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diff --git a/old/hrprk10.txt b/old/hrprk10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5550fc6 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/hrprk10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4368 @@ +The Project Gutenberg Etext of Her Prairie Knight, by B.M. Bower +#10 in our series by B. M. Bower + + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world, be sure to check +the copyright laws for your country before posting these files!! + +Please take a look at the important information in this header. +We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an +electronic path open for the next readers. Do not remove this. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**Etexts Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*These Etexts Prepared By Hundreds of Volunteers and Donations* + +Information on contacting Project Gutenberg to get Etexts, and +further information is included below. We need your donations. + +Her Prairie Knight + +by B. M. Bower (B.M. 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The Search for Dorman +6. Mrs. Lansell's Lecture +7. Beatrice's Wild Ride +8. Dorman Plays Cupid +9. What It Meant to Keith +10. Pine Ridge Range Ablaze +11. Sir Redmond Waits His Answer +12. Held Up by Mr. Kelly +13. Keith's Masterful Wooing +14. Sir Redmond Gets His Answer + + + + +HER PRAIRIE KNIGHT + + + +CHAPTER 1 + +Stranded on the Prairie. + + +"By George, look behind us! I fancy we are going to have a storm." Four +heads turned as if governed by one brain; four pairs of eyes, of varied +color and character, swept the wind-blown wilderness of tender green, +and gazed questioningly at the high-piled thunderheads above. A small +boy, with an abundance of yellow curls and white collar, almost +precipitated himself into the prim lap of a lady on the rear seat. + +"Auntie, will God have fireworks? Say, auntie, will He? Can I say +prayers widout kneelin' down'? Uncle Redmon' crowds so. I want to pray +for fireworks, auntie. Can I?" + +"Do sit down, Dorman. You'll fall under the wheel, and then auntie would +not have any dear little boy. Dorman, do you hear me? Redmond, do take +that child down! How I wish Parks were here. I shall have nervous +prostration within a fortnight." + +Sir Redmond Hayes plucked at the white collar, and the small boy +retired between two masculine forms of no mean proportions. His voice, +however, rose higher. + +"You'll get all the fireworks you want, young man, without all that +hullabaloo," remarked the driver, whom Dorman had been told, at the +depot twenty miles back, he must call his Uncle Richard. + +"I love storms," came cheerfully from the rear seat--but the voice was +not the prim voice of "auntie." "Do you have thunder and lightning out +here, Dick?" + +"We do," assented Dick. "We don't ship it from the East in refrigerator +cars, either. It grows wild." + +The cheerful voice was heard to giggle. + +"Richard," came in tired, reproachful accents from a third voice behind +him, "you were reared in the East. I trust you have not formed the +pernicious habit of speaking slightingly of your birthplace." + +That, Dick knew, was his mother. She had not changed appreciably since +she had nagged him through his teens. Not having seen her since, he was +certainly in a position to judge. + +"Trix asked about the lightning," he said placatingly, just as he was +accustomed to do, during the nagging period. "I was telling her." + +"Beatrice has a naturally inquiring mind," said the tired voice, laying +reproving stress upon the name. + +"Are you afraid of lightning, Sir Redmond?" asked the cheerful +girl-voice. + +Sir Redmond twisted his neck to smile back at her. "No, so long as it +doesn't actually chuck me over." + +After that there was silence, so far as human voices went, for a time. + +"How much farther is it, Dick?" came presently from the girl. + +"Not more than ten--well, maybe twelve--miles. You'll think it's +twenty, though, if the rain strikes 'Dobe Flat before we do. That's just +what it's going to do, or I'm badly mistaken. Hawk! Get along, there!" + +"We haven't an umbrella with us," complained the tired one. "Beatrice, +where did you put my raglan?" + +"In the big wagon, mama, along with the trunks and guns and saddles, and +Martha and Katherine and James." + +"Dear me! I certainly told you, Beatrice--" + +"But, mama, you gave it to me the last thing, after the maids were in +the wagon, and said you wouldn't wear it. There isn't room here for +another thing. I feel like a slice of pressed chicken." + +"Auntie, I want some p'essed chicken. I'm hungry, auntie! I want some +chicken and a cookie--and I want some ice-cream." + +"You won't get any," said the young woman, with the tone of finality. +"You can't eat me, Dorman, and I'm the only thing that looks good enough +to eat." + +"Beatrice!" This, of course, from her mother, whose life seemed +principally made up of a succession of mental shocks, brought on by her +youngest, dearest, and most irrepressible. + +"I have Dick's word for it, mama; he said so, at the depot." + +"I want some chicken, auntie." + +"There is no chicken, dear," said the prim one. "You must be a patient +little man." + +"I won't. I'm hungry. Mens aren't patient when dey're hungry." A small, +red face rose, like a tiny harvest moon, between the broad, masculine +backs on the front seat. + +"Dorman, sit down! Redmond!" + +A large, gloved hand appeared against the small moon and it set +ignominiously and prematurely, in the place where it had risen. Sir +Redmond further extinguished it with the lap robe, for the storm, +whooping malicious joy, was upon them. + +First a blinding glare and a deafening crash. Then rain--sheets of it, +that drenched where it struck. The women huddled together under the +doubtful protection of the light robe and shivered. After that, wind +that threatened to overturn the light spring wagon; then hail that +bounced and hopped like tiny, white rubber balls upon the ground. + +The storm passed as suddenly as it came, but the effect remained. The +road was sodden with the water which had fallen, and as they went down +the hill to 'Dobe Flat the horses strained at the collar and plodded +like a plow team. The wheels collected masses of adobe, which stuck like +glue and packed the spaces between the spokes. Twice Dick got out and +poked the heavy mess from the wheels with Sir Redmond's stick--which was +not good for the stick, but which eased the drag upon the horses +wonderfully--until the wheels accumulated another load. + +"Sorry to dirty your cane," Dick apologized, after the second halt. "You +can rinse it off, though, in the creek a few miles ahead." + +"Don't mention it!" said Sir Redmond, somewhat dubiously. It was his +favorite stick, and he had taken excellent care of it. It was finely +polished, and it had his name and regiment engraved upon the silver +knob--and a date which the Boers will not soon forget, nor the English, +for that matter. + +"We'll soon be over the worst," Dick told them, after a time. "When we +climb that hill we'll have a hard, gravelly trail straight to the ranch. +I'm sorry it had to storm; I wanted you to enjoy this trip." + +"I am enjoying it," Beatrice assured him. "It's something new, at any +rate, and anything is better than the deadly monotony of Newport." + +"Beatrice!" cried her mother "I'm ashamed of you!" + +"You needn't be, mama. Why won't you just be sorry for yourself, and let +it end there? I know you hated to come, poor dear; but you wouldn't +think of letting me come alone, though I'm sure I shouldn't have minded. +This is going to be a delicious summer--I feel it in my bones." + +"Be-atrice!" + +"Why, mama? Aren't young ladies supposed to have bones?" + +"Young ladies are not supposed to make use of unrefined expressions. +Your poor sister." + +"There, mama. Dear Dolly didn't live upon stilts, I'm sure. Even when +she married." + +"Be-atrice!" + +"Dear me, mama! I hope you are not growing peevish. Peevish elderly +people--" + +"Auntie! I want to go home!" the small boy wailed. + +"You cannot go home now, dear," sighed his guardian angel. "Look at the +pretty--" She hesitated, groping vaguely for some object to which she +might conscientiously apply the adjective. + +"Mud," suggested Beatrice promptly "Look at the wheels, Dorman; they're +playing patty-cake. See, now they say, 'Roll 'em, and roll 'em,' and +now, 'Toss in the oven to bake!" And now--" + +"Auntie, I want to get out an' play patty-cake, like de wheels. I want +to awf'lly!" + +"Beatrice, why did you put that into his head?" her mother demanded, +fretfully. + +"Never mind, honey," called Beatrice cheeringly. "You and I will make +hundreds of mud pies when we get to Uncle Dick's ranch. Just think, hon, +oodles of beautiful, yellow mud just beside the door!" + +"Look here, Trix! Seems to me you're promising a whole lot you can't +make good. I don't live in a 'dobe patch." + +"Hush, Dick; don't spoil everything. You don't know Dorman.' + +"Beatrice! What must Miss Hayes and Sir Redmond think of you? I'm sure +Dorman is a sweet child, the image of poor, dear Dorothea, at his age." + +"We all think Dorman bears a strong resemblance to his father," said his +Aunt Mary. + +Beatrice, scenting trouble, hurried to change the subject. "What's this, +Dick--the Missouri River?" + +"Hardly. This is the water that didn't fall in the buggy. It isn't deep; +it makes bad going worse, that's all." + +Thinking to expedite matters, he struck Hawk sharply across the flank. +It was a foolish thing to do, and Dick knew it when he did it; ten +seconds later he knew it better. + +Hawk reared, tired as he was, and lunged viciously. + +The double-trees snapped and splintered; there was a brief interval of +plunging, a shower of muddy water in that vicinity, and then two +draggled, disgusted brown horses splashed indignantly to shore and took +to the hills with straps flying. + +"By George!," ejaculated Sir Redmond, gazing helplessly after them. "But +this is a beastly bit of luck, don't you know!" + +"Oh, you Hawk--" Dick, in consideration of his companions, finished the +remark in the recesses of his troubled soul, where the ladies could not +overhear. + +"What comes next, Dick?" The voice of Beatrice was frankly curious. + +"Next, I'll have to wade out and take after those--" This sentence, +also, was rounded out mentally. + +"In the meantime, what shall we do?" + +"You'll stay where you are--and thank the good Lord you were not upset. +I'm sorry,"--turning so that he could look deprecatingly at Miss +Hayes--"your welcome to the West has been so--er--strenuous. I'll try +and make it up to you, once you get to the ranch. I hope you won't let +this give you a dislike of the country." + +"Oh, no," said the spinster politely. "I'm sure it is a--a very nice +country, Mr. Lansell." + +"Well, there's nothing to be done sitting here." Dick climbed down over +the dashboard into the mud and water. + +Sir Redmond was not the man to shirk duty because it happened to be +disagreeable, as the regiment whose name was engraved upon his cane +could testify. He glanced regretfully at his immaculate leggings and +followed. + +"I fancy you ladies won't need any bodyguard," he said. Looking back, he +caught the light of approval shining in the eyes of Beatrice, and after +that he did not mind the mud, but waded to shore and joined in the chase +quite contentedly. The light of approval, shining in the eyes of +Beatrice, meant much to Sir Redmond. + + + +CHAPTER 2 + +A Handsome Cowboy to the Rescue. + + +Beatrice took immediate possession of the front seat, that she might +comfort her heartbroken young nephew. + +"Never mind, honey. They'll bring the horses back in a minute, and we'll +make them run every step. And when you get to Uncle Dick's ranch you'll +see the nicest things--bossy calves, and chickens, and, maybe, some +little pigs with curly tails." + +All this, though alluring, failed of its purpose; the small boy +continued to weep, and his weeping was ear-splitting. + +"Be still, Dorman, or you'll certainly scare all the coyotes to death." + +"Where are dey?" + +"Oh, all around. You keep watch, hon, and maybe you'll see one put the +tip of his nose over a hill." + +"What hill?" Dorman skipped a sob, and scoured his eyes industriously +with both fists. + +"M-m--that hill. That little one over there. Watch close, or you'll miss +him." + +The dove of peace hovered over them, and seemed actually about to +alight. Beatrice leaned back with a relieved breath. + +"It is good of you, my dear, to take so much trouble," sighed his Aunt +Mary. "How I am to manage without Parks I'm sure I cannot tell." + +"You are tired, and you miss your tea." soothed Beatrice, optimistic as +to tone. "When we all have a good rest we will be all right. Dorman will +find plenty to amuse him. We are none of us exactly comfortable now." + +"Comfortable!" sniffed her mother. "I am half dead. Richard wrote such +glowing letters home that I was misled. If I had dreamed of the true +conditions, Miss Hayes, I should never have sanctioned this wild idea of +Beatrice's to come out and spend the summer with Richard." + +"It's coming, Be'trice! There it is! Will it bite, auntie? Say, will it +bite?" + +Beatrice looked. A horseman came over the hill and was galloping down +the long slope toward them. His elbows were lifted contrary to the +mandates of the riding-school, his long legs were encased in something +brown and fringed down the sides. His gray hat was tilted rakishly up at +the back and down in front, and a handkerchief was knotted loosely +around his throat. Even at that distance he struck her as different from +any one she had ever seen. + +"It's a highwayman!" whispered Mrs. Lansell "Hide your purse, my dear!" + +"I--I--where?" Miss Hayes was all a-flutter with fear. + +"Drop it down beside the wheel, into the water. Quick! I shall drop my +watch." + +"He--he is coming on this side! He can see!" Her whisper was full of +entreaty and despair. + +"Give them here. He can't see on both sides of the buggy at once." Mrs. +Lansell, being an American--a Yankee at that--was a woman of resource. + +"Beatrice, hand me your watch quick!" + +Beatrice paid no attention, and there was no time to insist upon +obedience. The horseman had slowed at the water's edge, and was +regarding them with some curiosity. Possibly he was not accustomed to +such a sight as the one that met his eyes. He came splashing toward +them, however, as though he intended to investigate the cause of their +presence, alone upon the prairie, in a vehicle which had no horses +attached in the place obviously intended for such attachment. When he +was close upon them he stopped and lifted the rakishly tilted gray hat. + +"You seem to be in trouble. Is there anything I can do for you?" His +manner was grave and respectful, but his eyes, Beatrice observed, were +having a quiet laugh of their own. + +"You can't get auntie's watch, nor gran'mama's. Gran'mama frowed 'em all +down in the mud. She frowed her money down in the mud, too," announced +Dorman, with much complacency. "Be'trice says you is a coyote. Is you?" + +There was a stunned interval, during which nothing was heard but the +wind whispering things to the grass. The man's eyes stopped laughing; +his jaw set squarely; also, his brows drew perceptibly closer together. +It was Mrs. Lansell's opinion that he looked murderous. + +Then Beatrice put her head down upon the little, blue velvet cap of +Dorman and laughed. There was a rollicking note in her laughter that was +irresistible, and the eyes of the man relented and joined in her mirth. +His lips forgot they were angry and insulted, and uncovered some very +nice teeth. + +"We aren't really crazy," Beatrice told him, sitting up straight and +drying her eyes daintily with her handkerchief. "We were on our way to +Mr. Lansell's ranch, and the horses broke something and ran away, and +Dick--Mr. Lansell--has gone to catch them. We're waiting until he does." + +"I see." From the look in his eyes one might guess that what he saw +pleased him. "Which direction did they take?" + +Beatrice waved a gloved hand vaguely to the left, and, without another +word, the fellow touched his hat, turned and waded to shore and galloped +over the ridge she indicated; and the clucketycluck of his horse's hoofs +came sharply across to them until he dipped out of sight. + +"You see, he wasn't a robber," Beatrice remarked, staring after him +speculatively. "How well he rides! One can see at a glance that he +almost lives in the saddle. I wonder who he is." + +"For all you know, Beatrice, he may be going now to murder Richard and +Sir Redmond in cold blood. He looks perfectly hardened." + +"Oh, do you think it possible?" cried Miss Hayes, much alarmed. + +"No!" cried Beatrice hotly. "One who did not know your horror of +novels, mama, might suspect you of feeding your imagination upon 'penny +dreadfuls.' I'm sure he is only a cowboy, and won't harm anybody." + +"Cowboys are as bad as highwaymen," contended her mother, "or worse. I +have read how they shoot men for a pastime, and without even the excuse +of robbery." + +"Is it possible?" quavered Miss Hayes faintly. + +"No, it isn't!" Beatrice assured her indignantly. + +"He has the look of a criminal," declared Mrs. Lansell, in the positive +tone of one who speaks from intimate knowledge of the subject under +discussion. "I only hope he isn't going to murder--" + +"They're coming back, mama," interrupted Beatrice, who had been +watching closely the hilltop. "No, it's that man, and he is driving the +horses." + +"He's chasing them," corrected her mother testily. "A horse thief, no +doubt. He's going to catch them with his snare--" + +"Lasso, mama." + +"Well, lasso. Where can Richard be? To think the fellow should be so +bold! But out here, with miles upon miles of open, and no police +protection anything is possible. We might all be murdered, and no one be +the wiser for days--perhaps weeks. There, he has caught them." She +leaned back and clasped her hands, ready to meet with fortitude whatever +fate might have in store. + +"He's bringing them out to us, mama. Can't you see the man is only +trying to help us?" + +Mrs. Lansell, beginning herself to suspect him of honest intentions, +sniffed dissentingly and let it go at that. The fellow was certainly +leading the horses toward them, and Sir Redmond and Dick, appearing over +the hill just then, proved beyond doubt that neither had been murdered +in cold blood, or in any other unpleasant manner. + +"We're all right now, mother," Dick called, the minute he was near +enough. + +His mother remarked skeptically that she hoped possibly she had been in +too great haste to conceal her valuables--that Miss Hayes might not feel +grateful for her presence of mind, and was probably wondering if mud +baths were not injurious to fine, jeweled time-pieces. Mrs. Lansell was +uncomfortable, mentally and physically, and her manner was frankly +chilly when her son presented the stranger as his good friend and +neighbor, Keith Cameron. She was still privately convinced that he +looked a criminal--though, if pressed, she must surely have admitted +that he was an uncommonly good-looking young outlaw. It would seem +almost as if she regarded his being a decent, law-abiding citizen as +pure effrontery. + +Miss Hayes greeted him with a smile of apprehension which plainly +amused him. Beatrice was frankly impersonal in her attitude; he +represented a new species of the genus man, and she, too, evidently +regarded him in the light of a strange animal, viewed unexpectedly at +close range. + +While he was helping Dick mend the double-tree with a piece of rope, she +studied him curiously. He was tall--taller even than Sir Redmond, and +more slender. Sir Redmond had the straight, sturdy look of the soldier +who had borne the brunt of hard marches and desperate fighting; Mr. +Cameron, the lithe, unconscious grace and alertness of the man whose +work demands quick movement and quicker eye and brain. His face was +tanned to a clear bronze which showed the blood darkly beneath; Sir +Redmond's year of peace had gone far toward lightening his complexion. +Beatrice glanced briefly at him and admired his healthy color, and was +glad he did not have the look of an Indian. At the same time, she caught +herself wishing that Sir Redmond's eyes were hazel, fringed with very +long, dark lashes and topped with very straight, dark brows--eyes which +seemed always to have some secret cause for mirth, and to laugh quite +independent of the rest of the face. Still, Sir Redmond had very nice +eyes--blue, and kind, and steadfast, and altogether dependable--and his +lashes were quite nice enough for any one. In just four seconds Beatrice +decided that, after all, she did not like hazel eyes that twinkle +continually; they make one feel that one is being laughed at, which is +not comfortable. In six seconds she was quite sure that this Mr. Cameron +thought himself handsome, and Beatrice detested a man who was proud of +his face or his figure; such a man always tempted her to "make faces," +as she used to do over the back fence when she was little. + +She mentally accused him of trying to show off his skill with his rope +when he leaned and fastened it to the rig, rode out ahead and helped +drag the vehicle to shore; and it was with some resentment that she +observed the ease with which he did it, and how horse and rope seemed to +know instinctively their master's will, and to obey of their own accord. + +In all that he had done--and it really seemed as if he did everything +that needed to be done, while Dick pottered around in the way--he had +not found it necessary to descend into the mud and water, to the ruin of +his picturesque, fringed chaps and high-heeled boots. He had worked at +ease, carelessly leaning from his leathern throne upon the big, roan +horse he addressed occasionally as Redcloud. Beatrice wondered where he +got the outlandish name. But, with all his imperfections, she was glad +she had met him. He really was handsome, whether he knew it or not; and +if he had a good opinion of himself, and overrated his actions--all the +more fun for herself! Beatrice, I regret to say, was not above amusing +herself with handsome young men who overrate their own charms; in fact, +she had the reputation among her women acquaintances of being a most +outrageous flirt. + +In the very middle of these trouble-breeding meditations, Mr. Cameron +looked up unexpectedly and met keenly her eyes; and for some reason--let +us hope because of a guilty conscience--Beatrice grew hot and confused; +an unusual experience, surely, for a girl who had been out three +seasons, and has met calmly the eyes of many young men. Until now it had +been the young men who grew hot and confused; it had never been herself. + +Beatrice turned her shoulder toward him, and looked at Sir Redmond, who +was surreptitiously fishing for certain articles beside the rear wheel, +at the whispered behest of Mrs. Lansell, and was certainly a sight to +behold. He was mud to his knees and to his elbows, and he had managed to +plaster his hat against the wheel and to dirty his face. Altogether, he +looked an abnormally large child who has been having a beautiful day of +it in somebody's duck-pond; but Beatrice was nearer, at that moment, to +loving him than she had been at any time during her six weeks' +acquaintance with him--and that is saying much, for she had liked him +from the start. + +Mr. Cameron followed her glance, and his eyes did not have the laugh all +to themselves; his voice joined