted mountain, opalescent pink from its +foot to its cone-shaped head. The snow on the mesa was not deep, and +Douglas realized that Judith had followed an old trapper's trail that +worked south toward Lost Chief Peak. + +By the time Doug reached the foot of the mountain it was so dark that he +barely could discern that Judith had circled to the right, around the +base of the peak. There would be a moon a little later. Douglas +dismounted in the shelter of a huge rock, cut down a small cedar, and +made himself a fire and cooked some coffee. And he fed the horses. + +He sat for an hour over the fire, waiting for the moon. He was not +conscious of weariness. He was not thinking. It was as if there had been +no burning of his ranch, no preacher, no old Johnny. His whole mind was +focussed on finding Judith. On finding her and somehow ending the +intolerable uncertainty and longing which he had endured for so many +years. + +The threatened snow thus far had held off. If the clear weather would +hold for another twelve hours, he was sure that he could overtake her. +He was impatient of delay and watched restlessly for the moon. Shortly +after seven o'clock it sailed over the mountain, flooding the world with +a light so intense and pure that the unbelievable colors of the daytime +returned like prismatic ghosts. + +Douglas mounted and slowly and carefully followed the trail around the +mountain. He found the spot where Judith had made a fire. He paused over +a drift where one of her horses had floundered. He urged his tired +horses to a trot where Judith had followed a beaten coyote trail along a +hidden brook. Hours of this, and then--a thickening cloud across the +moon and a sudden thickening blast of snow in his face. He had been +fearing this all day, yet the moon had risen so clearly that his fears +had been lulled. He pushed on as long as he could distinguish the +trail. Then, with a groan, he pulled up beside a clump of bushes. The +horses sighed gratefully. Justus' shoulders were quivering with fatigue. + +Douglas unsaddled the horses and hobbled them; then he shoveled snow +away from beneath some of the bushes and made a rough shelter over the +open space with a blanket. He built a fire, crept under his rude canopy, +and rolled himself in many blankets. He was very, very tired, and after +a time he dropped miles deep into slumber. + +It was gray dawn when he awoke and he was snug beneath a foot of snow +that had blown over his bed-covering. He crawled out stiffly and made a +fire. Then he fed the horses and ate his breakfast, examining the +landscape as he did so. + +Lost Chief Range rose to the left. To the right lay a broad mesa cut by +impassable canyons. Far to the south and to the right lifted Black Devil +Range, forming, with Lost Chief, a deep valley, the valley in which +Elijah Nelson had settled. From Douglas' camp, the valley was almost +inaccessible: almost, but not quite. Just under the crest of Black Devil +Peak lay a pass. If this could be crossed one dropped southward into a +cup-shaped valley called Johnson's Basin. Beyond the basin a lesser pass +into sheep country, and thence still south to the railroad and the whole +wide world. + +Black Devil Pass was used in summer but only by seasoned hunters and +cattle-men. In winter, it was closed by snow and ice. Yet now, Douglas +was convinced that, unless big snows had stopped her, Judith was +attempting that perilous passage. She was by now cooled down; she would +not turn back. Pride, resentment, restlessness, and that virile love of +adventure which only increased as she grew older, would urge her on and +on. And to cross Black Devil Pass in winter was a feat which even +Charleton would refuse to undertake. Yet, he did not believe that +Judith would attempt such a journey without carefully outfitting. And +where could she have done this? Had she foreseen her flight and cached +food and fodder? Douglas shrugged this suggestion aside as highly +improbable. But she could have gone into Mormon Valley for supplies. It +was possible to reach Black Devil Pass from the upper end of Mormon +Valley, possible in summer at least. Possible also to reach the Pass by +swinging around to the right of the Black Devil Range. + +Douglas, with a grim tightening of his lips, looked over his supplies. +Bacon, coffee, flour, matches; enough for a week if eked out by +cottontails and porcupines. But the horses had only a day's fodder. He +remade the pack, mounted and pushed on through the snows, which grew +deeper as the elevation increased. + +On either hand, the two ranges flung mountain beyond mountain, in shades +of jade, creviced by deep blue snow. The tiny, weary cavalcade wound on +and on with not a trace of Judith to lighten the way. It was noon when +Douglas reached the forest which choked the end of Mormon Valley. He +knew the spot. Nature first had covered the floor of the passage with +boulders. Between the boulders, she had planted the pine-trees. The pine +had grown thick and tall and had waxed old and fallen, and other pines +had grown above the dead tree-trunks. In summer, if extreme care and +patience were used, a horse could be led through this chaos. In winter, +deep-blanketed with snow--! + +Douglas drew up before the pines and dismounted. The snow was +waist-deep. Very slowly, he began to pick a winding, intricate path +between the trees. He fell many times but he finally emerged into the +smoother floor of the valley. Then he turned and followed his own trail +back, kicking and pounding the snow to make better footing for the +horses. He took Justus' reins and led him into the trail. + +Horses hate the snow. These shied and balked, stood trembling and +uncertain, shook their heads and kicked, and Justus nipped at Doug's +shoulder with ugly, yellow teeth. But he pulled them on and by +mid-afternoon they were in the open valley with snow not above the +animals' knees. Gradually the Mormon buck fences appeared, and, just at +dusk, a twinkling light. + +Douglas rode up to the cabin and, dismounting, knocked at the door. + +It was opened by Elijah Nelson, his big bulk silhouetted in the +door-frame. + +"Good-evening!" said Douglas. + +"Good-evening!" returned the Mormon. + +"Did Judith Spencer come through this way?" + +Nelson shrugged his shoulders. "I don't care to hold converse with any +one from Lost Chief." + +Douglas moistened his wind-fevered lips. "I'm not trying to hold +converse with you. My sister has run away from home. I've lost her trail +and I'm scared about her. I won't stop a minute if you'll just answer my +question." + +A woman pushed up beside Elijah. "Who is it, Pa? For pity's sake, young +man, come in! It's a fearful cold night and this open door is freezing +the whole house." + +Elijah stood back and Douglas strode into the kitchen. Several children +were sitting around the supper table. Nelson repeated Douglas' query to +his wife, adding, "He's the young man who brought the preacher into Lost +Chief and who called me a bastard American." + +The woman stared at Douglas. He was haggard and unshaved. Nevertheless, +standing, with his broad shoulders back, his blue eyes wide and steady +yet full of a consuming anxiety, his youth was very appealing. + +"Have you been out long?" she asked. + +"Since Sunday dawn." + +"She's your sister, you say?" + +Douglas looked down at the woman. She could not have been much over +thirty and her brown eyes were kindly. "She's only a foster sister," he +replied, his low voice a little husky. "I--I--" he hesitated, then gave +way for a moment. "If I'd stayed at home as her mother wanted me to, +instead of bringing the preacher in, it never would have happened! +Religion! Look what it's brought me and Judith!" + +"Religion never brought anything but good to any one," said Elijah +Nelson. "It's religion now that makes me allow you within my doors." + +Douglas gave the Mormon a quick glance. Somewhere back of his anxiety it +occurred to him that he would like to ask this man some of the questions +that had troubled him for years. But now he said urgently to the woman, +"If Judith was here, for God's sake, tell me! She must not try to cross +Black Devil Pass." + +The woman turned to Elijah. "Tell him, Pa!" + +Elijah scratched his head, eying Douglas keenly the while. "Peter Knight +told me something about you. You don't seem to have been tarred with the +same brush as the rest of the Gentiles in Lost Chief. That isn't saying +I excuse the way you talked to me up at your chapel, but I guess you're +to be trusted as far as women are concerned. The girl came in here last +night. She was pretty well tuckered but as mad as hops. She told me that +Saturday night she had a violent quarrel with John Spencer and that she +fled from home in a burst of anger that was still on her when she got +here. She's headed for the Pass and the railroad beyond and nothing that +I know of can stop her. My wife and I did all we could to make her give +up the idea but she was sure she could make it. And I almost believe she +can! She's as strong as a young mountain lion: the way God intended +women to be. She stayed here all night and got away about an hour before +dawn. We outfitted her good. She thought maybe she could make through +the Pass by to-night, but I doubt it. Snow is awful deep up on Black +Devil. We've been looking for her back all day." + +Douglas drew a long breath. "Thank you, Mr. Nelson!" he said, and +started for the door. + +"Wait! Wait!" cried Mrs. Nelson. "You must have some supper and you must +rest. You look terrible!" + +Douglas shook his head. "Every minute counts. I'm not tired, only +terribly worried. I couldn't rest." + +Nelson walked over to the door deliberately, and put a big hand on +Doug's shoulder. "You fill yourself with some hot food, Spencer. You +know better than to tackle this job empty. That girl is in a desperate +frame of mind. You are going to have a struggle with her, if you do +overtake her. You must be cool and save your mind and body. How did she +come to be in such, a state of mind?" + +"She wasn't desperate," said Mrs. Nelson, unexpectedly. "She was sort +of--of wild. I can't just find the word for it. But lots of young women +are like that now-a-days." + +Douglas looked at her curiously. Some phrase of Peter's, half forgotten, +came back to him. "Revolt," he muttered. "Revolt, that's it." + +The woman nodded. "Yes, revolt's the word." + +Elijah shook Doug's shoulder. "How many horses have you?" + +"Two." + +"I'll feed 'em. Go sit down to that table