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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Cattle-Baron's Daughter, by Harold
+Bindloss
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: The Cattle-Baron's Daughter
+
+
+Author: Harold Bindloss
+
+
+
+Release Date: November 1, 2008  [eBook #27115]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CATTLE-BARON'S DAUGHTER***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Roger Frank and the Project Gutenberg Online
+Distributed Proofreading Canada Team (http://www.pgdpcanada.net)
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+
+
+
+
+
+THE CATTLE-BARON'S DAUGHTER
+
+by
+
+HAROLD BINDLOSS
+
+Author of "Alton of Somasco," etc.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: A FIERCE WHITE FROTHING ABOUT HIM.--Page 335.]
+
+
+
+New York
+Frederick A. Stokes Company
+Publishers
+
+Copyright, 1906, by
+Frederick A. Stokes Company
+This Edition published in September, 1906
+All rights reserved
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+CHAPTER                                PAGE
+      I  The Portent                      1
+     II  Hetty Takes Heed                12
+    III  The Cattle-Barons               26
+     IV  Muller Stands Fast              39
+      V  Hetty Comes Home                50
+     VI  The Incendiary                  62
+    VII  Larry Proves Intractable        72
+   VIII  The Sheriff                     85
+     IX  The Prisoner                    96
+      X  On the Trail                   110
+     XI  Larry's Acquittal              122
+    XII  The Sprouting of the Seed      134
+   XIII  Under Fire                     144
+    XIV  Torrance's Warning             155
+     XV  Hetty's Bounty                 165
+    XVI  Larry Solves the Difficulty    177
+   XVII  Larry's Peril                  189
+  XVIII  A Futile Pursuit               201
+    XIX  Torrance Asks a Question       212
+     XX  Hetty's Obstinacy              224
+    XXI  Clavering Appears Ridiculous   238
+   XXII  The Cavalry Officer            250
+  XXIII  Hetty's Avowal                 262
+   XXIV  The Stock Train                272
+    XXV  Cheyne Relieves His Feelings   286
+   XXVI  Larry's Reward                 296
+  XXVII  Clavering's Last Card          309
+ XXVIII  Larry Rides to Cedar           321
+   XXIX  Hetty Decides                  331
+    XXX  Larry's Wedding Day            343
+   XXXI  Torrance Rides Away            355
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+"Come Down!"                                   _Facing page_  48
+
+"She'll shoot me before she means to."                        66
+
+A white face and shadowy head, from which
+the fur cap had fallen.                                      114
+
+"Aren't you a trifle late?"                                  160
+
+There was a note in her voice that set the man's
+heart beating furiously.                                     268
+
+A fierce white frothing about him.                _Frontispiece_
+
+
+
+
+THE CATTLE-BARON'S DAUGHTER
+
+I
+
+THE PORTENT
+
+
+The hot weather had come suddenly, at least a month earlier than usual,
+and New York lay baking under a scorching sun when Miss Hetty Torrance sat
+in the coolest corner of the Grand Central Depot she could find. It was by
+her own wish she had spent the afternoon in the city unattended, for Miss
+Torrance was a self-reliant young woman; but it was fate and the
+irregularity of the little gold watch, which had been her dead mother's
+gift, that brought her to the depot at least a quarter of an hour too
+soon. But she was not wholly sorry, for she had desired more solitude and
+time for reflection than she found in the noisy city, where a visit to an
+eminent modiste had occupied most of her leisure. There was, she had
+reasons for surmising, a decision of some moment to be made that night,
+and as yet she was no nearer arriving at it than she had been when the
+little note then in her pocket had been handed her.
+
+Still, it was not the note she took out when she found a seat apart from
+the hurrying crowd, but a letter from her father, Torrance, the
+Cattle-Baron, of Cedar Range. It was terse and to the point, as usual, and
+a little smile crept into the girl's face as she read.
+
+"Your letter to hand, and so long as you have a good time don't worry
+about the bills. You'll find another five hundred dollars at the bank when
+you want them. Thank God, I can give my daughter what her mother should
+have had. Two years since I've seen my little girl, and now it seems that
+somebody else is wanting her! Well, we were made men and women, and if you
+had been meant to live alone dabbling in music you wouldn't have been
+given your mother's face. Now, I don't often express myself this way, but
+I've had a letter from Captain Jackson Cheyne, U. S. Cavalry, which reads
+as straight as I've found the man to be. Nothing wrong with that family,
+and they've dollars to spare; but if you like the man I can put down two
+for every one of his. Well, I might write a good deal, but you're too much
+like your father to be taken in. You want dollars and station, and I can
+see you get them, but in a contract of this kind the man is everything.
+Make quite sure you're getting the right one."
+
+There was a little more to the same purpose, and when she slipped the
+letter into her pocket Hetty Torrance smiled.
+
+"The dear old man!" she said. "It is very like him; but whether Jake is
+the right one or not is just what I can't decide."
+
+Then she sat still, looking straight in front of her, a very attractive
+picture, as some of the hurrying men who turned to glance at her seemed to
+find, in her long light dress. Her face, which showed a delicate oval
+under the big white hat, was a trifle paler than is usual with most
+Englishwomen of her age, and the figure the thin fabric clung about less
+decided in outline. Still, the faint warmth in her cheeks emphasized the
+clear pallor of her skin, and there was a depth of brightness in the dark
+eyes that would have atoned for a good deal more than there was in her
+case necessity for. Her supple slenderness also became Hetty Torrance
+well, and there was a suggestion of nervous energy in her very pose. In
+addition to all this, she was a rich man's daughter, who had been well
+taught in the cities, and had since enjoyed all that wealth and refinement
+could offer her. It had also been a cause of mild astonishment to the
+friends she had spent the past year with, that with these advantages, she
+had remained Miss Torrance. They had been somewhat proud of their guest,
+and opportunities had not been wanting had she desired to change her
+status.
+
+While she sat there musing, pale-faced citizens hurried past, great
+locomotives crawled to and fro, and long trains of cars, white with the
+dust of five hundred leagues, rolled in. Swelling in deeper cadence, the
+roar of the city came faintly through the din; but, responsive to the
+throb of life as she usually was, Hetty Torrance heard nothing of it then,
+for she was back in fancy on the grey-white prairie two thousand miles
+away. It was a desolate land of parched grass and bitter lakes with
+beaches dusty with alkali, but a rich one to the few who held dominion
+over it, and she had received the homage of a princess there. Then she
+heard a voice that was quite in keeping with the spirit of the scene, and
+was scarcely astonished to see that a man was smiling down on her.
+
+He was dressed in city garments, and they became him; but the hand he held
+out was lean, and hard, and brown, and, for he stood bareheaded, a paler
+streak showed where the wide hat had shielded a face that had been
+darkened by stinging alkali dust from the prairie sun. It was a quietly
+forceful face, with steady eyes, which had a little sparkle of pleasure in
+them, and were clear and brown, while something in the man's sinewy pose
+suggested that he would have been at home in the saddle. Indeed, it was in
+the saddle that Hetty Torrance remembered him most vividly, hurling his
+half-tamed broncho straight at a gully down which the nondescript pack
+streamed, while the scarcely seen shape of a coyote blurred by the dust,
+streaked the prairie in front of them.
+
+"Hetty!" he said.
+
+"Larry!" said the girl. "Why, whatever are you doing here?"
+
+Then both laughed a little, perhaps to conceal the faint constraint that
+was upon them, for a meeting between former comrades has its difficulties
+when one is a man and the other a woman, and the bond between them has not
+been defined.
+
+"I came in on business a day or two ago," said the man. "Ran round to
+check some packages. I'm going back again to-morrow."
+
+"Well," said the girl, "I was in the city, and came here to meet Flo
+Schuyler and her sister. They'll be in at four."
+
+The man looked at his watch. "That gives us 'most fifteen minutes, but
+it's not going to be enough. We'll lose none of it. What about the
+singing?"
+
+Hetty Torrance flushed a trifle. "Larry," she said, "you are quite sure
+you don't know?"
+
+The man appeared embarrassed, and there was a trace of gravity in his
+smile. "Your father told me a little; but I haven't seen him so often of
+late. Any way, I would sooner you told me."
+
+"Then," said the girl, with the faintest of quivers in her voice, "the
+folks who understand good music don't care to hear me."
+
+There was incredulity, which pleased his companion, in the man's face, but
+his voice vaguely suggested contentment.
+
+"That is just what they can't do," he said decisively. "You sing most
+divinely."
+
+"There is a good deal you and the boys at Cedar don't know, Larry. Any
+way, lots of people sing better than I do, but I should be angry with you
+if I thought you were pleased."
+
+The man smiled gravely. "That would hurt. I'm sorry for you, Hetty; but
+again I'm glad. Now there's nothing to keep you in the city, you'll come
+back to us. You belong to the prairie, and it's a better place than
+this."
+
+He spoke at an opportune moment. Since her cherished ambition had failed
+her, Hetty Torrance had grown a trifle tired of the city and the round of
+pleasure that must be entered into strenuously, and there were times when,
+looking back in reverie, she saw the great silent prairie roll back under
+the red sunrise into the east, and fade, vast, solemn, and restful, a cool
+land of shadow, when the first pale stars came out. Then she longed for
+the jingle of the bridles and the drumming of the hoofs, and felt once
+more the rush of the gallop stir her blood. But this was what she would
+not show, and her eyes twinkled a trifle maliciously.
+
+"Well, I don't quite know," she said. "There is always one thing left to
+most of us."
+
+She saw the man wince ever so slightly, and was pleased at it; but he was,
+as she had once told him in the old days, grit all through, and he smiled
+a little.
+
+"Of course!" he said. "Still, the trouble is that there are very few of us
+good enough for you. But you will come back for a little?"
+
+Miss Torrance would not commit herself. "How are they getting along at the
+Range?"
+
+"Doesn't your father write you?"
+
+"Yes," said the girl, colouring a trifle. "I had a letter from him a few
+days ago, but he seldom mentioned what he was doing, and I want you to
+tell me about him."
+
+The man appeared thoughtful. "Well," he said, "it's quite three months
+since I spoke to him. He was stirring round as brisk as ever, and is
+rolling the dollars in this year."
+
+"But you used to be always at the Range."
+
+The man nodded, but the slight constraint that was upon him did not escape
+the girl. "Still, I don't go there so often now. The Range is lonesome
+when you are away."
+
+Miss Torrance accepted the speech as one made by a comrade, and perhaps
+was wrong, but a tramp of feet attracted her attention then, and she
+looked away from her companion. Driven by the railroad officials, and led
+by an interpreter, a band of Teutons some five or six hundred strong filed
+into the station. Stalwart and stolid, tow-haired, with the stamp of
+acquiescent patience in their homely faces, they came on with the swing,
+but none of the usual spirit, of drilled men. They asked no questions, but
+went where they were led, and the foulness of the close-packed steerage
+seemed to cling about them. For a time the depot rang to the rhythmic
+tramp of feet, and when, at a sign from the interpreter, it stopped, two
+bewildered children, frowsy and unwashed, in greasy homespun, sat down and
+gazed at Miss Torrance with mild blue eyes. She signed to a boy who was
+passing with a basket slung before him, and made a little impatient
+gesture when the man slipped his hand into his pocket.
+
+"No," she said; "you'll make me vexed with you. Tell him to give them all
+he has. They'll be a long while in the cars."
+
+She handed the boy a silver coin, and while the children sat still,
+undemonstratively astonished, with the golden fruit about them, the man
+passed him a bill.
+
+"Now get some more oranges, and begin right at the top of the line," he
+said. "If that doesn't see you through, come back to me for another
+bill."
+
+Hetty Torrance's eyes softened. "Larry," she said, "that was dreadfully
+good of you. Where are they all going to?"
+
+"Chicago, Nebraska, Minnesota, Montana," said the man. "There are the cars
+coming in. Just out of Castle Garden, and it's because of the city
+improvements disorganizing traffic they're bringing them this way. They're
+the advance guard, you see, and there are more of them coming."
+
+The tramp of feet commenced again, but this time it was a horde of diverse
+nationality, Englishmen, Irishmen, Poles, and Finns, but all with the
+stamp of toil, and many with that of scarcity upon them. Bedraggled,
+unkempt, dejected, eager with the cunning that comes of adversity, they
+flowed in, and Hetty Torrance's face grew pitiful as she watched them.
+
+"Do they come every week like this and, even in our big country, have we
+got room for all of them?" she said.
+
+There was a curious gleam in the man's brown eyes. "Oh, yes," he said.
+"It's the biggest and greatest country this old world has ever seen, and
+the Lord made it as a home for the poor--the folks they've no food or use
+for back yonder; and, while there are short-sighted fools who would close
+the door, we take them in, outcast and hopeless, and put new heart in
+them. In a few short years we make them men and useful citizens, the equal
+of any on this earth--Americans!"
+
+Hetty Torrance nodded, and there was pride but no amusement in her smile;
+for she had a quick enthusiasm, and the reticence of Insular Britain has
+no great place in that country.
+
+"Still," she said; "all these people coming in must make a difference."
+
+The man's face grew grave. "Yes," he said; "there will have to be a
+change, and it is coming. We are only outwardly democratic just now, and
+don't seem to know that men are worth more than millionaires. We have let
+them get their grip on our industries, and too much of our land, until
+what would feed a thousand buys canvas-backs, and wines from Europe for
+one. Isn't what we raise in California good enough for Americans?"
+
+Miss Torrance's eyes twinkled. "Some of it isn't very nice, and they don't
+live on canvas-backs," she said. "Still, it seems to me that other men
+have talked like that quite a thousand years ago; and, while I don't know
+anyone better at breaking a broncho or cutting out a steer, straightening
+these affairs out is too big a contract for you."
+
+The man laughed pleasantly. "That's all right, but I can do a little in
+the place I belong to, and the change is beginning there. Is it good for
+this country that one man should get rich feeding his cattle on leagues of
+prairie where a hundred families could make a living growing wheat?"
+
+"Now," said the girl drily, "I know why you and my father haven't got on.
+Your opinions wouldn't please him, Larry."
+
+"No," said the man, with a trace of embarrassment, "I don't think they
+would; and that's just why we've got to convince him and the others that
+what we want to do is for the good of the country."
+
+Hetty Torrance laughed. "It's going to be hard. No man wants to believe
+anything is good when he sees it will take quite a pile of dollars out of
+his pocket."
+
+The man said nothing, and Hetty fancied he was not desirous of following
+up the topic, while as they sat silent a big locomotive backed another
+great train of emigrant cars in. Then the tramp of feet commenced again,
+and once more a frowsy host of outcasts from the overcrowded lands poured
+into the depot. Wagons piled with baggage had preceded them, but many
+dragged their pitiful belongings along with them, and the murmur of their
+alien voices rang through the bustle of the station. Hetty Torrance was
+not unduly fanciful, but those footsteps caused her, as she afterwards
+remembered, a vague concern. She believed, as her father did, that America
+was made for the Americans; but it was evident that in a few more years
+every unit of those incoming legions would be a citizen of the Republic,
+with rights equal to those enjoyed by Torrance of Cedar Range. She had
+seen that as yet the constitution gave no man more than he could by his
+own hand obtain; but it seemed not unlikely that some, at least, of those
+dejected, unkempt men had struck for the rights of humanity that were
+denied them in the older lands with dynamite and rifle.
+
+Then, as the first long train of grimy cars rolled out close packed with
+their frowsy human freight, a train of another kind came in, and two young
+women in light dresses swung themselves down from the platform of a car
+that was sumptuous with polished woods and gilding. Miss Torrance rose as
+she saw them, and touched her companion.
+
+"Come along, Larry, and I'll show you two of the nicest girls you ever
+met," she said.
+
+The man laughed. "They would have been nicer if they hadn't come quite so
+soon," he said.
+
+He followed his companion and was duly presented to Miss Flora and Miss
+Caroline Schuyler. "Larry Grant of Fremont Ranch," said Miss Torrance.
+"Larry is a great friend of mine."
+
+The Misses Schuyler were pretty. Carolina, the younger, pale, blue-eyed,
+fair-haired and vivacious; her sister equally blonde, but a trifle
+quieter. Although they were gracious to him, Grant fancied that one
+flashed a questioning glance at the other when there was a halt in the
+conversation. Then, as if by tacit agreement, they left him alone a moment
+with their companion, and Hetty Torrance smiled as she held out her hand.
+
+"I can't keep them waiting, but you'll come and see me," she said.
+
+"I am going home to-morrow," said the man. "When are you coming, Hetty?"
+
+The girl smiled curiously, and there was a trace of wistfulness in her
+eyes. "I don't quite know. Just now I fancy I may not come at all, but you
+will not forget me, Larry."
+
+The man looked at her very gravely, and Hetty Torrance appeared to find
+something disconcerting in his gaze, for she turned her head away.
+
+"No," he said, and there was a little tremor in his voice, "I don't think
+I shall forget you. Well, if ever you grow tired of the cities you will
+remember the lonely folks who are longing to have you home again back
+there on the prairie."
+
+Hetty Torrance felt her fingers quiver under his grasp, but the next
+moment he had turned away, and her companions noticed there was a faint
+pink tinge in her cheeks when she rejoined them. But being wise young
+women, they restrained their natural inquisitiveness, and asked no
+questions then.
+
+In the meanwhile Grant, who watched them until the last glimpse of their
+light dresses was lost in the crowd, stood beside the second emigrant
+train vacantly glancing at the aliens who thronged about it. His bronzed
+face was a trifle weary, and his lips were set, but at last he
+straightened his shoulders with a little resolute movement and turned
+away.
+
+"I have my work," he said, "and it's going to be quite enough for me."
+
+
+
+
+II
+
+HETTY TAKES HEED
+
+
+It was evening when Hetty Torrance sat alone in a room of Mrs. Schuyler's
+house at Hastings-on-the-Hudson. The room was pretty, though its adornment
+was garish and somewhat miscellaneous, consisting as it did of the
+trophies of Miss Schuyler's European tour. A Parisian clock, rich in
+gilded scroll work to the verge of barbarity, contrasted with the artistic
+severity of one or two good Italian marbles, while these in turn stood
+quaintly upon choice examples of time-mellowed English cabinet-work. There
+was taste in them all, but they suffered from the juxtaposition, which,
+however, was somewhat characteristic of the country. Still, Miss Schuyler
+had not spoiled the splendid parquetrie floor of American timber.
+
+The windows were open wide, and when a little breeze from the darkening
+river came up across the lawn, Hetty languidly raised her head. The
+coolness was grateful, the silken cushions she reclined amidst luxurious,
+but the girl's eyes grew thoughtful as they wandered round the room, for
+that evening the suggestion of wealth in all she saw jarred upon her mood.
+The great city lay not very far away, sweltering with its crowded tenement
+houses under stifling heat; and she could picture the toilers who herded
+there, gasping for air. Then her fancy fled further, following the long
+emigrant train as it crawled west from side-track to side-track, close
+packed with humanity that was much less cared for than her father's
+cattle.
+
+She had often before seen the dusty cars roll into a wayside depot to wait
+until the luxurious limited passed, and the grimy faces at the windows,
+pale and pinched, cunning, or coarsely brutal, after the fashion of their
+kind, had roused no more than a passing pity. It was, however, different
+that night, for Grant's words had roused her to thought, and she wondered
+with a vague apprehension whether the tramp of weary feet she had listened
+to would once more break in upon her sheltered life. Larry had foreseen
+changes, and he was usually right. Then she brushed these fancies into the
+background, for she had still a decision to make. Captain Cheyne would
+shortly arrive, and she knew what he came to ask. He was also a personable
+man, and, so far as the Schuylers knew, without reproach, while Hetty had
+seen a good deal of him during the past twelve months. She admitted a
+liking for him, but now that the time had come to decide, she was not
+certain that she would care to spend her life with him. As a companion, he
+left nothing to be desired, but, as had happened already with another man
+with whom Miss Torrance had been pleased, that position did not appear to
+content him; and she had misgivings about contracting a more permanent
+bond. It was almost a relief when Miss Schuyler came in.
+
+"Stand up, Hetty. I want to look at you," she said.
+
+Miss Torrance obeyed and stood before her, girlishly slender in her long
+dress, though there was an indefinite suggestion of imperiousness in her
+dark eyes.
+
+"Will I pass?" she asked.
+
+Flora Schuyler surveyed her critically and then laughed. "Yes," she said.
+"You're pretty enough to please anybody, and there's a style about you
+that makes it quite plain you were of some importance out there on the
+prairie. Now you can sit down again, because I want to talk to you. Who's
+Larry Grant?"
+
+"Tell me what you think of him."
+
+Miss Schuyler pursed her lips reflectively. "Well," she said, "he's not
+New York. Quite a good-looking man, with a good deal in him, but I'd like
+to see him on horseback. Been in the cavalry? You're fond of them, you
+know."
+
+"No," said Hetty, "but he knows more about horses than any cavalry
+officer. Larry's a cattle-baron."
+
+"I never quite knew what the cattle-barons were, except that your father's
+one, and they're mostly rich," said Miss Schuyler.
+
+Hetty's eyes twinkled. "I don't think Larry's very rich. They're the men
+or the sons of them, who went west when the prairie belonged to the
+Indians and the Blackfeet, Crows, and Crees made them lots of trouble.
+Still, they held the land they settled on, and covered it with cattle,
+until the Government gave it to them, 'most as much as you could ride
+across in a day, to each big rancher."
+
+"Gave it to them?"
+
+Hetty nodded. "A lease of it. It means the same thing. A few of them,
+though I think it wasn't quite permitted, bought other leases in, and out
+there a cattle-baron is a bigger man than a railroad king. You see, he
+makes the law--all there is--as well as supports the industry, for there's
+not a sheriff in the country dares question him. The cattle-boys are his
+retainers, and we've a squadron of them at the Range. They'd do just what
+Torrance of Cedar told them, whatever it was, and there are few men who
+could ride with them in the U. S. Cavalry."
+
+"Then," said Flora Schuyler, "if the Government ever encouraged
+homesteading in their country they'd make trouble."
+
+Hetty laughed. "Yes," she said drily, "I guess they would, but no
+government dares meddle with us."
+
+"Well," said Flora Schuyler, "you haven't told us yet who Larry is. You
+know quite well what I mean."
+
+Hetty smiled. "I called him my partner when I was home. Larry held me on
+my first pony, and has done 'most whatever I wanted him ever since.
+Fremont isn't very far from the Range, and when I wanted to ride anywhere,
+or to have a new horse broken, Larry was handy."
+
+Miss Schuyler appeared reflective, but there was a bond of confidence
+between the two, and the reserve that characterizes the Briton is much
+less usual in that country.
+
+"It always seemed to me, my dear, that an arrangement of that kind is a
+little rough on the man, and I think this one is too good to spoil," she
+said.
+
+Hetty coloured a trifle, but she smiled. "It is all right with Larry. He
+never expected anything."
+
+"No?" said Flora Schuyler. "He never tried to make love to you?"