them, and Beatrice turned upon him and +frowned. It was not kind of him to laugh at a man who is proving his +heart to be much larger than his vanity; Beatrice was aware of Sir +Redmond's immaculateness of attire on most occasions. + +"Well," said Dick, gathering up the reins, "you've helped us out of a +bad scrape, Keith. Come over and take dinner with us to-morrow night. I +expect we'll be kept riding the rim-rocks, over at the Pool, this +summer. Unless this sister of mine has changed a lot, she won't rest +till she's been over every foot of country for forty miles around. It +will just about keep our strings rode down to a whisper keeping her in +sight." + +"Dear me, Richard!" said his mother. "What Jargon is this you speak?" + +"That's good old Montana English, mother. You'll learn it yourself +before you leave here. I've clean forgot how they used the English +language at Yale, haven't you, Keith?" + +"Just about," Keith agreed. "I'm afraid we'll shock the ladies +terribly, Dick. We ought to get out on a pinnacle with a good grammar +and practice." + +"Well, maybe. We'll look for you to-morrow, sure. I want you to help map +out a circle or two for Trix. About next week she'll want to get out and +scour the range." + +"Dear me, Richard! Beatrice is not a charwoman!" This, you will +understand, was from his mother; perhaps you will also understand that +she spoke with the rising inflection which conveys a reproof. + +When Keith Cameron left them he was laughing quietly to himself, and +Beatrice's chin was set rather more than usual. + + + +CHAPTER 3 + +A Tilt With Sir Redmond. + + +Beatrice, standing on the top of a steep, grassy slope, was engaged in +the conventional pastime of enjoying the view. It was a fine view, but +it was not half as good to look upon as was Beatrice herself, in her +fresh white waist and brown skirt, with her brown hair fluffing softly +in the breeze which would grow to a respectable wind later in the day, +and with her cheeks pink from climbing. + +She was up where she could see the river, a broad band of blue in the +surrounding green, winding away for miles through the hills. The far +bank stood a straight two hundred feet of gay-colored rock, chiseled, by +time and stress of changeful weather, into fanciful turrets and towers. +Above and beyond, where the green began, hundreds of moving dots told +where the cattle were feeding quietly. Far away to the south, heaps of +hazy blue and purple slept in the sunshine; Dick had told her those were +the Highwoods. And away to the west, a jagged line of blue-white +glimmered and stood upon tip-toes to touch the swimming clouds--touched +them and pushed above proudly; those were the Rockies. The Bear Paws +stood behind her; nearer they were--so near they lost the glamour of +mysterious blue shadows, and became merely a sprawling group of huge, +pine-covered hills, with ranches dotted here and there in sheltered +places, with squares of fresh, dark green that spoke of growing crops. + +Ten days, and the metropolitan East had faded and become as hazy and +vague as the Highwoods. Ten days, and the witchery of the West leaped in +her blood and held her fast in its thralldom. + +A sound of scrambling behind her was immediately followed by a +smothered epithet. Beatrice turned in time to see Sir Redmond pick +himself up. + +"These grass slopes are confounded slippery, don't you know," he +explained apologetically. "How did you manage that climb?" + +"I didn't." Beatrice smiled. "I came around the end, where the ascent is +gradual; there's a good path." + +"Oh!" Sir Redmond sat down upon a rock and puffed. "I saw you up +here--and a fellow doesn't think about taking a roundabout course to +reach his heart's--" + +"Isn't it lovely?" Beatrice made haste to inquire. + +"Lovely isn't half expressive enough," he told her. "You look--" + +"The river is so very blue and dignified. I've been wondering if it has +forgotten how it must have danced through those hills, away off there. +When it gets down to the cities--this blue water--it will be muddy and +nasty looking. The 'muddy Missouri' certainly doesn't apply here. And +that farther shore is simply magnificent. I wish I might stay here +forever." + +"The Lord forbid!" cried he, with considerable fervor. "There's a dear +nook in old England where I hope--" + +"You did get that mud off your leggings, I see," Beatrice remarked +inconsequentially. "James must have worked half the time we've been +here. They certainly were in a mess the last time I saw them." + +"Bother the leggings! But I take it that's a good sign, Miss +Lansell--your taking notice of such things." + +Beatrice returned to the landscape. "I wonder who originated that +phrase, 'The cattle grazing on a thousand hills'? He must have stood +just here when he said it." + +"Wasn't it one of your American poets? Longfellow, or--er--" + +Beatrice simply looked at him a minute and said "Pshaw!" + +"Well," he retorted, "you don't know yourself who it was." + +"And to think," Beatrice went on, ignoring the subject, "some of those +grazing cows and bossy calves are mine--my very own. I never cared +before, or thought much about it, till I came out and saw where they +live, and Dick pointed to a cow and the sweetest little red and white +calf, and said: 'That's your cow and calf, Trix.' They were dreadfully +afraid of me, though--I'm afraid they didn't recognize me as their +mistress. I wanted to get down and pet the calf--it had the dearest +little snub nose but they bolted, and wouldn't let me near them." + +"I fancy they were not accustomed to meeting angels unawares." + +"Sir Redmond, I wish you wouldn't. You are so much nicer when you're not +trying to be nice." + +"I'll act a perfect brute," he offered eagerly, "if that will make you +love me." + +"It's hardly worth trying. I think you would make a very poor sort of +villain, Sir Redmond. You wouldn't even be picturesque." + +Sir Redmond looked rather floored. He was a good fighter, was Sir +Redmond, but he was clumsy at repartee--or, perhaps, he was too much in +earnest to fence gracefully. Just now he looked particularly foolish. + +"Don't you think my brand is pretty? You know what it is, don't you?" + +"I'm afraid not," he owned. "I fancy I need a good bit of coaching in +the matter of brands." + +"Yes," agreed Beatrice, "I fancy you do. My brand is a Triangle +Bar--like this." With a sharp pointed bit of rock she drew a more or +less exact diagram in the yellow soil. "There are ever so many different +brands belonging to the Northern Pool; Dick pointed them out to me, but +I can't remember them. But whenever you see a Triangle Bar you'll be +looking at my individual property. I think it was nice of Dick to give +me a brand all my own. Mr. Cameron has a pretty brand, too--a Maltese +Cross. The Maltese Cross was owned at one time by President Roosevelt. +Mr. Cameron bought it when he left college and went into the cattle +business. He 'plays a lone hand,' as he calls it; but his cattle range +with the Northern Pool, and he and Dick work together a great deal. I +think he has lovely eyes, don't you?" The eyes of Beatrice were intent +upon the Bear Paws when she said it--which brought her shoulder toward +Sir Redmond and hid her face from him. + +"I can't say I ever observed Mr. Cameron's eyes," said Sir Redmond +stiffly. + +Beatrice turned back to him, and smiled demurely. When Beatrice smiled +that very demure smile, of which she was capable, the weather-wise +generally edged toward their cyclone-cellars. Sir Redmond was not +weather-wise--he was too much in love with her--and he did not possess a +cyclone cellar; he therefore suffered much at the hands of Beatrice. + +"But surely you must have noticed that deep, deep dimple in his chin?" +she questioned innocently. Keith Cameron, I may say, did not have a +dimple in his chin at all; there was, however, a deep crease in it. + +"I did not." Sir Redmond rubbed his own chin, which was so far from +dimpling that is was rounded like half an apricot. + +"Dear me! And you sat opposite to him at dinner yesterday, too! I +suppose, then, you did not observe that his teeth are the whitest, +evenest." + +"They make them cheaply over here, I'm told," he retorted, setting his +heel emphatically down and annihilating a red and black caterpillar. + +"Now, why did you do that? I must say you English are rather brutal?" + +"I can't abide worms." + +"Well, neither can I. And I think it would be foolish to quarrel about a +man's good looks," Beatrice said, with surprising sweetness. + +Sir Redmond hunched his shoulders and retreated to the comfort of his +pipe. "A bally lot of good looks!" he sneered. "A woman is never +convinced, though." + +"I am." Beatrice sat down upon a rock and rested her elbows on her knees +and her chin in her hands--and an adorable picture she made, I assure +you. "I'm thoroughly convinced of several things. One is Mr. Cameron's +good looks; another is that you're cross." + +Oh, come, now!" protested Sir Redmond feebly, and sucked furiously at +his pipe. + +"Yes," reiterated Beatrice, examining his perturbed face judicially; +"you are downright ugly." + +The face of Sir Redmond grew redder and more perturbed; just as +Beatrice meant that it should; she seemed to derive a keen pleasure from +goading this big, good-looking Englishman to the verge of apoplexy. + +"I'm sure I never meant to be rude; but a fellow can't fall down and +worship every young farmer, don't you know--not even to please you!" + +Beatrice smiled and threw a pebble down the slope, watching it bound and +skip to the bottom, where it rolled away and hid in the grass. + +"I love this wide country," she observed, abandoning her torture with a +suddenness that was a characteristic of her nature. When Beatrice had +made a man look and act the fool she was ready to stop; one cannot say +that of every woman. "One can draw long, deep breaths without robbing +one's neighbor of oxygen. Everything is so big, and broad, and generous, +out here. One can ride for miles and miles through the grandest, wildest +places,--and--there aren't any cigar and baking-powder and liver-pill +signs plastered over the rocks, thank goodness! If man has traveled that +way before, you do not have the evidence of his passing staring you in +the face. You can make believe it is all your own--by right of +discovery. I'm afraid your England would seem rather little and crowded +after a month or two of this." She swept her hand toward the river, and +the grass-land beyond, and the mountains rimming the world. + +"You should see the moors!" cried Sir Redmond, brightening under this +peaceful mood of hers. "I fancy you would not find trouble in drawing +long breaths there. Moor Cottage, where your sister and Wiltmar lived, +is surrounded by wide stretches of open--not like this, to be sure, but +not half-bad in its way, either." + +"Dolly grew to love that place, though she did write homesick letters at +first. I was going over, after my coming out--and then came that awful +accident, when she and Wiltmar were both drowned--and, of course, there +was nothing to go for. I should have hated the place then, I think. But +I should like--" Her voice trailed off dreamily, her eyes on the hazy +Highwoods. + +Sir Redmond watched her, his eyes a-shine; Beatrice in this mood was +something to worship. He was almost afraid to speak, for fear she would +snuff out the tiny flame of hope which her half-finished sentence had +kindled. He leaned forward, his face eager. + +"Beatrice, only say you will go--with me, dear!" + +Beatrice started; for the moment she had forgotten him. Her eyes kept to +the hills. "Go--to England? One trip at a time, Sir Redmond. I have been +here only ten days, and we came for three months. Three months of +freedom in this big, glorious place." + +"And then?" His voice was husky. + +"And then--freckle lotions by the quart, I expect." + +Sir Redmond got upon his feet, and he was rather white around the +mouth. + +"We Englishmen are a stubborn lot, Miss Beatrice. We won't stop +fighting until we win." + +"We Yankees," retorted she airily, "value our freedom above everything +else. We won't surrender it without fighting for it first." + +He caught eagerly at the lack of finality in her tones. "I don't want to +take your freedom, Beatrice. I only want the right to love you." + +"Oh, as for that, I suppose you may love me as much as you please--only +so you don't torment me to death talking about it." + +Beatrice, not looking particularly tormented, waved answer to Dick, who +was shouting something up at her, and went blithely down the hill, with +Sir Redmond following gloomily, several paces behind. + + + +CHAPTER 4 + +Beatrice Learns a New Language. + + +"D'you want to see the boys work a bunch of cattle, Trix?" Dick said to +her, when she came down to where he was leaning against a high board +fence, waiting for her. + +"'Deed I do, Dicky--only I've no idea what you mean." + +"The boys are going to cut out some cattle we've contracted to the +government--for the Indians, you know. They're holding the bunch over in +Dry Coulee; it's only three or four miles. I've got to go over and see +the foreman, and I thought maybe you'd like to go along." + +"There's nothing I can think of that I would like better. Won't it be +fine, Sir Redmond?" + +Sir Redmond did not say whether he thought it would be fine or not. He +still had the white streak around his mouth, and he went through the +gate and on to the house without a word--which was undoubtedly a rude +thing to do. Sir Redmond was not often rude. Dick watched him +speculatively until he was beyond hearing them. Then, "What have you +done to milord, Trix?" he wanted to know. + +"Nothing," said Beatrice. + +"Well," Dick said, with decision, "he looks to me like a man that has +been turned down--hard. I can tell by the back of his neck." + +This struck Beatrice, and she began to study the retreating neck of her +suitor. "I can't see any difference," she announced, after a brief +scrutiny. + +"It's rather sunburned and thick." + +"I'll gamble his mind is a jumble of good English oaths--with maybe a +sprinkling of Boer maledictions. What did you do?" + +"Nothing--unless, perhaps, he objects to being disciplined a bit. But I +also object to being badgered into matrimony--even with Sir Redmond." + +"Even with Sir Redmond!" Dick whistled. "He's 'It,' then, is he?" + +Beatrice had nothing to say. She walked beside Dick and looked at the +ground before her. + +"He doesn't seem a bad sort, sis, and the title will be nice to have in +the family, if one cares for such things. Mother does. She was +disappointed, I take it, that Wiltmar was a younger son." + +"Yes, she was. She used to think that Sir Redmond might get killed down +there fighting the Boers, and then Wiltmar would be next in line. But he +didn't, and it was Wiltmar who went first. And now oh, it's humiliating, +Dick! To be thrown at a man's head--" Tears were not far from her voice +just then. + +"I can see she wants you to nab the title. Well, sis, if you don't care +for the man--" + +"I never said I didn't care for him. But I just can't treat him +decently, with mama dinning that title in my ears day and night. I wish +there wasn't any title. Oh, it's abominable! Things have come to that +point where an American girl with money is not supposed to care for an +Englishman, no matter how nice he may be, if he has a title, or the +prospect of one. Every one laughs and thinks it's the title she wants; +they'd think it of me, and they'd say it. They would say Beatrice +Lansell took her half-million and bought her a lord. And, after a while, +perhaps Sir Redmond himself would half-believe it--and I couldn't bear +that! And so I am--unbearably flippant and--I should think he'd hate +me!" + +"So you reversed the natural order of things, and refused him on +account of the title?" Dick grinned surreptitiously. + +"No, I didn't--not quite. I'm afraid he's dreadfully angry with me, +though. I do wish he wasn't such a dear." + +"You're the same old Trix. You've got to be held back from the trail +you're supposed to take, or you won't travel it; you'll bolt the other +way. If everybody got together and fought the notion, you would probably +elope with milord inside a week. Mother means well, but she isn't on to +her job a little bit. She ought to turn up her nose at the title." + +"No fear of that! I've had it before my eyes till I hate the very +thought of it. I--I wish I could hate him." Beatrice sighed deeply, and +gave her hand to Dorman, who scurried up to her. + +"I'll have the horses saddled right away," said Dick, and left them. + +"Where you going, Be'trice? You going to ride a horse? I want to, +awf'lly." + +"I'm afraid you can't, honey; it's too far." Beatrice pushed a yellow +curl away from his eyes with tender, womanly solicitude. + +"Auntie won't care, 'cause I'm a bother. Auntie says she's goin' to send +for Parks. I don't want Parks; 'sides, Parks is sick. I want a pony, and +some ledder towsers wis fringes down 'em, and I want some little wheels +on my feet. Mr. Cam'ron says I do need some little wheels, Be'trice." + +"Did he, honey?" + +"Yes, he did. I like Mr. Cam'ron, Be'trice; he let me ride his big, high +pony. He's a berry good pony. He shaked hands wis me, Be'trice--he truly +did." + +"Did he, hon?" Beatrice, I am sorry to say, was not listening. She was +wondering if Sir Redmond was really angry with her--too angry, for +instance, to go over where the cattle were. He really ought to go, for +he had come West in the interest of the Eastern stockholders in the +Northern Pool, to investigate the actual details of the work. He surely +would not miss this opportunity, Beatrice thought. And she hoped he was +not angry. + +"Yes, he truly did. Mr. Cam'ron interduced us, Be'trice. He said, +'Redcloud, dis is Master Dorman Hayes. Shake hands wis my frien' +Dorman.' And he put up his front hand, Be'trice, and nod his head, and I +shaked his hand. I dess love that big, high pony, Be'trice. Can I buy +him, Be'trice?" + +"Maybe, kiddie." + +"Can I buy him wis my six shiny pennies, Be'trice?" + +"Maybe." + +"Mr. Cam'ron lives right over that hill, Be'trice. He told me." + +"Did he, hon?" + +"Yes, he did. He 'vited me over, Be'trice. He's my friend, and I've got +to buy my big, high pony. I'll let you shake hands wis him, Be'trice. +I'll interduce him to you. And I'll let you ride on his back, Be'trice. +Do you want to ride on his back?" + +"Yes, honey." + +Before Beatrice had time to commit herself they reached the house, and +she let go Dorman's hand and hurried away to get into her riding-habit. + +Dorman straightway went to find his six precious, shiny pennies, which +Beatrice had painstakingly scoured with silver polish one day to please +the little tyrant, and which increased their value many times--so many +times, in fact, that he hid them every night in fear of burglars. Since +he concealed them each time in a different place, he was obliged to +ransack his auntie's room every morning, to the great disturbance of +Martha, the maid, who was an order-loving person. + +Martha appeared just when he had triumphantly pounced upon his treasure +rolled up in the strings of his aunt's chiffon opera-bonnet. + +"Mercy upon us, Master Dorman! Whatever have you been doing?" + +"I want my shiny pennies," said the young gentleman, composedly +unwinding the roll, "to buy my big, high pony." + +"Naughty, naughty boy, to muss my lady's fine bonnet like that! Look at +things scattered over the floor, and my lady's fine handkerchiefs and +gloves " Martha stopped and meditated whether she might dare to shake +him. + +Dorman was laboriously counting his wealth, with much wrinkling of +stubby nose and lifting of eyebrows. Having satisfied himself that they +were really all there, he deigned to look around, with a fine masculine +disdain of woman's finery. + +"Oh, dose old things!" he sniffed. "I always fordet where I put my shiny +pennies. Robbers might find them if I put them easy places. I'm going to +buy my big, high pony, and you can't shake his hand a bit, Martha." + +"Well, I'm sure I don't want to!" Martha snapped back at him, and went +down on all fours to gather up the things he had thrown down. "Whatever +Parks was thinking of, to go and get fever, when she was the only one +that could manage you, I don't know! And me picking up after you till +I'm fair sick!" + +"I'm glad you is sick," he retorted unfeelingly, and backed to the door. +"I hopes you get sicker so your stummit makes you hurt. You can't ride +on my big, high pony." + +"Get along with you and your high pony!" cried the exasperated Martha, +threatening with a hairbrush. Dorman, his six shiny pennies held fast in +his damp little fist, fled down the stairs and out into the sunlight. + +Dick and Beatrice were just ready to ride away from the porch. "I want +to go wis you, Uncle Dick." Dorman had followed the lead of Beatrice, +his divinity; he refused to say Richard, though grandmama did object to +nicknames. + +"Up you go, son. You'll be a cow-puncher yourself one of these days. +I'll not let him fall, and this horse is gentle." This last to satisfy +Dorman's aunt, who wavered between anxiety and relief. + +"You may ride to the gate, Dorman, and then you'll have to hop down and +run back to your auntie and grandma. We're going too far for you +to-day." Dick gave him the reins to hold, and let the horse walk to +prolong the joy of it. + +Dorman held to the horn with one hand, to the reins with the other, and +let his small body swing forward and back with the motion of the horse, +in exaggerated imitation of his friend, Mr. Cameron. At the gate he +allowed himself to be set down without protest, smiled importantly +through the bars, and thrust his arm through as far as it would reach, +that he might wave good-by. And his divinity smiled back at him, and +threw him a kiss, which pleased him mightily. + +"You must have hurt milord's feelings pretty bad," Dick remarked. "I +couldn't get him to come. He had to write a letter first, he said." + +"I wish, Dick," Beatrice answered, a bit petulantly, "you would stop +calling him milord." + +"Milord's a good name," Dick contended. "It's bad enough to 'Sir' him to +his face; I can't do it behind his back, Trix. We're not used to fancy +titles out here, and they don't fit the country, anyhow. I'm like +you--I'd think a lot more of him if he was just a plain, everyday +American, so I could get acquainted enough to call him 'Red Hayes.' I'd +like him a whole lot better." + +Beatrice was in no mood for an argument--on that subject, at least. She +let Rex out and raced over the prairie at a gait which would have +greatly shocked her mother, who could not understand why Beatrice was +not content to drive sedately about in the carriage with the rest of +them. + +When they reached the round-up Keith Cameron left the bunch and rode out +to meet them, and Dick promptly shuffled responsibility for his sister's +entertainment to the square shoulders of his neighbor. + +"Trix wants to wise up on the cattle business, Keith. I'll just turn her +over to you for a-while, and let you answer her questions; I can't, half +the time. I want to look through the bunch a little." + +Keith's face spoke gratitude, and spoke it plainly. The face of +Beatrice was frankly inattentive. She was watching the restless, moving +mass of red backs and glistening horns, with horsemen weaving in and out +among them in what looked to her a perfectly aimless fashion--until one +would wheel and dart out into the open, always with a fleeing animal +lumbering before. Other horsemen would meet him and