and let my wife fix you up." + +Douglas slowly pulled off his gloves, and his voice broke boyishly as he +said, "You folks are awful kind." + +"Yes, I've sometimes suspected that us Mormons was almost human beings," +grunted Elijah as he pulled on his mackinaw. + +Doug's cracked lips managed a shadow of his old whimsical smile. Mrs. +Nelson heaped his plate and filled his cup with scalding coffee. Then +she shooed the children to bed in the next room and, returning, looked +down at Douglas half tenderly. + +"She's a splendid big thing, that girl of yours. If I was a man I'd be +plumb crazy about her. Has to be something fine in a girl to go crazy +mad, just the way she was. It wasn't all about your father. It had +heaped up for years. Though undoubtedly it was your father started her +off this weather." + +Elijah came in and sat down to his interrupted meal. "Good horses you've +got," he said. "But you've worked them hard." + +"Will you sell me some oats?" asked Douglas. + +Elijah nodded. "I'll fix you up. Do you know how to get to the Pass?" + +"No; I've never crossed, even in summer." + +"Well, I can direct you, though I've never made it myself in winter. +After you get over the Pass and into the Basin it will be easy going and +you can get fodder there. A Mormon friend of mine is in the Basin this +winter with sheep. I told Judith that and exactly how to get there." + +"Was she in bad trim?" asked Douglas abruptly. + +"No. A little used up for lack of sleep, that was all," replied Elijah. + +Mrs. Nelson suddenly chuckled. "My, she was mad! It did me good to see +her." + +Her husband looked at her curiously. "How was that, Ma?" + +"It's the way I've wanted to feel, lots of times," said Mrs. Nelson. "Go +on with your directions, Pa. You wouldn't understand in a hundred +years." + +Elijah snorted, then went on. "There's no trail. But if you reach the +summit, get a line on a bare patch in the middle of the basin, that's +the lake, and the highest peak across the basin. It's got the mark of a +big cross on it. You can't miss it. If you keep on this line, it will +bring you out at Bowdin's sheep ranch. I don't know whether the snows +are as bad on the other side of Black Devil as they are on this. +Johnson's Basin drops down to about three thousand feet elevation and +there's not enough snow in the basin itself to stop sheep grazing. But +the climb down is something awful, even in summer. Ma, you put up a +bundle of grub." + +"I've got grub for a week, thanks!" exclaimed Douglas. Then he asked +Elijah, hesitatingly, "Will you tell me why you are so kind to me?" + +"As I said, it's my religion." + +Douglas stared at his host's kindly face. "I'm dog sorry," he said, "for +what I called you. But, how was I to know? I've been brought up to hate +Mormons." + +Elijah nodded. "I guess we're square. What kind of a man is Fowler?" + +"I like him. But I don't know whether he's the man for the job I set +him, or not. But he's going to stay," lips tightening. "I'll see to +that! Have you always been a Mormon, Mr. Nelson?" + +"Brought up in it. And I've brought my children up in it. Judith told us +about the rotten trick they did you over in Lost Chief. What are you +going to do about it?" + +"Get them!" replied Douglas. "That is, after I find Judith. I think I +know the men who did it, and the sooner they get out of our valley, the +more comfortable they'll be and so will I." + +"But where is that poor old man?" cried Nelson. "Have you looked for +him?" + +"I was trying to get a line on him from Scott Parsons when her mother +brought word Judith was gone." Douglas paused and gave Elijah a straight +look. "I wouldn't stop to look for any one on earth, if Judith needed +me." + +"Judith can take care of herself better than that old man," insisted +Elijah. + +"Nothing to it!" grunted Douglas. "He's been in the cow country forty +years. Not but what I know it was a frightful thing to leave him. But it +can't be helped." + +"What shall you do about a church now?" asked Mr. Nelson. + +"Build it again for the hounds to burn again! If I believed in a God I'd +say he was off his job as far as I'm concerned." + +"Humph!" exclaimed Elijah. "If I don't miss my guess, the Almighty is +directing your business these days as he never has before. You are just +about doing what He says and flattering yourself it's your own plan. God +moves in a mysterious way, His wonders to perform." + +"I wish I could believe it," muttered Douglas, starting for the door. + +"Now, I shifted saddle and pack for you to two horses of mine!" said +Elijah. "If you find that girl, bring her back here. I want to have some +talk with you both. You can pay me rent for 'em, so don't waste your +breath arguing." + +"Well, whether you are a Sioux or a Mormon," exclaimed Douglas, "you +sure are white!" + +Elijah grinned broadly. "Well, that's a real concession for a Gentile! +Be sure you stop here on the way out." + +It was Douglas' turn to grin. "We'll sure be glad to head straight for +here. But I'll warn you now. You can't make Mormons of us!" + +"I'm not a-going to try. But I want to say a few things to you. No harm +in that, is there?" + +"None at all!" Douglas shook hands with his host, then turned to Mrs. +Nelson. "I'm sure obliged to you," he said. + +"That's nothing. But look, Mr. Spencer, don't you be too sure you're +going to bring that girl back with you, even if you overtake her." + +Douglas nodded. "I know," he agreed huskily, "I've got my work cut out +for me." Then he went out into the starlight. + +Elijah followed. "The moon will be up by the time you need it. Follow +trail up to the timber line. Skirt the timber line till you reach the +first shoulder of Black Devil. After that, God help you! The horse you +are on is named Tom. If you aren't back in five days, I'll go over to +Lost Chief and get help to look for you." + +"Thanks," said Douglas, and he rode away. + +Warmed, refreshed, and with hope shadowing his anxiety, Douglas turned +the horses southward. Tom horse was a big, broad-hoofed brute, +hard-bitted and not at all enthusiastic about his prospective trip. But +--he was a stronger animal than Justus and Douglas pushed him sharply +through the snow. + +The trail through the fields for three or four miles was easy to find in +the starlight. The valley narrowed as it rose and finally Lost Chief and +Black Devil thrust foot to foot in a narrow canyon. Douglas did not +enter the canyon but twined upward to the right along the timber line +that clothed the ankles of Black Devil. The moon had not yet risen when +the timber disappeared at the foot of the first shoulder. Douglas pulled +up the panting horses, turned back to the wind and rested for a few +moments, then put Tom to the climb. The snow was without crust but it +was knee-deep and Tom didn't like it. He floundered and snorted, but +Douglas spurred him relentlessly and they crested the shoulder without +pause. Here, however, Doug decided to wait for the moon. + +He moved into the shelter of a rock heap, for the wind was huge, and, +beating his arms across his chest, waited with what patience he could +muster. Where was she now? Could even her splendid courage stand up +against the eerie loneliness. If only he could see her now, returning +defeated, though still defiant. But he knew that he would not meet her +so. She would not give up while she had strength to pursue the +adventure. + +There was no view of the peak from this spot. Before him lifted a dark, +shadowy wall, sloping interminably to the remote heavens. To the east, +Lost Chief Range was silhouetted against a faint glow that told of the +coming moon. To the west was a chaos of unfamiliar peaks. When the dusk +of the mountain-slope before him turned to radiant silver, Douglas +started the horses on and spurred Tom relentlessly. And if he had +known how to pray, he told himself, he would have asked the Almighty to +give him strength for the tremendous venture which lay before him. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +BLACK DEVIL PASS + +"They can stand the curse of being women, but they're revolting against +men's being stupid." + +_--The Mormon's Wife_. + + +Douglas spurred Tom relentlessly until the snow was belly-deep and both +animals began to fight obstinately to turn back. Douglas dismounted and +fastened the horses to a scrub cedar. Then he wallowed forward afoot to +break trail. The wind increased constantly with the elevation, but even +higher than its eerie note sounded the wild call of a solitary coyote. +Douglas heard the call but remotely. His mind was fastened on Judith +fighting as he was fighting. He beat trail until his lungs protested, +then he brought the horses forward, halted, and beat trail again. His +nose was bleeding slightly when he at last won to the crest of the first +shoulder. + +This was blown clear of snow and he mounted and rode well up on the +second shoulder before the horses again balked. Lost Chief Range now had +dropped so that dimly beyond he could glimpse the Indian peaks. The +strange peaks to the right were subsiding to be dwarfed by still other +peaks against which the stars floated, pendulous and brilliant. And +still Black Devil's top was invisible beyond the terraced ridge that +opposed the little cavalcade. + +When, after infinite effort, Douglas surmounted the third shoulder, he +paused, appalled by the loneliness and danger of the position. The ridge +had narrowed until its top offered barely a foothold, with sides +dropping to unthinkable depths. The snow had blown clear and the wind +was almost insupportable. A cedar stood before them like a sentinal +guarding the eternal loneliness beyond. Tom made for this as if it were +his last hope. As the horses brought up in the shelter of the tree, +Douglas gave a hoarse cry of relief and dismounted. Some charred sticks +and the remains of a cottontail had not yet blown away. Douglas examined +the traces of the hasty camp, then chuckled. + +"Safe so far! Some girl, my Judith!" + +Then his jaw stiffened and he set the horses to the last shoulder below +the Pass. Groaning, trembling, bloody flanks heaving, fighting +constantly to turn, Tom, when Douglas sought to force him through the +drift that topped the shoulder, deliberately lay down. Douglas freed +himself from the stirrups and jerked the horse to his feet. + +"I wouldn't own an ornery, unwilling brute like you, for a ranch!" he +panted. "Do you think I'm enjoying this, that we are a bunch of dudes on +a summer outing? I'll get angry at you