+
+The tinge of colour grew a trifle deeper in Hetty's cheek. "Only once, and
+I scarcely think he meant it. It was quite a long while ago, and I told
+him he must never do it again."
+
+"And since then he has tamed your horses, and bought you all the latest
+songs and books--good editions in English art bindings. It was Larry who
+sent you those flowers when we could scarcely get one?"
+
+Hetty for some reason turned away her head. "Don't you get things of that
+kind?"
+
+A trace of gravity crept into Flora Schuyler's blue eyes, which were
+unusually attractive ones. "When they come too often I send them back,"
+she said. "Oh, I know I'm careless now and then, but one has to do the
+square thing, and I wouldn't let any man do all that for me unless I was
+so fond of him that I meant to marry him. Now I'm going to talk quite
+straight to you, Hetty. You'll have to give up Larry by and by, but if you
+find that's going to hurt you, send the other man away."
+
+"You don't understand," and there was a little flash in Hetty's dark eyes.
+"Larry's kind to everyone--he can't help it; but he doesn't want me."
+
+Flora Schuyler gravely patted her companion's arm. "My dear, we don't want
+to quarrel, but you'll be careful--to please me. Jake Cheyne is coming,
+and you might be sorry ever after if you made a mistake to-night."
+
+Hetty made no answer, and there was silence for a space while the light
+grew dimmer, until the sound of voices rose from without, and she felt her
+heart beat a trifle faster than usual, when somebody said, "Captain
+Cheyne!"
+
+Then there was a rustle of draperies and Mrs. Schuyler, thin, angular, and
+considerably more silent than is customary with women of her race, came
+in, with her younger daughter and a man in her train. The latter bore the
+stamp of the soldier plainly, but there was a distinction in his pose that
+was not the result of a military training. Then as he shook hands with
+Flora Schuyler the fading light from the window fell upon his face,
+showing it clean cut from the broad forehead to the solid chin, and
+reposeful instead of nervously mobile. His even, low-pitched voice was
+also in keeping with it, for Jackson Cheyne was an unostentatious American
+of culture widened by travel, and, though they are not always to be found
+in the forefront in their own country, unless it has need of them, men of
+his type have little to fear from comparison with those to be met with in
+any other one.
+
+He spoke when there was occasion, and was listened to, but some time had
+passed before he turned to Mrs. Schuyler. "I wonder if it would be too
+great a liberty if I asked Miss Torrance to give us some music," he said.
+"I am going away to-morrow to a desolate outpost in New Mexico, and it
+will be the last time for months that I shall have a treat of that kind."
+
+Flora Schuyler opened the piano, and Hetty smiled at Cheyne as she took
+her place; but the man made a little gesture of negation when Mrs.
+Schuyler would have rung for lights.
+
+"Wouldn't it be nicer as it is?" he said.
+
+Hetty nodded, and there was silence before the first chords rang softly
+through the room. Though it may have been that the absence of necessity to
+strive and stain her daintiness amidst the press was responsible for much,
+Hetty Torrance's voice had failed to win her fame; but she sang and played
+better than most well-trained amateurs. Thus there was no rustle of
+drapery or restless movements until the last low notes sank into the
+stillness. Then the girl glanced at the man who had unobtrusively managed
+to find a place close beside her.
+
+"You know what that is?" she said.
+
+Carolina Schuyler laughed. "Jake knows everything!"
+
+"Yes," said the man quietly. "A nocturne. You were thinking of something
+when you played it."
+
+"The sea," said Flora Schuyler, "when the moon is on it. Was that it,
+Hetty?"
+
+"No," said Miss Torrance, who afterwards wondered whether it would have
+made a great difference if she had not chosen that nocturne. "It was the
+prairie when the stars are coming out over Cedar Range. Then it seems
+bigger and more solemn than the sea. I can see it now, wide and grey and
+shadowy, and so still that you feel afraid to hear yourself breathing,
+with the last smoky flush burning on its northern rim. Now, you may laugh
+at me, for you couldn't understand. When you have been born there, you
+always love the prairie."
+
+Then with a little deprecatory gesture she touched the keys again. "It
+will be different this time."
+
+Cheyne glanced up sharply during the prelude, and then, feeling that the
+girl's eyes were upon him, nodded as out of the swelling harmonies there
+crept the theme. It suggested the tramp of marching feet, but there was a
+curious unevenness in its rhythm, and the crescendo one of the listeners
+looked for never came. The room was almost dark now, but none of those who
+sat there seemed to notice it as they listened to the listless tramp of
+marching feet. Then the harmonies drowned it again, and Hetty looked at
+Cheyne.
+
+"Now," she said, "can you tell me what that means?"
+
+Cheyne's voice seemed a trifle strained, as though the music had troubled
+him. "I know the march, but the composer never wrote what you have played
+to-night," he said. "It was--may mine be defended from it!--the shuffle of
+beaten men. How could you have felt what you put into the music?"
+
+"No," said Hetty. "Your men could never march like that. It was footsteps
+going west, and I could not have originated their dragging beat. I have
+heard it."
+
+There was a little silence, until Cheyne said softly, "One more."
+
+"Then," said Hetty, "you will recognize this."
+
+The chords rang under her fingers until they swelled into confused and
+conflicting harmonies that clashed and jarred upon the theme. Their burden
+was strife and struggle and the anguish of strain, until at last, in the
+high clear note of victory, the theme rose supreme.
+
+"Yes," said Flora Schuyler, "we know that. We heard it with the Kaiser in
+Berlin. Only one man could have written it; but his own countrymen could
+not play it better than you do. A little overwhelming. How did you get
+down to the spirit of it, Hetty?"
+
+Lights were brought in just then, and they showed that the girl's face was
+a trifle paler than usual, as closing the piano, she turned, with a little
+laugh, upon the music-stool.
+
+"Oh!" she said, "I don't quite know, and until to-night it always cheated
+me. I got it at the depot--no, I didn't. It was there I felt the marching,
+and Larry brought the prairie back to me; but I couldn't have seen what
+was in the last music, because it hasn't happened yet."
+
+"It will come?" said Flora.
+
+"Yes," said Hetty, "wherever those weary men are going to."
+
+"And to every one of us," said Cheyne, with a curious graveness they
+afterwards remembered. "That is, the stress and strain--it is the triumph
+at the end of it only the few attain."
+
+Once more there was silence, and it was a relief when the unemotional Mrs.
+Schuyler rose.
+
+"Now," she said, and her voice, at least, had in it the twang of the
+country, "you young folks have been solemn quite long enough. Can't you
+talk something kind of lively?"
+
+They did what they could, and--for Cheyne could on occasion display a
+polished wit--light laughter filled the room, until Caroline Schuyler,
+perhaps not without a motive, suggested a stroll on the lawn. If there was
+dew upon the grass none of them heeded it, and it was but seldom anyone
+enjoyed the privilege of pacing that sod when Mr. Schuyler was at home.
+Every foot had cost him many dollars, and it remained but an imperfect
+imitation of an English lawn. There was on the one side a fringe of
+maples, and it was perhaps by Mrs. Schuyler's contrivance that eventually
+Hetty found herself alone with Cheyne in their deeper shadow. It was not,
+however, a surprise to her, for she had seen the man's desire and tacitly
+fallen in with it. Miss Torrance had discovered that one seldom gains
+anything by endeavouring to avoid the inevitable.
+
+"Hetty," he said quietly, "I think you know why I have come to-night?"
+
+The girl stood very still and silent for a space of seconds, and
+afterwards wondered whether she made the decision then, or what she had
+seen and heard since she entered the depot had formed it for her.
+
+"Yes," she said slowly. "I am so sorry!"
+
+Cheyne laid his hand upon her arm, and his voice trembled a little. "Don't
+be too hasty, Hetty," he said. "I would not ask you for very much just
+now, but I had ventured to fancy you could in time grow fond of me. I know
+I should have waited, but I am going away to-morrow, and I only want you
+to give me a promise to take away with me."
+
+It was with a visible effort the girl lifted her head and looked at him.
+"I feel horribly mean, Jake, but I can't," she said. "I ought to have made
+you realize that long ago, but I liked you, and, you see, I didn't quite
+know. I thought if I waited a little I might be more sure of what I felt
+for you!"
+
+"Then," said the man, a trifle hoarsely, "give me what you can now and I
+will be patient."
+
+Hetty turned half way from him and closed one hand. The man was pleasant
+to look upon, in character and disposition all she could desire, and she
+had found a curious content in his company. Had that day passed as other
+days had done, she might have yielded to him, but she had been stirred to
+the depths of her nature during the last few hours, and Flora Schuyler's
+warning had been opportune. She had, as she had told him, a liking for
+Jackson Cheyne, but that, she saw very clearly now, was insufficient.
+Destiny had sent Larry Grant, with the associations that clung about him,
+into the depot.
+
+"No," she said, with a little tremble in her voice, "it wouldn't be honest
+or fair to you. I am not half good enough for you."
+
+The man smiled somewhat mirthlessly, but his voice was reproachful. "You
+always speak the truth, Hetty. My dear, knowing what the best of us are, I
+wonder how I dared to venture to ask you to share your life with me."
+
+Hetty checked him with a little gesture. "Can't you understand?" she said.
+"The girl who sang to you now and then isn't me. I am selfish,
+discontented, and shallow, and if you hadn't heard me sing or play you
+would never have thought of me. There are people who sing divinely, and
+are--you see, I have met them with the mask off--just horrible."
+
+"Hetty," said Cheyne, "I can't allow anyone to malign you, even if it's
+yourself, and if you have any faults, my dear, I'll take them with the
+rest. In fact, I would be glad of one or two. They would only bring you a
+little nearer to me."
+
+The girl lifted her hand and silenced him. "Jake," she said appealingly,
+"please take your answer and go away. If I could only be fond of you in
+the right way I would, but I can't, you see. It is not my fault--it isn't
+in me."
+
+The man recognized the finality in her tone, but, feeling that it was
+useless, made a last endeavour.
+
+"I'm going away to-morrow," he said. "You might think differently when I
+come back again."
+
+The girl's voice quivered a little. "No," she said. "I have to be
+straightforward now, and I know you will try to make it easier for me,
+even if I'm hurting you. It's no use. I shall think the same, and by and
+by you'll get over this fancy, and wonder what you ever saw in me."
+
+The man smiled curiously. "I am afraid it will take me a lifetime," he
+said.
+
+In another moment he had gone, and Hetty turned, a trifle flushed in face,
+towards the house across the lawn.
+
+"He took it very well--and I shall never find anyone half so nice again,"
+she said.
+
+It was half an hour later, and Miss Torrance had recovered at least her
+outward serenity, when one of Mrs. Schuyler's neighbours arrived. She
+brought one or two young women, and a man, with her. The latter she
+presented to Mrs. Schuyler.
+
+"Mr. Reginald Clavering," she said. "He's from the prairie where Miss
+Torrance's father lives, and is staying a day or two with us. When I heard
+he knew Hetty I ventured to bring him over."
+
+Mrs. Schuyler expressed her pleasure, and--for they had gone back to the
+lighted room now--Hetty presently found herself seated face to face with
+the stranger. He was a tall, well-favoured man, slender, and lithe in
+movement, with dark eyes and hair, and a slightly sallow face that
+suggested that he was from the South. It also seemed fitting that he was
+immaculately dressed, for there was a curious gracefulness about him that
+still had in it a trace of insolence. No one would have mistaken him for a
+Northerner.
+
+"It was only an hour ago I found we were so near, and I insisted upon
+coming across at once," he said. "You have changed a good deal since you
+left the prairie."
+
+"Yes," said the girl drily. "Is it very astonishing? You see, we don't
+spend half our time on horseback here. You didn't expect to find me a
+sharp-tongued Amazon still?"
+
+Clavering laughed as he looked at her, but the approval of what he saw was
+a trifle too evident in his black eyes.
+
+"Well," he said languidly, "you were our Princess then, and there was only
+one of your subjects' homage you never took kindly to. That was rough on
+him, because he was at least as devoted as the rest."
+
+"That," said the girl, with a trace of acerbity, "was because he tried to
+patronize me. Even if I haven't the right to it, I like respect."
+
+Clavering made a little gesture, and the deference in it was at least half
+sincere. "You command it, and I must try to make amends. Now, don't you
+want to hear about your father and the Range?"
+
+"No," said Hetty. "I had a talk with Larry to-day."
+
+"In New York?"
+
+"Yes. At the depot. He is going back to-morrow. You seem astonished?"
+
+Clavering appeared thoughtful. "Well, it's Chicago he usually goes to."
+
+"Usually?" said Hetty. "I scarcely remember him leaving Fremont once in
+three years."
+
+Clavering laughed. "Then he leaves it a good deal more often now. A man
+must have a little diversion when he lives as we do, and no doubt Larry
+feels lonely. You are here, and Heloise Durand has gone away."
+
+Hetty understood the implication, for she had some notion how the men who
+spent months together in the solitude of the prairie amused themselves in
+the cities. Nor had she and most of her neighbours wholly approved of the
+liberal views held by Heloise Durand. She had, however, an unquestioning
+belief in Larry, and none in the man beside her.
+
+"I scarcely think you need have been jealous of him," she said. "Larry
+wasn't Miss Durand's kind, and he couldn't be lonely. Everybody was fond
+of him."
+
+Clavering nodded. "Of course! Still, Larry hasn't quite so many friends
+lately."
+
+"Now," said Hetty with a little flash in her eyes, "when you've told me
+that you have got to tell the rest. What has he been doing?"
+
+"Ploughing!" said Clavering drily. "I did what I could to restrain him,
+but nobody ever could argue with Larry."
+
+Hetty laughed, though she felt a little dismay. It was then a serious
+affair to drive the wheat furrow in a cattle country, and the man who did
+it was apt to be regarded as an iconoclast. Nevertheless, she would not
+show that she recognized it.
+
+"Well," she said, "that isn't very dreadful. The plough is supreme in the
+Dakotas and Minnesota now. Sooner or later it has got to find a place in
+our country."
+
+"Still, that's not going to happen while your father lives."
+
+The girl realized the truth of this, but she shook her head. "We're not
+here to talk wheat and cattle, and I see Flo Schuyler looking at us," she
+said. "Go across and make yourself agreeable to the others for the honour
+of the prairie."
+
+Clavering went; but he had left an unpleasant impression behind him, as he
+had perhaps intended, while soon after he took his departure Flora
+Schuyler found her friend alone.
+
+"So you sent Jake away!" she said.
+
+"Yes," said Hetty. "I don't know what made me, but I felt I had to. I
+almost meant to take him."
+
+Flora Schuyler nodded gravely. "But it wasn't because of that man
+Clavering?"
+
+"It was not," said Hetty, with a little laugh. "Don't you like him? He is
+rather a famous man back there on the prairie."
+
+Flora Schuyler shook her head. "No," she said; "he reminded me of that
+Florentine filigree thing. It's very pretty, and I bought it for silver,
+but it isn't."
+
+"You think he's that kind of man?"
+
+"Yes," said Miss Schuyler. "I wouldn't take him at face value. The
+silver's all on top. I don't know what is underneath it, and would sooner
+somebody else found out."
+
+
+
+
+III
+
+THE CATTLE-BARONS
+
+
+It was a still, hot evening when a somewhat silent company of bronze-faced
+men assembled in the big living room of Cedar Range. It was built of birch
+trunks, and had once, with its narrow windows and loopholes for rifle
+fire, resembled a fortalice; but now cedar panelling covered the logs, and
+the great double casements were filled with the finest glass. They were
+open wide that evening. Around this room had grown up a straggling wooden
+building of dressed lumber with pillars and scroll-work, and, as it stood
+then, flanked by its stores and stables, barns and cattle-boys' barracks,
+there was no homestead on a hundred leagues of prairie that might compare
+with it.
+
+Outside, on the one hand, the prairie rolled away in long billowy rises, a
+vast sea of silvery grey, for the grass that had been green a month or two
+was turning white again, and here and there a stockrider showed
+silhouetted, a dusky mounted figure against the paling flicker of saffron
+that still lingered upon the horizon. On the other, a birch bluff dipped
+to the Cedar River, which came down faintly chilled with the Rockies' snow
+from the pine forests of the foothills. There was a bridge four miles
+away, but the river could be forded beneath the Range for a few months
+each year. At other seasons it swirled by, frothing in green-stained
+flood, swollen by the drainage of snowfield and glacier, and there was no
+stockrider at the Range who dared swim his horse across.
+
+Sun and wind had their will with the homestead, for there was little
+shelter from icy blizzard and scorching heat at Cedar; but though here and
+there the frame-boarding gaped and the roof-shingles were rent, no man
+accustomed to that country could fail to notice the signs of careful
+management and prosperity. Corrals, barns, and stables were the best of
+their kind; and, though the character of all of them was not beyond
+exception, in physique and fitness for their work it would have been hard
+to match the sinewy men in blue shirts, wide hats, and long boots, then
+watering their horses at the ford. They were as daring and irresponsible
+swashbucklers as ever rode out on mediaeval foray, and, having once sold
+their allegiance to Torrance of Cedar, and recognized that he was not to
+be trifled with, were ready to do without compunction anything he bade
+them.
+
+In the meanwhile Torrance sat at the head of the long table, with
+Clavering of Beauregard at his right hand. His face was bronzed and
+resolute, and the stamp of command sat plainly upon him. There was grey in
+his dark hair, and his eyes were keen and black, with a little glint in
+them; but, vigorous as he still seemed, the hand on the table was smooth
+and but slightly tinted by the sun, for Torrance was one who, in the
+language of that country, did his work, which was usually arduous, with
+his gloves on. He was dressed in white shirt and broadcloth, and a diamond
+of price gleamed in the front of the former.
+
+His guests were for the most part younger, and Clavering was scarcely half
+his age: but when they met in conclave something usually happened, for the
+seat of the legislature was far away, and their will considerably more
+potent thereabouts than the law of the land. Sheriff, postmaster, railroad
+agent, and petty politician carried out their wishes, and as yet no man
+had succeeded in living in that region unless he did homage to the
+cattle-barons. They were Republicans, admitting in the abstract the rights
+of man, so long as no venturesome citizen demanded too much of them; but
+they had discovered that in practice liberty is usually the prerogative of
+the strong. Still, they had done their nation good service, for they had
+found the land a wilderness and covered it with cattle, so that its
+commerce fed the railroads and supported busy wooden towns. Some of the
+older men had disputed possession with the Indian, and most of them in the
+early days, enduring thirst and loneliness and unwearying toil, had held
+on stubbornly in the face of ruin by frost and drought and hail. It was
+not astonishing that as they had made that land--so they phrased it--they
+regarded it as theirs.
+
+There were eight of them present, and for a time they talked of horses and
+cattle as they sipped their wine, which was the choicest that France could
+send them; and it is also probable that no better cigars ever came from
+Cuba than those they smoked. By and by, however, Torrance laid his aside.
+
+"It's time we got down to work," he said. "I sent for ten of you, and
+eight have come. One sent valid excuses, and one made no answer."
+
+"Larry Grant," said Clavering. "I guess he was too busy at the depot
+bringing a fat Dutchman and a crowd of hard-faced Dakota ploughboys in."
+
+There was a little murmur of astonishment which, had the men been
+different, would not have been quite free from consternation, for it was
+significant news.
+
+"You're quite sure?" asked Torrance, and his face was stern.
+
+"Well," said Clavering languidly, "I saw him, and bantered him a little on
+his prepossessing friends. Asked him why, when he was at it, he didn't go
+to Manitoba for Canadians. Larry didn't take it nicely."
+
+"I'm sorry," said one of the older men. "Larry is one of us, and the last
+man I'd figure on committing that kind of meanness would be the son of
+Fremont Grant. Quite sure it's not a fit of temper? You have not been
+worrying him, Torrance?"
+
+Torrance closed one hand. "Grant of Fremont was my best friend, and when
+he died I 'most brought the lad up as a son. When he got hold of his
+foolish notions it hurt me considerably, and I did what I could to talk
+him out of them."
+
+There was a little smile in the faces of some of the men, for Torrance's
+draconic fashion of arguing was known to them.
+
+"You put it a little too straight, and he told you something that riled
+you," said one.
+
+"He did," said Torrance grimly. "Still, for 'most two years I kept a curb
+on my temper. Then one evening I told him he had to choose right then
+between his fancies and me. I could have no dealings with any man who
+talked as he did."
+
+"Do you remember any of it?" asked another man.
+
+"Yes," said Torrance. "His father's friends were standing in the way of
+progress. Land that would feed a thousand families was keeping us in
+luxury no American was entitled to. This was going to be the poor man's
+country, and the plough was bound to come!"
+
+Clavering laughed softly, and there were traces of ironical amusement in
+the faces of the rest. Very similar predictions had more than once been
+flung at them, and their possessions were still, they fancied, secure to
+them. They, however, became grave again, and it was evident that Larry
+Grant had hitherto been esteemed by them.
+
+"If it had been any one else, we could have put our thumb on him right
+now," said one. "Still, I don't quite figure it would work with Larry.
+There are too many folks who would stand in with him."
+
+There was a little murmur of approbation, and Clavering laughed. "Buy him
+off," he said tentatively. "We have laid out a few thousand dollars in
+that way before."
+
+Some of the men made gestures of decided negation, and Torrance looked at
+the speaker a trifle sternly.
+
+"No, sir," he said. "Larry may be foolish, but he's one of us."
+
+"Then," said somebody, "we've got to give him time. Let it pass. You have
+something to tell us, Torrance?"
+
+Torrance signed to one of them. "You had better tell them, Allonby."
+
+A grey-haired man stood up, and his fingers shook a little on the table.
+"My lease has fallen in, and the Bureau will not renew it," he said. "I'm
+not going to moan about my wrongs, but some of you know what it cost me to
+break in that place of mine. You have lived on the bitter water and the
+saleratus bread, but none of you has seen his wife die for the want of the
+few things he couldn't give her, as I did. I gave the nation my two boys
+when the good times came, and they're dead--buried in their uniform both
+of them--and now, when I'd laid out my last dollar on the ranch, that the
+one girl I've left me might have something when I'd gone, the Government
+will take it away from me. Gentlemen, is it my duty to sit down quietly?"
+
+There was a murmur, and the men looked at one another with an ominous
+question in their eyes, until Torrance raised his hand.
+
+"The land's not open to location. I guess they're afraid of us, and
+Allonby's there on toleration yet," he said. "Gentlemen, we mean to keep
+him just where he is, because when he pulls out we will have to go too.
+But this thing has to be done quietly. When the official machinery moves
+down here it's because we pull the strings, and we have got to have the
+law upon our side as far as we can. Well, that's going to cost us money,
+and we want a campaign fund. I'll give Allonby a cheque for five hundred
+dollars in the meanwhile, if he'll be treasurer; but as we may all be
+fixed as he is presently, we'll want a good deal more before we're
+through. Who will follow me?"