take up the chase, +and he would turn and ride leisurely back into the haze and confusion. +It was like a kaleidoscope, for the scene shifted constantly and was +never quite the same. + +Keith, secure in her absorption, slid sidewise in the saddle and +studied her face, knowing all the while that he was simply storing up +trouble for himself. But it is not given a man to flee human nature, and +the fellow who could sit calmly beside Beatrice and not stare at her if +the opportunity offered must certainly have the blood of a fish in his +veins. I will tell you why. + +Beatrice was tall, and she was slim, and round, and tempting, with the +most tantalizing curves ever built to torment a man. Her hair was soft +and brown, and it waved up from the nape of her neck without those +short, straggling locks and thin growth at the edge which mar so many +feminine heads; and the sharp contrast of shimmery brown against ivory +white was simply irresistible. Had her face been less full of charm, +Keith might have been content to gaze and gaze at that lovely hair line. +As it was, his eyes wandered to her brows. also distinctly marked, as +though outlined first with a pencil in the fingers of an artist who +understood. And there were her lashes, dark and long, and curled up at +the ends; and her cheek, with its changing, come-and-go coloring; her +mouth, with its upper lip creased deeply in the middle--so deeply that a +bit more would have been a defect--and with an odd little dimple at one +corner; luckily, it was on the side toward him, so that he might look at +it all he wanted to for once; for it was always there, only growing +deeper and wickeder when she spoke or laughed. He could not see her +eyes, for they were turned away, but he knew quite well the color; he +had settled that point when he looked up from coiling his rope the day +she came. They were big, baffling, blue-brown eyes, the like of which he +had never seen before in his life--and he had thought he had seen every +color and every shade under the sun. Thinking of them and their +wonderful deeps and shadows, he got hungry for a sight of them. And +suddenly she turned to ask a question, and found him staring at her, and +surprised a look in his eyes he did not know was there. + +For ten pulse-beats they stared, and the cheeks of Beatrice grew red as +healthy young blood could paint them; Keith's were the same, only that +his blood showed darkly through the tan. What question had been on her +tongue she forgot to ask. Indeed, for the time, I think she forgot the +whole English language, and every other--but the strange, wordless +language of Keith's clear eyes. + +And then it was gone, and Keith was looking away, and chewing a corner +of his lip till it hurt. His horse backed restlessly from the +tight-gripped rein, and Keith was guilty of kicking him with his spur, +which did not better matters. Redcloud snorted and shook his outraged +head, and Keith came to himself and eased the rein, and spoke +remorseful, soothing words that somehow clung long in the memory of +Beatrice. + +Just after that Dick galloped up, his elbows flapping like the wings of +a frightened hen. + +"Well, I suppose you could run a cow outfit all by yourself, with the +knowledge you've got from Keith," he greeted, and two people became even +more embarrassed than before. If Dick noticed anything, he must have +been a wise young man, for he gave no sign. + +But Beatrice had not queened it in her set, three seasons, for nothing, +even if she was capable of being confused by a sweet, new language in a +man's eyes. She answered Dick quietly. + +"I've been so busy watching it all that I haven't had time to ask many +questions, as Mr. Cameron can testify. It's like a game, and it's very +fascinating--and dusty. I wonder if I might ride in among them, Dick?" + +"Better not, sis. It isn't as much fun as it looks, and you can see more +out here. There comes milord; he must have changed his mind about the +letter." + +Beatrice did not look around. To see her, you would swear she had set +herself the task of making an accurate count of noses in that seething +mass of raw beef below her. After a minute she ventured to glance +furtively at Keith, and, finding his eyes turned her way, blushed again +and called herself an idiot. After that, she straightened in the saddle, +and became the self-poised Miss Lansell, of New York. + +Keith rode away to the far side of the herd, out of temptation; queer a +man never runs from a woman until it is too late to be a particle of +use. Keith simply changed his point of view, and watched his Heart's +Desire from afar. + + + +CHAPTER 5 + +The Search for Dorman. + + +"Oh, I say," began Sir Redmond, an hour after, when he happened to stand +close to Beatrice for a few minutes, "where is Dorman? I fancied you +brought him along." + +"We didn't," Beatrice told him. "He only rode as far as the gate, where +Dick left him, and started him back to the house." + +"Mary told me he came along. She and your mother were congratulating +each other upon a quiet half-day, with you and Dorman off the place +together. I'll wager their felicitations fell rather flat." + +Beatrice laughed. "Very likely. I know they were mourning because their +lace-making had been neglected lately. What with that trip to Lost +Canyon to-morrow, and to the mountains Friday, I'm afraid the lace will +continue to suffer. What do you think of a round-up, Sir Redmond?" + +"It's deuced nasty," said he. "Such a lot of dust and noise. I fancy the +workmen don't find it pleasant." + +"Yes, they do; they like it," she declared. "Dick says a cowboy is never +satisfied off the range. And you mustn't call them workmen, Sir Redmond. +They'd resent it, if they knew. They're cowboys, and proud of it. They +seem rather a pleasant lot of fellows, on the whole. I have been talking +to one or two." + +"Well, we're all through here," Dick announced, riding up. "I'm going to +ride around by Keith's place, to see a horse I'm thinking of buying. +Want to go along, Trix? Or are you tired?" + +"I'm never tired," averred his sister, readjusting a hat-pin and +gathering up her reins. "I always want to go everywhere that you'll take +me, Dick. Consider that point settled for the summer. Are you coming, +Sir Redmond?" + +"I think not, thank you," he said, not quite risen above his rebuff of +the morning. "I told Mary I would be back for lunch." + +"I was wiser; I refused even to venture an opinion as to when I should +be back. Well, 'so-long'!" + +"You're learning the lingo pretty fast, Trix," Dick chuckled, when they +were well away from Sir Redmond. "Milord almost fell out of the saddle +when you fired that at him. Where did you pick it up?" + +"I've heard you say it a dozen times since I came. And I don't care if +he is shocked--I wanted him to be. He needn't be such a perfect bear; +and I know mama and Miss Hayes don't expect him to lunch, without us. He +just did it to be spiteful." + +"Jerusalem, Trix! A little while ago you said he was a dear! You +shouldn't snub him, if you want him to be nice to you." + +"I don't want him to be nice," flared Beatrice. "I don't care how he +acts. Only, I must say, ill humor doesn't become him. Not that it +matters, however." + +"Well, I guess we can get along without him, if he won't honor us with +his company. Here comes Keith. Brace up, sis, and be pleasant." + +Beatrice glanced casually at the galloping figure of Dick's neighbor, +and frowned. + +"You mustn't flirt with Keith," Dick admonished gravely. "He's a good +fellow, and as square a man as I know; but you ought to know he's got +the reputation of being a hard man to know. Lots of girls have tried to +flirt and make a fool of him, and wound up with their feelings hurt +worse than his were." + +"Is that a dare?" Beatrice threw up her chin with a motion Dick knew of +old. + +"Not on your life! You better leave him alone; one or the other of you +would get the worst of it, and I'd hate to see either of you feeling +bad. As I said before, he's a bad man to fool with." + +"I don't consider him particularly dangerous--or interesting. He's not +half as nice as Sir Redmond." Beatrice spoke as though she meant what +she said, and Dick had no chance to argue the point, for Keith pulled up +beside them at that moment. + +Beatrice seemed inclined to silence, and paid more attention to the +landscape than she did to the conversation, which was mostly about range +conditions, and the scanty water supply, and the drought. + +She was politely interested in Keith's ranch, and if she clung +persistently to her society manner, why, her society manner was very +pleasing, if somewhat unsatisfying to a fellow fairly drunk with her +winsomeness. Keith showed her where she might look straight up the +coulee to her brother's ranch, two miles away, and when she wished she +might see what they were doing up there, he went in and got his +field-glass. She thanked him prettily, and impersonally, and focused the +glass upon Dick's house--which gave Keith another chance to look at her +without being caught in the act. + +"How plain everything is! I can see mama, out on the porch, and Miss +Hayes." She could also see Sir Redmond, who had just ridden up, and was +talking to the ladies, but she did not think it necessary to mention +him, for some reason; she kept her eyes to the glass, however, and +appeared much absorbed. Dick rolled himself a cigarette and watched the +two, and there was a twinkle in his eyes. + +"I wonder--Dick, I do think--I'm afraid--" Beatrice hadn't her society +manner now; she was her unaffected, girlish self; and she was growing +excited. + +"What's the matter?" Dick got up, and came and stood at her elbow. + +"They're acting queerly. The maids are running about, and the cook is +out, waving a large spoon, and mama has her arm around Miss Hayes, and +Sir Redmond." + +"Let's see." Dick took the glass and raised it to his eyes for a +minute. "That's right," he said. "They're making medicine over +something. See what you make of it, Keith." + +Keith took the glass and looked through it. It was like a moving +picture; one could see, but one wanted the interpretation of sound. + +"We'd better ride over," he said quietly. "Don't worry, Miss Lansell; it +probably isn't anything serious. We can take the short cut up the +coulee, and find out." He put the glass into its leathern case and +started to the gate, where the horses were standing. He did not tell +Beatrice that Miss Hayes had just been carried into the house in a +faint, or that her mother was behaving in an undignified fashion +strongly suggesting hysterics. But Dick knew, from the look on his face, +that it was serious. He hurried before them with long strides, leaving +Beatrice, for the second time that morning, to the care of his neighbor. + +So it was Keith who held his hand down for the delicious pressure of her +foot, and arranged her habit with painstaking care, considering the +hurry they were in. Dick was in the saddle, and gone, before Keith had +finished, and Keith was not a slow young man, as a rule. They ran the +two miles without a break, except twice, where there were gates to +close. Dick, speeding a furlong before, had obligingly left them open; +and a stockman is hard pressed indeed--or very drunk--when he fails to +close his gates behind him. It is an unwritten law which becomes second +nature. + +Almost within sound of the place, Dick raced back and met them, and his +face was white. + +"It's Dorman!" he cried. "He's lost. They haven't seen him since we +left. You know, Trix, he was standing at the gate " + +Beatrice went white as Dick; whiter, for she was untanned. An +overwhelming sense of blame squeezed her heart tight. Keith, seeing her +shoulders droop limply, reined close, to catch her in his arms if there +was the slightest excuse. However, Beatrice was a healthy young woman, +with splendid command of her nerves, and she had no intention of +fainting. The sickening weakness passed in a moment. + +"It's my fault," she said, speaking rapidly, her eyes seeking Dick's for +comfort. "I said 'yes' to everything he asked me, because I was thinking +of something else, and not paying attention. He was going to buy your +horse, Mr. Cameron, and now he's lost!" + +This, though effective, was not particularly illuminating. Dick wanted +details, and he got them--for Beatrice, having remorse to stir the dregs +of memory, repeated nearly everything Dorman had said, even telling how +the big, high pony put up his front hand, and he shaked it, and how +Dorman truly needed some little wheels on his feet. + +"Poor little devil," Keith muttered, with wet eyes. + +"He--he said you lived over there," Beatrice finished, pointing, as +Dorman had pointed--which was not toward the "Cross" ranch at all, but +straight toward the river. + +Keith wheeled Redcloud; there was no need to hear more. He took the hill +at a pace which would have killed any horse but one bred to race over +this rough country. Near the top, the forced breathing of another horse +at his heels made him look behind. It was Beatrice following, her eyes +like black stars. I do not know if Keith was astonished, but I do know +that he was pleased. + +"Where's Dick?" was all he said then. + +"Dick's going to meet the men--the cowboys. Sir Redmond went after them, +when they found Dorman wasn't anywhere about the place." + +Keith nodded understandingly, and slowed to let her come alongside. + +"It's no use riding in bunches," he remarked, after a little. "On +circle we always go in pairs. We'll find him, all right." + +"We must," said Beatrice, simply, and shaded her eyes with her hand. For +they had reached the top, and the prairie land lay all about them and +below, lazily asleep in the sunshine. + +Keith halted and reached for his glass. "It's lucky I brought it +along," he said. "I wasn't thinking, at the time; I just slung it over +my shoulder from habit." + +"It's a good habit, I think," she answered, trying to smile; but her +lips would only quiver, for the thought of her blame tortured her. "Can +you see--anything?" she ventured wistfully. + +Keith shook his head, and continued his search. "There are so many +little washouts and coulees, down there, you know. That's the trouble +with a glass--it looks only on a level. But we'll find him. Don't you +worry about that. He couldn't go far." + +"There isn't any real danger, is there?" + +"Oh, no," Keith said. "Except--" He bit his lip angrily. + +"Except what?" she demanded. "I'm not silly, Mr. Cameron--tell me." + +Keith took the glass from his eyes, looked at her, and paid her the +compliment of deciding to tell her, just as if she were a man. + +"Nothing, only--he might run across a snake," he said. "Rattlers." + +Beatrice drew her breath hard, but she was plucky. Keith thought he had +never seen a pluckier girl, and the West can rightfully boast brave +women. + +She touched Rex with the whip. "Come," she commanded. "We must not stand +here. It has been more than three hours " + +Keith put away the glass, and shot ahead to guide her. + +"We must have missed him, somewhere." The eyes of Beatrice were heavy +with the weariness born of anxiety and suspense. They stood at the very +edge of the steep bluff which rimmed the river. "You don't think he +could have--" Her eyes, shuddering down at the mocking, blue-gray +ripples, finished the thought. + +"He couldn't have got this far," said Keith. "His legs would give out, +climbing up and down. We'll go back by a little different way, and +look." + +"There's something moving, off there." Beatrice pointed with her whip. + +"That's a coyote," Keith told her; and then, seeing the look on her +face: "They won't hurt any one. They're the rankest cowards on the +range." + +"But the snakes " + +"Oh, well, he might wander around for a week, and not run across one. We +won't borrow trouble, anyway." + +"No," she agreed languidly. The sun was hot, and she had not had +anything to eat since early breakfast, and the river mocked her parched +throat with its cool glimmer below. She looked down at it wistfully, and +Keith, watchful of every passing change in her face, led her back to +where a cold, little spring crept from beneath a rock; there, lifting +her down, he taught her how to drink from her hand. + +For himself, he threw himself down, pushed back his hat, and drank long +and leisurely. A brown lock of hair, clinging softly together with +moisture, fell from his forehead and trailed in the clear water, and +Beatrice felt oddly tempted to push it back where it belonged. Standing +quietly watching his picturesque figure, she forgot, for the moment, +that a little boy was lost among these peaceful, sunbathed hills; she +remembered only the man at her feet, drinking long, satisfying drafts, +while the lock of hair floated in the spring. + +"Now we'll go on." He stood up and pushed back the wet lock, which +trickled a tiny stream down his cheek, and settled his gray hat in +place. + +Again that day he felt her foot in his palm, and the touch went over him +in thrills. She was tired, he knew; her foot pressed heavier than it had +before. He would have liked to take her in his arms and lift her bodily +into the saddle, but he hardly dared think of such a blissful +proceeding. + +He set the pace slower, however, and avoided the steepest places, and he +halted often on the higher ground, to scan sharply the coulees. And so +they searched, these two, together, and grew to know each other better +than in a month of casual meetings. And the grass nodded, and the winds +laughed, and the stern hills looked on, quizzically silent. If they knew +aught of a small boy with a wealth of yellow curls and white collar, +they gave no sign, and the two rode on, always seeking hopefully. + +A snake buzzed sharply on a gravelly slope, and Keith, sending Beatrice +back a safe distance, took down his rope and gave battle, beating the +sinister, gray-spotted coil with the loop until it straightened and was +still. He dismounted then, and pinched off the rattles--nine, there +were, and a "button"--and gave them to Beatrice, who handled them +gingerly, and begged Keith to carry them for her. He slipped them into +his pocket, and they went on, saying little. + +Back near the ranch they met Dick and Sir Redmond. They exchanged sharp +looks, and Dick shook his head. + +"We haven't found him--yet. The boys are riding circle around the +ranch; they're bound to find him, some of them, if we don't." + +"You had better go home," Sir Redmond told her, with a note of +authority in his voice which set Keith's teeth on edge. "You look done +to death; this is men's work." + +Beatrice bit her lip, and barely glanced at him. "I'll go--when Dorman +is found. What shall we do now, Dick?" + +"Go down to the house and get some hot coffee, you two. We all snatched +a bite to eat, and you need it. After that, you can look along the south +side of the coulee, if you like." + +Beatrice obediently turned Rex toward home, and Keith followed. The +ranch seemed very still and lonesome. Some chickens were rolling in the +dust by the gate, and scattered, cackling indignantly, when they rode +up. Off to the left a colt whinnied wistfully in a corral. Beatrice, +riding listlessly to the house, stopped her horse with a jerk. + +"I heard--where is he?" + +Keith stopped Redcloud, and listened. Came a thumping noise, and a wail, +not loud, but unmistakable. + +"Aunt-ie!" + +Beatrice was on the ground as soon as Keith, and together they ran to +the place--the bunk-house. The thumping continued vigorously; evidently +a small boy was kicking, with all his might, upon a closed door; it was +not a new sound to the ears of Beatrice, since the arrival in America of +her young nephew. Keith flung the door wide open, upsetting the small +boy, who howled. + +Beatrice swooped down upon him and gathered him so close she came near +choking him. "You darling. Oh, Dorman!" + +Dorman squirmed away from her. "I los' one shiny penny, Be'trice--and I +couldn't open de door. Help me find my shiny penny." + +Keith picked him up and set him upon one square shoulder. "We'll take +you up to your auntie, first thing, young man." + +"I want my one shiny penny. I want it!" Dorman showed symptoms of +howling again. + +"We'll come back and find it. Your auntie wants you now, and +grandmama." + +Beatrice, following after, was treated to a rather unusual spectacle; +that of a tall, sun-browned fellow, with fringed chaps and brightly +gleaming spurs, racing down the path; upon his shoulder, the wriggling +form of an extremely disreputable small boy, with cobwebs in his curls, +and his once white collar a dirty rag streaming out behind. + + + +CHAPTER 6 + +Mrs. Lansell's Lecture. + + +When the excitement had somewhat abated, and Miss Hayes was convinced +that her idol was really there, safe, and with his usual healthy +appetite, and when a messenger had been started out to recall the +searchers, Dorman was placed upon a chair before a select and attentive +audience, and invited to explain, which he did. + +He had decided to borrow some little wheels from the bunkhouse, so he +could ride his big, high pony home. Mr. Cameron had little wheels on his +feet, and so did Uncle Dick, and all the mens. (The audience gravely +nodded assent.) Well, and the knob wasn't too high when he went in, but +when he tried to open the door to go out, it was away up there! (Dorman +measured with his arm.) And he fell down, and all his shiny pennies +rolled and rolled. And he looked and looked where they rolled, and when +he counted, one was gone. So he looked and looked for the one shiny +penny till he was tired to death. And so he climbed up high, into a +funny bed on a shelf, and rested. And when he was rested he couldn't +open the door, and he kicked and kicked, and then Be'trice came, and Mr. +Cam'ron. + +"And you said you'd help me find my one penny," he reminded Keith, +blinking solemnly at him from the chair. "And I want to shake hands wis +your big, high pony. I'm going to buy him wis my six pennies. Be'trice +said I could." + +Beatrice blushed, and Keith forgot where he was, for a minute, looking +at her. + +"Come and find my one shiny penny," Dorman commanded, climbing down. +"And I want Be'trice to come. Be'trice can always find things." + +"Beatrice cannot go," said his grandmother, who didn't much like the way +Keith hovered near Beatrice, nor the look in his eyes. "Beatrice is +tired." + +"I want Be'trice!" Dorman set up his everyday howl, which started the +dogs barking outside. His guardian angel attempted to soothe him, but he +would have none of her; he only howled the louder, and kicked. + +"There, there, honey, I'll go. Where's your hat?" + +"Beatrice, you had better stay in the house; you have done quite enough +for one day." The tone of the mother suggested things. + +"It is imperative," said Beatrice, "for the peace and the well-being of +this household, that Dorman find his penny without delay." When Beatrice +adopted that lofty tone her mother was in the habit of saying +nothing--and biding her time. Beatrice was so apt, if mere loftiness did +not carry the day, to go a step further and flatly refuse to obey. Mrs. +Lansell preferred to yield, rather than be openly defied. + +So the three went off to find the shiny penny--and in exactly +thirty-five minutes they found it. I will not say that they could not +have found it sooner, but, at any rate, they didn't, and they reached +the house about two minutes behind Dick and Sir Redmond, which did not +improve Sir Redmond's temper to speak of. + +After that, Keith did not need much urging from Dick to spend the rest +of