in a moment, fellow!" + +The pack-horse had embraced the opportunity to fall asleep. Tom, +violently affronted by Doug's tirade, did his not inconsiderable best to +kick his mate. Then he snapped at Douglas, who promptly cuffed him on +the nose. Tom reared, fell, and began to roll down the terrible slope. +The pack-horse did not waken nor stir. Doug flung himself after Tom. +Slipping, falling, rolling, he finally caught the reins, and though Tom +dragged him fifty yards on downward, he at last braced his spurs against +a boulder, the reins held and Tom brought up, trembling and coughing. +And now horse and man could only stand for a long time struggling for +breath. When his numbing hands gave warning that his rest period must +cease, Douglas, with the reins caught over his elbow, began a fight back +to the crest of the ridge, a fight to which the previous portion of the +trip had been as nothing. When they reached the led horse, still +sleeping with his nose between his fore legs, there was no more fight +left in Tom, and Douglas dropped into the snow to rest. + +The moon was setting when he led his little train through the gigantic +drift to the long slope which lifted to the Pass. There was no snow +here. The slope, as far as Doug could discern in the failing light, was +a glare of rough ice. Over this he dared not urge the horses until +daylight. He looked at his watch. It was nearly five o'clock. He +fastened the horses to the only cedar in sight, then stood in the wind +debating with himself. + +He was very much exhausted and the rare air and the intense cold were +giving him no chance to recoup. This was no place to make camp. The tiny +cedar offered neither shelter from the wind nor an adequate amount of +fuel. And up here, in this hostile loneliness, his anxiety over Judith +returned threefold. Strong as she was, clever as she was, she was as +open to accidents as he. Supposing her horses had slipped on this ice +and had gone over the black edge! Douglas dropped to his hands and knees +and crept out upon the glassy surface. A hundred yards of this and he +brought to pause before a giant boulder beside which grew several dwarf +cedars. He drew his ax from its sheath and after long effort with his +stiffened fingers, he got the green wood to burning. Dawn, about seven, +found him napping against the warm face of the rock. He brought the +horses up to the camp, fed them and himself, and as the sun shot over +the Indian Range, then prepared to lead the horses onward. + +The crest of Black Devil now lifted immediately above him. Just below +the crest, a ledge broad enough for a pack team led straight into the +blue of the sky. To the right the dark wall of the crest. To the left a +sheer drop where the canyon between Lost Chief Range and Black Devil +yawned hideously. This ledge, this narrow, painful crossing, made the +Pass. + +Douglas drew his ax and prepared to roughen a trail over the ice for the +horses. But to his unspeakable delight, he had not gone far when he +discovered that another ax and other horses had gone over the ice before +him. He was grinning cheerfully as he sheathed his ax and took Tom's +reins in hand. + +It was noon when he reached the Pass. Sheer red walls to the right, +rising to the hovering top of Black Devil. Still the sickening canyon +depths to the left. To the south, myriad peaks, a whole world of peaks, +snow-covered, serene. Far, far below, a blurred green valley, with a +tiny white spot in its center. Johnson's Basin. The slope south from the +Pass was very steep and deep with snow, but Douglas saw Judith's trail +zig-zagging to a low shoulder round which it disappeared. + +He fed the horses, ate some biscuits and bacon, both frozen, and started +downward. Shortly snow began to fall, but he had no difficulty in +following trail until mid-afternoon. Then he paused on the low shoulder. +There were scrub pines in which Judith had made a camp. The snow had +thickened until Doug could see scarcely ten feet ahead. He was utterly +weary and very cold. He knew that he ought to go into camp for the night +but he could not. He tied the horses beneath the trees, a grateful, +windless haven to the poor brutes, and went slowly on to reconnoiter. + +Judith's tracks continued abruptly down the slope. Douglas followed for +a few feet, then stopped. A horse had fallen here and rolled down the +steep left wall. He dropped to his knees and followed the wide, +snow-packed trail. He had not far to go. From the snow drifted over a +rock protruded a horse's hoof. Doug swept the body free of snow. It was +old Buster, with his right fore leg broken and a bullet wound in his +head. Hot tears scalded Doug's wind-tortured eyes. After a moment of +search for further details of the catastrophe, he crawled up the wall +again and, after a frantic hunt, found a blurred single horse trail +leading on from the spot whence Buster had slipped. He went back for his +own horses, mounted Tom and pushed on downward. + +But he could not continue long. It was soon dusk and he dared not risk +losing Judith's tracks. When he came upon the next cedar clump, clinging +precariously to the mountainside, he dismounted. Under the shelter of +the trees, he fastened the horses. He trampled the snow for his +fire-place and chopped a night's supply of wood. After he had eaten a +hot supper, he wrapped himself in his blankets and huddled over the +fire, consumed by anxiety. + +The wind rushed by the cedars without pause. The hard, dry pellets of +snow rattled on the trees. The horses, their chins hung with icicles, +stood with bowed heads, motionless. + +All of Doug's life passed in review before his sleepless eyes. He could +not recall when he had not been shaping his days around Judith. Even +when as children they had lived the snarling life of young pups, she had +been the center of his universe. He wondered if love came to many men as +it had come to him. He had not observed it in any other man in Lost +Chief. Perhaps Peter had cared so. Perhaps in the outside world it was +not infrequent. But whether it was a common sort of love or not, he +could not picture himself without Judith in his life. If he should find +her dead, farther down on this ghastly mountainside, he knew that the +light and warmth within him would go out and that he never would finish +the journey. + +One by one he went over the steps of the past year that had culminated +in this trip over Black Devil Pass. He realized that every step had been +the result of his own years of mental conflict. Yet he could not see how +he could have failed to take each step as he had taken it. His mind +mysteriously refused to present an alternative. And, thinking thus, he +was conscious of a sense of spiritual helplessness as if he were being +borne on and on by forces quite beyond his control. And there came to +him a sudden and shattering conviction that this terrible night of +loneliness had been inevitable since the day of his birth. Call it Fate, +he told himself, call it Destiny, call it what we might, something +stronger than his own will had shaped his days toward this awful +expedition. Awful, he thought, not from the physical aspect--he had +endured as much in other ways--as from the quality of the events that +had brought the expedition about. It was all wrong that Judith should +have been in the state of mind that made it possible for her to put +herself to such a wild flight. Revolt, the Mormon's wife had said it +was. Revolt against what? Surely against something stupendous, +something that a man was powerless to help her to free herself from or +to bear. + +Ah, Judith! Judith! Judith all fire, all wistfulness, all strength and +beauty! What was he, after all, to hope to claim her, or even having won +her, how was he to keep her? How was he to keep within his ken that +restless, soaring spirit? What could he give her that would satisfy, and +hold her? For the first time in many years, Douglas could have wept; +wept for very sadness that Judith should be so lonely and so wistful. + +How long he sat shivering with his burning eyes on the fire, Douglas did +not know. He was roused by a faint cry above the wind. At first he +thought it was a coyote. But when it repeated, he started to his feet +and concentrated in an agony of attention on the sound. Once more it +came, longdrawn, troubled, the howl of a dog. Doug dropped the blankets +and strode from the shelter of the trees to deliver a long coo-ee. The +wind was against him. There was no response. + +He hurriedly dragged his entire supply of firewood before the shelter +and set it to blazing. Then he plunged on foot downward through the +wind-swept, snow-driven darkness. + +It was a terrible journey. He slipped and fell so often and so far that +when the light behind him dwindled to a faint point, he dared continue +no farther. Standing waist-deep in snow, he whistled and called. But the +cyclone wind drove the sound back into his teeth. Sick at soul, he +prepared to turn back. He beat his arms across his chest, stamped his +feet, slipped, and once more rolled downward. He brought up with a crash +in a cedar clump. A dog barked and threw himself against Doug with a +snarl that changed at once to a whine of joy. + +"Wolf Cub! Wolf Cub! Where is she?" + +He grasped the dog's collar. It was very dark beneath the trees. Wolf +Cub led him forward for a few feet. He stumbled over a soft, huddled +form. He rolled to his knees and pulled a blanket aside. Judith!