+
+Each of them promised five hundred, and then looked at Clavering, who had
+not spoken. One of them also fancied that there was for a moment a trace
+of embarrassment in his face; but he smiled carelessly.
+
+"The fact is, dollars are rather tight with me just now," he said. "You'll
+have to wait a little if I'm to do as much as the rest of you. I am,
+however, quite willing."
+
+"I'll lend you them," said Torrance. "Allonby, I'll make that cheque a
+thousand. You have got it down?"
+
+Allonby accepted office, and one of the other men rose up. "Now it seems
+to me that Torrance is right, and with our leases expired or running out,
+we're all in the same tight place," he said. "The first move is to get
+every man holding cattle land from here to the barren country to stand in,
+and then, one way or another, we'll freeze out the homesteaders. Well,
+then, we'll constitute ourselves a committee, with Torrance as head
+executive, and as we want to know just what the others are doing, my
+notion is that he should start off to-morrow and ride round the country.
+If there are any organizations ready, it might suit us to affiliate with
+them."
+
+It was agreed to, and Clavering said, "It seems to me, sir, that the first
+question is, 'Could we depend upon the boys if we wanted them?'"
+
+Torrance strode to an open window and blew a silver whistle. Its shrill
+note had scarcely died away when a mounted man came up at a gallop, and a
+band of others in haste on foot. They stopped in front of the window,
+picturesque in blue shirts and long boots, sinewy, generously fed, and
+irresponsibly daring.
+
+"Boys," he said, "you've been told there's a change coming, and by and by
+this country will have no more use for you. Now, if any folks came here
+and pulled our boundaries up to let the mean whites from back east in,
+what are you going to do?"
+
+There was a burst of hoarse laughter. "Ride them down," said one retainer,
+with the soft blue eyes of a girl and a figure of almost matchless
+symmetry.
+
+"Grow feathers on them," said another. "Ride them back to the railroad on
+a rail."
+
+"I scarcely think that would be necessary," said Torrance quietly. "Still,
+you'd stand behind the men who pay you?"
+
+There was a murmur that expressed a good deal, though it was inarticulate,
+and a man stood forward.
+
+"You've heard them, sir," he said. "Well, we'll do just what you want us
+to. This is the cattle-baron's country, and we're here. It's good enough
+for us, and if it means lots of trouble we're going to stay here."
+
+Torrance raised his hand, and when the men moved away turned with a little
+grim smile to his guests. "They'll be quite as good as their word," he
+said.
+
+Then he led them back to the table, and when the decanter had gone round,
+one of the younger men stood up.
+
+"We want a constitution, gentlemen, and I'll give you one," he said. "The
+Cedar District Stockraisers' Committee incorporated to-day with for sole
+object the defence of our rights as American citizens!"
+
+Clavering rose with the others, but there was a little ironical smile in
+his eyes as he said, "If necessary against any unlawful encroachments made
+by the legislature!"
+
+Torrance turned upon him sternly. "No, sir!" he said. "By whatever means
+may appear expedient!"
+
+The glasses were lifted high, and when they had laid them down the men
+rode away, though only one or two of them realized the momentous issues
+which they and others had raised at about much the same time. They had
+not, however, met in conclave too soon, for any step that man makes
+forward towards a wider life is usually marked by strife, and the shadow
+of coming trouble was already upon the land. It had deepened little by
+little, and the cattle-barons had closed their eyes, as other men who have
+held the reins have done since the beginning, until the lean hands of the
+toilers fastened upon them, and fresh horrors added to an ancient wrong
+were the price of liberty that was lost again. They had done good service
+to their nation, with profit to themselves, and would not see that the
+times were changing and that the nation had no longer need of them.
+
+Other men, however, at least suspected it, and there was an expectant
+gathering one hot afternoon in the railroad depot of a little wooden town
+where Grant stood waiting for the west-bound train. There was little to
+please the eye about the station, and still less about the town. Straight
+out of the great white levels ran the glistening track, and an unsightly
+building of wood and iron rose from the side of it, flanked by a towering
+water-tank. A pump rattled under it, and the smell of creosote was
+everywhere. Cattle corrals ran back from the track, and beyond them
+sun-rent frame houses roofed with cedar shingles straggled away on the one
+hand, paintless, crude, and square. On the other, a smear of trail led the
+dazzled vision back across the parched levels to the glancing refraction
+on the horizon, and the figure of a single horseman showing dimly through
+a dust cloud emphasized their loneliness. The town was hot and dusty, its
+one green fringe of willows defiled by the garbage the citizens deposited
+there, and the most lenient stranger could have seen no grace or beauty in
+it. Yet, like many another place of the kind, it was destined to rise to
+prosperity and fame.
+
+The depot was thronged that afternoon. Store and hotel keeper, citizens in
+white shirts and broadcloth, jostled blue-shirted cattle men, while here
+and there a petty politician consulted with the representative of a
+Western paper. The smoke of cigars drifted everywhere, and the listless
+heat was stirred by the hum of voices eager and strident. It was evident
+that the assembly was in an expectant mood, and there was a murmur of
+approbation when one newspaper man laid hold of Grant.
+
+"I couldn't light on you earlier, but ten minutes will see us through," he
+said. "We'll make a half-page of it if you'll let me have your views. New
+epoch in the country's history! The small farmer the coming king! A
+wood-cut of the man who brought the first plough in."
+
+Larry Grant laughed a little. "There are quite a few ahead of me, and if
+you spread my views the barons would put their thumb on you and squeeze
+you flat," he said. "On the other hand, it wouldn't suit me if you sent
+them anything I told you to publish."
+
+The man appeared a trifle embarrassed. "The rights of the Press are sacred
+in a free country, sir," he said.
+
+"Well," said Grant drily, "although I hope it will be, this country isn't
+quite free yet. I surmise that you don't know that the office of your
+contemporary farther east was broken into a few hours ago, and an article
+written by a friend of mine pulled out of the press. The proprietor was
+quietly held down upon the floor when he objected. You will hear whether I
+am right or wrong to-morrow."
+
+What the man would have answered did not appear, for just then somebody
+shouted, and a trail of smoke swept up above the rim of the prairie. It
+rose higher and whiter, something that flashed dazzlingly grew into shape
+beneath it, and there was a curious silence when the dusty cars rolled
+into the little station. It was followed by a murmur as an elderly man in
+broad white hat and plain store clothing, and a plump, blue-eyed young
+woman, came out upon the platform of a car. He wore a pair of spectacles
+and gazed about him in placid inquiry, until Grant stepped forward. Then
+he helped the young woman down, and held out a big, hard hand.
+
+"Mr. Grant?" he said.
+
+Grant nodded, and raised his hat to the girl. "Yes," he said. "Mr.
+Muller?"
+
+"Ja," said the other man. "Also der fraeulein Muller."
+
+There was a little ironical laughter from the crowd. "A Dutchman," said
+somebody, "from Chicago. They raise them there in the sausage machine. The
+hogs go in at one end, and they rake the Dutchmen out of the other."
+
+Muller looked round inquiringly, but apparently failed to discover the
+speaker.
+
+"Dot," he said, "is der chestnut. I him have heard before."
+
+There was good-humoured laughter--for even when it has an animus an
+American crowd is usually fair; and in the meanwhile five or six other men
+got down from a car. They were lean and brown, with somewhat grim faces,
+and were dressed in blue shirts and jean.
+
+"Well," said one of them, "we're Americans. Got any objections to us
+getting off here, boys?"
+
+Some of the men in store clothing nodded a greeting, but there were others
+in wide hats, and long boots with spurs, who jeered.
+
+"Brought your plough-cows along?" said one, and the taunt had its meaning,
+for it is usually only the indigent and incapable who plough with oxen.
+
+"No," said one of the newcomers. "We have horses back yonder. When we want
+mules or cowsteerers, I guess we'll find them here. You seem to have quite
+a few of them around."
+
+A man stepped forward, jingling his spurs, with his jacket of embroidered
+deerskin flung open to show, though this was as yet unusual, that he wore
+a bandolier. Rolling back one loose sleeve he displayed a brown arm with
+the letters "C. R." tattooed within a garter upon it. "See this. You've
+heard of that mark before?" he said.
+
+"Cash required!" said the newcomer, with a grin. "Well, I guess that's not
+astonishing. It would be a blame foolish man who gave you credit."
+
+"No, sir," said the stockrider. "It's Cedar Range, and there's twenty boys
+and more cattle than you could count in a long day carrying that brand. It
+will be a cold day when you and the rest of the Dakotas start kicking
+against that outfit."
+
+There was laughter and acclamation, in the midst of which the cars rolled
+on; but in the meanwhile Grant had seized the opportunity to get a
+gang-plough previously unloaded from a freight-car into a wagon. The sight
+of it raised a demonstration, and there were hoots, and cries of
+approbation, while a man with a flushed face was hoisted to the top of a
+kerosene-barrel.
+
+"Boys," he said, "there's no use howling. We're Americans. Nobody can stop
+us, and we're going on. You might as well kick against a railroad; and
+because the plough and the small farmer will do more for you than even the
+locomotive did, they have got to come. Well, now, some of you are keeping
+stores, and one or two I see here baking bread and making clothes. Which
+is going to do the most for your trade and you, a handful of rich men, who
+wouldn't eat or wear the things you have to sell, owning the whole
+country, or a family farming on every quarter section? A town ten times
+this size wouldn't be much use to them. Well, you've had your
+cattle-barons, gentlemen most of them; but even a man of that kind has to
+step out of the track and make room when the nation's moving on."
+
+He probably said more, but Grant did not hear him, for he had as
+unostentatiously as possible conveyed Muller and the fraeulein into a
+wagon, and had horses led up for the Dakota men. They had some difficulty
+in mounting, and the crowd laughed good-humouredly, though here and there
+a man flung jibes at them; while one, jolting in his saddle as his broncho
+reared, turned to Grant with a little deprecatory gesture.
+
+"In our country we mostly drive in wagons, but I'll ride by the stirrup
+and get down when nobody sees me," he said. "The beast wouldn't try to
+climb out this way if there wasn't something kind of prickly under his
+saddle."
+
+Grant's face was a trifle grim when he saw that more of the horses were
+inclined to behave similarly, but he flicked his team with the whip, and
+there was cheering and derision when, with a drumming of hoofs and rattle
+of wheels, wagons and horsemen swept away into the dust-cloud that rolled
+about the trail.
+
+"This," he said, "is only a little joke of theirs, and they'll go a good
+deal further when they get their blood up. Still, I tried to warn you what
+you might expect."
+
+"So!" said Muller, with a placid grin. "It is noding to der franc tireurs.
+I was in der chase of Menotti among der Vosges. Also at Paris."
+
+"Well," said Grant drily, "I'm 'most afraid that by and by you'll go
+through very much the same kind of thing again. What you saw at the depot
+is going on wherever the railroad is bringing the farmers in, and we've
+got men in this country who'd make first-grade franc tireurs."
+
+
+
+
+IV
+
+MULLER STANDS FAST
+
+
+The windows of Fremont homestead were open wide, and Larry Grant sat by
+one of them in a state of quiet contentment after a long day's ride.
+Outside, the prairie, fading from grey to purple, ran back to the dusky
+east, and the little cool breeze that came up out of the silence and
+flowed into the room had in it the qualities of snow-chilled wine. A star
+hung low to the westward in a field of palest green, and a shaded lamp
+burned dimly at one end of the great bare room.
+
+By it the Fraeulein Muller, flaxen-haired, plump, and blue-eyed, sat
+knitting, and Larry's eyes grew a trifle wistful when he glanced at her.
+It was a very long while since any woman had crossed his threshold, and
+the red-cheeked fraeulein gave the comfortless bachelor dwelling a
+curiously homelike appearance. Nevertheless, it was not the recollection
+of its usual dreariness that called up the sigh, for Larry Grant had had
+his dreams like other men, and Miss Muller was not the woman he had now
+and then daringly pictured sitting there. Her father, perhaps from force
+of habit, sat with a big meerschaum in hand, by the empty stove, and if
+his face expressed anything at all it was phlegmatic content. Opposite him
+sat Breckenridge, a young Englishman, lately arrived from Minnesota.
+
+"What do you think of the land, now you've seen it?" asked Grant.
+
+Muller nodded reflectively. "Der land is good. It is der first-grade hard
+wheat she will grow. I three hundred and twenty acres buy."
+
+"Well," said Grant, "I'm willing to let you have it; but I usually try to
+do the square thing, and you may have trouble before you get your first
+crop in."
+
+"Und," said Muller, "so you want to sell?"
+
+Grant laughed. "Not quite; and I can't sell that land outright. I'll let
+it to you while my lease runs, and when that falls in you'll have the same
+right to homestead a quarter or half section for nothing as any other man.
+In the meanwhile, I and one or two others are going to start wheat-growing
+on land that is ours outright, and take our share of the trouble."
+
+"Ja," said Muller, "but dere is much dot is not clear to me. Why you der
+trouble like?"
+
+"Well," said Grant, "as I've tried to tell you, it works out very much
+like this. It was known that this land was specially adapted to mixed
+farming quite a few years ago, but the men who ran their cattle over it
+never drove a plough. You want to know why? Well, I guess it was for much
+the same reason that an association of our big manufacturers bought up the
+patents of an improved process, and for a long while never made an ounce
+of material under them, or let any one else try. We had to pay more than
+it was worth for an inferior article that hampered some of the most
+important industries in the country, and they piled up the dollars in the
+old-time way."
+
+"Und," said Muller, "dot is democratic America!"
+
+"Yes," said Grant. "That is the America we mean to alter. Well, where one
+man feeds his cattle, fifty could plough and make a living raising stock
+on a smaller scale, and the time's quite close upon us when they will; but
+the cattle-men have got the country, and it will hurt them to let go. It's
+not their land, and was only lent them. Now I'm no fonder of trouble than
+any other man, but this country fed and taught me, and kept me two years
+in Europe looking round, and I'd feel mean if I took everything and gave
+it nothing back. Muller will understand me. Do you, Breckenridge?"
+
+The English lad laughed. "Oh, yes; though I don't know that any similar
+obligation was laid on myself. The country I came from had apparently no
+use for a younger son at all, and it was kicks and snubs it usually
+bestowed on me; but if there's a row on hand I'm quite willing to stand by
+you and see it through. My folks will, however, be mildly astonished when
+they hear I've turned reformer."
+
+Grant nodded good-humouredly, for he was not a fanatic, but an American
+with a firm belief in the greatness of his country's destiny, who,
+however, realized that faith alone was scarcely sufficient.
+
+"Well," he said, "if it's trouble you're anxious for, it's quite likely
+you'll find it here. Nobody ever got anything worth having unless he
+fought for it, and we've taken on a tolerably big contract. We're going to
+open up this state for any man who will work for it to make a living in,
+and substitute its constitution for the law of the cattle-barons."
+
+"Der progress," said Muller, "she is irresistible."
+
+Breckenridge laughed. "From what I was taught, it seems to me that she
+moves round in rings. You start with the luxury of the few, oppression,
+and brutality, then comes revolution, and worse things than you had
+before, progress growing out of it that lasts for a few generations until
+the few fittest get more than their fair share of wealth and control, and
+you come back to the same point again."
+
+Muller shook his head. "No," he said, "it is nod der ring, but der elastic
+spiral. Der progress she march, it is true, round und round, but she is
+arrive always der one turn higher, und der pressure on der volute is nod
+constant."
+
+"On the top?" said Breckenridge. "Principalities and powers, traditional
+and aristocratic, or monetary. Well, it seems to me they squeeze progress
+down tolerably flat between them occasionally. Take our old cathedral
+cities and some of your German ones, and, if you demand it, I'll throw
+their ghettos in. Then put the New York tenements or most of the smaller
+western towns beside them, and see what you've arrived at."
+
+"No," said Muller tranquilly. "Weight above she is necessary while der
+civilization is incomblete, but der force is from der bottom. It is all
+time positive and primitive, for it was make when man was make at der
+beginning."
+
+Grant nodded. "Well," he said, "our work's waiting right here. What other
+men have done in the Dakotas and Minnesota we are going to do. Nature has
+been storing us food for the wheat plant for thousands of years, and
+there's more gold in our black soil than was ever dug out of Mexico or
+California. Still, you have to get it out by ploughing, and not by making
+theories. Breckenridge, you will stay with me; but you'll want a house to
+live in, Muller."
+
+Muller drew a roll of papers out of his pocket, and Grant, who took them
+from him, stared in wonder. They were drawings and calculations relating
+to building with undressed lumber, made with Teutonic precision and
+accuracy.
+
+"I have," said Muller, "der observation make how you build der homestead
+in this country."
+
+"Then we'll start you in to-morrow," said Grant. "You'll get all the
+lumber you want in the birch bluff, and I'll lend you one or two of the
+boys I brought in from Michigan. There's nobody on this continent handier
+with the axe."
+
+Muller nodded and refilled his pipe, and save for the click of the
+fraeulein's needles there was once more silence in the bare room. She had
+not spoken, for the knitting and the baking were her share, and the men
+whose part was the conflict must be clothed and fed. They knew it could
+not be evaded, and, springing from the same colonizing stock, placid
+Teuton with his visions and precision in everyday details, eager American,
+and adventurous Englishman, each made ready for it in his own fashion.
+Free as yet from passion, or desire for fame, they were willing to take up
+the burden that was to be laid upon them; but only the one who knew the
+least awaited it joyously. Others had also the same thoughts up and down
+that lonely land, and the dusty cars were already bringing the vanguard of
+the homeless host in. They were for the most part quiet and resolute men,
+who asked no more than leave to till a few acres of the wilderness, and to
+eat what they had sown; but there were among them others of a different
+kind--fanatics, outcasts, men with wrongs--and behind them the human
+vultures who fatten on rapine. As yet, the latter found no occupation
+waiting them, but their sight was keen, and they knew their time would
+come.
+
+It was a week later, and a hot afternoon, when Muller laid the big
+crosscut saw down on the log he was severing and slowly straightened his
+back. Then he stood up, red and very damp in face, a burly,
+square-shouldered man, and, having mislaid his spectacles, blinked about
+him. On three sides of him the prairie, swelling in billowy rises, ran
+back to the horizon; but on the fourth a dusky wall of foliage followed
+the crest of a ravine, and the murmur of water came up faintly from the
+creek in the hollow. Between himself and its slender birches lay piled
+amidst the parched and dusty grass, and the first courses of a wooden
+building, rank with the smell of sappy timber, already stood in front of
+him. There was no notch in the framing that had not been made and pinned
+with an exact precision. In its scanty shadow his daughter sat knitting
+beside a smouldering fire over which somebody had suspended a big
+blackened kettle. The crash of the last falling trunk had died away, and
+there was silence in the bluff; but a drumming of hoofs rose in a sharp
+staccato from the prairie.
+
+"Now," said Muller quietly, "I think the chasseurs come."
+
+The girl looked up a moment, noticed the four mounted figures that swung
+over the crest of a rise, and then went on with her knitting again. Still,
+there was for a second a little flash in her pale blue eyes.
+
+The horsemen came on, the dust floating in long wisps behind them, until,
+with a jingle of bridle and stirrup, they pulled up before the building.
+Three of them were bronzed and dusty, in weather-stained blue shirts, wide
+hats, and knee-boots that fitted them like gloves; and there was ironical
+amusement in their faces. Each sat his horse as if he had never known any
+other seat than the saddle; but the fourth was different from the rest. He
+wore a jacket of richly embroidered deerskin, and the shirt under it was
+white; while he sat with one hand in a big leather glove resting on his
+hip. His face was sallow and his eyes were dark.
+
+"Hallo, Hamburg!" he said, and his voice had a little commanding ring.
+"You seem kind of busy."
+
+Muller blinked at him. He had apparently not yet found his spectacles, but
+he had in the meanwhile come upon his axe, and now stood very straight,
+with the long haft reaching to his waist.
+
+"Ja," he said. "Mine house I build."
+
+"Well," said the man in the embroidered jacket, "I fancy you're wasting
+time. Asked anybody's leave to cut that lumber, or put it up?"
+
+"Mine friend," said Muller, smiling, "when it is nod necessary I ask
+nodings of any man."
+
+"Then," said the horseman drily, as he turned to his companions, "I fancy
+that's where you're wrong. Boys, we'll take him along in case Torrance
+would like to see him. I guess you'll have to walk home, Jim."
+
+A man dismounted and led forward his horse with a wrench upon the bridle
+that sent it plunging. "Get your foot in the stirrup, Hamburg, and I'll
+hoist you up," he said.
+
+Muller stood motionless, and the horseman in deerskin glancing round in
+his direction saw his daughter for the first time. He laughed; but there
+was something in his black eyes that caused the Teuton's fingers to close
+a trifle upon the haft of the axe.
+
+"You'll have to get down, Charlie, as well as Jim," he said. "Torrance has
+his notions, or Coyote might have carried Miss Hamburg that far as well.
+Sorry to hurry you, Hamburg, but I don't like waiting."
+
+Muller stepped back a pace, and the axe-head flashed as he moved his hand;
+while, dazzled by the beam it cast, the half-tamed broncho rose with hoofs
+in the air. Its owner smote it on the nostrils with his fist, and the pair
+sidled round each other--the man with his arm drawn back, the beast with
+laid-back ears--for almost a minute before they came to a standstill.
+
+"Mine friend," said Muller, "other day I der pleasure have. I mine house
+have to build."
+
+"Get up," said the stockrider. "Ever seen anybody fire off a gun?"
+
+Muller laughed softly, and glanced at the leader. "Der rifle," he said
+drily. "I was at Sedan. To-day it is not convenient that I come."
+
+"Hoist him up!" said the leader, and once more, while the other man moved
+forward, Muller stepped back; but this time there was an answering flash
+in his blue eyes as the big axe-head flashed in the sun.
+
+"I guess we'd better hold on," said another man. "Look there, Mr.
+Clavering."
+
+He pointed to the bluff, and the leader's face darkened as he gazed, for
+four men with axes were running down the slope, and they were lean and
+wiry, with very grim faces. They were also apparently small farmers or
+lumbermen from the bush of Michigan, and Clavering knew such men usually
+possessed a terrible proficiency with the keen-edged weapon, and
+stubbornness was native in them. Two others, one of whom he knew, came
+behind them. The foremost stopped, and stood silent when the man Clavering
+recognized signed to them, but not before each had posted himself
+strategically within reach of a horseman's bridle.
+
+"You might explain, Clavering, what you and your cow-boys are doing here,"
+he said.
+
+Clavering laughed. "We are going to take your Teutonic friend up to the
+Range. He is cutting our fuel timber with nobody's permission."
+
+"No," said Grant drily; "he has mine. The bluff is on my run."
+
+"Did you take out timber rights with your lease?" asked Clavering.
+
+"No, I hadn't much use for them. None of my neighbours hold any either.
+But the bluff is big enough, and I've no objection to their cutting what
+billets they want. Still, I can't have them driving out any other friends
+of mine."