the afternoon at the "Pool" ranch. When he wanted to, Keith could be +very nice indeed to people; he went a long way, that afternoon, toward +making a friend of Miss Hayes; but Mrs. Lansell, who was one of those +women who adhere to the theory of First Impressions, in capitals, +continued to regard him as an incipient outlaw, who would, in time and +under favorable conditions, reveal his true character, and vindicate her +keen insight into human nature. There was one thing which Mrs. Lansell +never forgave Keith Cameron, and that was the ruin of her watch, which +refused to run while she was in Montana. + +That night, when Beatrice was just snuggling down into the delicious +coolness of her pillow, she heard someone rap softly, but none the less +imperatively, on her door. She opened one eye stealthily, to see her +mother's pudgy form outlined in the feeble moonlight. + +"Beatrice, are you asleep?" + +Beatrice did not say yes, but she let her breath out carefully in a +slumbrous sigh. It certainly sounded as if she were asleep. + +"Be-atrice!" The tone, though guarded, was insistent. + +The head of Beatrice moved slightly, and settled back into its little +nest, for all the world like a dreaming, innocent baby. + +If she had not been the mother of Beatrice, Mrs. Lansell would probably +have gone back to her room, and continued to bide her time; but the +mother of Beatrice had learned a few things about the ways of a wilful +girl. She went in, and closed the door carefully behind her. She did not +wish to keep the whole house awake. Then she went straight to the bed, +laid hand upon a white shoulder that gleamed in the moonlight, and gave +a shake. + +"Beatrice, I want you to answer me when I speak." + +"M-m--did you--m-m--speak, mama?" Beatrice opened her eyes and closed +them, opened them again for a minute longer, yawned daintily, and by +these signs and tokens wandered back from dreamland obediently. + +Her mother sat down upon the edge of the bed, and the bed creaked. Also, +Beatrice groaned inwardly; the time of reckoning was verily drawing +near. She promptly closed her eyes again, and gave a sleepy sigh. + +"Beatrice, did you refuse Sir Redmond again?" + +"M-m--were you speaking--mama?" + +Mrs. Lansell, endeavoring to keep her temper, repeated the question. + +Beatrice began to feel that she was an abused girl. She lifted herself +to her elbow, and thumped the pillow spitefully. + +"Again? Dear me, mama! I've never refused him once!" + +"You haven't accepted him once, either," her mother retorted; and +Beatrice lay down again. + +"I do wish, Beatrice, you would look at the matter in a sensible light +I'm sure I never would ask you to marry a man you could not care for. +But Sir Redmond is young, and good-looking, and has birth and breeding, +and money--no one can accuse him of being a fortune-hunter, I'm sure. I +was asking Richard to-day, and he says Sir Redmond holds a large +interest in the Northern Pool, and other English investors pay him a +salary, besides, to look after their interests. I wouldn't be surprised +if the holdings of both of you would be sufficient to control the +business." + +Beatrice, not caring anything for business anyway, said nothing. + +"Any one can see the man's crazy for you. His sister says he never cared +for a woman before in his life." + +"Of course," put in Beatrice sarcastically. "His sister followed him +down to South Africa, and all around, and is in a position to know." + +"Any one can see he isn't a lady's man." + +"No--" Beatrice smiled reminiscently; "he certainly isn't." + +"And so he's in deadly earnest. And I'm positive he will make you a +model husband." + +"Only think of having to live, all one's life, with a model husband!" +shuddered Beatrice hypocritically. + +"Be-atrice! And then, it's something to marry a title." + +"That's the worst of it," remarked Beatrice. + +"Any other girl in America would jump at the chance. I do believe, +Beatrice, you are hanging back just to be aggravating. And there's +another thing, Beatrice. I don't approve of the way this Keith Cameron +hangs around you." + +"He doesn't!" denied Beatrice, in an altogether different tone. "Why, +mama!" + +"I don't approve of flirting, Beatrice, and you know it. The way you +gadded around over the hills with him--a perfect stranger--was +disgraceful; perfectly disgraceful. You don't know any thing about the +fellow, whether he's a fit companion or not--a wild, uncouth cowboy--" + +"He graduated from Yale, a year after Dick. And he was halfback, too." + +"That doesn't signify," said her mother, "a particle. I know Miss Hayes +was dreadfully shocked to see you come riding up with him, and Sir +Redmond forced to go with Richard, or ride alone." + +"Dick is good company," said Beatrice. "And it was his own fault. I +asked him to go with us, when Dick and I left the cattle, and he +wouldn't. Dick will tell you the same. And after that I did not see him +until just before we--I came home, Really, mama, I can't have a +leading-string on Sir Redmond. If he refuses to come with me, I can +hardly insist." + +"Well, you must have done something. You said something, or did +something, to make him very angry. He has not been himself all day. What +did you say?" + +"Dear me, mama, I am not responsible for all Sir Redmond's ill-humor." + +"I did not ask you that, Beatrice." + +Beatrice thumped her pillow again. "I don't remember anything very +dreadful, mama. I--I think he has indigestion." + +"Be-atrice! I do wish you would try to conquer that habit of flippancy. +It is not ladylike. And I warn you, Sir Redmond is not the man to dangle +after you forever. He will lose patience, and go back to England without +you--and serve you right! I am only talking for your own good, Beatrice. +I am not at all sure that you want him to leave you alone." + +Beatrice was not at all sure, either. She lay still, and wished her +mother would stop talking for her good. Talking for her good had meant, +as far back as Beatrice could remember, saying disagreeable things in a +disagreeable manner. + +"And remember, Beatrice, I want this flirting stopped." + +"Flirting, mama?" To hear the girl, you would think she had never heard +the word before. + +"That's what I said, Beatrice. I shall speak to Richard in the morning +about this fellow Cameron. He must put a stop to his being here +two-thirds of the time. It is unendurable." + +"He and Dick are chums, mama, and have been for years. And to-morrow we +are going to Lost Canyon, you know, and Mr. Cameron is to go along. And +there are several other trips, mama, to which he is already invited. +Dick cannot recall those invitations." + +"Well, it must end there. Richard must do something. I cannot see what +he finds about the fellow to like--or you, either, Beatrice. Just +because he rides like a--a wild Indian, and has a certain daredevil +way--" + +"I never said I liked him, mama," Beatrice protested, somewhat hastily. +"I--of course, I try to treat him well--" + +"I should say you did!" exploded her mother angrily. "You would be much +better employed in trying to treat Sir Redmond half as well. It is +positively disgraceful, the way you behave toward him--as fine a man as +I ever met in my life. I warn you, Beatrice, you must have more regard +for propriety, or I shall take you back to New York at once. I certainly +shall." + +With that threat, which she shrewdly guessed would go far toward +bringing this wayward girl to time, Mrs. Lansell got up off the bed, +which creaked its relief, and groped her way to her own room. + +The pillow of Beatrice received considerable thumping during the next +hour--a great deal more, in fact, than it needed. Two thoughts troubled +her more than she liked. What if her mother was right, and Sir Redmond +lost patience with her and went home? That possibility was unpleasant, +to say the least. Again, would he give her up altogether if she showed +Dick she was not afraid of Keith Cameron, for all his good looks, and at +the same time taught that young man a much-needed lesson? The way he had +stared at her was nothing less than a challenge and Beatrice was sorely +tempted. + + + +CHAPTER 7 + +Beatrice's Wild Ride. + + +"Well, are we all ready?" Dick gathered up his reins, and took critical +inventory of the load. His mother peered under the front seat to be +doubly sure that there were at least four umbrellas and her waterproof +raglan in the rig; Mrs. Lansell did not propose to be caught unawares in +a storm another time. Miss Hayes straightened Dorman's cap, and told him +to sit down, dear, and then called upon Sir Redmond to enforce the +command. Sir Redmond repeated her command, minus the dear, and then rode +on ahead to overtake Beatrice and Keith, who had started. Dick climbed +up over the front wheel, released the brake, chirped at the horses, and +they were off for Lost Canyon. + +Beatrice was behaving beautifully, and her mother only hoped to heaven +it would last the day out; perhaps Sir Redmond would be able to extract +some sort of a promise from her in that mood, Mrs. Lansell reflected, as +she watched Beatrice chatting to her two cavaliers, with the most +decorous impartiality. Sir Redmond seemed in high spirits, which argued +well; Mrs. Lansell gave herself up to the pleasure of the drive with a +heart free from anxiety. Not only was Beatrice at her best; Dorman's +mood was nothing short of angelic, and as the weather was simply +perfect, the day surely promised well. + +For a mile Keith had showed signs of a mind not at ease, and at last he +made bold to speak. + +"I thought Rex was to be your saddle-horse?" he said abruptly to +Beatrice. + +"He was; but when Dick brought Goldie home, last night, I fell in love +with him on sight, and just teased Dick till he told me I might have him +to ride." + +"I thought Dick had some sense," Keith said gloomily. + +"He has. He knew there would be no peace till he surrendered." + +"I didn't know you were going to ride him, when I sold him to Dick. He's +not safe for a woman." + +"Does he buck, Mr. Cameron? Dick said he was gentle." Beatrice had seen +a horse buck, one day, and had a wholesome fear of that form of equine +amusement. + +"Oh, no. I never knew him to." + +"Then I don't mind anything else. I'm accustomed to horses," said +Beatrice, and smiled welcome to Sir Redmond, who came up with them at +that moment. + +"You want to ride him with a light rein," Keith cautioned, clinging to +the subject. "He's tenderbitted, and nervous. He won't stand for any +jerking, you see." + +"I never jerk, Mr. Cameron." Keith discovered that big, baffling, +blue-brown eyes can, if they wish, rival liquid air for coldness. "I +rode horses before I came to Montana." + +Of course, when a man gets frozen with a girl's eyes, and scorched with +a girl's sarcasm, the thing for him to do is to retreat until the +atmosphere becomes normal. Keith fell behind just as soon as he could do +so with some show of dignity, and for several miles tried to convince +himself that he would rather talk to Dick and "the old maid" than not. + +"Don't you know," Sir Redmond remarked sympathetically, "some of these +Western fellows are inclined to be deuced officious and impertinent." + +Sir Redmond got a taste of the freezing process that made him change the +subject abruptly. + +The way was rough and lonely; the trail wound over sharp-nosed hills and +through deep, narrow coulees, with occasional, tantalizing glimpses of +the river and the open land beyond, that kept Beatrice in a fever of +enthusiasm. From riding blithely ahead, she took to lagging far behind +with her kodak, getting snap-shots of the choicest bits of scenery. + +"Another cartridge, please, Sir Redmond," she said, and wound +industriously on the finished roll. + +"It's a jolly good thing I brought my pockets full." Sir Redmond fished +one out for her. "Was that a dozen?" + +"No; that had only six films. I want a larger one this time. It is a +perfect nuisance to stop and change. Be still, Goldie!" + +"We're getting rather a long way behind--but I fancy the road is +plain." + +"We'll hurry and overtake them. I won't take any more pictures." + +"Until you chance upon something you can't resist. I understand all +that, you know." Sir Redmond, while he teased, was pondering whether +this was an auspicious time and place to ask Beatrice to marry him. He +had tried so many times and places that seemed auspicious, that the man +was growing fearful. It is not pleasant to have a girl smile indulgently +upon you and deftly turn your avowals aside, so that they fall flat. + +"I'm ready," she announced, blind to what his eyes were saying. + +"Shall we trek?" Sir Redmond sighed a bit. He was not anxious to +overtake the others. + +"We will. Only, out here people never 'trek,' Sir Redmond. They 'hit the +trail'." + +"So they do. And the way these cowboys do it, one would think they were +couriers, by Jove! with the lives of a whole army at stake. So I fancy +we had better hit the trail, eh?" + +"You're learning," Beatrice assured him, as they started on. "A year out +here, and you would be a real American, Sir Redmond." + +Sir Redmond came near saying, "The Lord forbid!" but he thought better +of it. Beatrice was intensely loyal to her countrymen, unfortunately, +and would certainly resent such a remark; but, for all that, he thought +it. + +For a mile or two she held to her resolve, and then, at the top of a +long hill overlooking the canyon where they were to eat their lunch, out +came her kodak again. + +"This must be Lost Canyon, for Dick has stopped by those trees. I want +to get just one view from here. Steady, Goldie! Dear me, this horse does +detest standing still!" + +"I fancy he is anxious to get down with the others. Let me hold him for +you. Whoa, there!" He put a hand upon the bridle, a familiarity Goldie +resented. He snorted and dodged backward, to the ruin of the picture +Beatrice was endeavoring to get. + +"Now you've frightened him. Whoa, pet! It's of no use to try; he won't +stand." + +"Let me have your camera. He's getting rather an ugly temper, I think." +Sir Redmond put out his hand again, and again Goldie dodged backward. + +"I can do better alone, Sir Redmond." The cheeks of Beatrice were red. +She managed to hold the horse in until her kodak was put safely in its +case, but her temper, as well as Goldie's, was roughened. She hated +spoiling a film, which she was perfectly sure she had done. + +Goldie felt the sting of her whip when she brought him back into the +road, and, from merely fretting, he took to plunging angrily. Then, when +Beatrice pulled him up sharply, he thrust out his nose, grabbed the bit +in his teeth, and bolted down the hill, past all control. + +"Good God, hold him!" shouted Sir Redmond, putting his horse to a run. + +The advice was good, and Beatrice heard it plainly enough, but she +neither answered nor looked back. How, she thought, resentfully, was one +to hold a yellow streak of rage, with legs like wire springs and a neck +of iron? Besides, she was angrily alive to the fact that Keith Cameron, +watching down below, was having his revenge. She wondered if he was +enjoying it. + +He was not. Goldie, when he ran, ran blindly in a straight line, and +Keith knew it. He also knew that the Englishman couldn't keep within +gunshot of Goldie, with the mount he had, and half a mile away--Keith +shut his teeth hard together, and went out to meet her. Redcloud lay +along the ground in great leaps, but Keith, bending low over his neck, +urged him faster and faster, until the horse, his ears laid close +against his neck, did the best there was in him. From the tail of his +eye, Keith saw Sir Redmond's horse go down upon his knees, and get up +limping--and the sight filled him with ungenerous gladness; Sir Redmond +was out of the race. It was Keith and Redcloud--they two; and Keith +could smile over it. + +He saw Beatrice's hat loosen and lift in front, flop uncertainly, and +then go sailing away into the sage-brush, and he noted where it fell, +that he might find it, later. Then he was close enough to see her face, +and wondered that there was so little fear written there. Beatrice was +plucky, and she rode well, her weight upon the bit; but her weight was +nothing to the clinched teeth of the horse; and, though she had known it +from the start, she was scarcely frightened. There was a good deal of +the daredevil in Beatrice; she trusted a great deal to blind luck. + +Just there the land was level, and she hoped to check him on the slope +of the hill before them. She did not know it was moated like a castle, +with a washout ten feet deep and twice that in width, and that what +looked to her quite easy was utterly impossible. + +Keith gained, every leap. In a moment he was close behind. + +"Take your foot out of the stirrup," he commanded, harshly, and though +Beatrice wondered why, something in his voice made her obey. + +Now Redcloud's nose was even with her elbow; the breath from his +wide-flaring nostrils rose hotly in her face. Another bound, and he had +forged ahead, neck and neck with Goldie, and it was Keith by her side, +keen-eyed and calm. + +"Let go all hold," he said. Reaching suddenly, he caught her around the +waist and pulled her from the saddle, just as Redcloud, scenting danger, +plowed his front feet deeply into the loose soil and stopped dead still. + +It was neatly done, and quickly; so quickly that before Beatrice had +more than gasped her surprise, Keith lowered her to the ground and slid +out of the saddle. Beatrice looked at him, and wondered at his face, and +at the way he was shaking. He leaned weakly against the horse and hid +his face on his arm, and trembled at what had come so close to the +girl--the girl, who stood there panting a little, with her wonderful, +waving hair cloaking her almost to her knees, and her blue-brown eyes +wide and bright, and full of a deep amazement. She forgot Goldie, and +did not even look to see what had become of him; she forgot nearly +everything, just then, in wonder at this tall, clean-built young fellow, +who never had seemed to care what happened, leaning there with his face +hidden, his hat far hack on his head and little drops standing thickly +upon his forehead. She waited a moment, and when he did not move, her +thoughts drifted to other things. + +"I wonder," she said abstractedly, "if I broke my kodak." + +Keith lifted his head and looked at her. "Your kodak--good Lord!" He +looked hard into her eyes, and she returned the stare. + +"Come here," he commanded, hoarsely, catching her arm. "Your kodak! Look +down there!" He led her to the brink, which was close enough to set him +shuddering anew. "Look! There's Goldie, damn him! It's a wonder he's on +his feet; I thought he'd be dead--and serve him right. And you--you +wonder if you broke your kodak !" + +Beatrice drew back from him, and from the sight below, and if she were +frightened, she tried not to let him see. "Should I have fainted?" She +was proud of the steadiness of her voice. "Really, I am very much +obliged to you, Mr. Cameron, for saving me from an ugly fall. You did it +very neatly, I imagine, and I am grateful. Still, I really hope I didn't +break my kodak. Are you very disappointed because I can't faint away? +There doesn't seem to be any brook close by, you see--and I haven't my +er--lover's arms to fall into. Those are the regulation stage settings, +I believe, and--" + +"Don't worry, Miss Lansell. I didn't expect you to faint, or to show any +human feelings whatever. I do pity your horse, though." + +"You didn't a minute ago," she reminded him. "You indulged in a bit of +profanity, if I remember." + +"For which I beg Goldie's pardon," he retorted, his eyes unsmiling. + +"And mine, I hope." + +"Certainly." + +"I think it's rather absurd to stand here sparring, Mr. Cameron. You'll +begin to accuse me of ingratitude, and I'm as grateful as possible for +what you did. Sir Redmond's horse was too slow to keep up, or he would +have been at hand, no doubt." + +"And could have supplied part of the stage setting. Too bad he was +behind." Keith turned and readjusted the cinch on his saddle, though it +was not loose enough to matter, and before he had finished Sir Redmond +rode up. + +"Are you hurt, Beatrice?" His face was pale, and his eyes anxious. + +"Not at all. Mr. Cameron kindly helped me from the saddle in time to +prevent an accident. I wish you'd thank him, Sir Redmond. I haven't the +words." + +"You needn't trouble," said Keith hastily, getting into the saddle. +"I'll go down after Goldie. You can easily find the camp, I guess, +without a pilot." Then he galloped away and left them, and would not +look back; if he had done so, he would have seen Beatrice's eyes +following him remorsefully. Also, he would have seen Sir Redmond glare +after him jealously; for Sir Redmond was not in a position to know that +their tete-a-tete had not been a pleasant one, and no man likes to have +another fellow save the life of a woman he loves, while he himself is +limping painfully up from the rear. + +However, the woman he loved was very gracious to him that day, and for +many days, and Keith Cameron held himself aloof during the rest of the +trip, which should have contented Sir Redmond. + + + +CHAPTER 8 + +Dorman Plays Cupid. + + +Dorman toiled up the steps, his straw hat perilously near to slipping +down his back, his face like a large, red beet, and his hands vainly +trying to reach around a baking-powder can which the Chinaman cook had +given him. + +He marched straight to where Beatrice was lying in the hammock. If she +had been older, or younger, or a plain young woman, one might say that +Beatrice was sulking in the hammock, for she had not spoken anything but +"yes" and "no" to her mother for an hour, and she had only spoken those +two words occasionally, when duty demanded it. For one thing, Sir +Redmond was absent, and had been for two weeks, and Beatrice was +beginning to miss him dreadfully. To beguile the time, she had ridden, +every day, long miles into the hills. Three times she had met Keith +Cameron, also riding alone in the hills, and she had endeavored to amuse +herself with him, after her own inimitable fashion, and with more or +less success. The trouble was, that sometimes Keith seemed to be +amusing himself with her, which was not pleasing to a girl like +Beatrice. At any rate, he proved himself quite able to play the game of +Give and Take, so that the conscience of Beatrice was at ease; no one +could call her pastime a slaughter of the innocents, surely, when the +fellow stood his ground like that. It was more a fencing-bout, and +Beatrice enjoyed it very much; she told herself that the reason she +enjoyed talking with Keith was because he was not always getting hurt, +like Sir Redmond--or, if he did, he kept his feelings to himself, and +went boldly on with the game. Item: Beatrice had reversed her decision +that Keith was vain, though she still felt tempted, at times, to resort +to "making faces"--when she was worsted, that was. + +To return to this particular day of sulking; Rex had cast a shoe, and +lamed himself just enough to prevent her riding, and so Beatrice was +having a dull day of it in the house. Besides, her mother had just +finished talking to her for her good, which was enough to send an angel +into the sulks--and Beatrice lacked a good deal of being an angel. + +Dorman laid his baking-powder can confidingly in his divinity's lap. +"Be'trice, I did get some grasshoppers; you said I couldn't. And you +wouldn't go fishin', 'cause you didn't like to take Uncle Dick's +make-m'lieve flies, so I got some really ones, Be'trice, that'll