--her +head pillowed on her knees. + +"Judith! Judith!" No reply. Doug put the blanket over her again and, +with hands like frozen clods, jerked out his sheath ax and with infinite +difficulty lopped off a cedar bough and got a fire to going. Sifting +snow pellets, and the little wild mare's beautiful anxious eyes and +drifted forelock, then that form beneath the blanket. Douglas heaped the +fire high, then hurled the blanket away. + +"Judith! Judith! Judith!" Sobbing, he crouched beside her, gathered her +in his arms, laid her cold face in his breast, tried to enwrap her body +with his. + +"Judith! Judith!" + +Wolf Cub whined in eager circles. Douglas laid his cheek against her +lips. A faint warmth. He shook her, frantically, and beat her hands with +his. Then he rose and balanced her on her feet. She hung limply in his +arms. He huddled her before the fire again and forced some whiskey down +her throat. He manipulated her inert body until when he lifted her again +onto her feet she was able to stand. Still half in his arms. Then he +forced her to stumble back and forth beside the fire. + +"Judith! Judith! Judith!" + +"It's you, Doug!" weakly and with bewildered eyes. + +"O Jude, how could you! How could you!" + +"Poor Buster--dead!" muttered Judith. + +"I know! I found him. You must keep going, Judith. Lean on me but keep +going." + +But circulation was returning to her strong young body. Shortly she was +able to stand alone and to ask Doug where he had come from. + +"My camp is up the mountain a ways. Why didn't you have a fire?" + +"Lost my pack when I lost Buster. Lost my match-safe when I fell with +the little wild mare this afternoon." + +"I'm going to take you back up to my camp, Judith." + +"I don't think I can make it, Doug. It would have to be a foot climb." + +"You must make it. There is nothing at all here to keep us both from +freezing to death. We'll start now, while I can still see the fire I +left up there." + +"I can't, Doug! You bring your camp down here." + +"This is no shelter at all. I'm in the big cedars above here. You've got +to have some hot food right off. We will leave the little wild mare here +until morning." + +With Wolf Cub hanging to their heels, they started the upward climb. +Judith gave to the last ounce of her depleted strength. They reached the +still glowing ashes of Doug's fire on their hands and knees, and lay +beside it till the warning chill brought Douglas to his feet. He chopped +more wood, rekindled the fire in the center of the camp, and established +Judith beside it on some blankets. Then he prepared some coffee and +bacon for her. She ate ravenously. Douglas watched her with satisfaction +radiating from every line of his snow-burned face. + +"Are you warm now, Jude?" he asked her when she had begun on her second +cup of coffee. + +"Well, not exactly warm, but I sure am thawing!" + +"As soon as you are warm, I'll let you sleep. That's right, let old Wolf +Cub snuggle up against you. He's better than a hot-water bottle. Are you +surprised to see me, Judith?" + +She looked up at him through weary eyes that still held the old +unquenchable fires in their depths. + +"I didn't know. If you had gone off on a long hunt for the sky pilot, +you wouldn't have heard yet that I was gone. Did you find him?" + +"I never even got to look for him. I was down at Inez' trying to sweat +some truth out of Scott when your mother came in with word you were +gone. Peter and I started after you at once." + +"Peter! Where is he?" + +"Jude, let's keep our stories until morning. Things look different, +then. And you are all in." + +"So are you!" + +"I'm not as bad off as you. Let me tuck you up, dear. When you've had a +sleep, you can give me my turn." + +Too done up to protest, Judith allowed Douglas to wrap her in blankets +and, with the Wolf Cub snuggled against her back, she dropped into +slumber. Douglas set himself to the task of keeping the fire going. The +snow ceased at midnight and the cold grew more intense. Douglas chopped +wood or walked up and down before the fire to fight off the snow stupor +which constantly menaced him. When the lethargy was too heavy to be +controlled by exercise alone, he stooped over Judith and, lifting the +corner of the blanket which covered her face, he would gaze at her with +such joy and thankfulness as he never before had experienced. Whatever +the future might bring forth, he had her safe and warm for to-night. And +he wished that he believed in a God that he might thank Him! + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +ELIJAH NELSON'S RANCH + +"Call it Fate, call it Destiny, something stronger than my own will is +shaping my destiny." + +--_Douglas Spencer_. + + +At dawn Judith stirred, blinked at Douglas, and sat up, staring. Her +eyes were bloodshot and deep sunk in her head, but her look was full of +energy, nevertheless. Douglas was standing on the opposite side of the +fire. + +"Have you been up all night?" she demanded. + +"Had to keep the fire," he mumbled, swaying as he spoke. + +Judith crawled out of the blankets, took Doug by the arm, and pushed him +down in the warm nest she had left. Then she covered him carefully. + +"It's my turn now," she said. + +He slept until noon. When he woke, Judith was making coffee, and the +little wild mare was munching oats with the other horses. The Wolf Cub +was gnawing on a bone, and the sun sifted brilliantly through the +cedars. Douglas got to his feet stiffly and Judith looked up at him from +her cooking with a smile. + +"Nothing like having your breakfast served immediately on waking," said +Douglas. + +"Come and eat, Doug. We must be on our way." Judith poured a tin cup of +coffee and offered Douglas a bacon sandwich as she spoke. + +"You shouldn't have let me sleep so long. A couple of hours would have +kept me going the rest of the day." + +"You talk as foolish as old Johnny!" exclaimed Judith. "You were in +almost as bad shape as I was, and two hours' sleep would have been a +mere aggravation to me. Will you let me have enough grub to see me down +to the Bowdins' ranch, Doug?" + +"No, I won't," replied Douglas succinctly, bracing himself for battle as +he spoke. + +"Don't let's quarrel, Doug." Judith kept her eyes on the fire. "I +haven't any intention of going back to Lost Chief. I've broken away and +I shall stay away." + +"I don't blame you for feeling that way, Jude, but surely you can see +that this is no way to go." + +Judith set her fine jaw firmly. Finally she said, "Where did you pick up +my trail?" + +"Where you left the stage road. Jude, did you know that old Johnny gave +Dad a nasty one above the knee?" + +"No! Old Johnny came to my rescue, but I didn't think he could hit a +canyon wall. Good old Johnny! What became of him?" + +Douglas moistened his lips. "He followed my father to the half-way +house. Dad was all in. Couldn't even build himself a fire. Johnny +wouldn't do a thing for him. He went outside and sat down on the +doorstep with my shot-gun across his knees; every time Dad yelled at him +he said he was saving Jude for Douglas. The last of the afternoon Peter +and I came up and found old Johnny there." + +"Good old Johnny!" said Judith again. + +Douglas nodded, hesitated, then said. "He was asleep and we couldn't +wake him up." + +Judith's eyes suddenly filled with horror. "You couldn't wake him up? +You mean--" + +Again Douglas nodded. "He was gone, poor old Johnny. For you and me. I +came on after you, alone." + +Judith twisted her hands together. "But dead, Doug! And in such a simple +way! O the poor little old chap! I can't forgive myself, Douglas!" + +"It's the way he'd like to have gone. You are not to blame." + +"O, yes, I am. I should have stopped and sent him home. But I was beside +myself, Doug,--O, you don't know! you can't know!" + +"You're not to blame yourself about Johnny, I tell you." + +"Now I never do want to go back! You'll just have to grub-stake me, +Doug. Please!" + +Douglas pushed his hair back from his forehead. If only she would not +plead with him! She never had done that. He did not believe that he +could stand out against it. + +"You mustn't think of going on alone, Jude," he said. + +"Then you come as far as Bowdins' with me and get rested up for your +trip back." + +"I want you to come back with me," repeated Doug. + +"No!" said Judith. "I'm never going back to Lost Chief!" + +"Then come as far as the Mormon's. Get rested and get some clothes +together and I'll take you out to Mountain City, and I'll loan you +enough money to live on while you get a job, or I'll put you through +college. Either you want. You've done a great stunt, Judith, crossing +Black Devil in winter. But putting over a stunt isn't necessarily acting +with judgment." + +"How could I act with judgment, under the circumstances?" demanded +Judith. + +Douglas looked at her with passionate earnestness. + +"Judith," he said, "you must believe that I'm not criticizing you. I'm +just trying to help you do the wise thing." + +"Why can't I go on across the Basin and get the A.B. railroad at +Doty's?" asked Judith. + +Douglas looked down the terrible mountainside. "We aren't equipped for +it, Jude." + +She drew a deep breath. "I don't want to go back where I have to breathe +the same air he does." + +"Judith, what did he do?" Doug's lips were stiff and his eyes contracted +as if with pain. + +"I didn't give him a chance to do anything. I don't want even to talk +about it." + +Douglas sat silent for a moment; then he said huskily, "I'm ashamed of +him." + +Suddenly Judith put her hands before her eyes and began to sob. Douglas +groaned. He put his arms about her and presently she leaned against him +and wept with complete abandonment. Finally she began to talk. + +"He's always worried me, a little--but I wasn't really afraid of him. I +don't want to think about him--or talk about him--to anybody. Up till +Saturday night he was just one of the hard things that heckled me--I +didn't have anybody to go to. If I went to you, you'd want to--marry me. +And--Inez--Inez has gone back on all the ideas she got me to believe. +She's gone--and fallen in love--with Peter! She--she told me not long +ago that she was going to do everything she could to make him marry +her.--Just as soon as something touched her selfish interests she went +to pieces.