+
+Clavering smiled ironically. "You have been picking up some curious
+acquaintances, Larry; but don't you think you had better leave this thing
+to Torrance? The fact is, the cattle-men are not disposed to encourage
+strangers building houses in their country just now."
+
+"I had a notion it belonged to this State. It's not an unusual one," said
+Grant.
+
+Clavering shrugged his shoulders. "Of course, it sounds better that way.
+Have it so. Still, it will scarcely pay you to make yourself unpopular
+with us, Larry."
+
+"Well," said Grant drily, "it seems to me I'm tolerably unpopular already.
+But that's not quite the point. Take your boys away."
+
+Clavering flung his hand up in half-ironical salutation, but as he was
+about to wheel his horse a young Englishman whose nationality was plainly
+stamped upon him seized his bridle.
+
+"Not quite so fast!" he said. "It would be more fitting if you got down
+and expressed your regrets to the fraeulein. You haven't heard Muller's
+story yet, Larry."
+
+"Let go," said Clavering, raising the switch he held. "Drop my bridle or
+take care of yourself!"
+
+"Come down," said Breckenridge.
+
+The switch went up and descended hissing upon part of an averted face; but
+the lad sprang as it fell, and the next moment the horse rose almost
+upright with two men clinging to it; one of them, whose sallow cheeks were
+livid now, swaying in the saddle. Then Grant grasped the bridle that fell
+from the rider's hands, and hurled his comrade backwards, while some of
+the stockriders pushed their horses nearer, and the axe-men closed in
+about them.
+
+Hoarse cries went up. "Horses back! Pull him off! Give the Britisher a
+show! Leave them to it!"
+
+It was evident that a blunder would have unpleasant results, for
+Clavering, with switch raised, had tightened his left hand on the bridle
+Grant had loosed again, while a wicked smile crept into his eyes, and the
+lad stood tense and still, with hands clenched in front of him, and a weal
+on his young face. Grant, however, stepped in between them.
+
+"We've had sufficient fooling, Breckenridge," he said. "Clavering, I'll
+give you a minute to get your men away, and if you can't do it in that
+time you'll take the consequences."
+
+Clavering wheeled his horse. "The odds are with you, Larry," he said. "You
+have made a big blunder, but I guess you know your own business best."
+
+He nodded, including the fraeulein, with an easy insolence that yet became
+him, touched the horse with his heel, and in another moment he and his
+cow-boys were swinging at a gallop across the prairie. Then, as they
+dipped behind a rise, those who were left glanced at one another.
+Breckenridge was very pale, and one of his hands was bleeding where
+Clavering's spur had torn it.
+
+"It seems that we have made a beginning," he said hoarsely. "It's first
+blood to them, but this will take a lot of forgetting, and the rest may be
+different."
+
+Grant made no answer, but turned and looked at Muller, who stood very
+straight and square, with a curious brightness in his eyes.
+
+"Are you going on with the contract? There is the girl to consider," said
+Grant.
+
+[Illustration: "COME DOWN!"--Page 47.]
+
+"Ja," said the Teuton. "I was in der Vosges, and der girl is also Fraeulein
+Muller."
+
+"Boys," said Grant to the men from Michigan, "you have seen what's in
+front of you, and you'll probably have to use more than axes before you're
+through. Still, you have the chance of clearing out right now. I only want
+willing men behind me."
+
+One of the big axe-men laughed scornfully, and there was a little sardonic
+grin in the faces of the rest.
+
+"There's more room for us here than there was in Michigan, and now we've
+got our foot down here we're not going back again," he said. "That's about
+all there is to it. But when our time comes, the other men aren't going to
+find us slacker than the Dutchman."
+
+Grant nodded gravely. "Well," he said very simply, "I guess the Lord who
+made this country will know who's in the right and help them. They'll need
+it. There's a big fight coming."
+
+Then they went back to their hewing in the bluff, and the Fraeulein Muller
+went on with her knitting.
+
+
+
+
+V
+
+HETTY COMES HOME
+
+
+It was an afternoon of the Indian summer, sunny and cool, and the maples
+about the Schuyler villa flamed gold and crimson against a sky of softest
+blue, when Hetty Torrance sat reflectively silent on the lawn. Flora
+Schuyler sat near her, with a book upside down upon her knee.
+
+"You have been worrying about something the last few weeks," she said.
+
+"Is that quite unusual?" asked Hetty. "Haven't a good many folks to worry
+all the time?"
+
+Flora Schuyler smiled. "Just finding it out, Hetty? Well, I have noticed a
+change, and it began the day you waited for us at the depot. And it wasn't
+because of Jake Cheyne."
+
+"No," said Hetty reflectively. "I suppose it should have been. Have you
+heard from him since he went away?"
+
+"Lily Cheyne had a letter with some photographs, and she showed it to me.
+It's a desolate place in the sage bush he's living in, and there's not a
+white man, except the boys he can't talk to, within miles of him, while
+from the picture I saw of his adobe room I scarcely think folks would have
+it down here to keep hogs in. Jake Cheyne was fastidious, too, and there
+was a forced cheerfulness about his letter which had its meaning, though,
+of course, he never mentioned you."
+
+Hetty flushed a trifle. "Flo, I'm sorry. Still, you can't blame me."
+
+"No," said Miss Schuyler, "though there was a time when I wished I could.
+You can't help being pretty, but it ought to make you careful when you see
+another of them going that way again."
+
+Hetty made a little impatient gesture. "If there ever is another, he'll be
+pulled up quite sharp. You don't think their foolishness, which spoils
+everything, is any pleasure to me. It's too humiliating. Can't one be
+friends with a nice man without falling in love with him?"
+
+"Well," said Miss Schuyler drily, "it depends a good deal on how you're
+made; but it's generally risky for one or the other. Still, perhaps you
+might, for I have a fancy there's something short in you. Now, I'm going
+to ask you a question. Is it thinking of the other man that has made you
+restless? I mean the one we saw at the depot?"
+
+Hetty laughed outright. "Larry? Why, as I tried to tell you, he has always
+been just like a cousin or a brother to me, and doesn't want anything but
+his horses and cattle and his books on political economy. Larry's quite
+happy with his ranching, and his dreams of the new America. Of course,
+they'll never come to anything; but when you can start him talking they're
+quite nice to listen to."
+
+Flora Schuyler shook her head. "I wouldn't be too sure. That man is in
+earnest, and the dreams of an earnest American have a way of coming true.
+You have known him a long while, and I've only seen him once, but that man
+will do more than talk if he ever has the opportunity. He has the quiet
+grit one finds in the best of us--not the kind that make the speeches--and
+some Englishmen, in him. You can see it in his eyes."
+
+"Then," said Hetty, with a little laugh, "come back with me to Cedar, and
+if you're good you shall have him. It isn't everybody I'd give Larry to."
+
+There was a trace of indignation in Flora Schuyler's face. "I fancy he
+would not appreciate your generosity, and there's a good deal you have got
+to find out, Hetty," she said drily. "It may hurt you when you do. But you
+haven't told me yet what has been worrying you."
+
+"No," said Hetty, with a little wistful smile. "Well, I'm going to. It's
+hard to own to, but I'm a failure. I fancied I could make everybody listen
+to my singing, and I would come here. Well, I came, and found out that my
+voice would never bring me fame, and for a time it hurt me horribly.
+Still, I couldn't go back just then, and when you and your mother pressed
+me I stayed. I knew what you expected, and I disappointed you. Perhaps I
+was too fastidious, but there were none of them that really pleased me.
+Then I began to see that I was only spoiling nicer girls' chances and
+trying the patience of everybody."
+
+"Hetty!" said Flora Schuyler, but Miss Torrance checked her.
+
+"Wait until I'm through. Then it became plain to me that while I'd been
+wasting my time here the work I was meant for was waiting at Cedar. The
+old man who gave me everything is very lonely there, and he and Larry have
+been toiling on while I flung 'most what a ranch would cost away on
+lessons and dresses and fripperies, which will never be any good to me.
+Still, I'm an American, too, and now, when there's trouble coming, I'm
+going back to the place I belong to."
+
+"You are doing the right thing now," said Flora Schuyler.
+
+Hetty smiled somewhat mirthlessly. "Well," she said, "because it's hard, I
+guess I am; but there's one thing would make it easier. You will come and
+stay with me. You don't know how much I want you; and New York in winter
+doesn't suit you. You're pale already. Come and try our clear, dry cold."
+
+Eventually Miss Schuyler promised, and Hetty rose. "Then it's fixed," she
+said. "I'll write the old man a dutiful letter now, while I feel like
+doing it well."
+
+The letter was duly written, and, as it happened, reached Torrance as he
+sat alone one evening in his great bare room at Cedar Range. Among the
+papers on the table in front of him were letters from the cattle-men's
+committees, which had sprung into existence every here and there, and
+Torrance apparently did not find them reassuring, for there was care in
+his face. It had become evident that the big ranchers' rights were mostly
+traditional, and already, in scattered detachments, the vanguard of the
+homesteaders' host was filing in. Here and there they had made their
+footing good; more often, by means not wholly constitutional, their
+outposts had been driven in; but it was noticeable that Torrance and his
+neighbours still believed them no more than detachments, and had not heard
+the footsteps of the rest. Three years' residence in that land had changed
+the aliens into American citizens, but a lifetime of prosperity could
+scarcely efface the bitterness they had brought with them from the east,
+while some, in spite of their crude socialistic aspirations, were drilled
+men who had herded the imperial legions like driven cattle into Sedan.
+More of native birth, helots of the cities, and hired hands of the plains,
+were also turning desiring eyes upon the wide spaces of the cattle
+country, where there was room for all.
+
+Torrance opened his letter and smiled somewhat drily. It was affectionate
+and not without its faint pathos, for Hetty had been stirred when she
+wrote; but the grim old widower felt no great desire for the gentle
+attentions of a dutiful daughter just then.
+
+"We shall be at Cedar soon after you get this," he read among the rest. "I
+know if I had told you earlier you would have protested you didn't want
+me, just because you foolishly fancied I should be lonely at the Range;
+but I have been very selfish, and you must have been horribly lonely too;
+and one of the nicest girls you ever saw is coming to amuse you. You can't
+help liking Flo. Of course I had to bring a maid; but you will have to
+make the best of us, because you couldn't stop us now if you wanted to."
+
+It was noticeable that Torrance took the pains to confirm this fact by
+reference to a railroad schedule, and, finding it incontrovertible, shook
+his head.
+
+"Three of them," he said.
+
+Then he sat still with the letter in his hand, while a trace of tenderness
+crept into his face, which, however, grew grave again, until there was a
+tapping at the door, and Clavering came in.
+
+"You seem a trifle worried, sir, and if you're busy I needn't keep you
+long," he said. "I just wanted to hand you a cheque for the subscription
+you paid for me."
+
+"Sit down," said Torrance. "Where did you get the dollars from?"
+
+Clavering appeared almost uneasy for a moment, but he laughed. "I've been
+thinning out my cattle."
+
+"That's not a policy I approve of just now. We'll have the rabble down
+upon us as soon as we show any sign of weakening."
+
+Clavering made a little deprecatory gesture. "It wasn't a question of
+policy. I had to have the dollars. Still, you haven't told me if you have
+heard anything unpleasant from the other committees."
+
+Torrance appeared thoughtful. He suspected that Clavering's ranch was
+embarrassed, and the explanation was plausible.
+
+"No," he said. "It was something else. Hetty is on her way home, and she
+is bringing another young woman and a maid with her. They will be here
+before I can stop them. Still, I could, if it was necessary, send them
+back."
+
+Clavering did not answer for a moment, though Torrance saw the faint gleam
+in his dark eyes, and watched him narrowly. Then he said, "You will find a
+change in Miss Torrance, sir. She has grown into a beautiful young woman,
+and has, I fancy, been taught to think for herself in the city; you could
+not expect her to come back as she left the prairie. And if anything has
+induced her to decide that her place is here, she will probably stay."
+
+"You're not quite plain. What could induce her?"
+
+Clavering smiled, though he saw that the shot had told. "It was
+astonishing that Miss Torrance did not honour me with her confidence. A
+sense of duty, perhaps, although one notices that the motives of young
+women are usually a trifle involved. It, however, appears to me that if
+Miss Torrance makes up her mind to stay, we are still quite capable of
+guarding our women from anxiety or molestation."
+
+"Yes," said Torrance grimly. "Of course. Still, we may have to do things
+we would sooner they didn't hear about or see. Well, you have some news?"
+
+Clavering nodded. "I was in at the railroad, and fifty Dakota men came in
+on the cars. I went round to the hotel with the committee, and, though it
+cost some dollars to fix the thing, they wouldn't take them in. The boys,
+who got kind of savage, found a pole and drove the door in, but we turned
+the Sheriff, who had already sworn some of us in, loose on them. Four or
+five men were nastily clubbed, and one of James's boys was shot through
+the arm, while I have a fancy that the citizens would have stood in with
+the other crowd; but seeing they were not going to get anything to eat
+there, they held up a store, and as we told the man who kept it how their
+friends had sacked Regent, he fired at them. The consequence is that the
+Sheriff has some of them in jail, and the rest are camped down on the
+prairie. We hold the town."
+
+"Through the Sheriff?"
+
+Clavering laughed. "He'll earn his pay. Has it struck you that this
+campaign is going to cost us a good deal? Allonby hasn't much left in hand
+already."
+
+"Oh, yes," said the older man, with a little grim smile. "If it's wanted
+I'll throw my last dollar in. Beaten now and we're beaten for ever. We
+have got to win."
+
+Clavering said nothing further, though he realized, perhaps more clearly
+than his leader, that it was only by the downfall of the cattle-men the
+small farmer could establish himself, and, when he had handed a cheque to
+Torrance, went out.
+
+It was three days later when Hetty Torrance rose from her seat in a big
+vestibule car as the long train slackened speed outside a little Western
+station. She laughed as she swept her glance round the car.
+
+"Look at it, Flo," she said; "gilding and velvet and nickel, all quite in
+keeping with the luxury of the East. You are environed by civilization
+still; but once you step off the platform there will be a difference."
+
+Flora Schuyler, who noticed the little flush in her companion's face,
+glanced out of the dusty window, for the interior of the gently-rocking
+car, with its lavish decoration and upholstery, was not new to her, and
+the first thing that caught her eye was the miscellaneous deposit of
+rubbish, old boots, and discarded clothing, amidst the willows that slowly
+flitted by. Then she saw a towering water-tank, wooden houses that rose
+through a haze of blowing dust, hideous in their unadornment, against a
+crystalline sky, and a row of close-packed stock-cars which announced that
+they were in the station.
+
+It seemed to be thronged with the populace, and there was a murmur,
+apparently of disappointed expectancy, when, as the cars stopped, the
+three women alone appeared on the platform. Then there was a shout for the
+conductor, and somebody said, "You've no rustlers aboard for us?"
+
+"No," said the grinning official who leaned out from the door of the
+baggage-car. "The next crowd are waiting until they can buy rifles to whip
+you with."
+
+Hoarse laughter followed, and somebody said, "Boys, your friends aren't
+coming. You can take your band home again."
+
+Then out of the clamour came the roll of a drum, and, clear and musical,
+the ringing of bugles blown by men who had marched with Grant and Sherman
+when they were young. The effect was stirring, and a cheer went up, for
+there were other men present in whom the spirit which, underlying
+immediate issues, had roused the North to arms was living yet; but it
+broke off into laughter when, one by one, discordant instruments and
+beaten pans joined in. The din, however, ceased suddenly, when somebody
+said, "Hadn't you better let up, boys, or Torrance will figure you sent
+the band for him?"
+
+Miss Schuyler appeared a trifle bewildered, the maid frightened; but
+Hetty's cheeks were glowing.
+
+"Flo," she said, "aren't you glad you came? The boys are taking the trail.
+We'll show you how we stir the prairie up by and by!"
+
+Miss Schuyler was very doubtful as to whether the prospect afforded her
+any pleasure; but just then a grey-haired man, dressed immaculately in
+white shirt and city clothes, kissed her companion, and then, taking off
+his hat, handed her down from the platform with ceremonious courtesy. He
+had a grim, forceful face, with pride and command in it, and Miss
+Schuyler, who felt half afraid of him then, never quite overcame the
+feeling. She noticed, however, that he paid equal attention to the
+terrified maid.
+
+"It would be a duty to do our best for any of Hetty's friends who have
+been so kind to her in the city, but in this case it's going to be a
+privilege, too," he said. "Well, you will be tired, and they have a meal
+waiting you at the hotel. This place is a little noisy to-day, but we'll
+start on the first stage of your journey when you're ready."
+
+He gave Miss Schuyler his arm, and moved towards the thickest of the
+crowd, which, though apparently slightly hostile, made way for him. Here
+and there a man drove his fellows back, and one, catching up a loose
+plank, laid it down for the party to cross the rail switches on. Torrance
+turned to thank him, but the man swept his hat off with a laugh.
+
+"I wouldn't worry; it wasn't for you," he said. "It's a long while since
+we've seen anything so pretty as Miss Torrance and the other one."
+
+Flora Schuyler flushed a little, but Hetty turned to the speaker with a
+sparkle in her eyes.
+
+"Now," she said, "that was 'most worth a dollar, and if I didn't know what
+kind of man you were, I'd give it you. But what about Clarkson's Lou?"
+
+There was a laugh from the assembly, and the man appeared embarrassed.
+
+"Well," he said slowly, "she went off with Jo."
+
+Miss Torrance nodded sympathetically. "Still, if she knew no better than
+that, I wouldn't worry. Jo had a cast in his eye."
+
+The crowd laughed again, and Flora Schuyler glanced at her companion with
+some astonishment as she asked, "Do you always talk to them that way?"
+
+"Of course," said Hetty. "They're our boys--grown right here. Aren't they
+splendid?"
+
+Miss Schuyler once more appeared dubious, and made no answer; but she
+noticed that the man now preceded them, and raised his hand when they came
+up with the band, which had apparently halted to indulge in retort or
+badinage with some of those who followed them.
+
+"Hold on a few minutes, boys, and down with that flag," he said.
+
+Then a tawdry banner was lowered suddenly between two poles, but not
+before Miss Torrance had seen part of the blazoned legend. Its unvarnished
+forcefulness brought a flush to her companion's cheek.
+
+"Dad," she asked more gravely, "what is it all about?"
+
+Torrance laughed a little. "That," he said, "is a tolerably big question.
+It would take quite a long while to answer it."
+
+They had a street to traverse, and Hetty saw that it was filled with
+little knots of men, some of whom stared at her father, though as she
+passed their hats came off. Miss Schuyler, on her part, noticed that most
+of the stores were shut, and felt that she had left New York a long way
+behind as she glanced at the bare wooden houses cracked by frost and sun,
+rickety plank walks, whirling wisps of dust, and groups of men, splendid
+in their lean, muscular symmetry and picturesque apparel. There was a
+boldness in their carriage, and a grace that approached the statuesque in
+every poise. Still, she started when they passed one wooden building where
+blue-shirted figures with rifles stood motionless in the verandah.
+
+"The jail," said Torrance, quietly. "The Sheriff has one or two rioters
+safe inside there."
+
+They found an indifferent meal ready at the wooden hotel, and when they
+descended in riding dress a wagon with their baggage was waiting outside
+the door, while a few mounted men with wide hats and bandoliers came up
+with three saddle-horses. Torrance bestowed the maid in the light wagon,
+and, when the two girls were mounted, swung himself into the saddle. Then,
+as they trotted down the unpaved street, Hetty glanced at him and pointed
+to the dusty horsemen.
+
+"What are the boys for?" she asked.
+
+Torrance smiled grimly. "I told you we had our troubles. It seemed better
+to bring them, in case we had any difficulty with Larry's friends."
+
+"Larry's friends?" asked Hetty, almost indignantly.
+
+Torrance nodded. "Yes," he said. "You have seen a few of them. They were
+carrying the flag with the inscription at the depot."
+
+Hetty asked nothing further, but Flora Schuyler noticed the little flash
+in her eyes, and as they crossed the railroad track the clear notes of the
+bugles rose again and were followed by a tramp of feet. Glancing over
+their shoulders the girls could see men moving in a body, with the flag
+they carried tossing amidst the dust. They were coming on in open fours,
+and when the bugles ceased deep voices sent a marching song ringing across
+the wooden town.
+
+Hetty's eyes sparkled; the stockriders seemed to swing more lightly in
+their saddles, and Flora Schuyler felt a little quiver run through her.
+Something that jingling rhythm and the simple words expressed but
+inarticulately stirred her blood, as she remembered that in her nation's
+last great struggle the long battalions had limped on, ragged and
+footsore, singing that song.
+
+"Listen," said Hetty, while the colour crept into her face. "Oh, I know
+it's scarcely music, and the crudest verse; but it served its purpose, and
+is there any nation on earth could put more swing and spirit into the
+grandest theme?"
+
+Torrance smiled somewhat drily, but there was a curious expression in his
+face. "Some of those men are drawing their pension, but they're not with
+us," he said. "It's only because we have sent in all the boys we can spare
+that the Sheriff, who has their partners in his jail, can hold the town."
+
+A somewhat impressive silence followed this, and Flora Schuyler glanced at
+Hetty when they rode out into the white prairie with two dusty men with
+bandoliers on either flank.
+
+
+
+
+VI
+
+THE INCENDIARY
+
+
+Events of no apparent moment have extensive issues now and then, and while
+cattle-man and homesteader braced themselves for the conflict which they
+felt would come, the truce might have lasted longer but for the fact that
+one night Muller slept indifferently in the new house he had built. He was
+never quite sure what made him restless, or prompted him to open and lean
+out of his window; and, when he had done this, he saw and heard nothing
+unusual for a while.
+
+On one hand the birch bluff rose, a dusky wall, against the indigo of the
+sky, and in front of him the prairie rolled away, silent and shadowy.
+There was scarcely a sound but the low ripple of the creek, until,
+somewhere far off in the distance, a coyote howled. The drawn-out wail had
+in it something unearthly, and Muller, who was by no means an imaginative
+man, shivered a little. The deep silence of the great empty land
+emphasized by the sound reacted upon him and increased his restlessness.
+
+Scarcely knowing why he did so, except that he felt he could not sleep, he
+slipped on a few garments, and moved softly to the door, that he might not
+disturb his daughter. There was no moon when he went out, but the stars
+shone clearly in the great vault of blue, and the barns and stables he had
+built rose black against the sky. Though Grant had lent him assistance and
+he had hewn the lumber on the spot, one cannot build a homestead and equip
+it for nothing, and when he had provided himself with working horses,
+Muller had sunk the last of his scanty capital in the venture. It was
+perhaps this fact which induced him to approach the stable, moving
+noiselessly in his slippers, and glance within.