wiggle +dere own self." + +"Oh, dear me! It's too hot, Dorman." + +"'Tisn't, Be'trice It's dest as cool--and by de brook it's awf-lly cold. +Come, Be'trice!" He pulled at the smart little pink ruffles on her +skirt. + +"I'm too sleepy, hon." + +"You can sleep by de brook, Be'trice. I'll let you," he promised +generously, "'cept when I need anudder grasshopper; nen I'll wake you +up." + +"Wait till to-morrow. I don't believe the fish are hungry to-day. Don't +tear my skirt to pieces, Dorman!" + +Dorman began to whine. He had never found his divinity in so unlovely a +mood. "I want to go now! Dey are too hungry, Be'trice! Looey Sam is +goin' to fry my fishes for dinner, to s'prise auntie. Come, Be'trice!" + +"Why don't you go with the child, Beatrice? You grow more selfish every +day." Mrs. Lansell could not endure selfishness--in others. "You know he +will not give us any peace until you do." + +Dorman instantly proceeded to make good his grandmother's prophecy, and +wept so that one could hear him a mile. + +"Oh, dear me! Be still, Dorman--your auntie has a headache. Well, get +your rod, if you know where it is--which I doubt." Beatrice flounced out +of the hammock and got her hat, one of those floppy white things, +fluffed with thin, white stuff, till they look like nothing so much as a +wisp of cloud, with ribbons to moor it to her head and keep it from +sailing off to join its brothers in the sky. + +Down by the creek, where the willows nodded to their own reflections in +the still places, it was cool and sweet scented, and Beatrice forgot her +grievances, and was not sorry she had come. + +(It was at about this time that a tall young fellow, two miles down the +coulee, put away his field glass and went off to saddle his horse.) + +"Don't run ahead so, Dorman," Beatrice cautioned. To her had been given +the doubtful honor of carrying the baking-powder can of grasshoppers. +Even divinities must make themselves useful to man. + +"Why, Be'trice?" Dorman swished his rod in unpleasant proximity to his +divinity's head. + +"Because, honey"--Beatrice dodged--"you might step on a snake, a +rattlesnake, that would bite you." + +"How would it bite, Be'trice?" + +"With its teeth, of course; long, wicked teeth, with poison on them." + +"I saw one when I was ridin' on a horse wis Uncle Dick. It kept windin' +up till it was round, and it growled wis its tail, Be'trice. And Uncle +Dick chased it, and nen it unwinded itself and creeped under a big rock. +It didn't bite once--and I didn't see any teeth to it." + +"Carry your rod still, Dorman. Are you trying to knock my hat off my +head? Rattlesnakes have teeth, hon, whether you saw them or not. I saw a +great, long one that day we thought you were lost. Mr. Cameron killed it +with his rope. I'm sure it had teeth." + +"Did it growl, Be'trice? Tell me how it went." + +"Like this, hon." Beatrice parted her lips ever so little, and a snake +buzzed at Dorman's feet. He gave a yell of terror, and backed +ingloriously. + +"You see, honey, if that had been really a snake, it would have bitten +you. Never mind, dear--it was only I." + +Dorman was some time believing this astonishing statement. "How did you +growl by my feet, Be'trice? Show me again." + +Beatrice, who had learned some things at school which were not included +in the curriculum, repeated the performance, while Dorman watched her +with eyes and mouth at their widest. Like some older members of his sex, +he was discovering new witcheries about his divinity every day. + +"Well, Be'trice!" He gave a long gasp of ecstasy. "I don't see how can +you do it? Can't I do it, Be'trice?" + +"I'm afraid not, honey--you'd have to learn. There was a queer French +girl at school, who could do the strangest things, Dorman--like fairy +tales, almost. And she taught me to throw my voice different places, and +mimic sounds, when we should have been at our lessons. Listen, hon. This +is how a little lamb cries, when he is lost. . . . And this is what a +hungry kittie says, when she is away up in a tree, and is afraid to come +down. + +Dorman danced all around his divinity, and forgot about the fish--until +Beatrice found it in her heart to regret her rash revelation of hitherto +undreamed-of powers of entertainment. + +"Not another sound, Dorman," she declared at length, with the firmness +of despair. "No, I will not be a lost lamb another once. No, nor a +hungry kittie, either--nor a snake, or anything. If you are not going to +fish, I shall go straight back to the house." + +Dorman sighed heavily, and permitted his divinity to fasten a small +grasshopper to his hook. + +"We'll go a bit farther, dear, down under those great trees. And you +must not speak a word, remember, or the fish will all run away." + +When she had settled him in a likely place, and the rapt patience of the +born angler had folded him close, she disposed herself comfortably in +the thick grass, her back against a tree, and took up the shuttle of +fancy to weave a wonderful daydream, as beautiful, intangible as the +lacy, summer clouds over her head. + +A man rode quietly over the grass and stopped two rods away, that he +might fill his hungry eyes with the delicious loveliness of his Heart's +Desire. + +"Got a bite yet?" + +Dorman turned and wrinkled his nose, by way of welcome, and shook his +head vaguely, as though he might tell of several unimportant nibbles, if +it were worth the effort. + +Beatrice sat a bit straighter, and dexterously whisked some pink +ruffles down over two distracting ankles, and hoped Keith had not taken +notice of them. He had, though; trust a man for that! + +Keith dismounted, dropped the reins to the ground, and came and laid +himself down in the grass beside his Heart's Desire, and Beatrice +noticed how tall he was, and slim and strong. + +"How did you know we were here?" she wanted to know, with lifted +eyebrows. + +Keith wondered if there was a welcome behind that sweet, indifferent +face. He never could be sure of anything in Beatrice's face, because it +never was alike twice, it seemed to him--and if it spoke welcome for a +second, the next there was only raillery, or something equally +unsatisfying. + +"I saw you from the trail," he answered promptly, evidently not +thinking it wise to mention the fieldglass. And then: "Is Dick at +home?" Not that he wanted Dick--but a fellow, even when he is in the +last stages of love, feels need of an excuse sometimes. + +"No--we women are alone to-day. There isn't a man on the place, except +Looey Sam, and he doesn't count." + +Dorman squirmed around till he could look at the two, and his eyebrows +were tied in a knot. "I wish, Be'trice, you wouldn't talk, 'less you +whisper. De fishes won't bite a bit." + +"All right, honey--we won't." + +Dorman turned back to his fishing with a long breath of relief. His +divinity never broke a promise, if she could help it. + +If Dorman Hayes had been Cupid himself, he could not have hit upon a +more impish arrangement than that. To place a girl like Beatrice beside +a fellow like Keith--a fellow who is tall, and browned, and extremely +good-looking, and who has hazel eyes with a laugh in them always--a +fellow, moreover, who is very much in love and very much in earnest +about it--and condemn him to silence, or to whispers! + +Keith took advantage of the edict, and moved closer, so that he could +whisper in comfort--and be nearer his Heart's Desire. He lay with his +head propped upon his hand, and his elbow digging into the sod and +getting grass-stains on his shirt sleeve, for the day was too warm for a +coat. Beatrice, looking down at him, observed that his forearm, between +his glove and wrist-band, was as white and smooth as her own. It is +characteristic of a cowboy to have a face brown as an Indian, and hands +girlishly white and soft. + +"I haven't had a glimpse of you for a week--not since I met you down by +the river. Where have you been?" he whispered. + +"Here. Rex went lame, and Dick wouldn't let me ride any other horse, +since that day Goldie bolted--and so the hills have called in vain. I've +stayed at home and made quantities of Duchesse lace--I almost finished a +love of a center piece--and mama thinks I have reformed. But Rex is +better, and tomorrow I'm going somewhere." + +"Better help me hunt some horses that have been running down Lost +Canyon way. I'm going to look for them to-morrow," Keith suggested, as +calmly as was compatible with his eagerness and his method of speech. I +doubt if any man can whisper things to a girl he loves, and do it +calmly. I know Keith's heart was pounding. + +"I shall probably ride in the opposite direction," Beatrice told him +wickedly. She wondered if he thought she would run at his beck. + +"I never saw you in this dress before," Keith murmured, his eyes +caressing. + +"No? You may never again," she said. "I have so many things to wear out, +you know." + +"I like it," he declared, as emphatically as he could, and whisper. "It +is just the color of your cheeks, after the wind has been kissing them a +while." + +"Fancy a cowboy saying pretty things like that!" + +Beatrice's cheeks did not wait for the wind to kiss them pink. + +"Ya-as, only fawncy, ye knaw." His eyes were daringly mocking. + +"For shame, Mr. Cameron! Sir Redmond would not mimic your speech." + +"Good reason why; he couldn't, not if he tried a thousand years." + +Beatrice knew this was the truth, so she fell back upon dignity. + +"We will not discuss that subject, I think." + +"I don't want to, anyway. I know another subject a million times more +interesting than Sir Redmond." + +"Indeed!" Beatrice's eyebrows were at their highest. "And what is it, +then?" + +"You!" Keith caught her hand; his eyes compelled her. + +"I think," said Beatrice, drawing her hand away, "we will not discuss +that subject, either." + +"Why?" Keith's eyes continued to woo. + +"Because." + +It occurred to Beatrice that an unsophisticated girl might easily think +Keith in earnest, with that look in his eyes. + +Dorman, scowling at them over his shoulder, unconsciously did his +divinity a service. Beatrice pursed her lips in a way that drove Keith +nearly wild, and took up the weapon of silence. + +"You said you women are alone--where is milord?" Keith began again, +after two minutes of lying there watching her. + +"Sir Redmond is in Helena, on business. He's been making arrangements to +lease a lot of land." + +"Ah-h!" Keith snapped a twig off a dead willow, + +"We look for him home to-day, and Dick drove in to meet the train." + +"So the Pool has gone to leasing land?" The laugh had gone out of +Keith's eyes; they were clear and keen. + +"Yes--the plan is to lease the Pine Ridge country, and fence it. I +suppose you know where that is." + +"I ought to," Keith said quietly. "It's funny Dick never mentioned it." + +"It isn't Dick's idea," Beatrice told him. "It was Sir Redmond's. Dick +is rather angry, I think, and came near quarreling with Sir Redmond +about it. But English capital controls the Pool, you know, and Sir +Redmond controls the English capital, so he can adopt whatever policy he +chooses. The way he explained the thing to me, it seems a splendid +plan--don't you think so?" + +"Yes." Keith's tone was not quite what he meant it to be; he did not +intend it to be ironical, as it was. "It's a snap for the Pool, all +right. It gives them a cinch on the best of the range, and all the +water. I didn't give milord credit for such business sagacity." + +Beatrice leaned over that she might read his eyes, but Keith turned his +face away. In the shock of what he had just learned, he was, at the +moment, not the lover; he was the small cattleman who is being forced +out of the business by the octopus of combined capital. It was not less +bitter that the woman he loved was one of the tentacles reaching out to +crush him. And they could do it; they--the whole affair resolved itself +into a very simple scheme, to Keith. The gauntlet had been thrown +down--because of this girl beside him. It was not so much business +acumen as it was the antagonism of a rival that had prompted the move. +Keith squared his shoulders, and mentally took up the gauntlet. He might +lose in the range fight, but he would win the girl, if it were in the +power of love to do it. + +"Why that tone? I hope it isn't--will it inconvenience you?" + +"Oh, no. No, not at all. No--" Keith seemed to forget that a +superabundance of negatives breeds suspicion of sincerity. + +"I'm afraid that means that it will. And I'm sure Sir Redmond never +meant--" + +"I believe that kid has got a bite at last," Keith interrupted, getting +up. "Let me take hold, there, Dorman; you'll be in the creek yourself in +a second." He landed a four-inch fish, carefully rebaited the hook, cast +the line into a promising eddy, gave the rod over to Dorman, and went +back to Beatrice, who had been watching him with troubled eyes. + +"Mr. Cameron, if I had known--" Beatrice was good-hearted, if she was +fond of playing with a man's heart. + +"I hope you're not letting that business worry you, Miss Lansell. You +remind me of a painting I saw once in Boston. It was called June." + +"But this is August, so I don't apply. Isn't there some way you--" + +"Did you hear about that train-robbery up the line last week?" Keith +settled himself luxuriously upon his back, with his hands clasped under +his head, and his hat tipped down over his eyes--but not enough to +prevent him from watching his Heart's Desire. And in his eyes +laughter--and something sweeter--lurked. If Sir Redmond had wealth to +fight with, Keith's weapon was far and away more dangerous, for it was +the irresistible love of a masterful man--the love that sweeps obstacles +away like straws. + +"I am not interested in train-robberies," Beatrice told him, her eyes +still clouded with trouble. "I want to talk about this lease." + +"They got one fellow the next day, and another got rattled and gave +himself up; but the leader of the gang, one of Montana's pet outlaws, is +still ranging somewhere in the hills. You want to be careful about +riding off alone; you ought to let some one--me, for instance--go along +to look after you." + +"Pshaw!" said his Heart's Desire, smiling reluctantly. "I'm not afraid. +Do you suppose, if Sir Redmond had known--" + +"Those fellows made quite a haul--almost enough to lease the whole +country, if they wanted to. Something over fifty thousand dollars--and a +strong box full of sand, that the messenger was going to fool them with. +He did, all right; but they weren't so slow. They hustled around and got +the money, and he lost his sand into the bargain." + +"Was that meant for a pun?" Beatrice blinked her big eyes at him. "If +you're quite through with the train-robbers, perhaps you will tell me +how--" + +"I'm glad old Mother Nature didn't give every woman an odd dimple +beside the mouth," Keith observed, reaching for her hat, and running a +ribbon caressingly through his fingers. + +"Why?" Beatrice smoothed the dimple complacently with her finger-tips. + +"Why? Oh, it would get kind of monotonous ,wouldn't it?" + +"This from a man known chiefly for his pretty speeches!" Beatrice's +laugh had a faint tinge of chagrin. + +"Wouldn't pretty speeches get monotonous, too?" Keith's eyes were +laughing at her. + +"Yours wouldn't," she retorted, spitefully, and immediately bit her lip +and hoped he would not consider that a bid for more pretty speeches. + +"Be'trice, dis hopper is awf-lly wilted!" came a sepulchral whisper from +Dorman. + +Keith sighed, and went and baited the hook again. When he returned to +Beatrice, his mood had changed. + +"I want you to promise--" + +"I never make promises of any sort, Mr. Cameron." Beatrice had fallen +back upon her airy tone, which was her strongest weapon of +defense--unless one except her liquid-air smile. + +"I wasn't thinking of asking much," Keith went on coolly. "I only +wanted to ask you not to worry about that leasing business." + +"Are you worrying about it, Mr. Cameron?" + +"That isn't the point. No, I can't say I expect to lose sleep over it. I +hope you will dismiss anything I may have said from your mind." + +"But I don't understand. I feel that you blame Sir Redmond, when I'm +sure he--" + +"I did not say I blamed anybody. I think we'll not discuss it." + +"Yes, I think we shall. You'll tell me all about it, if I want to +know." Beatrice adopted her coaxing tone, which never had failed her. + +"Oh, no!" Keith laughed a little. "A girl can't always have her own way +just because she wants it, even if she--" + +"I've got a fish, Mr. Cam'ron!" Dorman squealed, and Keith was obliged +to devote another five minutes to diplomacy. + +"I think you have fished long enough, honey," Beatrice told Dorman +decidedly. "It's nearly dinner time, and Looey Sam won't have time to +fry your fish if you don't hurry home. Shall I tell Dick you wished to +see him, Mr. Cameron?" + +"It's nothing important, so I won't trouble you," Keith replied, in a +tone that matched hers for cool courtesy. "I'll see him to-morrow, +probably." He helped Dorman reel in his line, cut a willow-wand and +strung the three fish upon it by the gills, washed his hands leisurely +in the creek, and dried them on his handkerchief, just as if nothing +bothered him in the slightest degree. Then he went over and smoothed +Redcloud's mane and pulled a wisp of forelock from under the brow-band, +and commanded him to shake hands, which the horse did promptly. + +"I want to shake hands wis your pony, too," Dorman cried, and dropped +pole and fish heedlessly into the grass. + +"All right, kid." + +Dorman went up gravely and clasped Redcloud's raised fetlock solemnly, +while the tall cow-puncher smiled down at him. + +"Kiss him, Redcloud," he said softly; and then, when the horse's nose +was thrust in his face: "No, not me--kiss the kid." He lifted the child +up in his arms, and when Redcloud touched his soft nose to Dorman's +cheek and lifted his lip for a dainty, toothless nibble, Dorman was +speechless with fright and rapture thrillingly combined. + +"Now run home with your fish; it lacks only two hours and forty minutes +to dinner time, and it will take at least twenty minutes for the fish to +fry--so you see you'll have to hike." + +Beatrice flushed and looked at him sharply, but Keith was getting into +the saddle and did not appear to remember she was there. The fingers +that were tying her hat-ribbons under her chin fumbled awkwardly and +trembled. Beatrice would have given a good deal at that moment to know +just what Keith Cameron was thinking; and she was in a blind rage with +herself to think that it mattered to her what he thought. + +When he lifted his hat she only nodded curtly. She mimicked every beast +and bird she could think of on the way home, to wipe him and his horse +from the memory of Dorman, whose capacity for telling things best left +untold was simply marvelous. + +It is saying much for Beatrice's powers of entertainment that Dorman +quite forgot to say anything about Mr. Cameron and his pony, and +chattered to his auntie and grandmama about kitties up in a tree, and +lost lambs and sleepy birds, until he was tucked into bed that night. It +was not until then that Beatrice felt justified in drawing a long +breath. Not that she cared whether any one knew of her meeting Keith +Cameron, only that her mother would instantly take alarm and preach to +her about the wickedness of flirting; and Beatrice was not in the mood +for sermons. + + + +CHAPTER 9 + +What It Meant to Keith. + + +"Dick, I wish you'd tell me about this leasing business. There are +points which I don't understand." Beatrice leaned over and smoothed +Rex's sleek shoulder with her hand. + +"What do you want to understand it for? The thing is done now. We've got +the fence-posts strung, and a crew hired to set them." + +"You needn't snap your words like that, Dick. It doesn't matter--only I +was wondering why Mr. Cameron acted so queer yesterday when I told him +about it." + +"You told Keith? What did he say?" + +"He didn't say anything. He just looked things." + +"Where did you see him?" Dick wanted to know. + +"Well, dear me! I don't see that it matters where I saw him. You're +getting as inquisitive as mama. If you think it concerns you, why, I met +him accidentally when I was fishing with Dorman. He was coming to see +you, but you were gone, so he stopped and talked for a few minutes. Was +there anything so strange about that? And I told him you were leasing +the Pine Ridge country, and he looked--well, peculiar. But he wouldn't +say anything." + +"Well, he had good reason for looking peculiar. But you needn't have +told him I did it, Trix. Lay that at milord's door, where it belongs. I +don't want Keith to blame me." + +"But why should he blame anybody? It isn't his land, is it?" + +"No, it isn't. But--you see, Trix, it's this way: A man goes somewhere +and buys a ranch--or locates on a claim--and starts into the cattle +business. He may not own more than a few hundred acres of land, but if +he has much stock he needs miles of prairie country, with water, for +them to range on. It's an absolute necessity, you see. He takes care to +locate where there is plenty of public land that is free to anybody's +cattle. + +"Take the Pool outfit, for instance. We don't own land enough to feed +one-third of our cattle. We depend on government land for range for +them. The Cross outfit is the same, only Keith's is on a smaller scale. +He's got to have range outside his own land, which is mostly hay land. +This part of the State is getting pretty well settled up with small +ranchers, and then the sheep men keep crowding in wherever they can get +a show--and sheep will starve cattle to death; they leave a range as +bare as a prairie-dog town. So there's only one good bit of range left +around here, and that's the Pine Ridge country, as it's called. That's +our main dependence for winter range; and now when this drought has +struck us, and everything is drying up, we've had to turn all our cattle +down there on account of water. + +"Ever since I took charge of the Pool, Keith and I threw in together and +used the same range, worked our crews together, and fought the sheepmen +together. There was a time when they tried to gobble the Pine Ridge +range, but it didn't go. Keith and I made up our minds that we needed it +worse than they did--and we got it. Our punchers had every sheep herder +bluffed out till there wasn't a mutton-chewer could keep a bunch of +sheep on that range over-night. + +"Now, this lease law was made by stockmen, for stockmen. They can lease +land from the government, fence it--and they've got a cinch on it as +long as the lease lasts. A cow outfit can corral a heap of range that +way. There's the trick of leasing every other section or so, and then +running a fence around the whole chunk; and that's what the Pool has +done to the Pine Ridge. But you mustn't repeat that, Trix. + +"Milord wasn't long getting on to the leasing graft; in fact, it turns +out the company got wind of it over in England, and sent him over here +to see what could be done in that line. He's done it, all right enough! + +"And there's the Cross outfit, frozen out completely. The Lord only +knows what Keith will do with his cattle now, for we'll have every drop +of water under fence inside of a month. He's in a hole, for sure. I +expect he feels pretty sore with me, too, but I couldn't help it. I +explained how it was to milord, but--you can't persuade an Englishman, +any more than you can a--" + +"I think," put in Beatrice firmly, "Sir Redmond did quite right. It +isn't his fault that Mr. Cameron owns more cattle than he can feed. If +he