--I want to get away from Lost Chief!" + +Douglas patted her shoulder in silence. It was inexpressibly sweet to +have her there. + +"A girl has a brain, as well as a man," she went on. "She doesn't want +to be just a servant to a rough old rancher. She wants to live by her +brain as well as he does. What's the use of a woman being fine if that's +all her fineness comes to? You can say she hands it on to her children. +But she don't. It's something she acquires and it's lost--in the +scrubbing pail." + +Douglas listened with the whole of his mind. Judith's sobs had ceased +now, and she went on, slowly. "It's not that I'm against children. I'd +love to have a half a dozen babies. But what I am against is giving all +that is in me--the brain side of me, to something that demands only a +small part of my brain. I want a life like a man's and a woman's too, +that makes me give all, all. Surely I can find a place somewhere where I +can give that." + +Douglas drew an uncertain breath. The Mormon woman had known. A sense of +his own inadequacy settled on him like a cloud. + +"I know you think I'm a fool. Yet you have big dreams for yourself or +you wouldn't have felt as you have about the preacher. One has to have +an ideal to live by. I thought Inez had given me one and--" with a sob +that shook her whole fine body--"I don't see how it can work out!" + +"I suppose," said Douglas, in his gentle voice, "that folks have been +trying out Inez' idea ever since love began, and the homely, every-day +details of living make it impossible." + +Judith drew a long breath and was silent. + +"And so," said Douglas, "you are through with love and marriage. Yet no +human being can be happy without both. Life is like that." + +Judith sprang to her feet and Douglas rose with her. She began to walk +rapidly up and down before the fire. It was so evident that a tempest +was raging within her that Douglas watched her with astonishment and +dismay. The sunshine flickered gloriously through the cedar branches. +Wolf Cub gave cry after a coyote. It might have been a moment or a +lifetime to the young rider before Judith halted in front of him. Her +tear-stained face was tense. Her wide eyes burned with a light he never +before had seen in them. + +"And if," she exclaimed, "I told you that I loved you; that for years I +had fought off a love for you that was like a burning flame in my heart; +if I told you that to me you are as beautiful as all the lovers in the +world; but that I never, never would give myself to you in marriage, +what would you say?" + +Douglas' gloved hands clenched and unclenched, as he fought for self +control. After a moment he managed to return, steadily, "I'd ask you +why?" + +The tensity of Judith's expression did not relax. "I've told you why. I +cannot bear to think of killing love by marriage. And it always works +so. Always. And yet, O Douglas, I love you, love you!" + +Douglas threw back his head with a sudden breath, swept Judith into his +arms and kissed her, kissed her with all the ardor of years of +repression. Judith clung to him as if she could not let him go. And yet, +when he lifted his face from hers, she said, none the less firmly +because her voice was husky: + +"But, Douglas, I won't marry you!" + +Douglas lifted his chin. "Perhaps you won't, my dearest! I'm not going +to let that thought spoil the big moment of my life." + +He put his hands on her shoulders and looked at her, at the long +brilliant face beneath the beaver cap, at the fine steel slenderness of +her, and then he said in his low-voiced way: + +"O Judith! Judith! why didn't you tell me, long ago!" + +"Because nothing would satisfy you but marriage," replied Judith, with a +half sob. + +Douglas smiled wistfully. "But I haven't changed! Why did you tell me +now?" + +"I didn't want to! I didn't mean to! But I couldn't help it. You saved +my life, Doug! It ought to belong to you, but O, I can't give it to you! +I must go on. I must find out what is the thing I'm meant to do. I +must!" + +Douglas turned from her troubled face to gaze at the mad descent that +must be made before Johnson's Basin could be won. Then he put up his +hand and turned her face to follow his glance. + +"Judith, do you think that I can let you go down there? If it was +impossible before, think how I feel about it now I know that you love +me. Somehow we have got to compromise on this thing, my dearest." + +Judith clung to him. "I don't want to leave you, Douglas. But I can't go +back to Lost Chief. I can't!" + +Douglas held her close and for a long moment there was no sound in the +wide solitudes except the Wolf Cub's faint hunting-cry. + +At last Douglas said slowly, "If I give you my word that I'll take you +out to Mountain City as soon as I can outfit, will you come back to +Nelson's with me? Look at me, Jude!" + +Judith lifted her eyes and searched Doug's face long and wistfully. Then +she said, brokenly, "Yes, I'll come, if you will give me your promise. +Not because I think it's sensible but because, now I've given away this +much, I don't want to be separated from you till--till I've unpacked my +heart to you!" + +"And after you've done that," asked Douglas, "do you think I can ever +let you go?" + +"But I thought you were not going to spoil this moment by arguing about +marriage!" exclaimed Judith. + +"I'll not!" cried Douglas. "Truly, I'll not." + +The Wolf Cub trotted importantly into the camp with a scrawny +jack-rabbit dragging against his shaggy gray breast. Douglas gave a +quick look at the sky. + +"Judith, either we must put this place into shape for a night camp or we +must strike out at once so as to get over the Pass to-night." + +"We'd better break camp," said Judith. "It's getting frightfully cold +and there's mighty little fodder left." + +They fell to work swiftly, and before the Wolf Cub had half finished his +meal they were on the march. Douglas led on Tom, followed by his +pack-horse. Judith followed on the little wild mare. The crest of Black +Devil hung over their heads, the purple of his front crosshatched by +myriad crevisses filled with peacock-blue snow. The same strange blue +snow had obliterated their trail, and Tom, his bloody flanks deep in the +drifts, leaped and slid and turned, leaving a wake, Judith said, like +that of a drunken elephant. + +The drifts had blown clear of the narrow ridge down which poor Buster +had slid. They dared not trust the horses here, but dismounted and crept +gingerly across, the animals slipping and snorting behind them. They +rested after the crossing, and Douglas saw that tears were frozen on +Judith's lashes. + +"Judith, I believe the old horse was glad to go in service that way," +he said. + +Judith shook her head. "It's been a terribly expensive trip," she said. +"Old Johnny and Buster." + +"Expensive for them, yes,--poor old scouts both of them," Douglas +sighed, then added, "But, God, what a marvelous trip for me!" + +"And for me!" Judith nodded soberly. + +They beat their hands across their breasts and remounted, silently. + +All the brilliant afternoon, they worked their uneven way upward. Each +of the horses was down again and again. Both Judith and Douglas were +bruised and cut by ice. Both were drawing breath in rapid sobs when, +just before sunset, they fought the last few yards to the level of the +Pass, won to it, and lay on the icy ledge, exhausted. Wolf Cub nosed +them and whined disconsolately. + +"You're right--old hunter--!" gasped Douglas. "If we--don't--keep +moving--the cold--will get us!" + +Judith, who had been lying on her back staring at the sky, rolled over +on her face and struggled to her hands and knees. + +"Keep that--wild--elephant--you call--a horse in a long lead--or he'll +step on you--Doug!" she called. + +"Give me--a long--start, then!" + +Douglas started forward on hands and knees. The little wild mare was as +careful in following Judith as was the Wolf Cub. But Tom gave constant +evidence of an earnest desire to walk on Douglas instead of the trail. +He was too tired now, however, to be ugly, and the Pass was crossed +without accident or incident. + +It was dusk when they made the great rocks where Douglas had camped +before. Judith's strength was gone. She pulled the reins over the little +wild mare's head and tried to pull her ax from its sheath. But her +benumbed fingers refused to act. + +"Keep moving, Jude!" urged Douglas. "Just till I can get a fire started. +Don't stop walking for a moment!" + +When at last a blaze was going before the rocks, Doug unrolled the +blankets from the lead-horse and wrapped Judith in them. She crouched +against the face of the rocks in silence while Douglas put the +coffee-pot to boil and thawed out the bacon. It was not until she had +swallowed a second cup of the steaming beverage that the snow stupor +left her eyes. + +Suddenly she smiled, and said, "It almost nipped us that time, Douglas!" + +"And yet you thought you could make Bowdin's ranch alone!" grunted +Douglas. + +"It would have been getting warmer all the time. There would have been +nothing like this!" shivering as a great blast of wind swept over the +top of the rock heap. + +"You risked death in every step," insisted Douglas. "It was like going +down a canyon wall, not a mountainside. The drifts and ice made it +impossible to tell how your next movement would end." + +"Well," sighed Judith, "I don't think I'm regretting my decision. This +might be worse," stretching out her mittened hands to the blaze. + +"Nice, girlish kind of amusements you enjoy!" grunted Douglas, with a +little grin. "Something quiet and restful about playing games with you, +Jude! Now listen, my dearest, don't close your eyes until I tell you you +may. A night camp under Black Devil Pass is plain suicide, if you +forget for a moment." + +Judith threw off the blankets. "I'll chop some wood and get warmed up." + +"Aren't you warm now?" asked Douglas. + +"All but around the edges," replied Jude. + +"Well, you put the blankets round yourself again and save your strength +for to-morrow. You'll need it. It won't take me long to get things ready +for the night." + +Judith snuggled back in the blankets. "I'm really not a bit more done up +than you are, but it's worth a trip over the Pass to see a Lost Chief +rancher take such care of a girl. I didn't know you had it in you, +Doug!" + +Douglas laughed and began making the camp ready for the night. When he +had finished his preparations, he sat down beside Judith, pulled a part +of the blankets over his shoulders and drew her close against him. The +Wolf Cub lay as close as he could crowd against Judith's other side, his +nose almost in the embers. + +Judith looked into Doug's face attentively. His eyes were heavy and deep +sunk in his head. + +"You are very, very tired, Douglas. Why don't you get some sleep?" + +Douglas shook his head. "To-morrow, if all goes well, we'll reach +Nelson's place. This is to be my one last night alone with you. I'm not +going to sleep until I have to. This camp might seem sort of cold and up +in the air to some people, but to me, it's pretty close to heaven!" + +"I never can connect the man you've grown to be," mused Judith, "with +the horrid boy you were once. I wonder what has changed you so?" + +"Boys are rotten," agreed Douglas cheerfully. "Loving you is what has +changed me most. Everything else came out of that." + +"I suppose," Judith looked at the fire thoughtfully, "that if I'm going +to work in an office, I'd better begin to polish up my manners." + +"You'll be a wonder in an office!" said Douglas. "I can just see you +coaxing and taming a typewriter same as you coaxed and tamed old Sioux. +And just about as easy a job. You won't miss your horses and the Wolf +Cub. You won't be homesick for the range. O no!" + +"I've