+
+The interior was black and shadowy, but there was no doubting the fact
+that the beasts were moving restlessly. Muller went in, holding his breath
+as he peered about him, and one broncho backed away as he approached its
+stall. Muller patted it on the flank, and the horse stood still, as though
+reassured, when it recognized him, which was not without its meaning. He
+listened, but hearing nothing groped round the stable, and taking a
+hayfork went out as softly as he had entered, and took up his post in the
+deepest shadow, where he commanded outbuildings and house. There was, he
+knew, nobody but Grant dwelling within several leagues of him, and as yet
+property was at least as safe in that country as it was in Chicago or New
+York; but as he leaned, impassively watchful, against the wall, he
+remembered an episode which had happened a few weeks earlier.
+
+He had been overtaken by a band of stockriders when fording the creek with
+his daughter, and one who loitered behind them reined his horse in and
+spoke to the girl. Muller never knew what his words had been; but he saw
+the sudden colour in the fraeulein's face, and seized the man's bridle. An
+altercation ensued, and when the man rejoined his comrades, who apparently
+did not sympathize with him, his bridle hand hung limp and the farmer was
+smiling as he swung a stick. Muller attached no especial importance to the
+affair; but Grant, who did not tell him so, differed in this when he heard
+of it. He knew that the cattle-rider is usually rather chivalrous than
+addicted to distasteful gallantries.
+
+In any case, Muller heard nothing for a while, and felt tempted to return
+to his bed when he grew chilly. He had, however, spent bitter nights
+stalking the franc tireurs in the snow, and the vigilance taught and
+demanded by an inflexible discipline had not quite deserted him, though he
+was considerably older and less nimble now. At last, however, a dim,
+moving shadow appeared round a corner of the building, stopped a moment,
+and then slid on again towards the door. So noiseless was it that Muller
+could almost have believed his eyes had deceived him until he heard the
+hasp rattle. Still, he waited until the figure passed into the stable, and
+then very cautiously crept along the wall. Muller was not so vigorous as
+he had been when proficiency in the use of the bayonet had been drilled
+into him; but while his fingers tightened on the haft of the fork he
+fancied that he had still strength enough to serve his purpose. He had
+also been taught to use it to the best advantage.
+
+He straightened himself a little when he stood in the entrance and looked
+about him. There was a gleam of light in the stable now, for a lantern
+stood upon a manger and revealed by its uncertain glimmer a pile of
+prairie hay, with a kerosene-can upon it, laid against the logs. Muller
+was not wholly astonished, but he was looking for more than that, and the
+next moment he saw a shadowy object apparently loosing the nearest horse's
+halter. It was doubtless a merciful deed, but it was to cost the
+incendiary dear; for when, perhaps warned by some faint sound, he looked
+up suddenly, he saw a black figure between him and the door.
+
+On the instant he dropped the halter, and the hand that had held it
+towards his belt; but, as it happened, the horse pinned him against the
+stall, and his opportunity had passed when it moved again. Muller had
+drawn his right leg back with his knee bent a trifle, and there was a
+rattle as he brought the long fork down to the charge. Thus, when the man
+was free the deadly points twinkled in a ray from the lantern within a
+foot of his breast. It was also unpleasantly evident that a heave of the
+farmer's shoulder would bury them in the quivering flesh.
+
+"Hands oop!" a stern voice said.
+
+The man delayed a second. The butt of the pistol that would equalize the
+affair was almost within his grasp, and Muller stood in the light, but he
+saw an ominous glint in the pale blue eyes and the farmer's fingers
+tighten on the haft. There was also a suggestive raising of one shoulder;
+and his hands went up above his head. Muller advanced the points an inch
+or two, stiffening his right leg, and smiled grimly. The other man stared
+straight in front of him with dilated eyes, and a little grey patch
+growing larger in either cheek.
+
+"Are you going to murder me, you condemned Dutchman?" he said.
+
+"Yes," said Muller tranquilly, "if you der movement make. So! It is done
+without der trouble when you have der bayonet exercise make."
+
+The points gleamed as they swung forward, and the man gasped; but they
+stopped at the right second, and Muller, who had hove his burly form a
+trifle more upright, sank back again, bringing his foot down with a stamp.
+The little demonstration was more convincing than an hour of argument.
+
+"Well," said the man hoarsely, "I'm corralled. Throw that thing away, and
+I'll give you my pistol."
+
+Muller laughed, and then raised his great voice in what was to the other
+an unknown tongue. "Lotta," he said, "Come quick, and bring the American
+rifle."
+
+There was silence for perhaps five minutes, and the men watched each
+other, one white in the face and quivering a little, his adversary
+impassive as a statue, but quietly observant. Then there was a patter of
+hasty footsteps, and the fraeulein stood in the lantern light with a
+flushed, plump face and somewhat scanty dress. She apparently recognized
+the man, and her colour deepened, but that was the only sign of confusion
+she showed; and it was evident that the discipline of the fatherland had
+not been neglected in Muller's household.
+
+"Lotta," he said in English, "open der little slide. You feel der
+cartridge? Now, der butt to der shoulder, und der eye on der sight, as I
+have teach you. Der middle of him is der best place. I shout, und you
+press quite steady."
+
+He spoke with a quiet precision that had its effect; and, whatever the
+girl felt, she obeyed each command in rotation. There was, however, one
+danger which the stranger realized, and that was that with an involuntary
+contraction of the forefinger she might anticipate the last one.
+
+"She'll shoot me before she means to," he said, with a little gasp. "Come
+and take the condemned pistol."
+
+"Der middle of him!" said Muller tranquilly. "No movement make, you!"
+
+Dropping the fork he moved forward, not in front of the man, but to his
+side, and whipped the pistol from his belt.
+
+"One turn make," he said. "So! Your hand behind you. Lotta, you will now a
+halter get."
+
+The girl's loose bodice rose and fell as she laid down the rifle, but she
+was swift, and in less than another minute Muller had bound his captive's
+hands securely behind his back and cross-lashed them from wrist to elbow.
+He inspected the work critically and then nodded, as if contented.
+
+[Illustration: "SHE'LL SHOOT ME BEFORE SHE MEANS TO."--Page 66.]
+
+"Lotta," he said, "put der saddle on der broncho horse. Then in der house
+you der cordial find, und of it one large spoonful mit der water take. My
+pipe you bring me also, und then you ride for Mr. Grant."
+
+The girl obeyed him; and when the drumming of horse-hoofs died away Muller
+sat down in front of his prisoner, who now lay upon a pile of prairie hay,
+and with his usual slow precision lighted his big meerschaum. The American
+watched him for a minute or two, and then grew red in the face as a fit of
+passion shook him.
+
+"You condemned Dutchman!" he said.
+
+Muller laughed. "Der combliment," he said, "is nod of much use to-night."
+
+It was an hour later when Grant and several horsemen arrived, and he
+nodded as he glanced at the prisoner.
+
+"I figured it was you. There's not another man on the prairie mean enough
+for this kind of work," he said, pointing to the kerosene-can. "You didn't
+even know enough to do it decently, and you're about the only American
+who'd have let an old man tie his hands."
+
+The prisoner winced perceptibly. "Well," he said hoarsely, glancing
+towards the hayfork, rifle, and pistol, which still lay at Muller's feet,
+"if you're astonished, look at the blamed Dutchman's armoury."
+
+"I've one thing to ask you," Grant said sternly. "It's going to pay you to
+be quite straight with me. Who hired you?"
+
+There was defiance in the incendiary's eyes, but Grant was right in his
+surmise that he was resolute only because that of the two fears which
+oppressed him he preferred to bear the least.
+
+"You can ask till you get sick of it, but you'll get nothing out of me,"
+he said.
+
+"Take him out," said Grant. "Put him on to the led horse. If you'll come
+round to my place for breakfast, I'll be glad to see you, Muller."
+
+"I come," said Muller. "Mit der franc tireur it is finish quicker, but
+here in der Republic we reverence have for der law."
+
+Grant laughed a little. "Well," he said drily, "I'm not quite sure."
+
+He swung himself to the saddle, swept off his hat to the girl, who stood
+with the lantern light upon her in the doorway, smiling but flushed, and
+shook his bridle. Then there was a jingle that was lost in the thud of
+hoofs, and the men vanished into the shadowy prairie. Half an hour later
+the homestead was once more dark and silent; but three men sent out by
+Grant were riding at a reckless gallop across the great dusky levels, and
+breakfast was not finished when those whom they had summoned reached
+Fremont ranch.
+
+They were young men for the most part, and Americans, though there were a
+few who had only just become so among them, and two or three whose grim
+faces and grey hair told of a long struggle with adversity. They were clad
+in blue shirts and jean, and the hard brown hands of most betokened a
+close acquaintance with plough stilt, axe, and bridle, though here and
+there one had from his appearance evidently lived delicately. All appeared
+quietly resolute, for they knew that the law which had given them the
+right to build their homes upon that prairie as yet left them to bear the
+risks attached to the doing of it. Hitherto, the fact that the great
+ranchers had made their own laws and enforced them had been ignored or
+tacitly accepted by the State.
+
+When they were seated, one of the men deputed to question the prisoner,
+stood up. "You can take it that there's nothing to be got out of him," he
+said.
+
+"Still," said another, "we know he is one of Clavering's boys."
+
+There was a little murmur, for of all the cattle-barons Clavering was the
+only man who had as yet earned his adversaries' individual dislike. They
+were prepared to pull down the others because their interests, which they
+had little difficulty in fancying coincided with those of their country,
+demanded it; but Clavering, with his graceful insolence, ironical contempt
+of them, and thinly-veiled pride, was a type of all their democracy
+anathematized. More than one of them had winced under his soft laugh and
+lightly spoken jibes, which rankled more than a downright injury.
+
+"The question is what we're going to do with him," said a third speaker.
+
+Again the low voices murmured, until a man stood up. "There's one cure for
+his complaint, and that's a sure one, but I'm not going to urge it now,"
+he said. "Boys, we don't want to be the first to take up the rifle, and it
+would make our intentions quite as plain if we dressed him in a coat of
+tar and rode him round the town. Nobody would have any use for him after
+that, and it would be a bigger slap in Clavering's face than anything else
+we could do to him."
+
+Some of the men appeared relieved, for it was evident they had no great
+liking for the sterner alternative; and there was acclamation until Grant
+rose quietly at the head of the table.
+
+"I've got to move a negative," he said. "It would be better if you handed
+him to the Sheriff."
+
+There was astonishment in most of the faces, and somebody said, "The
+Sheriff! He'd let him go right off. The cattle-men have got the screw on
+him."
+
+"Well," said Larry quietly, "he has done his duty so far, and may do it
+again. I figure we ought to give him the chance."
+
+Exclamations of dissent followed, and a man with a grim, lean face stood
+up. He spoke tolerable English, but his accent differed from that of the
+rest.
+
+"The first man put it straight when he told you there was only one
+cure--the one they found out in France a hundred years ago," he said. "You
+don't quite realize it yet. You haven't lived as we did back there across
+the sea, and seen your women thrust off the pavement into the gutter to
+make room for an officer, or been struck with the sword-hilt if you
+resented an insult before your fellow citizens. Will you take off your
+hats to the rich men who are trampling on you, you republicans, and, while
+they leave you the right of speech, beg them to respect your rights and
+liberties? Do that, and sit still a little, and they'll fasten the yoke
+we've groaned under on your necks."
+
+"I don't know that it isn't eloquent, but it isn't business," said
+somebody.
+
+The man laughed sardonically. "That's where you're wrong," he said. "I'm
+trying to show you that if you want your liberties you've got to fight for
+them, and your leader doesn't seem to know when, by hanging one man, he
+can save a hundred from misery. It's not the man who laid the kindling
+you're striking at, but, through him, those who employed him. Let them see
+you'll take your rights without leave of them. They've sent you warning
+that if you stay here they'll burn your homesteads down, and they're
+waiting your answer. Hang their firebug where everyone can see him, in the
+middle of the town."
+
+It was evident that the men were wavering. They had come there with the
+law behind them, but, from their youth up, some following visions that
+could never be realized, had hated the bureaucrat, and the rest, crippled
+by the want of dollars, had fought with frost and drought and hail. It was
+also plain that they felt the capture of the incendiary had given them an
+opportunity. Then, when a word would have turned the scale, Grant stood up
+at the head of the table, very resolute in face.
+
+"I still move a negative and an amendment, boys," he said. "First, though
+that's not the most important, because I've a natural shrinking from
+butchering an unarmed man. Secondly, it was not the cattle-men who sent
+him, but one of them, and just because he meant to draw you on it would be
+the blamedest bad policy to humour him. Would Torrance, or Allonby, or the
+others, have done this thing? They're hard men, but they believe they're
+right, as we do, and they're Americans. Now for the third reason: when
+Clavering meant to burn Muller's homestead, he struck at me, guessing that
+some of you would stand behind me. He knew your temper, and he'd have
+laughed at us as hot-blooded rabble--you know how he can do it--when he'd
+put us in the wrong. Well, this time we'll give the law a show."
+
+There was discussion, but Larry sat still, saying nothing further, with a
+curious gravity in his face, until a man stood up again.
+
+"We think you're right," he said. "Still, there's a question. What are you
+going to do if they try again?"
+
+"Strike," said Larry quietly. "I'll go with you to the hanging of the next
+one."
+
+Nothing more was said, and the men rode away with relief in their faces,
+though three of them, girt with rifle and bandolier, trotted behind the
+wagon in which the prisoner sat.
+
+
+
+
+VII
+
+LARRY PROVES INTRACTABLE
+
+
+It was some little time after her arrival at Cedar Range when Miss
+Torrance, who took Flora Schuyler with her, rode out across the prairie.
+There were a good many things she desired to investigate personally, and,
+though a somewhat independent young woman, she was glad that the
+opportunity of informing Torrance of her intention was not afforded her,
+since he had ridden off somewhere earlier in the day. It also happened
+that although the days were growing colder she arrayed herself
+fastidiously in a long, light skirt, which she had not worn since she left
+Cedar, and which with the white hat that matched it became her better than
+the conventional riding attire. Miss Schuyler naturally noticed this.
+
+"Is it a garden party we are going to?" she asked.
+
+Hetty laughed. "We may meet some of our neighbours, and after staying with
+you all that while in New York I don't want to go back on you. I had the
+thing specially made in Chicago for riding in."
+
+Miss Schuyler was not quite satisfied, but she made no further comment,
+and there was much to occupy her attention. The bleached plain was bright
+with sunshine and rolled back into the distance under an arch of cloudless
+blue, while the crisp, clear air stirred her blood like an elixir. They
+swept up a rise and down it, the colour mantling in their faces, over the
+long hollow, and up a slope again, until, as the white grass rolled behind
+her, Flora Schuyler yielded to the exhilaration of swift motion, and,
+flinging off the constraint of the city, rejoiced in the springy rush of
+the mettlesome beast beneath her. Streaming white levels, the blue of the
+sliding sky, the kiss of the wind on her hot cheek, and the roar of hoofs,
+all reacted upon her until she laughed aloud when she hurled her half-wild
+broncho down a slope.
+
+"This is surely the finest country in the world," she said.
+
+The words were blown behind her, but Hetty caught some of them, and, when
+at last she drew bridle where a rise ran steep and seamed with
+badger-holes against the sky, nodded with a little air of pride.
+
+"Oh, yes, and it's ours. All of it," she said. "Worth fighting for, isn't
+it?"
+
+Flora Schuyler laughed a little, but she shook her head. "It's a pity one
+couldn't leave that out. You would stay here with your men folk if there
+was trouble?"
+
+Hetty looked at her with a little flash in her eyes. "Why, of course! It's
+our country. We made it, and I'd go around in rags and groom the boys'
+horses if it would help them to whip out the men who want to take it from
+us."
+
+Flora Schuyler smiled a trifle drily. "The trouble is that when we fall
+out, one is apt to find as good Americans as we are, and sometimes the men
+we like the most, standing in with the opposition. It has happened quite
+often since the war."
+
+Hetty shook her bridle impatiently. "Then, of course, one would not like
+them any longer," she said.
+
+Nothing more was said until they crossed the ridge above them, when Hetty
+pulled her horse up. Across the wide levels before her advanced a line of
+dusty teams, the sunlight twinkling on the great breaker ploughs they
+hauled, while the black loam rolled in softly gleaming waves behind them.
+They came on with slow precision, and in the forefront rolled a great
+machine that seamed and rent the prairie into triple furrows.
+
+"What are they doing there? Do they belong to you?" asked Miss Schuyler.
+
+The flush the wind had brought there turned to a deeper crimson in Hetty's
+usually colourless face. "To us!" she said, and her voice had a thrill of
+scorn. "They're homesteaders. Ride down. I want to see who's leading
+them."
+
+She led the way with one little gloved hand clenched on the dainty switch
+she held; but before she reached the foremost team the man who pulled it
+up sprang down from the driving-seat of the big machine. A tall wire
+fence, with a notice attached to it, barred his way. The other ploughs
+stopped behind him, somebody brought an axe, and Hetty set her lips when
+the glistening blade whirled high and fell. Thrice it flashed in the
+sunlight, swung by sinewy arms, and then, as the fence went down, a low,
+half-articulate cry rose from the waiting men. It was not exultant, but
+there was in it the suggestion of a steadfast purpose.
+
+Hetty sat still and looked at them, a little sparkle in her dark eyes, and
+a crimson spot in either cheek, while the laces that hung from her neck
+across the bodice of the white dress rose and fell. It occurred to Flora
+Schuyler that she had never seen her companion look half so well, and she
+waited with strained expectancy for what should follow, realizing, with
+the dramatic instinct most women have, who the man with the axe must be.
+He turned slowly, straightening his back and stood for a moment erect and
+statuesque, with the blue shirt open at his bronzed neck and the great axe
+gleaming in his hand; and Hetty gasped. Miss Schuyler's surmise was
+verified, for it was Larry Grant.
+
+"Larry," said her companion, and her voice had a curious ring, "what are
+you doing here?"
+
+The man, who appeared to ignore the question, swung off his wide hat.
+"Aren't you and Miss Schuyler rather far from home?" he asked.
+
+Flora Schuyler understood him when, glancing round, she noticed the figure
+of a mounted man forced up against the skyline here and there. Hetty,
+however, had evidently not seen them.
+
+"I want an answer, please," she said.
+
+"Well," said Larry gravely, "I was cutting down that fence."
+
+"Why were you cutting it down?" persisted Miss Torrance.
+
+"It was in the way."
+
+"Of what?"
+
+Grant turned and pointed to the men, sturdy toilers starved out of bleak
+Dakota and axe-men farmers from the forests of Michigan. "Of these, and
+the rest who are coming by and by," he said. "Still, I don't want to go
+into that; and you seem angry. You haven't offered to shake hands with me,
+Hetty."
+
+Miss Torrance sat very still, one hand on the switch, and another on the
+bridle, looking at him with a little scornful smile on her lips. Then she
+glanced at the prairie beyond the severed fence.
+
+"That land belongs to my friends," she said.
+
+Grant's face grew a trifle wistful, but his voice was grave. "They have
+had the use of it, but it belongs to the United States, and other people
+have the right to farm there now. Still, that needn't make any trouble
+between you and me."
+
+"No?" said the girl, with a curious hardness in her inflection; but her
+face softened suddenly. "Larry, while you only talked we didn't mind; but
+no one fancied you would have done this. Yes, I'm angry with you. I have
+been home 'most a month, and you never rode over to see me; while now you
+want to talk politics."
+
+Grant smiled a trifle wearily. "I would sooner talk about anything else;
+and if you ask him, your father will tell you why I have not been to the
+range. I don't want to make you angry, Hetty."
+
+"Then you will give up this foolishness and make friends with us again,"
+said the girl, very graciously. "It can't come to anything, Larry, and you
+are one of us. You couldn't want to take away our land and give it to this
+rabble?"
+
+Hetty was wholly bewitching, as even Flora Schuyler, who fancied she
+understood the grimness in the man's face, felt just then. He, however,
+looked away across the prairie, and the movement had its significance to
+one of the company, who, having less at stake, was the more observant.
+When he turned again, however, he seemed to stand very straight.
+
+"I'm afraid I can't," he said.
+
+"No?" said Hetty, still graciously. "Not even when I ask you?"
+
+Grant shook his head. "They have my word, and you wouldn't like me to go
+back upon what I feel is right," he said.
+
+Hetty laughed. "If you will think a little, you can't help seeing that you
+are very wrong."
+
+Again the little weary smile crept into Grant's face. "One naturally
+thinks a good deal before starting in with this kind of thing, and I have
+to go through. I can't stop now, even to please you. But can't we still be
+friends?"
+
+For a moment there was astonishment in the girl's face, then it flushed,
+and as her lips hardened and every line in her slight figure seemed to
+grow rigid, she reminded Miss Schuyler of the autocrat of Cedar Range.
+
+"You ask me that?" she said. "You, an American, turning Dutchmen and these
+bush-choppers loose upon the people you belong to. Can't you see what the
+answer must be?"
+
+Grant did apparently, for he mutely bent his head; but there was a shout
+just then, and when one of the vedettes on the skyline suddenly moved
+forward he seized Miss Torrance's bridle and wheeled her horse.
+
+"Ride back to the Range," he said sharply, "as straight as you can. Tell
+your father that you met me. Let your horse go, Miss Schuyler."
+
+As he spoke he brought his hand down upon the beast's flank and it went
+forward with a bound. The one Flora Schuyler rode flung up its head, and
+in another moment they were sweeping at a gallop across the prairie. A
+mile had been left behind before Hetty could pull her half-broken horse
+up; but the struggle that taxed every sinew had been beneficial, and she
+laughed a trifle breathlessly.
+
+"I'm afraid I lost my temper; and I'm angry yet," she said. "It's the
+first time Larry wouldn't do what I asked him, and it was mean of him to
+send us off like that, just when one wanted to put on all one's dignity."
+
+Miss Schuyler appeared thoughtful. "I fancy he did it because it was
+necessary. Didn't it strike you that you were hurting him? That is a good
+man and an honest one, though, of course, he may be mistaken."
+
+"He must be," said Hetty. "Now I used to think ever so much of Larry, and
+that is why I got angry with him. It isn't nice to feel one has been
+fooled. How can he be good when he wants to take our land from us?"
+
+Flora Schuyler laughed. "You are quite delightful, Hetty, now and then.
+You have read a little, and been taught history. Can't you remember any?"
+
+"Oh yes," said Hetty, with a little thoughtful nod. "Still, the men who
+made the trouble in those old days were usually buried before anyone was
+quite sure whether they were right or not. Try to put yourself in my
+place. What would you do?"
+
+There was a somewhat curious look in Miss Schuyler's blue eyes. "I think
+if I had known a man like that one as long as you have done, I should
+believe in him--whatever he did."
+
+"Well," said Hetty gravely, "if you had, just as long as you could
+remember, seen your father and his friends taking no pleasure, but working
+every day, and putting most of every dollar they made back into the ranch,
+you would find it quite difficult to believe that the man who meant to
+take it from them now they were getting old and wanted to rest and enjoy
+what they had worked for was doing good."