was sent over here to lease the land, it was his duty to do so. +Still, I really am sorry for Mr. Cameron." + +"Keith won't sit down and take his medicine if he can help it," Dick +said moodily. "He could sell out, but I don't believe he will. He's more +apt to fight." + +"I can't see how fighting will help him," Beatrice returned spiritedly. + +"Well, there's one thing," retorted Dick. "If milord wants that fence to +stand he'd better stay and watch it. I'll bet money he won't more than +strike Liverpool till about forty miles, more or less, of Pool fence +will need repairs mighty bad--which it won't get, so far as I'm +concerned." + +"Do you mean that Keith Cameron would destroy our fencing?" + +Dick grinned. "He'll be a fool if he don't, Trix. You can tell milord +he'd better send for all his traps, and camp right here till that lease +runs out. My punchers will have something to do beside ride fence." + +"I shall certainly tell Sir Redmond," Beatrice threatened. "You and Mr. +Cameron hate him just because he's English. You won't see what a +splendid fellow he is. It's your duty to stand by him in this business, +instead of taking sides with Keith Cameron. Why didn't he lease that +land himself, if he wanted to?" + +"Because he plays fair." + +"Meaning, I suppose, that Sir Redmond doesn't. I didn't think you would +be so unjust. Sir Redmond is a perfect gentleman." + +"Well, you've got a chance to marry your 'perfect gentleman," Dick +retorted, savagely. "It's a wonder you don't take him if you think so +highly of him." + +"I probably shall. At any rate, he isn't a male flirt." + +"You don't seem to fancy a fellow that can give you as good as you +send," Dick rejoined. "I thought you wouldn't find Keith such easy game, +even if he does live on a cattle ranch. You can't rope him into making a +fool of himself for your amusement, and I'm glad of it." + +"Don't do your shouting too soon. If you could overhear some of the +things he says you wouldn't be so sure--" + +"I suppose you take them all for their face value," grinned Dick +ironically. + +"No, I don't! I'm not a simple country girl, let me remind you. Since +you are so sure of him, I'll have the pleasure of saying, 'No, thank +you, sir,' to your Keith Cameron--just to convince you I can." + +"Oh, you will! Well, you just tell me when you do, Trix, and I'll give +you your pick of all the saddle horses on the ranch." + +"I'll take Rex, and you may as well consider him mine. Oh, you men! A +few smiles, judiciously dispensed, and--" Beatrice smiled most +exasperatingly at her brother, and Dick went moody and was very poor +company the rest of the way home. + + + +CHAPTER 10 + +Pine Ridge Range Ablaze. + + +At dusk that night a glow was in the southern sky, and the wind carried +the pungent odor of burning grass. Dick went out on the porch after +dinner, and sniffed the air uneasily. + +"I don't much like the look of it," he admitted to Sir Redmond. "It +smells pretty strong, to be across the river. I sent a couple of the +boys out to look a while ago. If it's this side of the river we'll have +to get a move on." + +"It will be the range land, I take it, if it's on this side," Sir +Redmond remarked. + +Just then a man thundered through the lane and up to the very steps of +the porch, and when he stopped the horse he was riding leaned forward +and his legs shook with exhaustion. + +"The Pine Ridge Range is afire, Mr. Lansell," the man announced +quietly. + +Dick took a long pull at his cigar and threw it away. "Have the boys +throw some barrels and sacks into a wagon--and git!" He went inside and +grabbed his hat, and when he turned Sir Redmond was at his elbow. + +"I'm going, too, Dick," cried Beatrice, who always seemed to hear +anything that promised excitement. "I never saw a prairie-fire in my +life." + +"It's ten miles off," said Dick shortly, taking the steps at a jump. + +"I don't care if it's twenty--I'm going. Sir Redmond, wait for me!" + +"Be-atrice!" cried her mother detainingly; but Beatrice was gone to get +ready. A quick job she made of it; she threw a dark skirt over her thin, +white one, slipped into the nearest jacket, snatched her +riding-gauntlets off a chair where she had thrown them, and then +couldn't find her hat. That, however, did not trouble her. Down in the +hall she appropriated one of Dick's, off the hall tree, and announced +herself ready. Sir Redmond laughed, caught her hand, and they raced +together down to the stables before her mother had fully grasped the +situation. + +"Isn't Rex saddled, Dick?" + +Dick, his foot in the stirrup, stopped long enough to glance over his +shoulder at her. "You ready so soon? Jim, saddle Rex for Miss Lansell." +He swung up into the saddle. + +"Aren't you going to wait, Dick?" + +"Can't. Milord can bring you." And Dick was away on the run. + +Men were hurrying here and there, every move counting something done. +While she stood there a wagon rattled out from the shadow of a haystack, +with empty water-barrels dancing a mad jig behind the high seat, where +the driver perched with feet braced and a whip in his hand. After him +dashed four or five riders, silent and businesslike. In a moment they +were mere fantastic shadows galloping up the hill through the smothery +gloom. + +Then came Jim, leading Rex and a horse for himself; Sir Redmond had +saddled his gray and was waiting. Beatrice sprang into the saddle and +took the lead, with nerves a-tingle. The wind that rushed against her +face was hot and reeking with smoke. Her nostrils drank greedily the +tang it carried. + +"You gipsy!" cried Sir Redmond, peering at her through the murky gloom. + +"This--is living!" she laughed, and urged Rex faster. + +So they raced recklessly over the hills, toward where the night was +aglow. Before them the wagon pounded over untrailed prairie sod, with +shadowy figures fleeing always before. + +Here, wild cattle rushed off at either side, to stop and eye them +curiously as they whirled past. There, a coyote, squatting unseen upon a +distant pinnacle, howled, long-drawn and quavering, his weird protest +against the solitudes in which he wandered. + +The dusk deepened to dark, and they could no longer see the racing +shadows. The rattle of the wagon came mysteriously back to them through +the black. + +Once Rex stumbled over a rock and came near falling, but Beatrice only +laughed and urged him on, unheeding Sir Redmond's call to ride slower. + +They splashed through a shallow creek, and came upon the wagon, halted +that the cowboys might fill the barrels with water. Then they passed by, +and when they heard them following the wagon no longer rattled glibly +along, but chuckled heavily under its load. + +The dull, red glow brightened to orange. Then, breasting at last a long +hill, they came to the top, and Beatrice caught her breath at what lay +below. + +A jagged line of leaping flame cut clean through the dark of the +coulee. The smoke piled rosily above and before, and the sullen roar of +it clutched the senses--challenging, sinister. Creeping stealthily, +relentlessly, here a thin gash of yellow hugging close to the earth, +there a bold, bright wall of fire, it swept the coulee from rim to rim. + +"The wind is carrying it from us," Sir Redmond was saying in her ear. +"Are you afraid to stop here alone? I ought to go down and lend a hand." + +Beatrice drew a long gasp. "Oh, no, I'm not afraid. Go; there is Dick, +down there." + +"You're sure you won't mind?" He hesitated, dreading to leave her. + +"No, no! Go on--they need you." + +Sir Redmond turned and rode down the ridge toward the flames. His +straight figure was silhouetted sharply against the glow. + +Beatrice slipped off her horse and sat down upon a rock, dead to +everything but the fiendish beauty of the scene spread out below her. +Millions of sparks danced in and out among the smoke wreaths which +curled upward--now black, now red, now a dainty rose. Off to the left a +coyote yapped shrilly, ending with his mournful howl. + +Beatrice shivered from sheer ecstasy. This was a world she had never +before seen--a world of hot, smoke-sodden wind, of dead-black shadows +and flame-bright light; of roar and hoarse bellowing and sharp crackles; +of calm, star-sprinkled sky above--and in the distance the uncanny +howling of a coyote. + +Time had no reckoning there. She saw men running to and fro in the +glare, disappearing in a downward swirl of smoke, coming to view again +in the open beyond. Always their arms waved rhythmically downward, +beating the ragged line of yellow with water-soaked sacks. The trail +they left was a wavering, smoke-traced rim of sullen black, where before +had been gay, dancing, orange light. In places the smolder fanned to new +life behind them and licked greedily at the ripe grass like hungry, red +tongues. One of these Beatrice watched curiously. It crept slyly into an +unburned hollow, and the wind, veering suddenly, pushed it out of sight +from the fighters and sent it racing merrily to the south. The main line +of fire beat doggedly up against the wind that a minute before had been +friendly, and fought bravely two foes instead of one. It dodged, ducked, +and leaped high, and the men beat upon it mercilessly. + +But the little, new flame broadened and stood on tiptoes defiantly, +proud of the wide, black trail that kept stretching away behind it; and +Beatrice watched it, fascinated by its miraculous growth. It began to +crackle and send up smoke wreaths of its own, with sparks dancing +through; then its voice deepened and coarsened, till it roared quite +like its mother around the hill. + +The smoke from the larger fire rolled back with the wind, and Beatrice +felt her eyes sting. Flakes of blackened grass and ashes rained upon the +hilltop, and Rex moved uneasily and pawed at the dry sod. To him a +prairie-fire was not beautiful--it was an enemy to run from. He twitched +his reins from Beatrice's heedless fingers and decamped toward home, +paying no attention whatever to the command of his mistress to stop. + +Still Beatrice sat and watched the new fire, and was glad she chanced to +be upon the south end of a sharp-nosed hill, so that she could see both +ways. The blaze dove into a deep hollow, climbed the slope beyond, +leaped exultantly and bellowed its challenge. And, of a sudden, dark +forms sprang upon it and beat it cruelly, and it went black where they +struck, and only thin streamers of smoke told where it had been. Still +they beat, and struck, and struck again, till the fire died ingloriously +and the hillside to the south lay dark and still, as it had been at the +beginning. + +Beatrice wondered who had done it. Then she came back to her +surroundings and realized that Rex had left her, and she was alone. She +shivered--this time not in ecstasy, but partly from loneliness--and went +down the hill toward where Dick and Sir Redmond and the others were +fighting steadily the larger fire, unconscious of the younger, new one +that had stolen away from them and was beaten to death around the hill. + +Once in the coulee, she was compelled to take to the burnt ground, which +crisped hotly under her feet and sent up a rank, suffocating smell of +burned grass into her nostrils. The whole country was alight, and down +there the world seemed on fire. At times the smoke swooped blindingly, +and half strangled her. Her skirts, in passing, swept the black ashes +from grass roots which showed red in the night. + +Picking her way carefully around the spots that glowed warningly, +shielding her face as well as she could from the smoke, she kept on +until she was close upon the fighters. Dick and Sir Redmond were working +side by side, the sacks they held rising and falling with the regularity +of a machine for minutes at a time. A group of strange horsemen galloped +up from the way she had come, followed by a wagon of water-barrels, +careering recklessly over the uneven ground. The horsemen stopped just +inside the burned rim, the horses sidestepping gingerly upon the hot +turf. + +"I guess you want some help here. Where shall we start in?" Beatrice +recognized the voice. It was Keith Cameron. + +"Sure, we do!" Dick answered, gratefully. "Start in any old place." + +"I'm not sure we want your help," spoke the angry voice of Sir Redmond. +"I take it you've already done a devilish sight too much." + +"What do you mean by that?" Keith demanded; and then, by the silence, it +seemed that every one knew. Beatrice caught her breath. Was this one of +the ways Dick meant that Keith could fight? + +"Climb down, boys, and get busy," Keith called to his men, after a few +breaths. "This is for Dick. Wait a minute! Pete, drive the wagon ahead, +there. I guess we'd better begin on the other end and work this way. +Come on--there's too much hot air here." They clattered on across the +coulee, kicking hot ashes up for the wind to seize upon. Beatrice went +slowly up to Dick, feeling all at once very tired and out of heart with +it all. + +"Dick," she called, in an anxious little voice, "Rex has run away from +me. What shall I do?" + +Dick straightened stiffly, his hands upon his aching loins, and peered +through the smoke at her. + +"I guess the only thing to do, then, is to get into the wagon over +there. You can drive, Trix, if you want to, and that will give us +another man here. I was just going to have some one take you home; +now--the Lord only knows!--you're liable to have to stay till morning. +Rex will go home, all right; you needn't worry about him." + +He bent to the work again, and she could hear the wet sack thud, thud +upon the ground. Other sacks and blankets went thud, thud, and down here +at close range the fire was not so beautiful as it had been from the +hilltop. Down here the glamour was gone. She climbed up to the high +wagon seat and took the reins from the man, who immediately seized upon +a sack and went off to the fight. She felt that she was out of touch. +She was out on the prairie at night, miles away from any house, driving +a water-wagon for the men to put out a prairie fire. She had driven a +coaching-party once on a wager; but she had never driven a lumber-wagon +with barrels of water before. She could not think of any girl she knew +who had. + +It was a new experience, certainly, but she found no pleasure in it; she +was tired and sleepy, and her eyes and throat smarted cruelly with the +smoke. She looked back to the hill she had just left, and it seemed a +long, long time since she sat upon a rock up there and watched the +little, new fire grow and grow, and the strange shadows spring up from +nowhere and beat it vindictively till it died. + +Again she wondered vaguely who had done it; not Keith Cameron, surely, +for Sir Redmond had all but accused him openly of setting the range +afire. Would he stamp out a blaze that was just reaching a size to do +mischief, if left a little longer? No one would have seen it for hours, +probably. He would undoubtedly have let it run, unless--But who else +could have set the fire? Who else would ,want to see the Pine Ridge +country black and barren? Dick said Keith Cameron would not sit down and +take his medicine--perhaps Dick knew he would do this thing. + +As the fighters moved on across the coulee she drove the wagon to keep +pace with them. Often a man would run up to the wagon, climb upon a +wheel and dip a frayed gunny sack into a barrel, lift it out and run +with it, all dripping, to the nearest point of the fire. Her part was to +keep the wagon at the most convenient place. She began to feel the +importance of her position, and to take pride in being always at the +right spot. From the calm appreciation of the picturesque side, she +drifted to the keen interest of the one who battles against heavy odds. +The wind had veered again, and the flames rushed up the long coulee like +an express train. But the path it left was growing narrower every +moment. Keith Cameron was doing grand work with his crew upon the other +side, and the space between them was shortening perceptibly. + +Beatrice found herself watching the work of the Cross men. If they were +doing it for effect, they certainly were acting well their part. She +wondered what would happen when the two crews met, and the danger was +over. Would Sir Redmond call Keith Cameron to account for what he had +done? If he did, what would Keith say? And which side would Dick take? +Very likely, she thought, he would defend Keith Cameron, and shield him +if he could. + +Beatrice found herself crying quietly, and shivering, though the air was +sultry with the fire. For the life of her, she could not tell why she +cried, but she tried to believe it was the smoke in her eyes. Perhaps it +was. + +The sky was growing gray when the two crews met. The orange lights were +gone, and Dick, with a spiteful flop of the black rag which had been a +good, new sack, stamped out the last tiny red tongue of the fire. The +men stood about in awkward silence, panting with heat and weariness. Sir +Redmond was ostentatiously filling his pipe. Beatrice knew him by his +straight, soldierly pose. In the drab half-light they were all mere +black outlines of men, and, for the most part, she could not distinguish +one from another. Keith Cameron she knew; instinctively by his slim +height, and by the way he carried his head. Unconsciously, she leaned +down from the high seat and listened for what would come next. + +Keith seemed to be making a cigarette. A match flared and lighted his +face for an instant, then was pinched out, and he was again only a black +shape in the half-darkness. + +"Well, I'm waiting for what you've got to say, Sir Redmond." His voice +cut sharply through the silence. If he had known Beatrice was out there +in the wagon he would have spoken lower, perhaps. + +"I fancy I said all that is necessary just now," Sir Redmond answered +calmly. "You know what I think. From now on I shall act." + +"And what are you going to do, then?" Keith's voice was clear and +unperturbed, as though he asked for the sake of being polite. + +"That," retorted Sir Redmond, "is my own affair. However, since the +matter concerns you rather closely, I will say that when I have the +evidence I am confident I shall find, I shall seek the proper channels +for retribution. There are laws in this country, aimed to protect a +man's property, I take it. I warn you that I shall not spare--the +guilty." + +"Dick, it's up to you next. I want to know where you stand." + +"At your back, Keith, right up to the finish. I know you; you fight +fair." + +"All right, then. I didn't think you'd go back on a fellow. And I tell +you straight up, Sir Redmond Hayes, I'm not out touching matches to +range land--not if it belonged to the devil himself. I've got some +feeling for the dumb brutes that would have to suffer. You can get right +to work hunting evidence, and be damned! You're dead welcome to all you +can find; and in this part of the country you won't be able to buy much! +You know very well you deserve to get your rope crossed, or you wouldn't +be on the lookout for trouble. Come, boys; let's hit the trail. So long, +Dick!" + +Beatrice watched them troop off to their horses, heard them mount and go +tearing off across the burned coulee bottom toward home. Dick came +slowly over to her. + +"I expect you're good and tired, sis. You've made a hand, all right, and +helped us a whole lot, I can tell you. I'll drive now, and we'll hit the +high places." + +Beatrice smiled wanly. Not one of her Eastern acquaintances would have +recognized Beatrice Lansell, the society beauty, in this +remarkable-looking young woman, attired in a most haphazard fashion, +with a face grimed like a chimney sweep, red eyelids drooping over +tired, smarting eyes, and disheveled, ash-filled hair topped by a man's +gray felt hat. When she smiled her teeth shone dead white, like a +negro's. + +Dick regarded her critically, one foot on the wheel hub. "Where did you +get hold of Keith Cameron's hat?" he inquired. + +Beatrice snatched the hat from her head with childish petulance, and +looked as if she were going to throw it viciously upon the ground. If +her face had been clean Dick might have seen how the blood had rushed +into her cheeks; as it was, she was safe behind a mask of soot. She +placed the hat back upon her head, feeling, privately, a bit foolish. + +"I supposed it was yours. I took it off the halltree." The dignity of +her tone was superb, but, unfortunately, it did not match her appearance +of rakish vagabondage. + +Dick grinned through a deep layer of soot "Well, it happens to be +Keith's. He lost it in the wind the other day, and I found it and took +it home. It's too bad you've worn his hat all night and didn't know it. +You ought to see yourself. Your own mother won't know you, Trix." + +"I can't look any worse than you do. A negro would be white by +comparison. Do get in, so we can start! I'm tired to death, and +half-starved." After these unamiable remarks, she refused to open her +lips. + +They drove silently in the gray of early morning, and the empty barrels +danced monotonously their fantastic jig in the back of the wagon. +Sootyfaced cowboys galloped wearily over the prairie before them, and +Sir Redmond rode moodily alongside. + +Of a truth, the glamour was gone. + + + +CHAPTER 11 + +Sir Redmond Waits His Answer. + + +Beatrice felt distinctly out of sorts the next day, and chose an hour +for her ride when she felt reasonably secure from unwelcome company. But +when she went out into the sunshine there was Sir Redmond waiting with +Rex and his big gray. Beatrice was not exactly elated at the sight, but +she saw nothing to do but smile and make the best of it. She wanted to +be alone, so that she could dream along through the hills she had +learned to love, and think out some things which troubled her, and +decide just how she had best go about winning Rex for herself; it had +become quite necessary to her peace of mind that she should teach Dick +and Keith Cameron a much-needed lesson. + +"It has been so long since we rode together," he apologized. "I hope you +don't mind my coming along." + +"Oh, no! Why should I mind?" Beatrice smiled upon him in friendly +fashion. She liked Sir Redmond very much--only she hoped he was not +going to make love. Somehow, she did not feel in the mood for +love-making just then. + +"I don't know why, I'm sure. But you seem rather fond of riding about +these hills by yourself. One should never ask why women do things, I +fancy. It seems always to invite disaster." + +"Does it?" Beatrice was not half-listening. They were passing, just +then, the suburbs of a "dog town," and she was never tired of watching +the prairie-dogs stand upon their burrows, chip-chip defiance until fear +overtook their impertinence, and then dive headlong deep into the earth. +"I do think a prairie-dog is the most impudent creature alive and the +most shrewish. I never pass but I am scolded by these little scoundrels +till my ears burn. What do you think they say?" + +"They're probably inviting you to stop with them and be their queen, and +are scolding because your heart is hard and you only laugh and ride on." + +"Queen of a prairie-dog town! Dear me! Why this plaintive mood?" + +"Am I plaintive? I do not mean to be, I'm sure." + +"You don't appear exactly hilarious," she told him. "I can't see what is +getting the matter with us all. Mama and your sister are poor company, +even for each other, and Dick is like a bear. One can't get a civil word +out of him. I'm not exactly amiable, myself, either; but I relied upon +you to keep the mental temperature up to normal, Sir Redmond." + +"Perhaps it's a good thing we shall