thought that all out, too," returned Judith coolly. "I'll hate +every moment of it. But I'll be learning." + +"Learning what, Judith?" + +"About life!" + +"About life! Judith, this is life. All of life. This!" He turned her +face to his and kissed her lingeringly. + +She was silent for a moment and there were tears in her eyes. Then she +said, softly, "No, it's only a part of life. Things of the mind count +heavily as you grow older. They count very much with you right now. What +else is your fight for the sky pilot but a thing of the mind?" + +"It's all based on my love for you, Judith," repeated Doug. "Judith, you +never can stay away from Lost Chief." + +"I'll stick it out. See if I don't! Will-power is the best thing I +possess. Inez always said I'd never get up courage to leave. Perhaps I +wouldn't have if I hadn't been so angry. But I did leave. She didn't +know me." + +"I wish Inez had run away. She's been your and my curse." + +"How is she worse than Charleton?" + +"She's more likable and a lot finer and so she has more influence. You +don't really think for a moment that Peter will marry her, do you?" +Douglas spoke contemptuously. + +"Well, if he doesn't marry her, it won't be because he considers that +he's led a perfect life, I hope." + +"That isn't the point. I think that men insist on marrying decent women +because there's a race instinct that makes a man turn to something +better than himself for his mate. It's what lifts the race, keeps the +spiritual side of life moving uphill instead of down. If this wasn't +true, human beings would never have got out of the monkey stage." + +Judith looked at Doug with interest. "That might all be true, but I hope +you don't put that up as an excuse for the double code." + +"No. I don't. I'm just stating one of the selfish, brutal facts of +life." + +Judith made no reply, and for a long time Douglas made no attempt to +break the silence. It was enough to be sitting under the brilliant +heavens with Judith's wonderful body warm against his side. The +far-drawn cry of the coyotes disturbing him now no more than it did the +Wolf Cub listening but unheeding. + +"I can't help thinking about old Johnny," said Judith at last. "It's +going to worry me terribly when I'm by myself again. I should have +stopped and taken care of him." + +"It's not going to worry me," returned Douglas quietly. "The poor old +fellow was unhappy and useless. He died a real hero's death for some one +he loved. Folks in Lost Chief are going to remember that instead of his +poor old feeble mind." + +"I'm glad you were kind to him! You have been wise and kind in many +ways, Doug, and you are only a boy. I believe Peter is right in saying +you are going to be a big man." + +"Shucks! Peter doesn't know that all the good there is in me is built on +you." + +"That isn't true," contradicted Judith. "You're big within yourself. +Even Inez said that." + +Douglas grunted and his voice was without enthusiasm as he said, "Inez +can't see anything straight that is related to love. I'll admit she's +dangerously interesting. If I hadn't always been caring for you, she +might have got me twisted the same as she has you." + +"I'm not twisted," protested Judith stoutly. "I'm just not afraid to see +marriage as it is. Sordid!" + +"Inez!" sniffed Douglas. + +"Let's not begin that again!" exclaimed Judith. "Just love me, Douglas, +and let me go away." + +He drew her closer still. "Love you!" he repeated in his quiet voice. +"You might as well tell me to breathe or my heart to keep on beating. I +haven't done anything else since the day I drove the preacher out of the +schoolhouse. Even when I've tried to stop caring, I couldn't do it!" +with a whimsical smile. "Do you remember how I wouldn't let you go with +Dad to feed the yearlings?" + +"Yes, I remember because from that moment you were a little different +from other Lost Chief men in my mind. Tell me some more." + +Douglas stared at the fire, going in retrospect over the long, long +fight, the fight that still was only half over. + +"I can't put it into words that will make it seem as big to you as it +is to me, Judith. Tell me, have you been lonely all your life?" + +"Yes. Very, very lonely. With the feeling that there was no one to +understand." + +"That's the way it's been with me, only I always knew that if you could +care for me we could understand each other. I want to make you know me +to-night, Jude. I want to fix my real self so in your mind that wherever +you go, you'll have me with you." + +"You did that long ago, Douglas," said Judith softly. + +"Have I?" wistfully. "You see, Jude, you are so mixed up in my mind with +Grandfather's dream of Lost Chief, and mine, and the preacher, and God, +that I don't know myself where one leaves off and another begins. And +to-night, one part of me is on fire with happiness and another is frozen +with discouragement. Are you sure you can care for me, Judith?" + +"Ever since that night in the hay-loft when you kissed me, after your +father shot Swift. I didn't want to love you. There didn't seem much +romance about a boy you'd lived with all your life. I didn't want to +marry. I wanted to give all there was in me to some one big and fine +enough to appreciate it. And after all, it's only you." + +"Only me!" ejaculated Douglas, comically. + +Judith did not smile. "I fought and fought against it. But every year I +saw you growing into a bigger, finer man than Lost Chief ever had +known--a lonely sort of a man, not afraid to be laughed at even when it +was about a matter of religion. I hated to see you making a fool of +yourself, and yet I admired you for it. You grew so straight and +self-controlled, and Doug, you are so wonderful to look at! Your father +never dreamed of being as handsome as you. He's just a great animal. But +no one can look into your eyes and not see how you've fought to make a +man of yourself. I love you, Douglas!" + +They clung to each other in the firelight, heedless of the unthinkable +loneliness that hemmed them in, of the ardors of the day, of the terror +of to-morrow. + +"Judith! Judith! I cannot let you go!" breathed Douglas. + +"I must go!" Judith freed herself suddenly. "Nothing shall persuade me +to go back to the commonness of marriage in Lost Chief." + +"Marriage is exactly what you make it," declared Douglas. "I believe we +can keep it beautiful." + +"I'm afraid!" repeated Judith. "It's hard to do or be anything fine in +Lost Chief. You know that. See what they did to you! Douglas, what are +you going to do about their burning up your ranch?" + +Judith felt his muscles stiffen. "I'm going to fix Scott and Charleton, +once and for all," he replied. + +"Shall you rebuild the chapel?" + +"Yes--" Douglas made the affirmation then stopped, abruptly. Rebuild the +chapel? And Judith not there? Put up the big fight for old Fowler, and +Judith never returning to Lost Chief? Where now was all the zest for the +fight? Why the chapel, why the ranch, why the big dream for the children +who were to grow up properly in the Valley? + +"No!" he exclaimed suddenly. "I shan't rebuild the chapel!" + +"Fowler was the wrong man," Judith said. "You must realize that now. I +wonder what they did with the poor old chap. I don't want any harm to +come to him even if he did make you a lot of trouble." + +"It doesn't matter," muttered Doug. "It's all over for me if you are +going away--" his voice broke and he shivered violently. + +Judith looked into his face with quick anxiety. His lips were blue. "You +go chop some wood!" she ordered. "And when you are warmed up, you creep +into the blankets with Wolf Cub and sleep for four hours. I'll keep the +fire up. You are so tired, Doug, that the cold will get you if you +aren't careful." + +Douglas rose stiffly, and wearily began an attack on another cedar. But +he had not taken a dozen strokes when he began to sink slowly to the +ground. Judith, ran to him and helped him back to the blankets. Then she +covered him snugly, and in a moment he was asleep. + +It was midnight when she wakened Douglas. She was blue and shivering. +"I'm a new man, Judith. Roll in quickly!" and he picked up the faithful +ax. + +It was long and biting cold till dawn. Douglas was too weary, too much +menaced by the cold, to think coherently; for now, conscious of the +depletion of his strength, even his new-found happiness could not blur +the fact that he and Judith were playing with death on Black Devil Peak. +He kept the fire going and fought the desire to sleep until, far below +and to the east, the Indian Range turned black against a crimson sky. +Then he awakened Judith. They made a hasty breakfast, then started the +stiff and weary horses through the drifts toward Mormon Valley. + +But Tom horse, facing homeward, needed none of the rowelling that he had +demanded on the way up. The cold and wind were difficult to bear, for +the two young people were inexpressibly weary of brain as well as body. +By noon they made the valley. It was a slow-moving little outfit that +finally limped past Nelson's corral and was greeted by a shout from the +cabin door. + +Elijah, his wife, and children, rushed out to meet them and led them +into the big bed-living-room off the kitchen. + +"Well," said Mrs. Nelson, "I knew she'd have to come back with you!" + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +HOME + + +Douglas was half blinded by snow-glare and wind, so it was several +minutes before he observed an old man sitting eagerly erect on one of +the beds. Doug started to his feet. + +"Where'd you come from, Mr. Fowler!" + +"From Lost Chief Peak. Get warm and rested, Doug, before you try to +talk." + +"I was starting out after you when I found that Judith--" began Doug. +"And then--" + +"Judith," interrupted Mr. Fowler, "needed you more than I did." + +"Did they hurt you?" insisted Douglas. + +"No. Don't try to talk till you are rested, my boy." + +"That won't take long!" croaked Douglas. + +But, as a matter of fact, it was morning before he heard the preacher's +story or told his own. He was warmed and fed enormously and rolled into +a feather bed. And he knew nothing more until the smell of coffee and +the sound of women's voices roused him. + +The living-room was flooded with sunlight. The preacher was thrusting +wood into the red-hot stove. + +"Where's Judith?" asked Douglas. + +"Helping Mrs. Nelson get breakfast. How are you?" + +"Fine! Do you suppose I can shave before breakfast?" + +The preacher nodded toward a washstand in the corner and Douglas began +to make his toilet. Mr. Fowler made no attempt to talk during this +process but stood before the fire, watching the young man with somber, +wistful eyes. + +It was an exceedingly well-groomed young rider who appeared at Elijah's +long breakfast table a half-hour later. Judith, snow-burned, but +otherwise a very fit young person, gave him an appreciative look and +smile, and left him to the others while she went on with her breakfast. + +They sat long at the table. The children were sent off to school. The +adventure up and down Black Devil Peak was thoroughly discussed. Then +Douglas turned to the preacher. + +"And what did they do to you, Mr. Fowler?" + +The old man smiled grimly. "That won't take long to tell. Old Johnny and +I went to sleep soon after you left, and the first thing I knew I was +being gagged and blindfolded by a couple of fellows in masks. They +carried me out to the corral and fastened me onto a horse. I didn't put +up a fight, Doug. I'm too old. One of the men then led my horse off at a +gallop. What became of the other man and Johnny, I can only surmise from +what Mr. Nelson has told me." + +"Who were the men?" demanded Douglas. + +"I don't know. Of course, I suspect Charleton Falkner and Scott Parsons. +I suppose it was Scott Parsons, though I couldn't prove it. I suppose he +took me along the trail Nelson has kept open past the old Government +corral to get to Scott's trail when he goes for his mail. Anyhow, he +locked me into that old cabin, up in the Government corral. There was +fuel and matches, so he didn't want me to freeze to death. I think he +intended to come back the next day and take me somewhere else before +I freed myself or some one found me. But his plan must have miscarried +for he didn't come back. It was so very cold and I was so lightly clad +that at first I didn't dare to start out even after I'd broken the door +open. But two days of hunger made me desperate. The trail was fairly +well snowed in but I headed for what I thought would be Nelson's ranch. +But in an hour or so I was all in. If Elijah hadn't found me, I'd have +died of the cold up there on the mountainside." + +"I was riding over to Lost Trail for news," explained Elijah. + +"You were riding for God, I'd say," cried Mr. Fowler. "And if I'd been a +Mormon bishop I couldn't have been made more welcome than I have been +here." + +"A preacher's a preacher," said Elijah. "Well, Douglas, what's next on +your program?" + +Douglas looked at Judith. "I've promised to take Judith up to Mountain +City. She's going to get a job up there, and I am too!" + +Judith put down her coffee-cup and her great eyes blazed. "Why, Douglas +Spencer! You are going to do nothing of the sort!" + +"What is Lost Chief to me without you?" asked Douglas, coolly and +entirely ignoring the eager-eyed audience. + +Judith's face expressed entire disapproval. "I never thought you'd let +them run you out, Doug!" She turned to Mr. Fowler. "Don't let him be a +quitter, Mr. Fowler." + +Mr. Fowler was watching Douglas with troubled eyes. "I don't know," he +said, "that I blame Douglas. It seems to me that Lost Chief will have to +become conscious of its needs before it can be helped. I love Douglas +very much. I'd not be sorry to see him get out into the world where +there's a bigger chance for his abilities than in that godless valley." + +Judith turned from the preacher impatiently. "Douglas Spencer! You know +you'll never be happy anywhere else. Lost Chief is your home and the +home of all your people before you." + +"How about its being home to you?" asked Douglas. + +"No place can be home to me that doesn't need all that's in me," replied +Judith. "Lost Chief is no place for me. It's not a woman's country." + +"It ought to be made fit for women and for little children!" cried Mr. +Fowler, with sudden vehemence. "I should have done it. But I failed +there as I have everywhere. I didn't bring God to Lost Chief, nor to +Judith, nor worst of all, to Douglas." + +"Don't you two young people believe in God?" demanded Elijah Nelson. + +They stared at him without replying. + +"Who guided Judith over the Pass?" asked the Mormon. "Her own smartness, +I suppose, or chance, anything but the hand of the Almighty!" + +"It was Destiny. All of it has been Destiny," said Douglas suddenly. + +"And what is Destiny but God?" asked Elijah. + +No one spoke for a moment. Then Elijah went on, with Mr. Fowler's own +vehemence: + +"You folks over in Lost Chief have seen fit to treat us Mormons as if we +were a pack of coyotes bedding down too near your herds. Did you ever +try to find out what kind of people we really are and why we stay and +win out when we settle in a place? I'll tell you. The church makes our +settlements for us. When she calls us to settle in the wild she says, +Go, five families, or ten, or twenty, and settle in such a place. Take +with you your wives and babies. Put your roots deep in the soil. Build +for the future generations. Make a community deep fertilized by the idea +of Mormonism, train your children in it, cling one family to the other +in helpfulness and to the church in faith. Co-operate with each other +and with the church, and the church will stand by you and loan you +money, give you advice, be your very fountain of life. + +"And the church does stand by us and we by it. And we are building up +God-fearing communities all over the West, just like the Puritans once +built up in the East. Why? Because we pioneer, inspired by our church +and the love of God! What Gentile church is doing this, answering the +economic needs of its people as well as the spiritual? Why should a +settlement like yours prosper? Why, the most promising young man in it +is deserting it to chase after a flighty girl! It has no church. It has +no minister. Ha! As long as you Gentiles are so, the Mormons can ride +over you and crowd you out!" + +"You can't do anything of the kind!" declared Judith. + +"Why not?" asked Douglas bitterly. "Of course they can! Nelson is dead +right." + +Elijah gave Judith a scornful glance. "You ought to be satisfied, +Judith. You'll be getting your own way, no matter what becomes of +Douglas. He ought never to leave Lost Chief. Though it will be better +for us Mormons if he does." + +Douglas was following his own line of thought. "The Mormons are right," +he said. "It's the families that count. A man can't do real pioneering +without a woman and Lost Chief is still pioneering. The right kind of a +woman could do more for Lost Chief than a man." + +Judith looked at him with gathering intentness. "How could she, Doug?" + +"Why, look at the influence Inez has! She's thought it worth while to +influence people, so's to justify her way of living. She's beautiful and +she's bad. If a woman who was beautiful and good made up her mind to +make Lost Chief the paradise it ought to be, nothing could stop her." + +"If she had the church to back her," said Elijah Nelson. + +Douglas nodded; then, his face aflame, he jumped to his feet. "If Jude +and I could work together in Lost Chief we'd--My God, do you know what +I'd do? I'd rebuild the cabin and I'd rebuild the chapel. And we'd bring +Mr. Fowler back. And Judith and I would go to church to him and we'd +hunt for God till we found Him! And when we found Him, we'd go out and +bring the children of the Valley to the church. It's the children that +count. We'd dish all this discussion with the grown folks. All the +Scotts and Charletons and Inez Rodmans in the Valley wouldn't count if +the children would be sure of God." He turned to Judith. "You'll admit, +won't you, Jude, that if you and I had had faith, our childhood would +have been a finer thing?" + +"Yes, I think that's true," admitted Judith. "Do you think there's a job +there for me, Mr. Fowler, all faithless as I am?" + +Mr. Fowler nodded. "Yes, I do. Lost Chief offers a full-sized job to a +woman with a brain and the right kind of a vision. She could, indeed, +help to make it a very paradise for children." + +"If the church didn't hamper her too much." Mrs. Nelson spoke for the +first time. "The church and God are both males." + +Judith gave the Mormon wife a sudden appreciative smile. Douglas, +watching the girl's kindling face, said in his gentle way, "I've often +thought if anybody could get the right kind of a moral hold on the kids +of Lost Chief, the greatest horsemanship in the world could be developed +in that old valley." + +"You are dreaming dreams!" exclaimed Nelson. "All this takes time, and +you Lost Chief folks want to realize that the Mormons are coming!" + +Judith eyed her host keenly; then she turned to Douglas with +overwhelming interest welling to her eyes. "This is the first time," she +cried, "that you've ever suggested any kind of a future to me that made +a demand on my intelligence. Mr. Nelson, have you really got your eyes +on Lost Chief Valley, or are you just trying to bluff Douglas into going +back because you like him?" + +The Mormon's eyes narrowed and his jaw set. "I like him, yes, but the +church says we are to take Lost Chief Valley, and we are going to take +it when the time is ripe. I can afford to be as kind as I want to be to +Douglas and Fowler. Nothing can stop us when we cross into your valley +with the church behind us. You folks hang together by habit. We Mormons +are knit together by a divine idea that takes care of every moment of +our lives. Do you think a man like Scott Parsons can guard your gates? +And Douglas is running away!" + +Judith jumped to her feet, indignation flashing from her eyes. + +"He is not! If your Mormon religion can do all you claim for you, then +our religion can do as much for us as it did for our ancestors. I never +did believe there was a God. But that's not saying He's not to be found +if you really hunt for Him." + +"'If with all your hearts ye truly seek me, ye shall ever surely find +me,'" said Mr. Fowler quietly. + +Judith gave him a quick look. "That isn't the kind of a God we young +folks are looking for," she said. + +"What is your idea?" asked Mr. Fowler. + +Judith lifted her chin. + +"A fire mist and a planet, +A crystal and a cell, +A jelly-fish and a saurian +And caves where cave-men dwell. +Then a sense of law and beauty, +And a face turned from the clod, +Some call it Evolution +And others call it God." + +There was quiet in the warm, homely kitchen. Douglas watched Judith with +his heart in his eyes. + +Elijah Nelson cleared his throat. "Nevertheless, Judith," he said, "this +is a fair warning that I'm going to put