+
+Flora Schuyler nodded. "Yes," she said, "I would. It's quite an old
+trouble. There are two ways of looking at everything, and other folks have
+had to worry over them right back to the beginning."
+
+Then she suddenly tightened her grasp on the bridle, for the ringing of a
+rifle rose, sharp and portentous, from beyond the rise. The colour faded
+in her cheek, and Hetty leaned forward a trifle in her saddle, with lips
+slightly parted, as though in strained expectancy. No sound now reached
+them from beyond the low, white ridge that hemmed in their vision but a
+faint drumming of hoofs. Then Flora Schuyler answered the question in her
+companion's eyes.
+
+"I think it was only a warning," she said.
+
+She wheeled her horse and they rode on slowly, hearing nothing further,
+until the Range rose from behind the big birch bluff. Torrance had
+returned when they reached it, and Hetty found him in his office room.
+
+"I met Larry on the prairie, and of course I talked to him," she said. "I
+asked him why he had not been to the Range, and he seemed to think it
+would be better if he did not come."
+
+Torrance smiled drily. "Then I guess he showed quite commendable taste as
+well as good sense. You are still decided not to go back to New York,
+Hetty?"
+
+"Yes," said the girl, with a little resolute nod. "You see, I can't help
+being young and just a little good-looking, but I'm Miss Torrance of Cedar
+all the time."
+
+Torrance's face was usually grim, but it grew a trifle softer then.
+"Hetty," he said, "they taught you a good many things I never heard of at
+that Boston school, but I'm not sure you know that all trade and industry
+is built upon just this fact: what a man has made and worked hard for is
+his own. Would anyone put up houses or raise cattle if he thought his
+neighbours could take them from him? Now there's going to be trouble over
+that question here, and, though it isn't likely, your father may be beaten
+down. He may have to do things that wouldn't seem quite nice to a dainty
+young woman, and folks may denounce him; but it's quite plain that if you
+stay here you will have to stand in with somebody."
+
+The girl, who was touched by the unusual tenderness in his eyes, sat down
+upon the table, and slipped an arm about his neck.
+
+"Who would I stand in with but you?" she said. "We'll whip the rustlers
+out of the country, and, whether it sounds nice at the time or not, you
+couldn't do anything but the square thing."
+
+Torrance kissed her gravely, but he sighed and his face grew stern again
+when she slipped out of the room.
+
+"There will not be many who will come through this trouble with hands
+quite clean," he said.
+
+It was during the afternoon, and Torrance had driven off again, when, as
+the two girls were sitting in the little room which was set apart for
+them, a horseman rode up to the Range, and Flora Schuyler, who was nearest
+the window, drew back the curtain.
+
+"That man should sit on horseback always," she said; "he's quite a
+picture."
+
+Hetty nodded. "Yes," she said. "Still, you told me you didn't like him.
+It's Clavering. Now, I wonder what he put those things on for--he doesn't
+wear them very often--and whether he knew my father wasn't here."
+
+Clavering would probably have attracted the attention of most young women
+just then, for he had dressed himself in the fashion the prairie
+stockriders were addicted to, as he did occasionally, perhaps because he
+knew it suited him. He had artistic perceptions, and could adapt himself
+harmoniously to his surroundings, and he knew Hetty's appreciation of the
+picturesque. His sallow face showed clean cut almost to feminine
+refinement under the wide hat, and the blue shirt which clung about him
+displayed his slender symmetry. It was, however, not made of flannel, but
+apparently of silk, and the embroidered deerskin jacket which showed the
+squareness of his shoulders, was not only daintily wrought, but had
+evidently cost a good many dollars. His loose trousers and silver spurs
+were made in Mexican fashion: but the boldness of the dark eyes, and the
+pride that revealed itself in the very pose of the man, redeemed him from
+any taint of vanity.
+
+He sat still until a hired man came up, then swung himself from the
+saddle, and in another few moments had entered the room with his wide hat
+in his hand.
+
+"You find us alone," said Hetty. "Are you astonished?"
+
+"I am content," said Clavering. "Why do you ask me?"
+
+"Well," said Hetty naively, "I fancied you must have seen my father on the
+prairie, and could have stopped him if you had wanted to."
+
+There was a little flash in Clavering's dark eyes that was very eloquent.
+"The fact is, I did. Still, I was afraid he would want to take me along
+with him."
+
+Hetty laughed. "I am growing up," she said. "Three years ago you wouldn't
+have wasted those speeches on me. Well, you can sit down and talk to
+Flora."
+
+Clavering did as he was bidden. "It's a time-honoured question," he said.
+"How do you like this country?"
+
+"There's something in its bigness that gets hold of one," said Miss
+Schuyler. "One feels free out here on these wide levels in the wind and
+sun."
+
+Clavering nodded, and Flora Schuyler fancied from his alertness that he
+had been waiting for an opportunity. "It would be wise to enjoy it while
+you can," he said. "In another year or two the freedom may be gone, and
+the prairie shut off in little squares by wire fences. Then one will be
+permitted to ride along a trail between rows of squalid homesteads flanked
+by piles of old boots and provision-cans. We will have exchanged the
+stockrider for the slouching farmer with a swarm of unkempt children and a
+slatternly, scolding wife then."
+
+"You believe that will come about?" asked Miss Schuyler, giving him the
+lead she felt he was waiting for.
+
+Clavering looked thoughtful. "It would never come if we stood loyally
+together, but--and it is painful to admit it--one or two of our people
+seem quite willing to destroy their friends to gain cheap popularity by
+truckling to the rabble. Of course, we could spare those men quite well,
+but they know our weak points, and can do a good deal of harm by betraying
+them."
+
+"Now," said Hetty, with a sparkle in her eyes, "you know quite well that
+if some of them are mistaken they will do nothing mean. Can't they have
+their notions and be straight men?"
+
+"It is quite difficult to believe it," said Clavering. "I will tell you
+what one or two of them did. There was trouble down at Gordon's place
+fifty miles west, and his cow-boys whipped off a band of Dutchmen who
+wanted to pull his fences down. Well, they came back a night or two later
+with a mob of Americans, and laid hands on the homestead. We are proud of
+the respect we pay women in this country, Miss Schuyler, but that night
+Mrs. Gordon's and her daughters' rooms were broken into, and the girls
+turned out on the prairie. It was raining, and I believe they were not
+even allowed to provide themselves with suitable clothing. Of course,
+nothing of that kind could happen here, or I would not have told you."
+
+Hetty's voice was curiously quiet as she asked, "Was nothing done to
+provoke them?"
+
+"Yes," said Clavering, with a dry smile, "Gordon shot one of them; but is
+it astonishing? What would you expect of an American if a horde of rabble
+who held nothing sacred poured into his house at night? Oh, yes, he shot
+one of them, and would have given them the magazine, only that somebody
+felled him with an axe. The Dutchman was only grazed, but Gordon is lying
+senseless still."
+
+There was an impressive silence, and the man sat still with the veins on
+his forehead a trifle swollen and a glow in his eyes. His story was also
+accurate, so far as it went; but he had, with a purpose, not told the
+whole of it.
+
+"You are sure there were Americans among them?" asked Hetty, very
+quietly.
+
+"They were led by Americans. You know one or two of them."
+
+"No," said Hetty, almost fiercely. "I don't know. But Larry wasn't
+there?"
+
+Clavering shook his head, but there was a curious incisiveness in his
+tone. "Still, we found out that his committee was consulted and
+countenanced the affair."
+
+"Then Larry wasn't at the meeting," said Miss Torrance. "He couldn't have
+been."
+
+Clavering made her a little and very graceful inclination. "One would
+respect such faith as yours."
+
+Miss Schuyler, who was a young woman of some penetration, deftly changed
+the topic, and Clavering came near to pleasing her, but he did not quite
+succeed, before he took his departure. Then Hetty glanced inquiringly at
+her companion.
+
+Flora Schuyler nodded. "I know just what you mean, and I was mistaken."
+
+"Yes?" said Hetty. "Then you like him?"
+
+Miss Schuyler shook her head. "No. I fancied he was clever, and he didn't
+come up to my expectations. You see, he was too obvious."
+
+"About Larry?"
+
+"Yes. Are you not just a little inconsistent, Hetty?"
+
+Miss Torrance laughed. "I don't know," she said. "I am, of course, quite
+angry with Larry, but nobody else has a right to abuse him."
+
+Flora Schuyler said nothing further, and while she sat in thoughtful
+silence Clavering walked down the hall with Hetty's maid. He was a
+well-favoured man, and the girl was vain. She blushed when he looked down
+on her with a trace of admiration in his smile.
+
+"You like the prairie?" he said.
+
+She admitted that she was pleased with what she had seen of it, and
+Clavering's assumed admiration became bolder.
+
+"Well, it's a good country, and different from the East," he said. "There
+are a good many more dollars to be picked up here, and pretty women are
+quite scarce. They usually get married right off to a rancher. Now I guess
+you came out to better yourself. It takes quite a long time to get rich
+down East."
+
+The girl blushed again, and when she informed him that she had a crippled
+sister who was a charge on the family, Clavering smiled as he drew on a
+leather glove.
+
+"You'll find you have struck the right place," he said. "Now I wonder if
+you could fix a pin or something in this button shank. It's coming off,
+you see."
+
+The girl did it, and when he went out found a bill lying on the table
+where he had been standing. The value of it somewhat astonished her, but
+after a little deliberation she put it in her pocket.
+
+"If he doesn't ask for it when he comes back I'll know he meant me to keep
+it," she said.
+
+
+
+
+VIII
+
+THE SHERIFF
+
+
+Miss Schuyler had conjectured correctly respecting the rifle-shot which
+announced the arrival of a messenger; a few minutes after the puff of
+white smoke on the crest of the rise had drifted away, a mounted man rode
+up to Grant at a gallop. His horse was white with dust and spume, but his
+spurs were red.
+
+"Railroad district executive sent me on to let you know the Sheriff had
+lost your man," he said.
+
+"Lost him," said Grant.
+
+"Well," said the horseman, "put it as it pleases you, but, as he had him
+in the jail, it seems quite likely he let him go."
+
+There was a growl from the teamsters who had clustered round, and Grant's
+face grew stern. "He was able to hold the two homesteaders Clavering's
+boys brought him."
+
+"Oh, yes," said the other, "he has them tight enough. You'll remember one
+of the cattle-boys and a storekeeper got hurt during the trouble, and our
+men are not going to have much show at the trial Torrance and the Sheriff
+are fixing up!"
+
+"Then," said Grant wearily, "we'll stop that trial. You will get a fresh
+horse in my stable and tell your executive I'm going to take our men out
+of jail, and if it suits them to stand in they can meet us at the trail
+forks, Thursday, ten at night."
+
+The man nodded. "I'm tolerably played out, but I'll start back right now,"
+he said.
+
+He rode off towards the homestead, and Grant turned to the rest. "Jake,
+you'll take the eastern round; Charley, you'll ride west. Give them the
+handful of oats at every shanty to show it's urgent. They're to be at
+Fremont in riding order at nine to-morrow night."
+
+In another ten minutes the men were riding hard across the prairie, and
+Grant, with a sigh, went on with his ploughing. It would be next year
+before he could sow, and whether he would ever reap the crop was more than
+any man in that region would have ventured to predict. He worked however,
+until the stars were out that night and commenced again when the red sun
+crept up above the prairie rim the next day; but soon after dusk mounted
+men rode up one by one to Fremont ranch. They rode good horses, and each
+carried a Winchester rifle slung behind him when they assembled, silent
+and grim, in the big living-room.
+
+"Boys," said Grant quietly, "we have borne a good deal, and tried to keep
+the law, but it is plain that the cattle-men, who bought it up, have left
+none for us. Now, the Sheriff, who has the two homesteaders safe, has let
+the man we sent him go."
+
+There was an ominous murmur and Grant went on. "The homesteaders, who only
+wanted to buy food and raised no trouble until they were fired on, will be
+tried by the cattle-men, and I needn't tell you what kind of chance
+they'll get. We pledged ourselves to see they had fair play when they came
+in, and there's only one means of getting it. We are going to take them
+from the Sheriff, but there will be no fighting. We'll ride in strong
+enough to leave no use for that. Now, before we start, are you all willing
+to ride with me?"
+
+Again a hoarse murmur answered him, and Grant, glancing down the row of
+set faces under the big lamps, was satisfied.
+
+"Then we'll have supper," he said quietly. "It may be a long while before
+any of us gets a meal again."
+
+It was a silent repast. As yet the homesteaders, at least in that
+district, had met contumely with patience and resisted passively each
+attempt to dislodge them, though it had cost their leader a strenuous
+effort to restrain the more ardent from the excesses some of their
+comrades farther east had already committed; but at last the most peaceful
+of them felt that the time to strike in turn had come. They mounted when
+supper was over and rode in silence past willow bluff and dusky rise
+across the desolate waste. The badger heard the jingle of their bridles,
+and now and then a lonely coyote, startled by the soft drumming of the
+hoofs, rose with bristling fur and howled; but no cow-boy heard their
+passage, or saw them wind in and out through devious hollows when daylight
+came. Still, here and there an anxious woman stood, with hazy eyes, in the
+door of a lonely shanty, wondering whether the man she had sent out to
+strike for the home he had built her would ever ride back again. For they,
+too, had their part in the struggle, and it was perhaps the hardest one.
+
+It was late at night when they rode into the wooden town. Here and there a
+window was flung open; but the night was thick and dark, and there was
+little to see but the dust that whirled about the dimly flitting forms.
+That, however, was nothing unusual, for of late squadrons of stockriders
+and droves of weary cattle had passed into the town; and a long row of
+shadowy frame houses had been left behind before the fears of any citizen
+were aroused. It was, perhaps, their silent haste that betrayed the
+horsemen, for they rode in ordered ranks without a word, as men who have
+grim business in hand, until a hoarse shout went up. Then a pistol flashed
+in the darkness in front of them, doors were flung open, lights began to
+blink, and a half-seen horseman came on at a gallop down the shadowy
+street. He pulled his horse up within a pistol-shot from the homesteaders,
+and sat still in his saddle staring at them.
+
+"You'll have to get down, boys, or tell me what you want," he said. "You
+can't ride through here at night without a permit."
+
+There was a little ironical laughter, and somebody asked, "Who's going to
+stop us?"
+
+"The Sheriff's guard," said the horseman. "Stop right where you are until
+I bring them."
+
+"Keep clear," said Grant sternly, "or we'll ride over you. Forward,
+boys!"
+
+There was a jingle of bridles, and the other man wheeled his horse as the
+heels went home. Quick as he was, the foremost riders were almost upon
+him, and as he went down the street at a gallop the wooden houses flung
+back a roar of hoofs. Every door was open now and the citizens peering
+out. Lights flashed in the windows, and somebody cried, "The rustler boys
+are coming!"
+
+Other voices took up the cry; hoots of derision mingled with shouts of
+greeting, but still, without an answer, the men from the prairie rode on,
+Grant peering into the darkness as he swung in his saddle at the head of
+them. He saw one or two mounted men wheel their horses, and more on foot
+spring clear of the hoofs, and then the flash of a rifle beneath the black
+front of a building. A flagstaff ran up into the night above it, and there
+were shadowy objects upon the verandah. Grant threw up a hand.
+
+"We're here, boys," he said.
+
+Then it became evident that every man's part had been allotted him, for
+while the hindmost wheeled their horses, and then sat still, with rifles
+across their saddles, barring the road by which they had come, the
+foremost pressed on, until, pulling up, they left a space behind them and
+commanded the street in front. The rest dismounted, and while one man
+stood at the heads of every pair of horses, the rest clustered round Grant
+in the middle of the open space. The jail rose dark and silent before
+them, and for the space of a moment or two there was an impressive
+stillness. It was broken by a shout from one of the rearguard.
+
+"There's quite a crowd rolling up. Get through as quick as you can!"
+
+Grant stood forward. "We'll give you half a minute to send somebody out to
+talk to us, and then we're coming in," he said.
+
+The time was almost up before a voice rose from the building: "Who are
+you, any way, and what do you want?"
+
+"Homesteaders," was the answer. "We want the Sheriff."
+
+"Well," said somebody, "I'll tell him."
+
+Except for a growing clamour in the street behind there was silence until
+Breckenridge, who stood near Grant touched him,
+
+"I don't want to meddle, but aren't we giving them an opportunity of
+securing their prisoners or making their defences good?" he said.
+
+"That's sense, any way," said another man. "It would be 'way better to go
+right in now, while we can."
+
+Grant shook his head. "You have left this thing to me, and I want to put
+it through without losing a man. Men don't usually back down when the
+shooting begins."
+
+Then a voice rose from the building: "You wanted the Sheriff. Here he
+is."
+
+A shadowy figure appeared at a window, and there was a murmur from Grant's
+men.
+
+"He needn't be bashful," said one of them. "Nobody's going to hurt him.
+Can't you bring a light, so we can see him?"
+
+A burst of laughter followed, and Grant held up his hand. "It would be
+better, Sheriff; and you have my word that we'll give you notice before we
+do anything if we can't come to terms."
+
+It seemed from the delay that the Sheriff was undecided, but at last a
+light was brought, and the men below saw him standing at the window with
+an anxious face, and behind him two men with rifles, whose dress
+proclaimed them stockriders. He could also see the horsemen below, as
+Grant, who waited until the sight had made its due impression, had
+intended that he should. There were a good many of them, and the effect of
+their silence and the twinkling of light on their rifles was greater than
+that of any uproar would have been.
+
+"Now you can see me, you needn't keep me waiting," said the Sheriff, with
+an attempt at jauntiness which betrayed his anxiety. "What do you want?"
+
+"Two of your prisoners," said Grant.
+
+"I'm sorry you can't have them," said the Sheriff. "Hadn't you better ride
+home again before I turn the boys loose on you?"
+
+But his voice was not quite in keeping with his words, and it would have
+been wiser if he had turned his face aside.
+
+"It's a little too far to ride back without getting what we came for,"
+said Grant quietly. "Now, we have no great use for talking. We want two
+homesteaders, and we mean to get them; but that will satisfy us."
+
+"You want nobody else?"
+
+"No. You can keep your criminals, or let them go, just as it suits you."
+
+There was a laugh from some of the horsemen, which was taken up by the
+crowd and swelled into a storm of cries. Some expressed approval, others
+anger, and the Sheriff stepped backwards.
+
+"Then," he said hoarsely, "if you want your friends, you must take them."
+
+The next moment the window shut with a bang, and the light died out,
+leaving the building once more in darkness.
+
+"Get to work," said Grant. "Forward, those who are going to cover the
+axe-men!"
+
+There was a flash from the verandah, apparently in protest and without
+intent to hurt, for the next moment a few half-seen objects flung
+themselves over the balustrade as the men with the axes came up, and
+others with rifles took their places a few paces behind them. Then one of
+the horsemen shouted a question.
+
+"Let them pass," said Grant.
+
+The door was solid and braced with iron, but those who assailed it had
+swung the axe since they had the strength to lift it, and in the hands of
+such men it is a very effective implement. The door shook and rattled as
+the great blades whirled and fell, each one dropping into the notch the
+other had made; the men panted as they smote; the splinters flew in
+showers.
+
+"Holding out still!" gasped one of them. "There's iron here. Get some of
+the boys to chop that redwood pillar, and we'll drive it down."
+
+There was an approving murmur, but Grant grasped the man by the shoulder.
+"No," he said. "We haven't come to wreck the town. I've another plan if
+you're more than two minutes getting in."
+
+The axes whirled faster, and at last a man turned breathlessly. "Get
+ready, boys," he said. "One more on the bolt head, Jake, and we're in!"
+
+A brawny man twice whirled the hissing blade about his head, and as he
+swung forward with both hands on the haft with a dull crash the wedge of
+tempered steel clove the softer metal. The great door tilted and went
+down, and Breckenridge sprang past the axe-men through the opening. His
+voice came back exultantly out of the shadowy building. "It was the old
+country sent you the first man in!"
+
+The men's answer was a shout as they followed him, with a great trampling
+down the corridor, but the rest of the building was very silent, and
+nobody disputed their passage until at last a man with grey hair appeared
+with a lantern behind an iron grille.
+
+"Open that thing," said somebody.
+
+The man smiled drily. "I couldn't do it if I wanted to. I've given my keys
+away."
+
+One or two of the homesteaders glanced a trifle anxiously behind them. The
+corridor was filling up, and it dawned upon them that if anything barred
+their egress they would be helpless.
+
+"Then what are you stopping for?" asked somebody.
+
+"It's in my contract," said the jailer quietly. "I was raised in Kentucky.
+You don't figure I'm scared of you?"
+
+"No use for talking," said a man. "You can't argue with him. Go ahead with
+your axes and beat the blamed thing in."
+
+It cost them twenty minutes' strenuous toil; but the grille went down, and
+two of the foremost seized the jailer.
+
+"Let him go," said Grant quietly. "Now, we can't fool time away with you.
+Where's the Sheriff?"
+
+"I don't quite know," said the jailer, and the contempt in his voice
+answered the question.
+
+Grant laughed a little. "Well," he said, "I guess he's sensible. Now, what
+you have got to do is to bring out the two homesteaders as quick as you
+can."
+
+"I told you I couldn't do it," said the other man.
+
+"You listen to me. We are going to take those men out, if we have to pull
+this place to pieces until we find them. That, it's quite plain, would let
+the others go, and you would lose the whole of your prisoners instead of
+two of them. Tell us where you put them, and you can keep the rest."
+
+"That's square?"
+
+"Oh, yes," said Grant. "There are quite enough men of their kind loose in
+this country already."
+
+"Straight on," said the jailer. "First door."
+
+They went on in silence, but there was a shout when somebody answered
+their questions from behind a door, which a few minutes later tottered and
+fell beneath the axes. Then, amidst acclamation, they led two men out, and
+showed them to the jailer.
+
+"You know them?" said Grant. "Well, you can tell your Sheriff there wasn't
+a cartridge in the rifles of the men who opened his jail. He'll come back
+when the trouble's over, but it seems to me the cattle-men have wasted a
+pile of dollars over him."
+
+He laughed when a question met them as they once more trampled into the
+verandah.
+
+"Yes," he said. "The boys are bringing them!"
+
+Two horses were led forward, and the released men swung themselves into
+the saddle. There was a hasty mounting, and when the men swung into open
+fours a shout went up from the surging crowd.
+
+"They have taken the homesteaders out. The Sheriff has backed down."
+
+A roar followed that expressed approbation and disgust; it was evident
+that the sympathies of the citizens were divided. In the momentary silence
+Grant's voice rang out:
+
+"Sling rifles! Keep your order and distance! Forward, boys!"