not stop here much longer. I must +confess I don't fancy the country--and Mary is downright homesick. She +wants to get back to her parish affairs; she's afraid some rheumatic old +woman needs coddling with jelly and wine, and that sort of thing. I've +promised to hurry through the business here, and take her home. But I +mean to see that Pine Ridge fence in place before I go; or, at least, +see it well under way." + +"I'm sure Dick will attend to it properly," Beatrice remarked, with pink +cheeks. If she remembered what she had threatened to tell Sir Redmond, +she certainly could not have asked for a better opportunity. She was +reminding herself at that moment that she always detested a tale bearer. + +"Your brother Dick is a fine fellow, and I have every confidence in him; +but you must see yourself that he is swayed, more or less, by his +friendship for--his neighbors. It is only a kindness to take the +responsibility off his shoulders till the thing is done. I'm sure he +will feel better to have it so." + +"Yes," she agreed; "I think you're right. Dick always was very +soft-hearted, and, right or wrong, he clings to his friends." Then, +rather hastily, as though anxious to change the trend of the +conversation: "Of course, your sister will insist on keeping Dorman with +her. I shall miss that little scamp dreadfully, I'm afraid." The next +minute she saw that she had only opened a subject she dreaded even more. + +"It is something to know that there is even one of us that you will +miss," Sir Redmond observed. Something in his tone hurt. + +"I shall miss you all," she said hastily. "It has been a delightful +summer." + +"I wish I might know just what element made it delightful. I wish--" + +"I scarcely think it has been any particular element," she broke in, +trying desperately to stave off what she felt in his tone. "I love the +wild, where I can ride, and ride, and never meet a human being--where I +can dream and dally and feast my eyes on a landscape man has not +touched. I have lived most of my life in New York, and I love nature so +well that I'm inclined to be jealous of her. I want her left free to +work out all her whims in her own way. She has a keen sense of humor, I +think. The way she modeled some of these hills proves that she loves her +little jokes. I have seen where she cut deep, fearsome gashes, with +sides precipitous, as though she had some priceless treasure hidden away +in the deep, where man cannot despoil it. And if you plot and plan, and +try very hard, you may reach the bottom at last and find the +treasure--nothing. Or, perhaps, a tiny little stream, as jealously +guarded as though each drop were priceless." + +Sir Richmond rode for a few minutes in silence. When he spoke, it was +abruptly. + +"And is that all? Is there nothing to this delightful summer, after all, +but your hills?" + +"Oh, of course, I--it has all been delightful. I shall hate to go back +home, I think." Beatrice was a bit startled to find just how much she +would hate to go back and wrap herself once more in the conventions of +society life. For the first time since she could remember, she wanted +her world to stand still. + +Sir Redmond went doggedly to the point he had in mind and heart. + +"I hoped, Beatrice, you would count me, too. I've tried to be patient. +You know, don't you, that I love you?" + +"You've certainly told me often enough," she retorted, in a miserable +attempt at her old manner. + +"And you've put me off, and laughed at me, and did everything under +heaven but answer me fairly. And I've acted the fool, no doubt. I know +it. I've no courage before a woman. A curl of your lip, and I was ready +to cut and run. But I can't go on this way forever--I've got to know. I +wish I could talk as easy as I can fight; I'd have settled the thing +long ago. Where other men can plead their cause, I can say just the one +thing--I love you, Beatrice. When I saw you first, in the carriage I +loved you then. You had some fur--brown fur--snuggled under your chin, +and the pink of your cheeks, and your dear, brown eyes shining and +smiling above--Good God! I've always loved you! From the beginning of +the world, I think! I'd be good to you, Beatrice, and I believe I could +make you happy--if you give me the chance." + +Something in Beatrice's throat ached cruelly. It was the truth, and she +knew it. He did love her, and the love of a brave man is not a thing to +be thrust lightly aside. But it demanded such a lot in return! More, +perhaps, than she could give. A love like that--a love that gives +everything--demands everything in return. Anything less insults it. + +She stole a glance at him. Sir Redmond was looking straight before him, +with the fixed gaze that sees nothing. There was the white line around +his mouth which Beatrice had seen once before. Again that griping ache +was in her throat, till she could have cried out with the pain of it. +She wanted to speak, to say something--anything--which would drive that +look from his face. + +While her mind groped among the jumble of words that danced upon her +tongue, and that seemed, all of them, so pitifully weak and inadequate, +she heard the galloping hoofs of a horse pounding close behind. A +choking cloud of dust swept down upon them, and Keith, riding in the +midst, reined out to pass. He lifted his hat. His eyes challenged +Beatrice, swept coldly the face of her companion, and turned again to +the trail. He swung his heels backward, and Redcloud broke again into +the tireless lope that carried him far ahead, until there was only a +brown dot speeding over the prairie. + +Sir Redmond waited until Keith was far beyond hearing, then he filled +his lungs deeply and looked at Beatrice. "Don't you feel you could trust +me--and love me a little?" + +Beatrice was deadly afraid she was going to cry, and she hated weeping +women above all things. "A little wouldn't do," she said, with what +firmness she could muster. "I should want to love you as much--quite as +much as you deserve, Sir Redmond, or not at all. I'm afraid I can't. I +wish I could, though. I--I think I should like to love you; but perhaps +I haven't much heart. I like you very much--better than I ever liked any +one before; but oh, I wish you wouldn't insist on an answer! I don't +know, myself, how I feel. I wish you had not asked me--yet. I tried not +to let you." + +"A man can keep his heart still for a certain time, Beatrice, but not +for always. Some time he will say what his heart commands, if the chance +is given him; the woman can't hold him back. I did wait and wait, +because I thought you weren't ready for me to speak. And--you don't care +for anybody else?" + +"Of course I don't. But I hate to give up my freedom to any one, Sir +Redmond. I want to be free--free as the wind that blows here always, and +changes and changes, and blows from any point that suits its whim, +without being bound to any rule." + +"Do you think I'm an ogre, that will lock you in a dungeon, Beatrice? +Can't you see that I am not threatening your freedom? I only want the +right to love you, and make you happy. I should not ask you to go or +stay where you did not please, and I'd be good to you, Beatrice!" + +"I don't think it would matter," cried Beatrice, "if you weren't. I +should love you because I couldn't help myself. I hate doing things by +rule, I tell you. I couldn't care for you because you were good to me, +and I ought to care; it must be because I can't help myself. And I--" +She stopped and shut her teeth hard together; she felt sure she should +cry in another minute if this went on. + +"I believe you do love me, Beatrice, and your rebellious young American +nature dreads surrender." He tried to look into her eyes and smile, but +she kept her eyes looking straight ahead. Then Sir Redmond made the +biggest blunder of his life, out of the goodness of his heart, and +because he hated to tease her into promising anything. + +"I won't ask you to tell me now, Beatrice," he said gently. "I want you +to be sure; I never could forgive myself if you ever felt you had made a +mistake. A week from to-night I shall ask you once more--and it will be +for the last time. After that--But I won't think--I daren't think what +it would be like if you say no. Will you tell me then, Beatrice?" + +The heart of Beatrice jumped into her throat. At that minute she was +very near to saying yes, and having done with it. She was quite sure she +knew, then, what her answer would be in a week. The smile she gave him +started Sir Redmond's blood to racing exultantly. Her lips parted a +little, as if a word were there, ready to be spoken; but she caught +herself back from the decision. Sir Redmond had voluntarily given her a +week; well, then, she would take it, to the last minute. + +"Yes, I'll tell you a week from to-night, after dinner. I'll race you +home, Sir Redmond--the first one through the big gate by the stable +wins!" She struck Rex a blow that made him jump, and darted off down the +trail that led home, and her teasing laugh was the last Sir Redmond +heard of her that day; for she whipped into a narrow gulch when the +first turn hid her from him, and waited until he had thundered by. After +that she rode complacently, deep into the hills, wickedly pleased at the +trick she had played him. + +Every day during the week that followed she slipped away from him and +rode away by herself, resolved to enjoy her freedom to the full while +she had it; for after that, she felt, things would never be quite the +same. + +Every day, when Dick had chance for a quiet word with her, he wanted to +know who owned Rex--till at last she lost her temper and told him +plainly that, in her opinion, Keith Cameron had left the country for two +reasons, instead of one. (For Keith, be it known, had not been seen +since the day he passed her and Sir Redmond on the trail.) Beatrice +averred that she had a poor opinion of a man who would not stay and face +whatever was coming. + +There was just one day left in her week of freedom, and Dick still owned +Rex, with the chances all in his favor for continuing to do so. Still, +Beatrice was vindictively determined upon one point. Let Keith Cameron +cross her path, and she would do something she had never done before; +she would deliberately lead him on to propose--if the fellow had nerve +enough to do so, which, she told Dick, she doubted. + + + + +CHAPTER 12 + +Held Up by Mr. Kelly. + + +"'Traveler, what lies over the hill?'" questioned a mischievous voice. + +Keith, dreaming along a winding, rock-strewn trail in the canyon, +looked up quickly and beheld his Heart's Desire sitting calmly upon her +horse, ten feet before Redcloud's nose, watching him amusedly. Redcloud +must have been dreaming also, or he would have whinnied warning and +welcome, with the same breath. + +"'Traveler, tell to me,'" she went on, seeing Keith only stared. + +Keith, not to be outdone, searched his memory hurriedly for the reply +which should rightly follow; secretly he was amazed at her sudden +friendliness. + +"'Child, there's a valley over there'--but it isn't 'pretty and wooded +and shy'--not what you can notice. And there isn't any 'little town,' +either, unless you go a long way. Why?" Keith rested his gloved hands, +one above the other, on the saddle horn, and let his eyes riot with the +love that was in him. He had not seen his Heart's Desire for a week. A +week? It seemed a thousand years! And here she was before him, unusually +gracious. + +"Why? I discovered that hill two hours ago, it seems to me, and it +wasn't more than a mile off. I want to see what lies on the other side. +I feel sure no man ever stood upon the top and looked down. It is my +hill--mine by the right of discovery. But I've been going, and going, +and I think it's rather farther away, if anything, than it was before." + +"Good thing I met you'" Keith declared, and he looked as if he meant it. +"You're probably lost, right now, and don't know it. Which way is home?" + +Beatrice smiled a superior smile, and pointed. + +"I thought so," grinned Keith joyously. "You're pointing straight +toward Claggett." + +"It doesn't matter," said Beatrice, "since you know, and you're here. +The important thing is to get to the top of that hill." + +"What for?" Keith questioned. + +"Why, to be there!" Beatrice opened her big eyes at him. "That," she +declared whimsically, "is the top of the world, and it is mine. I found +it. I want to go up there and look down." + +"It's an unmerciful climb," Keith demurred hypocritically, to +strengthen her resolution. + +"All the better. I don't value what comes easily." + +"You won't see anything, except more hills." + +"I love hills--and more hills." + +"You're a long way from home, and it's after one o'clock." + +"I have a lunch with me, and I often stay out until dinner time." + +Keith gave a sigh that shook the saddle, making up, in volume, what it +lacked in sincerity. The blood in him was a-jump at the prospect of +leading his Heart's Desire up next the clouds--up where the world was +yet young. A man in love is fond of self-torture. + +"I have not said you must go." Beatrice answered with the sigh. + +"You don't have to," he retorted. "It is a self evident fact. Who wants +to go prowling around these hills by night, with a lantern that smokes +an' has an evil smell, losing sleep and yowling like a bunch of coyotes, +hunting a misguided young woman who thinks north is south, and can't +point straight up?" + +"You draw a flattering picture, Mr. Cameron." + +"It's realistic. Do you still insist upon getting up there, for the +doubtful pleasure of looking down?" Secretly, he hoped so. + +"Certainly." + +"Then I shall go with you." + +"You need not. I can go very well by myself, Mr. Cameron." + +Beatrice was something of a hypocrite herself. + +"I shall go where duty points the way." + +"I hope it points toward home, then." + +"It doesn't, though. It takes the trail you take." + +"I never yet allowed my wishes to masquerade as Disagreeable Duty, with +two big D's," she told him tartly, and started off. + +"Say! If you're going up that hill, this is the trail. You'll bump up +against a straight cliff if you follow that path." + +Beatrice turned with seeming reluctance and allowed him to guide her, +just as she had intended he should do. + +"Dick tells me you have been away," she began suavely. + +"Yes. I've just got back from Fort Belknap," he explained quietly, +though he must have known his absence had been construed differently. +"I've rented pasturage on the reservation for every hoof I own. Great +grass over there--the whole prairie like a hay meadow, almost, and +little streams everywhere." + +"You are very fortunate," Beatrice remarked politely. + +"Luck ought to come my way once in a while. I don't seem to get more +than my share, though." + +"Dick will be glad to know you have a good range for your cattle, Mr. +Cameron." + +"I expect he will. You may tell him, for me, that Jim Worthington--he's +the agent over there, and was in college with us--says I can have my +cattle there as long as he's running the place." + +"Why not tell him yourself?" Beatrice asked. + +"I don't expect to be over to the Pool ranch for a while." Keith's tone +was significant, and Beatrice dropped the subject. + +"Been fishing lately?" he asked easily, as though he had not left her +that day in a miff. "No. Dorman is fickle, like all male creatures. +Dick brought him two little brown puppies the other day, and now he can +hardly be dragged from the woodshed to his meals. I believe he would eat +and sleep with them if his auntie would allow him to." + +The trail narrowed there, and they were obliged to ride single file, +which was not favorable to conversation. Thus far, Beatrice thought, she +was a long way from winning her wager; but she did not worry--she looked +up to where the hill towered above them, and smiled. + +"We'll have to get off and lead our horses over this spur," he told her, +at last. "Once on the other side, we can begin to climb. Still in the +humor to tackle it?" + +"To be sure I am. After all this trouble I shall not turn back." + +"All right," said Keith, inwardly shouting. If his Heart's Desire +wished to take a climb that would last a good two hours, he was not +there to object. He led her up a steep, rock-strewn ridge and into a +hollow. From there the hill sloped smoothly upward. + +"I'll just anchor these cayuses to a rock, to make dead-sure of them," +Keith remarked. "It wouldn't be fun to be set afoot out here; now, would +it? How would you like the job of walking home, eh?" + +"I don't think I'd enjoy it much," Beatrice said, showing her one +dimple conspicuously. "I'd rather ride." + +"Throw up your hands!" growled a voice from somewhere. + +Keith wheeled toward the sound, and a bullet spatted into the yellow +clay, two inches from the toe of his boot. Also, a rifle cracked +sharply. He took the hint, and put his hands immediately on a level with +his hat crown. + +"No use," he called out ruefully. "I haven't anything to return the +compliment with." + +"Well, I've got t' have the papers fur that, mister," retorted the +voice, and a man appeared from the shelter of a rock and came slowly +down to them--a man, long-legged and lank, with haggard, unshaven face +and eyes that had hunger and dogged endurance looking out. He picked his +way carefully with his feet, his eyes and the rifle fixed unswervingly +at the two. Beatrice was too astonished to make a sound. + +"What sort of a hold-up do you call this?" demanded Keith hotly, his +hands itching to be down and busy. "We don't carry rolls of money around +in the hills, you fool!" + +"Oh, damn your money!" the man said roughly. "I've got money t' burn. I +want t' trade horses with yuh. That roan, there, looks like a stayer. +I'll take him." + +"Well, seeing you seem to be head push here, I guess it's a trade," +Keith answered. "But I'll thank you for my own saddle." + +Beatrice, whose hands were up beside her ears, and not an inch higher, +changed from amazed curiosity to concern. "Oh, you mustn't take Redcloud +away from Mr. Cameron!" she protested. "You don't know--he's so fond of +that horse! You may take mine; he's a good horse--he's a perfectly +splendid horse, but I--I'm not so attached to him." + +The fellow stopped and looked at her--not, however, forgetting Keith, +who was growing restive. Beatrice's cheeks were very pink, and her eyes +were bright and big and earnest. He could not look into them without +letting some of the sternness drop out of his own. + +"I wish you'd please take Rex--I'd rather trade than not," she coaxed. +When Beatrice coaxed, mere man must yield or run. The fellow was but +human, and he was not in a position to run, so he grinned and wavered. + +"It's fair to say you'll get done," he remarked, his eyes upon the odd +little dimple at the corner of her mouth, as if he had never seen +anything quite so fetching. + +"Your horse won't cr--buck, will he?" she ventured doubtfully. This was +her first horse trade, and it behooved her to be cautious, even at the +point of a rifle. + +"Well, no," said the man laconically; "he won't. He's dead." + +"Oh!" Beatrice gasped and blushed. She might have known, she thought, +that the fellow would not take all this trouble if his horse was in a +condition to buck. Then: "My elbows hurt. I--I think I should like to +sit down." + +"Sure," said the man politely. "Make yourself comfortable. I ain't used +t' dealin' with ladies. But you got t' set still, yuh know, and not try +any tricks. I can put up a mighty swift gun play when I need to--and +your bein' a lady wouldn't cut no ice in a case uh that kind." + +"Thank you." Beatrice sat down upon the nearest rock, folded her hands +meekly and looked from him to Keith, who seethed to claim a good deal of +the man's attention. She observed that, at a long breath from Keith, his +captor was instantly alert. + +"Maybe your elbows ache, too," he remarked dryly. "They'll git over it, +though; I've knowed a man t' grab at the clouds upwards of an hour, an' +no harm done." + +"That's encouraging, I'm sure." Keith shifted to the other foot. + +"How's that sorrel?" demanded the man. "Can he go?" + +Keith hesitated a second. + +"Indeed he can go!" put in Beatrice eagerly. "He's every bit as good as +Redcloud." + +"Is that sorrel yours?" The man's eyes shifted briefly to her face. + +"No-o." Beatrice, thinking how she had meant to own him, blushed. + +"That accounts for it." He laughed unpleasantly. "I wondered why you was +so dead anxious t' have me take him." + +The eyes of Beatrice snapped sparks at him, but her manner was demure, +not to say meek. "He belongs to my brother," she explained, "and my +brother has dozens of good saddle-horses. Mr. Cameron's horse is a pet. +It's different when a horse follows you all over the place and fairly +talks to you. He'll shake hands, and--" + +"Uh-huh, I see the point, I guess. What d'yuh say, kid?" + +Keith might seem boyish, but he did not enjoy being addressed as "kid." +He was twenty-eight years old, whether he looked it or not. + +"I say this: If you take my horse, I'll kill you. I'll have twenty-five +cow-punchers camping on your trail before sundown. If you take this +girl's horse, I'll do the same." + +The man shut his lips in a thin line. + +"No, he won't!" cried Beatrice, leaning forward. "Don't mind a thing he +says! You can't expect a man to keep his temper with his hands up in the +air like that. You take Rex, and I'll promise for Mr. Cameron " + +"Trix--Miss Lansell!"