the Book of Mormon into Lost +Chief." + +Judith flushed, her lips tightened, and she walked deliberately around +the table and took the preacher's hand. "Come, Mr. Fowler, let's go home +with Douglas and get to work!" + +Douglas drew a long breath. + +The preacher rose with alacrity. "Where shall we go?" he asked. + +Douglas answered. "To Peter's until I can rebuild the cabin." + +Elijah Nelson smiled grimly. + +"Let's get started!" urged Judith. + +The breakfast party broke up. The men went out to attend to the horses. +Judith and Mrs. Nelson turned to the dishes. Douglas from the corral +watched the backdoor attentively, and when Mrs. Nelson appeared he +signaled to her to wait for him to speak to her. + +"Send Jude into the living-room for something," he whispered, "and then +keep the folks out while I talk to her for a little while." + +Mrs. Nelson smiled understandingly, and a few moments later Douglas was +standing with his back to the living-room stove, both of his arms about +Judith. + +"I had to thank you," he said, "and you were too stupid to make the +chance. Judith! Judith! You've made the world into heaven for me!" + +"I'm not exactly unhappy, myself!" Judith's eyes glowed as she returned +Doug's look. + +"Judith," he exclaimed, "let's ask Mr. Fowler to marry us now, before we +start home!" + +Judith whitened a little. "O Douglas, you are crowding me, my dear!" + +"But why wait, Judith? Isn't it the only thing to do? Neither of us will +ever go back to Dad's ranch again. We can be married and camp with Peter +until we get the cabin rebuilt. That's won't take a month. O, Judith, +please!" + +"It's--it's too soon!" + +"Too soon for what? We've been caring a long, long time, and we need +each other so!" + +Judith freed herself from Douglas' arms and walked over to the window, +from which one could see Black Devil Peak glowering in the morning sun. +She stood a long time, it seemed to Douglas. He wondered what thoughts +were passing in that fine head outlined against the snowy fields. What +sense of sacrifice, he thought, must a girl like Jude have, in giving up +her life to a man? Then he smiled, half grimly, half tenderly. Judith +would never be any man's really, to know and to hold. Her fiery charm +was a thing ever to pursue, never fully to overtake. "Forever would he +love and she be fair!" He waited silently, his heart thudding heavily. +At last she turned from the window and came slowly toward him with a +look in her eyes he could not pretend to read to its depths. He only +knew that there was faith in him there and a passionate affection. What +more, he was willing to trust to the future. She came and leaned against +him and he knew that at last the long struggle was ended. + +They were married a few moments later, standing before the window, with +Douglas' hair a halo of gold above his steady eyes and Judith's fine +head held high. The Reverend Mr. Fowler performed the rites with a +trembling voice. When he had finished he said to Elijah and his wife: + +"In all my long experience I have never joined together a couple with +such infinite satisfaction as this." + +"That's good," said Mrs. Nelson, wiping her eyes, "seeing that you're +going on the wedding-journey with them!" + +That afternoon, as the shadows on the plains east of the post-office +grew long and blue-black, Judith, Douglas and Mr. Fowler jingled up to +Peter's door. They slung their saddles on the buck fence, turned their +horses into his corral, and went in. Peter was standing by the stove, +dressed for a cold ride. + +"Judith! You are safe!" he gasped, taking both her hands in his, his +sallow face suddenly glowing. "Where did you find her, Doug?" + +"Just the other side of Black Devil Pass!" + +Peter whistled, stared, then turned to the preacher. "And where did you +come from, Fowler?" + +"Elijah Nelson rescued me from the west side of Lost Chief Peak." + +Judith was pulling off her mackinaw and her beaver cap. "We'll tell you +a wonderful story if you'll feed us, Peter." + +Peter undid the silk handkerchief from his ears. "I was outfitting to +follow Doug's trail. We buried poor little old Johnny this morning." + +The quick tears sprang to Judith's eyes; but she said nothing, and Peter +went on, "I got your father home on Monday. My guess is that he is +ashamed enough of himself to last the rest of his life. That's about the +extent of my stories. Have you any casualties to report?" + +"Only poor Buster. He lies in a snowdrift up on the other side of Black +Devil. We put in last night at Elijah Nelson's, where we found Mr. +Fowler. Can we stay with you for a while, Peter?" + +"You sure can. We can use those rooms upstairs for sleeping. Fine! I'll +be glad to have you. You too, Fowler." + +"Where's Scott Parsons?" asked Douglas. + +"He's still with Inez. Seems like you gave him a bad knock-out. He's +having rough going, I can tell you. Inez has turned against him and +Grandma Brown had to go over there and take care of him. And she is in +no frame of mind to stand anything from anybody." Peter chuckled, then +went on. "Charleton says he was in bed and asleep by eleven o'clock +Saturday night, and nobody has been able to prove that he wasn't. I +don't think there is a doubt in the world that it was Scott and +Charleton did the dirty work, but it's going to be hard to prove." + +Peter set a kettle of beans on the stove and Judith prepared a pot of +coffee. + +"Take off your spurs, Fowler," Peter nodded genially at the preacher. +"All's well that ends well. I hope that nothing more than your feelings +got hurt." + +To Peter's utter astonishment Mr. Fowler suddenly laughed heartily. + +"My feelings, Peter," he exclaimed, "were never in better trim than they +are this minute." + +"Nor mine!" agreed Douglas. + +"Nor mine!" added Judith. + +Peter stared from one face to another. "It sort of looks," he said +finally, "as if I had sweated blood for nothing." + +"No, you haven't, Peter!" exclaimed Douglas. "Tragedy certainly stalked +our tracks." + +"Let me have the story," begged the postmaster. "Jude, after you left +John and old Johnny, what happened? You evidently went plumb crazy. +Begin at that point. And don't leave out anything!" + +He lighted his pipe and sat down. Judith, swinging her spurred boots as +she sat on the table, began obediently. She took Peter along every hour +of her trip until she fell into that dreadful sleep on the south slope +of Black Devil. Douglas took up his story there and when he had +finished, Mr. Fowler repeated the account of his adventure. + +Peter heaved a great sigh. "Some adventure! Lord! Lord! What a narrow +squeak! Well, and what did our Mormon friends have to say to all these +doings?" + +Judith and Douglas smiled at each other. Peter, catching that smile, +started forward in his chair, then turned to Fowler. The preacher +smiled broadly. "Let me tell that part of it," he begged. Douglas and +Judith nodded, and the old man plunged with great enjoyment into the +account of the happenings that morning at Nelson's ranch. + +When he finished with the wedding, Peter rose, his face working. He +walked over to Judith and looked deep into her eyes, and without a word +kissed her on the cheek. Then he wrung Douglas' hand. + +"Hang it all!" he said. "There is something startlingly right the way +life works out if you give it a chance!" + +Nobody answered. Douglas and Judith were smiling at each other and the +preacher was engrossed in watching them. Peter cleared his throat. + +"What are you happy idiots going to do about Scott and Charleton?" + +"I had planned to get even with them and run them out of the Valley," +said Douglas; "but, after all, I owe them a debt of gratitude. Even if +they didn't mean it that way!" + +"We'd better not start our new life in the Valley with a fight," Judith +nodded. "Anyhow we've agreed that we aren't concerned right now with the +grown-ups." + +Peter scratched his head. "I guess you are sensible. But I think +pressure can be brought to bear to make Charleton and Scott rebuild the +cabin and chapel for you." + +Mr. Fowler shook his head vehemently. "I wouldn't let their hands +desecrate the chapel! Douglas and I are going to build it." + +"And I wouldn't let them desecrate the cabin," declared Judith. "So I +guess they are out of it. We're going to give them a thorough drubbing +but quite in another way." + +Peter chuckled with huge enjoyment. "What are you going to do about +Elijah Nelson's threat to take Lost Chief Valley over for the Mormons?" + +"I don't know yet," said Douglas; "but we're not going to let him do it, +are we, Judith?" + +"We certainly are not! That's one reason I want to keep Scott in the +Valley. If Scott could get the idea of fighting with his mind instead of +his gun, he'd be a good citizen." + +Peter grinned at Fowler. "The infants are running the Valley already! +Well, why not? They are the new generation." + +"Peter," demanded Judith, "aren't those beans ready yet?" + +The postmaster started to his feet. "I suppose you folks are hungry. +Judith, you set the table. Doug, did you feed the horses well? It's +going to be a bitter-cold night." + +"Yes, we took care of them," replied Douglas, absent-mindedly, his eyes +on Judith. + +"Did you?" Peter turned to Fowler. "I sha'n't take Doug's word about +anything that's happened subsequent to the ceremony." + +"I think you're wise," nodded the preacher. "But as a matter of fact, we +did feed them. Shall I put the chairs up?" + +"Go ahead," said Peter, setting the pot of beans in the middle of the +table. + +Then, as they gathered around the table, the preacher hesitated, looked +from one face to another, and asked, "Do you mind if I say grace?" + +"No," replied Peter firmly, "we don't mind. You can say grace, make +signs, or do anything else that will help you hang on in the big fight +you've got ahead of you. I'll say it too, if it will strengthen your +hands." + +Mr. Fowler shook his head, smiled, and covering his eyes, poured out his +heart to the Almighty. + + +THE END + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Judith of the Godless Valley, by Honoré Willsie + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JUDITH OF THE GODLESS VALLEY *** + +***** This file should be named 14331.txt or 14331.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/4/3/3/14331/ + +Produced by Audrey Longhurst, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team. + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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