+
+Again a hoarse cry went up, but there was only applause in it now, for the
+crowd recognized the boldness of the command and opened out, pressing back
+against the houses as the little band rode forward. Their silence was
+impressive, but the leader knew his countrymen, for, while taunts and
+display would have courted an onset, nobody seemed anxious to obstruct the
+men who sat unconcernedly in their saddles, with the rifles which alone
+warranted their daring disdainfully slung behind them.
+
+On they went past clusters of wondering citizens, shouting sympathizers,
+and silent cattle-men, until there was a hoot of derision, and, perhaps in
+the hope of provoking a conflict in which the rest would join, a knot of
+men pushed out into the street from the verandah of the wooden hotel.
+Grant realized that a rash blow might unloose a storm of passion and rouse
+to fury men who were already regretting their supineness.
+
+"Keep your pace and distance!" he commanded.
+
+Looking straight in front of them, shadowy and silent, the leading four
+rode on, and once more the crowd melted from in front of them. As the last
+of the band passed through the opening that was made for them a man
+laughed as he turned in his saddle.
+
+"We can't stay any longer, boys, but it wasn't your fault. It's a man you
+want for Sheriff," he said.
+
+"No talking there! Gallop!" said Grant, and the horsemen flitted across
+the railroad track, and with a sinking thud of hoofs melted into the
+prairie. They had accomplished their purpose, and the cattle-men, going
+back disgustedly to remonstrate with the Sheriff, for a while failed to
+find him.
+
+
+
+
+IX
+
+THE PRISONER
+
+
+The prairie was shining white in the moonlight with the first frost when
+Torrance, Hetty, and Miss Schuyler drove up to Allonby's ranch. They were
+late in arriving and found a company of neighbours already assembled in
+the big general room. It was panelled with cedar from the Pacific slope,
+and about the doors and windows were rich hangings of tapestry, but the
+dust was thick upon them and their beauty had been wasted by the moth.
+Tarnished silver candlesticks and lamps which might have come from England
+a century ago, and a scarred piano littered with tattered music, were in
+keeping with the tapestry; for signs of taste were balanced by those of
+neglect, while here and there a roughly patched piece of furniture
+conveyed a plainer hint that dollars were scanty with Allonby. He was from
+the South, a spare, grey-haired man, with a stamp of old-fashioned
+dignity, and in his face a sadness not far removed from apathy and which,
+perhaps, accounted for the condition of his property.
+
+His guests, among whom were a number of young men and women, were,
+however, apparently light-hearted, and had whiled away an hour or two with
+song and badinage. A little removed from them, in a corner with the great
+dusty curtain of a window behind her, sat Hetty Torrance with Allonby's
+nephew and daughter. Miss Allonby was pale and slight and silent; but her
+cousin united the vivacity of the Northerner with the distinction that is
+still common in the South, and--for he was very young--Hetty found a
+mischievous pleasure in noticing his almost too open admiration for Flora
+Schuyler, who sat close beside them. A girl was singing indifferently, and
+when she stopped, Miss Allonby raised her head as a rhythmical sound
+became audible through the closing chords of the piano.
+
+"Somebody riding here in a hurry!" she said.
+
+It was significant that the hum of voices which followed the music ceased
+as the drumming of hoofs grew louder; the women looked anxious and the men
+glanced at one another. Tidings brought in haste were usually of moment
+then. Torrance, however, stood up and smiled at the assembly.
+
+"I guess some of those rascally rustlers have been driving off a steer
+again," he said. "Can't you sing us something, Clavering?"
+
+Clavering understood him, and it was a rollicking ballad he trolled out
+with verve and spirit; but still, though none of the guests now showed it
+openly, the anxious suspense did not abate, and by and by Miss Allonby
+smiled at the lad beside her somewhat drily.
+
+"Never mind the story, Chris. I guess we know the rest. That man is riding
+hard, and you are as anxious as any of us," she said.
+
+A minute or two later there was a murmur of voices below, and Allonby went
+out. Nobody appeared to notice this, but the hum of somewhat meaningless
+talk which followed and the strained look in one or two of the women's
+faces had its meaning. Every eye was turned towards the doorway until
+Allonby came back and spoke with Torrance apart. Then he smiled
+reassuringly upon his guests.
+
+"You will be pleased to hear that some of our comrades have laid hands
+upon one of the leaders in the attack upon the jail," he said. "They want
+to lodge him here until they can send for the Sheriff's posse, and of
+course I could only agree. Though the State seems bent on treating us
+somewhat meanly, we are, I believe, still loyal citizens, and I feel quite
+sure you will overlook any trifling inconvenience the arrival of the
+prisoner may cause you."
+
+"Doesn't he put it just a little curiously?" suggested Flora Schuyler.
+
+"Well," said Christopher Allonby, "it really isn't nice to have one of our
+few pleasant evenings spoiled by this kind of thing."
+
+"You don't understand. I am quite pleased with your uncle, but there's
+something that amuses me in the idea of jailing one's adversary from
+patriotic duty."
+
+Christopher Allonby smiled. "There's a good deal of human nature in most
+of us, and it's about time we got even with one or two of them."
+
+"Find out about it, Chris," said Miss Allonby; "then come straight back
+and tell us."
+
+The young man approached a group of his elders who were talking together,
+and returned by and by.
+
+"It was done quite smartly," he said. "One of the homestead boys who had
+fallen out with Larry came over to us, and I fancy it was Clavering fixed
+the thing up with him. The boys didn't know he had deserted them, and the
+man he took the oats to believed in him."
+
+"I can't remember you telling a tale so one could understand it, Chris,"
+said Miss Allonby. "Why did he take the oats to him?"
+
+The lad laughed. "They have their committees and executives, and when a
+man has to do anything they send a few grains of oats to him. One can't
+see much use in it, and we know 'most everything about them; but it makes
+the thing kind of impressive, and the rustler fancied our boy was square
+when he got them. He was to ride over alone and meet somebody from one of
+the other executives at night in a bluff. He went, and found a band of
+cattle-boys waiting for him. I believe he hadn't a show at all, for the
+man who went up to talk to him grabbed his rifle, but it seems he managed
+to damage one or two of them."
+
+"You don't know who he is?" asked Miss Allonby; and Flora Schuyler noticed
+a sudden intentness in Hetty's eyes.
+
+"No," said the lad, "but the boys will be here with him by and by, and I'm
+glad they made quite sure of him, any way."
+
+Hetty's eyes sparkled. "You can't be proud of them! It wasn't very
+American."
+
+"Well, we can't afford to be too particular, considering what we have at
+stake; though it might have sounded nicer if they had managed it
+differently. You don't sympathize with the homestead boys, Miss
+Torrance?"
+
+"Of course not!" said Hetty, with a little impatient gesture. "Still, that
+kind of meanness does not appeal to me. Even the men we don't like would
+despise it. They rode into the town without a cartridge in their rifles,
+and took out their friends in spite of the Sheriff, while the crowd looked
+on."
+
+"It was Larry Grant fixed that, and 'tisn't every day you can find a man
+like him. It 'most made me sick when I heard he had gone over to the
+rabble."
+
+"You were a friend of his?" asked Flora Schuyler.
+
+"Oh, yes;" and a little shadow crept into Allonby's face. "But, that's
+over now. When a man goes back on his own folks there's only one way of
+treating him, and it's not going to be nice for Larry if we can catch him.
+We're in too tight a place to show the man who can hurt us most much
+consideration."
+
+Hetty turned her head a moment, and then changed the subject, but not
+before Flora Schuyler noticed the little flush in her cheek. The music,
+laughter, and gay talk began again, and if anyone remembered that while
+they chased their cares away grim men who desired their downfall toiled
+and planned, no sign of the fact was visible.
+
+Twenty minutes passed, and then the thud of hoofs once more rose from the
+prairie. It swelled into a drumming that jarred harsh and portentous
+through the music, and Hetty's attention to the observations of her
+companions became visibly less marked. One by one the voices also seemed
+to sink, and it was evidently a relief to the listeners when a girl rose
+and closed the piano. Somebody made an effort to secure attention to a
+witty story, and there was general laughter, but it also ceased, and an
+impressive silence followed. Out of it came the jingle of bridles and
+trampling of hoofs, as the men outside pulled up, followed by voices in
+the hall, and once more Allonby went out.
+
+"They're right under this window," said his nephew. "Slip quietly behind
+the curtains, and I think you can see them."
+
+Flora Schuyler drew the tapestry back, the rest followed her and
+Christopher Allonby flung it behind them, so that it shut out the light.
+In a moment or two their eyes had become accustomed to the change, and
+they saw a little group of mounted men close beneath. Two of them
+dismounted, and appeared to be speaking to some one at the door, but the
+rest sat with their rifles across their saddles and a prisoner in front of
+them. His hat was crushed and battered, his jacket rent, and Flora
+Schuyler fancied there was a red trickle down his cheek; but his face was
+turned partly away from the window, and he sat very still, apparently with
+his arms bound loosely at the wrists.
+
+"All these to make sure of one man, and they have tied his hands!" she
+said.
+
+Hetty noticed the ring in her companion's voice, and Allonby made a little
+deprecatory gesture.
+
+"It's quite evident they had too much trouble getting him to take any
+chances of losing him," he said. "I wish the fellow would turn his head. I
+fancy I should know him."
+
+A tremor ran through Hetty for she also felt she recognized that tattered
+figure. Then one of the horsemen seized the captive's bridle, and the man
+made a slight indignant gesture as the jerk flung off his hands. Flora
+Schuyler closed her fingers tight.
+
+"If I were a man I should go down and talk quite straight to them," she
+said.
+
+The prisoner was sitting stiffly now, but he swayed in the saddle when one
+of the cattle-men struck his horse and it plunged. He turned his head as
+he did so, and the moonlight shone into his face. It was very white, and
+there was a red smear on his forehead. Hetty gasped, and Flora Schuyler
+felt her fingers close almost cruelly upon her arm.
+
+"It's Larry!" she said.
+
+Christopher Allonby nodded. "Yes, we have him at last," he said. "Of
+course, one feels sorry; but he brought it on himself. They're going to
+put him into the stable."
+
+The men rode forward, and when they passed out of sight Hetty slipped back
+from behind the curtain, and, sat down, shivering as she looked up at Miss
+Schuyler.
+
+"I can't help it, Flo. If one could only make them let him go!"
+
+"You need not let any of them see it," said Miss Schuyler, sharply. "Sit
+quite still here and talk to me. Now, what right had those men to arrest
+him?"
+
+The warning was sufficient. Hetty shook out her dress and laughed, though
+her voice was not steady.
+
+"It's quite simple," she said. "The Sheriff can call out any citizen to
+help him or send any man off after a criminal in an emergency. Of course,
+being a responsible man he stands in with us, and in times like these the
+arrangement suits everybody. We do what seems the right thing, and the
+Sheriff is quite pleased when we tell him."
+
+Flora Schuyler smiled drily. "Yes. It's delightfully simple. Still,
+wouldn't it make the thing more square if the other men had a good-natured
+Sheriff, too?"
+
+"Now you are laughing at me. The difference is that we are in the right."
+
+"And Larry, of course, must be quite wrong!"
+
+"No," said Hetty, "he is mistaken. Flo, you have got to help me--I'm going
+to do something for him. Try to be nice to Chris Allonby. They'll send him
+to take care of Larry."
+
+Miss Schuyler looked steadily at her companion. "You tried to make me
+believe you didn't care for the man."
+
+A flush stole into Hetty's cheek, and a sparkle to her eyes. "Can't you do
+a nice thing without asking questions? Larry was very good to me for
+years, and--I'm sorry for him. Any way, it's so easy. Chris is young, and
+you could fool any man with those big blue eyes if he let you look at
+him."
+
+Flora Schuyler made a half-impatient gesture, and then, sweeping her dress
+aside, made room for Christopher Allonby. She also succeeded so well with
+him that when the guests had departed and the girls came out into the
+corral where he was pacing up and down, he flung his cigar away and
+forsook his duty to join them. It was a long ride to Cedar Range, and
+Torrance had decided to stay with Allonby until morning.
+
+"It was very hot inside--they would put so much wood in the stove," said
+Hetty. "Besides, Flo's fond of the moonlight."
+
+"Well," said Allonby, "it's quite nice out here, and I guess Miss Schuyler
+ought to like the moonlight. It's kind to her."
+
+Flora Schuyler laughed as they walked past the end of the great wooden
+stable together. "If you look at it in one sense, that wasn't pretty. You
+are guarding the prisoner?"
+
+"Yes," said the lad, with evident diffidence. "The boys who brought him
+here had 'bout enough of him, and they're resting, while ours are out on
+the range. I'm here for two hours any way. It's not quite pleasant to
+remember I'm watching Larry."
+
+"Of course!" and Miss Schuyler nodded sympathetically. "Now, couldn't you
+just let us talk to him? The boys have cut his forehead, and Hetty wanted
+to bring him some balsam. I believe he used to be kind to her."
+
+Allonby looked doubtful, but Miss Schuyler glanced at him appealingly--and
+she knew how to use her eyes--while Hetty said:
+
+"Now, don't be foolish, Chris. Of course, we had just to ask your uncle,
+but he would have wanted to come with us and would have asked so many
+questions, while we knew you would tell nobody anything. You know I can't
+help being sorry for Larry, and he has done quite a few nice things for
+you, too."
+
+"Miss Schuyler is going with you?"
+
+"Of course," and Hetty smiled mischievously as she glanced at her
+companion. "Still, you needn't be jealous, Chris. I'll take the best care
+she doesn't make love to him."
+
+Flora Schuyler looked away across the prairie, which was not quite what
+one would have expected from a young woman of her capacities; but the
+laughing answer served to banish the lad's suspicions, and he walked with
+them towards the door. Then he stopped, and when he drew a key from an
+inner pocket Hetty saw something twinkle in the moonlight at his belt.
+
+"Chris," she said, "stand still for a minute and shut your eyes quite
+tight."
+
+The lad did as he was bidden, for a few years ago he had been the
+complaisant victim of Hetty's pleasantries, and felt a light touch on his
+lips. Then, there was a pluck at his belt, and Hetty was several yards
+away when he made a step forward with his eyes wide open. She was laughing
+at him, but there was a pistol in her hand.
+
+"It was only my fingers, Chris, and Flo wasn't the least nearer than she
+is now," she said. "If you dared to think anything else, you would make me
+too angry. We'll bring this thing back to you in five minutes, but you
+wouldn't have us go in there quite defenceless. Now you walk across the
+corral, and wait until we tell you."
+
+Allonby was very young, and somewhat susceptible. Hetty was also very
+pretty, and, he fancied, Miss Schuyler even prettier still; but he had a
+few misgivings, and when they went in closed the lower half of the door
+and set his back to it.
+
+"No," he said decisively, "I'm staying right here."
+
+The girls made no demur, but when they had crossed a portion of the long
+building Miss Schuyler touched her companion. "I'll wait where I am," she
+said drily, "you will not want me."
+
+Hetty went on until she came to where the light of a lantern shone faintly
+in a stall. A man sat there with his hands still bound and a wide red
+smear upon his forehead. His face flushed suddenly as he glanced at her,
+but he said nothing.
+
+"I'm ever so sorry, Larry," said the girl.
+
+The man smiled, though it was evident to Hetty, whose heart beat fast,
+that it was only by an effort he retained his self-control.
+
+"Well," he said, "it can't be helped, and it was my fault. Still, I never
+suspected that kind of thing."
+
+Hetty coloured. "Larry, you mustn't be bitter--but it was horribly mean. I
+couldn't help coming--I was afraid you would fancy I was proud of them."
+
+"No," he said, sternly. "I couldn't have fancied that. There was nothing
+else?"
+
+"Your head. It is horribly cut. We saw you from the window, and I fancied
+I could tie it up for you. You wouldn't mind if I tried, Larry? I have
+some balsam here, and I only want a little water."
+
+For a moment Grant's face was very expressive, but once more he seemed to
+put a check upon himself, and his voice was almost too even as he pointed
+to the pitcher beside him. "There is some ready. Your friends don't treat
+their prisoners very well."
+
+The girl winced a little, but dipping her handkerchief in the pitcher she
+laved his forehead, and then would have laid the dressing on it; but he
+caught her hand.
+
+"No," he said, "take mine instead."
+
+"You needn't be quite too horrid, Larry," and there was a quiver in her
+voice. "It wouldn't hurt you very much to take a little thing like that
+from me."
+
+Grant smiled very gravely. "I think you had better take mine. If they
+found a lady's handkerchief round my head, Allonby's folks would wonder
+how it got there."
+
+Hetty did as he suggested, and felt a curious chagrin when he failed to
+look at her. "I used to wonder, Larry, how you were able to think of
+everything," she said. "Now I have brought you something else; but you
+must promise not to hurt anybody belonging to Allonby with it."
+
+Grant laughed softly, partly to hide his astonishment, when he saw a
+pistol laid beside him.
+
+"I haven't grown bloodthirsty, Hetty," he said. "Where did you get it?"
+
+"It was Chris Allonby's. Flo and I fooled him and took it away. It was so
+delightfully easy. But you will keep it?"
+
+He shook his head. "Just try to think, Hetty."
+
+Hetty's cheeks flushed. "You are horribly unkind. Can't you take anything
+from me? Still--you--have got to think now. If I let you go, you will
+promise not to make any more trouble for my father and Allonby, or
+anybody?"
+
+Grant only looked at her with an odd little smile, but the crimson grew
+deeper in Hetty's cheek. "Oh, of course you couldn't. I was sorry the last
+time I asked you," she said. "Larry, you make me feel horribly mean; but
+you would not do anything that would hurt them, unless it was quite
+necessary?"
+
+"No," said the man drily, "I don't think I'm going to have an
+opportunity."
+
+"You are. I came to let you go. It will be quite easy. Chris is quite
+foolish about Flo."
+
+Grant shook his head. "Doesn't it strike you that it would be very rough
+on Chris?"
+
+Hetty would not look at him, and her voice was very low. "If anyone must
+be hurt, I would sooner it was Chris than you."
+
+He did not answer for a moment, and the girl, watching him in sidelong
+fashion, saw the grim restraint in his face, which grew almost grey in
+patches.
+
+"It is no use, Hetty," he said very quietly. "Chris would tell them
+nothing. There is no meanness in his father or him; but that wouldn't stop
+him thinking. Now, you will know I was right to-morrow. Take him back his
+pistol."
+
+"Larry," said the girl, with a little quiver in her voice, "you are right
+again--I don't quite know why you were friends with me."
+
+Grant smiled at her. "I haven't yet seen the man who was fit to brush the
+dust off your little shoes; but you don't look at these things quite as we
+do. Now Chris will be getting impatient. You must go."
+
+Hetty turned away from him, and while the man felt his heart throbbing
+painfully and wondered whether his resolution would support him much
+longer, stood very still with one hand clenched. Then she moved back
+towards him swiftly, with a little smile.
+
+"There is a window above the beams, where they pitch the grain-bags
+through," she said. "Chris will go away in an hour or so, and the other
+man will only watch the door. There are horses in the corral behind the
+barn, and I've seen you ride the wickedest broncho without a saddle."
+
+She whisked away before the man, who felt a little, almost caressing,
+touch upon his arm; and heard something drop close beside him with a
+rattle, could answer, and in less than a minute later smiling at Chris
+Allonby gave him back his pistol.
+
+"Do you know I was 'most afraid you were going to make trouble for me?" he
+said.
+
+"But if I had you wouldn't have told."
+
+The lad coloured. "You have known me quite a long time, Hetty."
+
+Hetty laughed, but there was a thrill in her voice as she turned to Miss
+Schuyler. "Now," she said, "you know the kind of men we raise on the
+prairie."
+
+As they moved away together, Flora Schuyler cast a steady, scrutinizing
+glance at her companion. "I could have told you, Hetty," she said.
+
+"Yes," said Hetty, with a little nod. "He wouldn't go, and I feel so mean
+that I'm not fit to talk to you or anybody. But wait. You'll hear
+something before to-morrow."
+
+It was not quite daylight when Miss Schuyler was awakened by a murmur of
+voices and a tramp of feet on the frozen sod. Almost at the same moment
+the door of her room opened, and a slim, white figure glided towards the
+window. Flora Schuyler stood beside it in another second or two, and felt
+that the girl whose arm she touched was trembling. The voices below grew
+louder, and they could see two men come running from the stable, while one
+or two others were flinging saddles upon the horses brought out in haste.
+
+"He must have got away an hour ago," said somebody. "The best horse
+Allonby had in the corral isn't there now."
+
+Then Hetty sat down laughing excitedly, and let her head fall back on
+Flora Schuyler's shoulder when she felt the warm girdling of her arm. In
+another moment she was crying and gasping painfully.
+
+"He has got away. The best horse in the corral! Ten times as many of them
+couldn't bring him back," she said.
+
+"Hetty," said Miss Schuyler decisively, "you are shivering all through. Go
+back at once. He is all right now."
+
+The girl gasped again, and clung closer to her companion. "Of course," she
+said. "You don't know Larry. If they had all the Cedar boys, too, he would
+ride straight through them."
+
+
+
+
+X
+
+ON THE TRAIL
+
+
+Grant and Breckenridge sat together over their evening meal. Outside the
+frost was almost arctic, but there was wood in plenty round Fremont ranch,
+and the great stove diffused a stuffy heat. The two men had made the round
+of the small homesteads that were springing up, with difficulty, for the
+snow was too loose and powdery to bear a sleigh, and now they were content
+to lounge in the tranquil enjoyment of the rest and warmth that followed
+exposure to the stinging frost.
+
+At last Breckenridge pushed his plate aside, and took out his pipe.
+
+"You must have put a good many dollars into your ploughing, Larry, and the
+few I had have gone in the same way," he said. "You see, it's a long while
+until harvest comes round, and a good many unexpected things seem to
+happen in this country. To be quite straight, is there much probability of
+our getting any of those dollars back?"
+
+Grant smiled. "I think there is, though I can't be sure. The legislature
+must do something for us sooner or later, while the fact that the
+cattle-men and the Sheriff have left us alone of late shows that they
+don't feel too secure. Still, there may be trouble. A good many hard cases
+have been coming in."
+
+"The cattle-men would get them. It's dollars they're wanting, and the
+other men have a good many more than we have. By the way, shouldn't the
+man with the money you are waiting for turn up to-night?"
+
+Grant nodded. A number of almost indigent men--small farmers ruined by
+frost in Dakota, and axe-men from Michigan with growing families--had
+settled on the land in his neighbourhood, and as every hand and voice
+might be wanted, levies had been made on the richer homesteaders, and
+subscribed to here and there in the cities, for the purpose of enabling
+them to continue the struggle.
+
+"We want the dollars badly," he said. "The cattle-men have cut off our
+credit at the railroad stores, and there are two or three of the
+Englishmen who have very little left to eat at the hollow. You have seen
+what we have sent out from Fremont, and Muller has been feeding quite a
+few of the Dutchmen."
+
+He stopped abruptly, and Breckenridge drew back his chair. "Hallo!" he
+said. "You heard it, Larry?"