--sternly. + +"I promise you he won't do a thing," she went on firmly. "He--he isn't +half as fierce, really, as--as he looks." + +Keith's face got red. + +The man laughed a little. Evidently the situation amused him, whether +the others could see the humor of it or not. "So I'm to have your +cayuse, eh?" + +Keith saw two big tears tipping over her lower lids, and gritted his +teeth. + +"Well, it ain't often I git a chance t' please a lady," the fellow +decided. "I guess Rex'll do, all right. Go over and change saddles, +youngster--and don't git gay. I've got the drop, and yuh notice I'm +keeping it." + +"Are you going to take his saddle?" Beatrice stood up and clenched her +hands, looking very much as if she would like to pull his hair. Keith in +trouble appealed to her strangely. + +"Sure thing. It's a peach, from the look of it. Mine's over the hill a +piece. Step along there, kid! I want t' be movin'." + +"You'll need to go some!" flared Keith, over his shoulder. + +"I expect t' go some," retorted the man. "A fellow with three sheriff's +posses campin' on his trail ain't apt t' loiter none." + +"Oh!" Beatrice sat down and stared. "Then you must be--" + +"Yep," the fellow laughed recklessly. "You ca, tell your maw yuh met up +with Kelly, the darin' train-robber. I wouldn't be s'prised if she close +herded yuh fer a spell till her scare wears off. Bu I've hung around +these parts long enough. I fooled them sheriffs a-plenty, stayin' here. +Gee! you'r' swift--I don't think!" This last sentence was directed at +Keith, who was putting a snail to shame, and making it appear he was in +a hurry. + +"Git a move on!" commanded Kelly, threatening with his eyes. + +Keith wisely made no reply--nor did he show any symptoms of haste, +despite the menacing tone Slowly he pulled his saddle off Redcloud, and +carefully he placed it upon the ground. When a fellow lives in his +saddle, almost, he comes to think a great deal of it, and he is +reluctant under any circumstances, to surrender it to another; to have a +man deliberately confiscate it with the authority which lies in a lump +of lead the size of a child thumb is not pleasant. + +Through Keith's brain flashed a dozen impracticable plans, and one that +offered a slender--very slender--chance of success. If he could get a +little closer! He moved over beside Rex an unbuckling the cinch of +Beatrice's saddle, pulled it sullenly off. + +"Now, put your saddle on that there Rex horse, and cinch it tight!" + +Keith picked up the saddle--his saddle, and threw it across Rex's back, +raging inwardly at his helplessness. To lose his saddle worse, to let +Beatrice lose her horse. Lord! a pretty figure he must cut in her eyes! + +"Dry weather we're havin'," Kelly remarked politely to Beatrice; +without, however, looking in her direction. "Prairie fires are gittin' +t' be the regular thing, I notice." + +Beatrice studied his face, and found no ulterior purpose for the words. + +"Yes," she agreed, as pleasantly as she could, in view of the +disquieting circumstances. "I helped fight a prairie-fire last week over +this way. We were out all night." + +"Prairie-fires is mean things t' handle, oncet they git started. I +always hate t' see 'em git hold of the grass. What fire was that you +mention?" + +Beatrice glanced toward Keith, and was thankful his back was turned to +her. But a quick suspicion had come to her, and she went steadily on +with the subject. + +"It was the Pine Ridge country. It started very mysteriously" + +"It wasn't no mystery t' me." Kelly laughed grimly. "I started that +there blaze myself accidentally. I throwed a cigarette down, thinkin' it +had gone out. After a while I seen a blaze where I'd jest left, but I +didn't have no license t' go back an' put it out--my orders was to git +out uh that. I seen the sky all lit up that night. Kid, are yuh goin' t' +sleep?" + +Keith started. He had been listening, and thanking his lucky star that +Beatrice was listening also. If she had suspected him of setting the +range afire, she knew better now. A weight lifted off Keith's shoulders, +and he stood a bit straighter; those chance words meant a great deal to +him, and he felt that he would not grudge his saddle in payment. But +Rex--that was another matter. Beatrice should not lose him if he could +prevent it; still, what could he do? + +He might turn and spring upon Kelly, but in the meantime Kelly would not +be idle; he would probably be pumping bullets out of the rifle into +Keith's body--and he would still have the horse. He stole a glance at +Beatrice, and went hot all over at what he thought he read in her eyes. +For once he was not glad to be near his Heart's Desire; he wished her +elsewhere--anywhere but sitting on that rock, over there, with her +little, gloved hands folded quietly in her lap, and that adorable, +demure look on her face--the look which would have put her mother +instantly upon the defensive--and a gleam in her eyes Keith read for +scorn. + +Surely he might do something! Barely six feet now separated him from +Kelly. If one of those lumps of rock that strewed the ground was in his +hand--he stooped to reach under Rex's body for the cinch, and could +almost feel Kelly's eyes boring into his back. A false move--well, Keith +had heard of Kelly a good many times; if this fellow was really the man +he claimed to be, Keith did not need to guess what would follow a +suspicious move; he knew. He looked stealthily toward him, and Kelly's +eyes met his with a gleam sinister. + +Kelly grinned. "I wouldn't, kid," he said softly. + +Keith swore in a whisper, and his fingers closed upon the cinch. It was +no use to fight the devil with cunning, he thought, bitterly. + +Just then Beatrice gave an unearthly screech, that made the horses' +knees bend under them. When Keith whirled to see what it was, she was +standing upon the rock, with her skirts held tightly around her, like +the pictures of women when a mouse gets into the room. + +"Oh, Mr. Cameron! A sn-a-a-ke!" + +Came a metallic br-r-r, the unmistakable war cry of the rattler. Into +Kelly's eyes came a look of fear, and he sidled gingerly. The buzz had +sounded unpleasantly close to his heels. For one brief instant the cold +eye of his rifle regarded harmlessly the hillside. During that instant a +goodly piece of sandstone whinged under his jaw, and he went down, with +Keith upon him like a mountain lion. The latter snatched the rifle and +got up hurriedly, for he had not forgotten the rattler. Kelly lay +looking up at him in a dazed way that might have been funny at any other +time. + +"I wondered if you were good at grasping opportunities," said Beatrice. +When he looked, there she was, sitting down on the rock, with her +little, gloved hands folded in her lap, and that adorable demure look on +her face; and a gleam in her eyes he knew was not scorn, though he could +not rightly tell what it really did mean. + +Keith wondered at her vaguely, but a man can't have his mind on a dozen +things at once. It was important that he keep a sharp watch on Kelly, +and his eyes were searching for a gleaming, gray spotted coil which he +felt to be near. + +"You needn't look, Mr. Cameron. There isn't any snake. It--it was I." + +"You!" Keith's jaw dropped. + +"Look out, Mr. Cameron. It wouldn't work a second time, I'm afraid." + +Keith turned back before Kelly had more than got to his elbow; plainly +Kelly was not feeling well just then. He looked unhappy, and rather +sick. + +"If you'll hand me the gun, Mr. Cameron, I think I can hold it steady +while you fix the saddles. And then we'll go home. I--I don't think I +really care to climb the hill." + +What Keith wanted to do was to take her in his arms and kiss her till he +was tired. What he did do was back toward her, and let her take the +rifle quickly and deftly from his hands. She rested the gun upon her +knee, and brought it to bear upon Mr. Kelly with a composure not +assuring to that gentleman, and she tried to look as if she really and +truly would shoot a man--and managed to look only the more kissable. + +"Don't squirm, Mr. Kelly. I won't bite, if I do buzz sometimes." + +Kelly stared at her meditatively a minute, and said: "Well, I'll be +damned!" + +Keith looked at her also, but he did not say anything. + +The way he slapped his saddle back upon Redcloud and cinched it, and +saddled Rex, was a pretty exhibition of precision and speed, learned in +roundup camps. Kelly watched him grimly. + +"I knowed you wasn't as swift as yuh knew how 't be, a while back," he +commented. "I've got this t' say fur you two: You're a little the +toughest proposition I ever run up ag'inst--and I've been up ag'inst it +good and plenty." + +"Thanks," Keith said cheerfully. "You'd better take Rex now and go +ahead, Miss Lansell. I'll take that gun and look after this fellow. Get +up, Kelly." + +"What are you going to do with him?" + +Kelly got unsteadily upon his feet. Beatrice looked at him, and then at +Keith. She asked a question. + +"March him home, and send him in to the nearest sheriff." Keith was +businesslike, and his tone was crisp. + +Beatrice's eyes turned again to Kelly. He did not whine, or beg, or even +curse. He stood looking straight before him, at something only his +memory could see, and in his face was weariness, and a deep loneliness, +and a certain, grim despair. There was an ugly bruise where the rock had +struck, but the rest of his face was drawn and white. + +"If you do that," cried Beatrice, in a voice hardly more than a fierce +whisper, "I shall hate you always. You are not a man-hunter. Let him +stay here, and take his chance in the hills." + +Keith was not a hard man to persuade into being merciful. "It's easy +enough to say yes, Miss Lansell. I always was chicken-hearted when a +fellow seemed down on his luck. You can stay here, Kelly--I don't want +you, anyway." He laughed boyishly and irresponsibly, for he felt that +Kelly had done him a service that day. + +Beatrice flashed him a smile that went to his head and made him dizzy, +and took up Rex's bridle rein. She hesitated, looked doubtfully at +Kelly, who stood waiting stoically, and turned to her saddle. She untied +a bundle and went quickly over to him. + +"You--I don't want my lunch, after all. I'm going home now. I--I want +you to take it, please. There are some sandwiches--with veal loaf, that +Looey Sam makes deliciously--and some cake. I--I wish it was more. I +know you'll like the veal loaf." + +Kelly looked down at her, and God knows what thoughts were in his mind. +He did not answer her with words; he just swallowed hard. + +"Poor devil!" was what Keith said to himself, and the gun he was +holding threatened, for a minute, to wing a cloud. + +Beatrice laid the package in Kelly's unresisting hand, looked up into +his averted face and said simply: "Good-by, Mr. Kelly." + +After that she hurried Rex up the steep ridge much faster than she had +gone down it, endangering his bones and putting herself very empty +lunged. + +At the top of the ridge Keith stopped and looked down. + +"Hi, Kelly!" + +Kelly showed that he heard. + +"Here's your gun, on this rock. You can come up and get it, if you want +to. And--say! I've got a few broke horses ranging down here somewhere. +VN brand, on left shoulder. I won't scour the hills, very bad, if I +should happen to miss a cayuse. So long!" + +Kelly waved his hand for farewell. + + + +CHAPTER 13 + +Keith's Masterful Wooing. + + +Keith faced toward home, with Redcloud following at his heels like a pet +dog. For some reason, which he did not try to analyze, he was feeling +light of heart--as though something very nice had happened to him. It +might have been the unexpected clearing up of the mystery of the +prairie-fire, though he was not dwelling particularly upon that. He was +thinking a great deal more of Beatrice's blue-brown eyes, which had +never been more baffling, so far as he knew. And his blood was still +dancing with the smile she had given him; it hardly seemed possible that +a girl could smile just like that and not mean anything. + +When he reached the level, where she was waiting for him, he saw that +she had her arms around the neck of her horse, and that she was crying +dismally, heart-brokenly, with an abandon that took no thought of his +presence. Keith had never seen a girl cry like that before. He had seen +them dab at their eyes with their handkerchief, and smile the next +breath--but this was different. For a minute he didn't quite know what +to do; he could hear the blood hammering against his temples while he +stood dumbly watching her. He went hesitatingly up, and laid a gloved +hand deprecatingly upon her shoulder. + +"Don't do that, Miss Lansell! The fellow isn't worth it. He's only +living the life he chose for himself, and he doesn't mind, not half as +much as you imagine. I know how you feel--I felt sorry for him +myself--but he doesn't deserve it, you know." He stopped; not being +able, just at the moment, to think of anything more to say about Kelly. +Beatrice, who had not been thinking of Kelly at all, but remorsefully of +a fellow she had persisted in misjudging, only cried the harder. + +"Don't--don't cry like that! I--Miss Lansell--Trix--darling!" Keith's +self-control snapped suddenly, like a rope when the strain becomes too +great. He caught her fiercely in his arms, and crushed her close against +him. + +Beatrice stopped crying, and gasped. + +"Trixie, if you must cry, I wish you'd cry for me. I'm about as +miserable a man--I want you so! God made you for me, and I'm starving +for the feel of your lips on mine." Then Keith, who was nothing if not +daring, once he was roused, bent and kissed her without waiting to see +if he might--and not only once, but several times. + +Beatrice made a half-hearted attempt to get free of his arms, but Keith +was not a fool--he held her closer, and laughed from pure, primitive +joy. + +"Mr. Cameron!" It was Beatrice's voice, but it had never been like that +before. + +"I think you might call me Keith," he cut in. "You've got to begin some +time, and now is as good a time as any." + +"You--you're taking a good deal for granted," she said, wriggling +unavailingly in his arms. + +"A man's got to, with a girl like you. You're so used to turning a +fellow down I believe you'd do it just from habit." + +"Indeed?" She was trying to be sarcastic and got kissed for her pains. + +"Yes, 'indeed.'" He mimicked her tone. "I want you. I want you! I +wanted you long before I ever saw you. And so I'm not taking any +chances--I didn't dare, you see. I just had to take you first, and ask +you afterward." + +Beatrice laughed a little, with tears very close to her lashes, and gave +up. What was the use of trying to resist this masterful fellow, who +would not even give her a chance to refuse him? She did not know quite +how to say no to a man who did not ask her to say yes. But the queer +part, to her, was the feeling that she would have hated to say no, +anyway. It never occurred to her, till afterward, that she might have +stood upon a pedestal of offended dignity and cried, "Unhand me, +villain!"--and that, if she had, Keith would undoubtedly have complied +instantly. As it was, she just laughed softly, and blushed a good deal. + +"I believe mama is right about you, after all," she said wickedly. "At +heart, you're a bold highwayman " + +"Maybe. I know I'd not stand and see some other fellow walk off with my +Heart's Desire, without putting up a fight. It did look pretty blue for +me, though, and I was afraid--but it's all right now, isn't it? +Possession is nine points in law, they say, and I've got you now! I'm +going to keep you, too. When are you going to come over and take charge +of the Cross ranch?" + +"Dear me!" said Beatrice, snuggling against his shoulder, and finding it +the best place in the world to be. "I never said I was going to take +charge at all!" Then the impulse of confession seized her. "Will you +hate me, if I tell you something?" + +"I expect I will," Keith assented, his eyes positively idolatrous. "What +is it, girlie?" + +"Well, I--it was Dick's fault; I never would have thought of such a +thing if he hadn't goaded me into it--but--well, I was going to make you +propose, on a wager--" The brown head of Beatrice went down out of +sight, on his arm. "I was going to refuse you--and get Rex--" + +"I know." Keith held her closer than ever. "Dick rode over and told me +that day. And I wasn't going to give you a chance, missy. If you hadn't +started to cry, here-- Oh! what's the use? You didn't refuse me--and +you're not going to, either, are you, girlie?" + +Beatrice intimated that there was no immediate danger of such a thing +happening. + +"You see, Dick and I felt that you belonged to me, by rights. I fell in +love with a picture of you, that you sent him--that one taken in your +graduation gown--and I told Dick I was going to take the next train +East, and carry you off by force, if I couldn't get you any other way. +But Dick thought I'd stand a better show to wait till he'd coaxed you +out here. We had it all fixed, that you'd come and find a prairie knight +that was ready to fight for you, and he'd make you like him, whether you +wanted to or not; and then he'd keep you here, and we'd all be happy +ever after. And Dick would pull out of the Northern Pool--and of course +you would--and we'd have a company of our own. Oh! we had some great +castles built out here on the prairie, let me tell you! And then, when +you finally came here, you had milord tagging along--and you thinking +you were in love with him! Maybe you think I wasn't shaky, girlie! The +air castles got awfully wobbly, and it looked like they were going to +cave in on us. But I was bound to stay in the game if I could, and Dick +did all he could to get you to looking my way--and it's all right, isn't +it, Trixie?" Keith kept recurring to the ecstatic realization that it +was all right. + +Beatrice meditated for a minute. + +"I never dreamed--Dick never even mentioned you in any of his letters," +she said, in a rather dazed tone. "And when I came he made me believe +you were a horrible flirt, and I never can resist the temptation to +measure lances " + +"And take a fall out of a male flirt," Keith supplemented. "Dick," he +went on sententiously and slangily, "was dead onto his job." After that +he helped her into the saddle, and they rode blissfully homeward. + +Near the ranch they met Dick, who pulled up and eyed them anxiously at +first, and then with a broad smile. + +"Say, Trix," he queried slyly, "who does Rex belong to?" + +Keith came to the rescue promptly, just as a brave knight should. +"You," he retorted. "But I tell you right now, he won't very long. +You're going to do the decent thing and give him to Trixie--for a +wedding present." + +Dick looked as though Trix was welcome to any. thing he possessed. + + + +CHAPTER 14 + +Sir Redmond Gets His answer. + + +"Before long, dear, we shall get on the great ship, and ride across the +large, large ocean, and be at home. You will be delighted to see Peggy, +and Rupert, and the dogs, won't you, dear?" Miss Hayes, her cheeks +actually getting some color into them at the thought of going home, +buttered a fluffy biscuit for her idol. + +Dorman took two bites while he considered. "Rupert'll want my little +wheels, for my feet, what Mr. Cam'ron gave me--but he can't have 'em, +dough. I 'spect he'll be mad. I wonder what'll Peggy say bout my two +puppies. I've got to take my two puppies wis me. Will dey get sick +riding on de water, auntie? Say, will dey?" + +"I--I think not, dear," ventured his auntie cautiously. His auntie was a +conscientious woman, and she knew very little about puppies. + +"Be'trice will help me take care of dem if dey're sick," he remarked +comfortably. + +Then something in his divinity's face startled his assurance. "You's +going wis us, isn't you, Be'trice? I want you to help take care of my +two puppies. Martha can't, 'cause she slaps dere ears. Is you going wis +us, Be'trice?" + +This, at the dinner table, was, to say the least, +embarrassing--especially on this especial evening, when Beatrice was +trying to muster courage to give Sir Redmond the only answer it was +possible to give him now. It was an open secret that, in case she had +accepted him, the home-going of Miss Hayes would be delayed a bit, when +they would all go together. Beatrice had overheard her mother and Miss +Hayes discussing this possibility only the day before. She undertook the +impossible, and attempted to head Dorman off. + +"Perhaps you'll see a whale, honey. The puppies never saw a whale, I'm +sure. What do you suppose they'd think?" + +"Is you going?" + +"You'd have to hold them up high, you know, so they could see, and show +them just where to look, and--" + +"Is you going, Be'trice?" + +Beatrice sent a quick, despairing glance around the table. Four pairs of +eyes were fixed upon her with varying degrees of interest and anxiety. +The fifth pair--Dick's--were trying to hide their unrighteous glee by +glaring down at the chicken wing on his plate. Beatrice felt a strong +impulse to throw something at him. She gulped and faced the inevitable. +It must come some time, she thought, and it might as well be now--though +it did seem a pity to spoil a good dinner for every one but Dick, who +was eating his with relish. + +"No, honey"--her voice was clear and had the note of finality--"I'm not +going--ever." + +Sir Redmond's teeth went together with a click, and he picked up the +pepper shaker mechanically and peppered his salad until it was perfectly +black, and Beatrice wondered how he ever expected to eat it. Mrs. +Lansell dropped her fork on the floor, and had to have a clean one +brought. Miss Hayes sent a frightened glance at her brother. Dick sat +and ate fried chicken. + +"Why, Be'trice? I wants you to--and de puppies'll need you--and auntie, +and--" Dorman gathered himself for the last, crushing argument--"and +Uncle Redmon' wants you awf'lly!" + +Beatrice took a sip of ice water, for she needed it. + +"Why, Be'trice? Gran-mama'll let you go, guess. Can't she go, +gran'mama?" + +It was Mrs. Lansell's turn to test the exquisite torture of that +prickly chill along the spine. Like Beatrice, she dodged. + +"Little boys," she announced weakly, "should not speak until they're +spoken to." + +Dick came near strangling on a shred of chicken. + +"Can't she go, gran'mama? Say, can't she? Tell Be'trice to go home wis +us, gran'mama!" + +"Beatrice"--Mrs. Lansell swallowed--"is not a little child any longer, +Dorman. She is a woman and can do as she likes. I"--she was speaking to +the whole group--"I can only advise her." + +Dorman gave a squeal of triumph. "See? You can go, Be'trice! Gran'mama +says you can go. You will go, won't you, Be'trice? Say yes!" + +"No!" said Beatrice, with desperate emphasis. "I won't." + +"I want--Be'trice--to go-o!" Dorman slid down upon his shoulder blades, +gave a squeal which was not triumph, but temper, and kicked the table +till every dish on it danced. + +"Dorman sit up!" commanded his auntie. "Dorman, stop, this instant! I'm +ashamed of you; where is my good little man? Redmond." + +Sir Redmond seemed glad of the chance to do something besides sit +quietly in his place and look calm. He got up deliberately, and in two +minutes, or less, Dorman was in the woodshed with him, making sounds +that frightened his puppies dreadfully and put the coyotes to shame. + +Beatrice left the table hurriedly to escape the angry eyes of her +mother. The sounds in the woodshed had died to a subdued sniffling, and +she retreated to the front porch, hoping to escape observation. There +she nearly ran against Sir Redmond, who was staring off into the dusk to +where the moon was peering redly over a black pinnacle of the Bear Paws. + +She would have slipped back into the house, but he did not give her the +chance. He turned and faced her steadily, as he had more than once faced +the Boers, when he knew that before him was nothing but defeat. + +"So you're not going to England ever?" + +Pride had squeezed every shade of emotion from his voice. + +"No." Beatrice gripped her fingers together tightly. + +"Are you sure you won't be sorry--afterward?" + +"Yes, I'm sure." Beatrice had never done anything she hated more. + +Sir Redmond, looking into her eyes, wondered why those much-vaunted +sharpshooters, the Boers, had blundered and passed him by. + +"I don't suppose it matters much now--but will you tell me why? I +believed you would decide differently." He was holding his voice down to +a dead level, and it was not easy. + +"Because--" Beatrice faced the moon, which threw a soft glow upon her +face, and into her wonderful, deep eyes a golden light. "Oh, I'm sorry, +Sir Redmond! But you see, I didn't know. I--I just learned to-day what +it means to--to love. I--I am going to stay here. A new company--is +about to be formed, Sir Redmond. The Maltese Cross and the--Triangle +Bar--are going to cast their lot together." The golden glow deepened and +darkened, and blended with the red blood which flushed cheek and brow +and throat. + +It took Sir Redmond a full minute to comprehend. When he did, he +breathed deep, shut his lips upon words that would have frightened her, +and went down the steps into the gloom. + +Beatrice watched him stride away into the dusky silence, and her heart +ached with sympathy for him. Then she looked beyond, to where the lights +of the Cross ranch twinkled joyously, far down the coulee, and the sweet +egotism of happiness enfolded her, shutting him out. After that she +forgot him utterly. She looked up at the moon, sailing off to meet the +stars, smiled good-fellowship and then went in to face her mother. + + + + + +End of The Project Gutenberg Etext of Her Prairie Knight, by B.M. Bower + |