+
+Grant had heard the windows jar, and a sound that resembled a faint tap.
+"Yes," he said quietly. "I may have been mistaken, but it was quite like a
+rifle shot."
+
+They were at the door in another moment, shivering as the bitter cold met
+them in the face; but there was now no sound from the prairie, which
+rolled away before them white and silent under the moonlight. Then,
+Breckenridge flung the door to, and crossed over to the rack where a
+Marlin rifle and two Winchesters hung. He pressed back the magazine slide
+of one of them, and smiled somewhat grimly at Grant.
+
+"Well," he said, "we can only hope you're wrong. Where did you put the
+book I was reading?"
+
+Grant, who told him, took out some accounts, and they lounged in big hide
+chairs beside the stove for at least half an hour, though it was
+significant that every now and then one of them would turn his head as
+though listening, and become suddenly intent upon his task again when he
+fancied his companion noticed him. At last Breckenridge laughed.
+
+"It's all right, Larry. There--is--somebody coming. It will be the man
+with dollars, and I don't mind admitting that I'll be glad to see him."
+
+Five minutes later the door opened and Muller came in. He looked round him
+inquiringly.
+
+"Quilter is not come? I his horse in der stable have not seen," he said.
+
+"No," said Grant sharply. "He would pass your place."
+
+Muller nodded. "He come in und der supper take. Why is he not here? I, who
+ride by der hollow, one hour after him start make."
+
+Breckenridge glanced at Grant, and both sat silent for a second or two.
+Then the former said, "I'm half afraid we'll have to do without those
+dollars, Mr. Muller. Shall I go round and roll the boys up, Larry?"
+
+Grant only nodded, and, while Breckenridge, dragging on his fur coat, made
+for the stable, took down two of the rifles and handed one to Muller.
+
+"So!" said the Teuton quietly. "We der trail pick up?"
+
+In less than five minutes the two were riding across the prairie towards
+Muller's homestead at the fastest pace attainable in the loose, dusty
+snow, while Breckenridge rode from shanty to shanty to call out the men of
+the little community which had grown up not far away. It was some time
+later when he and those who followed him came up with his comrade and
+Muller. The moon still hung in the western sky and showed the blue-grey
+smear where horse-hoofs had scattered the snow. It led straight towards a
+birch bluff across the whitened prairie, and Breckenridge stooped in his
+saddle and looked at it.
+
+"Larry," he said sharply, "there were two of them."
+
+"Yes," said Grant. "Only one left Muller's."
+
+Breckenridge asked nothing further, but it was not the first time that
+night he felt a shiver run through him. He fell behind, but he heard one
+of the rest answer a question Grant put to him.
+
+"Yes," he said. "The last man was riding a good deal harder than the other
+fellow."
+
+Then there was silence, save for the soft trampling of hoofs, and
+Breckenridge fancied the others were gazing expectantly towards the
+shadowy blurr of the bluff, which rose a trifle clearer now against the
+skyline. He felt, with instinctive shrinking, that their search would be
+rewarded there in the blackness beneath the trees. The pace grew faster.
+Men glanced at their neighbours now and then as well as ahead, and
+Breckenridge felt the silence grow oppressive as the bluff rose higher.
+The snow dulled the beat of hoofs, and the flitting figures that rode with
+him passed on almost as noiselessly as the long black shadows that
+followed them. His heart beat faster than usual when, as they reached the
+birches, Grant raised his hand.
+
+"Ride wide and behind me," he said. "We're going to find one of them
+inside of five minutes."
+
+There was an occasional crackle as a rotten twig or branch snapped beneath
+the hoofs. Slender trees slid athwart the moonlight, closed on one
+another, and opened out, and still, though the snow was scanty and in
+places swept away, Grant and a big Michigan bushman rode straight on.
+Breckenridge, who was young, felt the tension grow almost unendurable. At
+last, when even the horses seemed to feel their masters' uneasiness, the
+leader pulled up, and with a floundering of hoofs and jingle of bridles
+the line of shadowy figures came to a standstill.
+
+"Get down, boys, and light the lantern. Quilter's here," he said.
+
+Breckenridge dismounting, looped his bridle round a bough, and by and by
+stood peering over the shoulders of the clustering men in front of him.
+The moonlight shone in between the birches, and something dusky and rigid
+lay athwart it in the snow. One man was lighting a lantern, and though his
+hands were mittened he seemed singularly clumsy. At last, however, a pale
+light blinked out, and under it Breckenridge saw a white face and shadowy
+head, from which the fur cap had fallen.
+
+"Yes," said somebody, with a suspicion of hoarseness, "that's Quilter.
+It's not going to be much use; but you had better go through his pockets,
+Larry!"
+
+Grant knelt down, and his face also showed colourless in the lantern light
+as, with the help of another man, he gently moved the rigid form. Then,
+opening the big fur-coat he laid his hand on a brown smear on the deerskin
+jacket under it.
+
+"One shot," he said. "Couldn't have been more than two or three yards
+off."
+
+"Get through," said the bushman grimly. "The man who did it can't have
+more than an hour's start of us, any way, and from the trail he left his
+horse is played out."
+
+In a minute or two Grant stood up with a little shiver. "You have got to
+bring out a sledge for him somehow, Muller," he said. "Boys, the man who
+shot him has left nothing, and the instructions from our other executives
+would be worth more to the cattle-men than a good many dollars."
+
+[Illustration: A WHITE FACE AND SHADOWY HEAD, FROM WHICH
+THE FUR CAP HAD FALLEN.--Page 114.]
+
+"Well," said the big bushman, "we're going to get that man if we have to
+pull down Cedar Range or Clavering's place before we do it. Here's his
+trail. That one was made by Quilter's horse."
+
+It scarcely seemed appropriate, and the whole scene was singularly
+undramatic, and in a curious fashion almost unimpressive; but
+Breckenridge, who came of a reticent stock, understood. Unlike the
+Americans of the cities, these men were not addicted to improving the
+occasion, and only a slight hardening of their grim faces suggested what
+they felt. They were almost as immobile in the faint moonlight as that
+frozen one with the lantern flickering beside it in the snow. Yet
+Breckenridge long afterwards remembered them.
+
+Two men went back with Muller and the rest swung themselves into the
+saddle, and reckless of the risk to beast and man brushed through the
+bluff. Dry twigs crackled beneath them, rotten bough and withered bush
+went down, and a murmur went up when they rode out into the snow again. It
+sounded more ominous to Breckenridge than any clamorous shout. Then,
+bridles were shaken and heels went home as somebody found the trail, and
+the line tailed out farther and farther as blood and weight began to tell.
+The men were riding so fiercely now, that a squadron of United States
+cavalry would scarcely have turned them from the trail. Breckenridge
+laughed harshly as he and Grant floundered down into a hollow, stirrup by
+stirrup and neck to neck.
+
+"I should be very sorry for any of the cattle-boys we came upon to-night,"
+he said.
+
+Grant only nodded, and just then a shout went up from the head of the
+straggling line, and a man waved his hand.
+
+"Heading for the river!" he said. "We'll find him in the timber. He can't
+cross the ice."
+
+The line divided, and Grant and Breckenridge rode on with the smaller
+portion, while the rest swung wide to the right. In front of them the
+Cedar flowed through its birch-lined gully as yet but lightly bound with
+ice, and Breckenridge guessed that the men who had left them purposed
+cutting off the fugitive from the bridge. It was long before the first dim
+birches rose up against the sky, and the white wilderness was very still
+and the frost intense when they floundered into the gloom of the bluff at
+the hour that man's vitality sinks to its lowest. Every crackle of a
+brittle branch rang with horrible distinctness, and now and then a man
+turned in his saddle and glanced at his neighbour when from the shadowy
+hollow beneath them rose the sound of rending ice. The stream ran fast
+just there, and there had been but a few days' frost.
+
+They rode at a venture, looking about them with strained intentness, for
+they had left the guiding trail behind them now. Suddenly a faint cry came
+out of the silence followed by a beat of hoofs that grew louder every
+second, until it seemed to swell into a roar. Either there was clearer
+ground in the bluff, or the rider took his chances blindly so long as he
+made haste.
+
+The men spread out at a low command, and Breckenridge smiled mirthlessly
+as he remembered the restrained eagerness with which he had waited outside
+English covers when the quarry was a fox. He could feel his heart thumping
+furiously, and his mittened hands would tremble on the bridle. It seemed
+that the fugitive kept them waiting a horribly long while.
+
+Then, there was a shout close by him, Grant's horse shot forward and he
+saw a shadowy object flash by amidst the trees. Hand and heel moved
+together, and the former grew steady again as he felt the spring of the
+beast under him and the bitter draught upon his cheek. His horse had
+rested, and the fugitive's was spent. Where he was going he scarcely
+noticed, save that it was down hill, for the birches seemed flying up to
+him, and the beast stumbled now and then. He was only sure that he was
+closing with the flying form in front of him.
+
+The trees grew blurred together; he had to lean forward to evade the
+thrashing branches. His horse was blundering horribly, the slope grew
+steeper still, the ground beneath the dusty snow and fallen leaves was
+granite hard; but he was scarcely a length away, a few paces more would
+bring him level, and his right hand was stretched out for a grip of the
+stranger's bridle.
+
+A hoarse shout came ringing after him, and Breckenridge fancied it was a
+warning. The river was close in front and only thinly frozen yet, but he
+drove his heels home again. If the fugitive could risk the passage of the
+ice, he could risk it, too. There was another sound that jarred across the
+hammering of the hoofs, a crash, and Breckenridge was alone, struggling
+with his horse. They reeled, smashing through withered bushes and striking
+slender trees, but at last he gained the mastery, and swung himself down
+from the saddle. Already several mounted men were clustered about
+something, while just before he joined them there was another crash, and a
+little thin smoke drifted among the trees. Then, he saw one of them snap a
+cartridge out of his rifle, and that a horse lay quivering at his feet. A
+man stood beside it, and Grant was speaking to him, but Breckenridge
+scarcely recognized his voice.
+
+"We want everything you took from Quilter, the papers first," he said.
+"Light that lantern, Jake, and then the rest stand round. I want you to
+notice what he gives me."
+
+The man, saying nothing, handed him a crumpled packet, and Grant, tearing
+it open, passed the cover to the rest.
+
+"You know that writing?" he said.
+
+There was a murmur of assent, and Grant took a paper from those in his
+hand, and gave it to a man who held it up in the blinking light of the
+lantern. "Now," he said, "we want to make sure the dollars he took from
+Quilter agree with it. Hand them over."
+
+The prisoner took a wallet from his pocket and passed it across. "I guess
+there's no use in me objecting. You'll find them there," he said.
+
+"Count them," said Grant to the other man. "Two of you look over his
+shoulder and tell me if he's right."
+
+It took some little time, for the man passed the roll of bills to a
+comrade, who, after turning them over, replaced them in the wallet.
+
+"Yes, that's right, boys; it's quite plain, even if we hadn't followed up
+his trail. Those dollars and documents were handed Quilter."
+
+Grant touched Breckenridge. "Get up and ride," he said. "They'll send us
+six men from each of the two committees. We'll be waiting for them at
+Boston's when they get there. Now, there's just another thing. Look at the
+magazine of that fellow's rifle."
+
+A man took up the rifle, and snapped out the cartridges into his hand.
+"Usual 44 Winchester. One of them gone," he said. "He wouldn't have
+started out after Quilter without his magazine full."
+
+The man rubbed the fringe of his deerskin jacket upon the muzzle, and then
+held it up by the lantern where the rest could see the smear of the
+fouling upon it.
+
+"I guess that's convincing, but we'll bring the rifle along," he said.
+
+Grant nodded and turned to the prisoner as a man led up a horse. "Get up,"
+he said. "You'll have a fair trial, but if you have any defence to make
+you had better think it over. You'll walk back to Hanson's, Jake."
+
+The prisoner mounted, and they slowly rode away into the darkness which,
+now the moon had sunk, preceded the coming day.
+
+It was two days later when Breckenridge, who had ridden a long way in the
+meanwhile, rejoined them at a lonely ranch within a day's journey of the
+railroad. Twelve men, whose bronzed faces showed very intent and grave
+under the light of the big lamp, sat round the long bare room, and the
+prisoner at the foot of a table. Grant stood at the head of it, with a
+roll of dollar bills and a rifle in front of him.
+
+"Now," he said, "you have heard the testimony. Have you anything to tell
+us?"
+
+"Well," said the prisoner, "I guess it wouldn't be much use. Hadn't you
+better get through with it? I don't like a fuss."
+
+Grant signed to the men, who silently filed out, and returned within a
+minute. "The thing's quite plain," said one of them. "He killed Quilter."
+
+Grant turned to the prisoner. "There's nothing that would warrant our
+showing any mercy, but if you have anything to urge we'll listen now. It's
+your last opportunity. You were heading for one of the cattle-men's
+homesteads?"
+
+The man smiled sardonically. "I'm not going to talk," he said. "I guess I
+can see your faces, and that's enough for me."
+
+Grant stood up and signed to a man, who led the prisoner away. Then, he
+looked at the others questioningly, and a Michigan axe-man nodded.
+
+"Only one thing," he said. "It has to be done."
+
+There was an approving murmur, and Grant glanced along the row of stern
+faces. "Yes," he said, "the law will do nothing for us--the cattle-men
+have bought it up; but this work must be stopped. Well, I guess you like
+what lies before us as little as I do, but if it warns off the others--and
+there are more of his kind coming in--it's the most merciful thing."
+
+Once more the low murmur ran through the silence of the room; Grant raised
+his hand and a man brought in the prisoner. He looked at the set faces,
+and made a little gesture of comprehension.
+
+"I guess you needn't tell me," he said. "When is it to be?"
+
+"To-morrow," said Grant, and it seemed to Breckenridge that his voice came
+from far away. "At the town--as soon as there is light enough to see by."
+
+The prisoner turned without a word, and when he had gone the men, as if
+prompted by one impulse, hastened out of the room, leaving Grant and
+Breckenridge alone. The former sat very still at the head of the table,
+until Breckenridge laid his hand on his shoulder.
+
+"Shake it off, Larry. You couldn't have done anything else," he said.
+
+"No," said Grant, with a groan. "Still, I could have wished this duty had
+not been laid on me."
+
+When they next stood side by side the early daylight was creeping across
+the little railroad town, and Breckenridge, whose young face was white,
+shivered with more than the bitter cold. He never wished to recall it, but
+the details of that scene would return to him--the square frame houses
+under the driving snow-cloud, the white waste they rose from, the grim,
+silent horsemen with the rifles across their saddles, and the intent faces
+beyond them in the close-packed street. He saw the prisoner standing
+rigidly erect in a wagon drawn up beside a towering telegraph-pole, and
+heard a voice reading hoarsely.
+
+A man raised his hand, somebody lashed the horses, the wagon lurched away,
+a dusky object cut against the sky, and Breckenridge turned his eyes away.
+A sound that might have been a groan or murmur broke from the crowd and
+the momentary silence that followed it was rent by the crackle of riflery.
+After that, Breckenridge only recollected riding across the prairie amidst
+a group of silent men, and feeling very cold.
+
+In the meanwhile the citizens were gazing at a board nailed to the
+telegraph-pole: "For murder and robbery. Take warning! Anyone offending in
+the same way will be treated similarly!"
+
+
+
+
+XI
+
+LARRY'S ACQUITTAL
+
+
+A warm wind from the Pacific, which had swept down through the Rockies'
+passes, had mitigated the Arctic cold, and the snow lay no more than
+thinly sprinkled upon the prairie. Hetty Torrance and Miss Schuyler were
+riding up through the birch bluff from the bridge of the Cedar. It was dim
+among the trees, for dusk was closing in, the trail was rough and steep,
+and Hetty drew bridle at a turn of it.
+
+"I quite fancied we would have been home before it was dark, and my father
+would be just savage if he knew we were out alone," she said. "Of course,
+he wouldn't have let us go if he had been at Cedar."
+
+Flora Schuyler looked about her with a shiver. The wind that shook the
+birches had grown perceptibly colder: the gloom beneath them deepened
+rapidly, and there was a doleful wailing amidst the swinging boughs.
+Beyond the bluff the white wilderness, sinking into dimness now, ran back,
+waste and empty, to the horizon. Miss Schuyler was from the cities, and
+the loneliness of the prairie is most impressive when night is closing
+down.
+
+"Then one could have wished he had been at home," she said.
+
+Perhaps Hetty did not hear her plainly, for the branches thrashed above
+them just then. "Oh, that's quite right. Folks are not apt to worry much
+over the things they don't know about," she said.
+
+"It was not your father I was sorry for," Flora Schuyler said sharply.
+"The sod is too hard for fast riding, and it will be 'most an hour yet
+before we get home. I wish we were not alone, Hetty."
+
+Hetty sighed. "It was so convenient once!" she said. "Whenever I wanted to
+ride out I had only to send for Larry. It's quite different now."
+
+"I have no doubt Mr. Clavering would have come," said Miss Schuyler.
+
+"Oh, yes," Hetty agreed. "Still, I'm beginning to fancy you were right
+about that man. Like a good many more of them, he's quite nice at a
+distance; but there are men who should never let anyone get too close to
+them."
+
+"You have had quite a few opportunities of observing him at a short
+distance lately."
+
+Hetty laughed, but there was a trace of uneasiness in her voice. "I could
+wish my father didn't seem quite so fond of him. Oh--there's somebody
+coming!"
+
+Instinctively she wheeled her horse into the deeper shadow of the birches
+and Miss Schuyler followed. There was no habitation within a league of
+them, and though the frost, which put a period to the homesteaders'
+activities, lessened the necessity for the cattle-barons' watchfulness,
+unpleasant results had once or twice attended a chance encounter between
+their partisans. It was also certain that somebody was coming, and Hetty
+felt her heart beat as she made out the tramp of three horses. The
+vultures the struggle had attracted had, she knew, much less consideration
+for women than the homesteaders or cattle-boys.
+
+"Hadn't we better ride on?" asked Miss Schuyler.
+
+"No," said Hetty; "they would most certainly see us out on the prairie.
+Back your horse quite close to mine. If we keep quiet they might pass us
+here."
+
+Her voice betrayed what she was feeling, and Flora Schuyler felt
+unpleasantly apprehensive as she urged her horse farther into the gloom.
+The trampling came nearer, and by and by a man's voice reached her.
+
+"Hadn't you better pull up and get down?" it said. "I'm not much use at
+tracking, but somebody has been along here a little while ago. You see,
+there are only three of us!"
+
+"They're homesteaders, and they've found our trail," exclaimed Hetty, with
+a little gasp of dismay.
+
+There was scarcely an opening one could ride through between the birches
+behind them, and it was evident that the horsemen could scarcely fail to
+see them the moment they left their shelter. One of them had already
+dismounted, and was apparently stooping beside the prints the horse-hoofs
+had left where a little snow had sifted down upon the trail. Hetty heard
+his laugh, and it brought her a great relief.
+
+"I don't think you need worry, Breckenridge. There were only two of
+them."
+
+Hetty wheeled her horse. "It's Larry," she said.
+
+A minute later he saw them, and, pulling up, took off his hat; but Flora
+Schuyler noticed that he ventured on no more than this.
+
+"It is late for you to be out alone. You are riding home?" he said.
+
+"Of course!" said Hetty with, Miss Schuyler fancied, a chilliness which
+contrasted curiously with the relief she had shown a minute or two
+earlier.
+
+"Well," said Grant quietly, "I'm afraid you will have to put up with our
+company. There are one or two men I have no great opinion of somewhere
+about this prairie. This is Mr. Breckenridge, and as the trail is rough
+and narrow, he will follow with Miss Schuyler. I presume you don't mind
+riding with him, although, like the rest of us, he is under the
+displeasure of your friends the cattle-barons?"
+
+Miss Schuyler looked at him steadily. "I don't know enough of this trouble
+to make sure who is right," she said. "But I should never be prejudiced
+against any American who was trying to do what he felt was the work meant
+for him."
+
+"Well," said Grant, with a little laugh, "Breckenridge will feel sorry
+that he's an Englishman."
+
+Miss Schuyler turned to the young man graciously, and the dim light showed
+there was a twinkle in her eyes.
+
+"That," she said, "is the next best thing. Since you are with Mr. Grant
+you no doubt came out to this country because you thought we needed
+reforming, Mr. Breckenridge?"
+
+The lad laughed as they rode on up the trail with Grant and Hetty in front
+of them, and Muller following.
+
+"No," he said. "To be frank, I came out because my friends in the old one
+seemed to fancy the same thing of me. When they have no great use for a
+young man yonder, they generally send him to America. In fact, they send
+some of them quite a nice cheque quarterly so long as they stay there. You
+see, we are like the hedgehogs, or your porcupines, if you grow them here,
+Miss Schuyler."
+
+Flora Schuyler smiled. "You are young, or you wouldn't empty the magazine
+all at once in answer to a single shot."
+
+"Well," said Breckenridge, "so are you. It is getting dark, but I have a
+notion that you are something else too. The fact I mentioned explains the
+liberty."
+
+Flora shook her head. "The dusk is kind. Any way, I know I am years older
+than you. There are no little girls in this country like the ones you have
+been accustomed to."
+
+"Now," said Breckenridge, "my sisters and cousins are, I firmly believe, a
+good deal nicer than those belonging to most other men; but, you see, I
+have quite a lot of them, and any one so favoured loses a good many
+illusions."
+
+In the meantime Hetty, who, when she fancied he would not observe it,
+glanced at him now and then, rode silently beside Grant until he turned to
+her.
+
+"I have a good deal to thank you for, Hetty, and--for you know I was never
+clever at saying the right thing--I don't quite know how to begin. Still,
+in the old times we understood just what each other meant so well that
+talking wasn't necessary. You know I'm grateful for my liberty and would
+sooner take it from you than anybody else, don't you?"
+
+Hetty laid a restraint upon herself, for there was a thrill in the man's
+voice, which awakened a response within her. "Wouldn't it be better to
+forget those days?" she said. "It is very different now."
+
+"It isn't easy," said Grant, checking a sigh. "I 'most fancied they had
+come back the night you told me how to get away."
+
+Hetty's horse plunged as she tightened its bridle in a fashion there was
+no apparent necessity for. "That," she said chillingly, "was quite foolish
+of you, and it isn't kind to remind folks of the things they had better
+not have done. Now, you told us the prairie wasn't safe because of some of
+your friends."
+
+"No," said Grant drily, "I don't think I did. I told you there were some
+men around I would sooner you didn't fall in with."
+
+"Then they must be your partisans. There isn't a cattle-boy in this
+country who would be uncivil to a woman."
+
+"I wish I was quite sure. Still, there are men coming in who don't care
+who is right, and only want to stand in with the men who will give them
+the most dollars or let them take what they can. We have none to give
+away."
+
+"Larry," the girl said hotly, "do you mean that we would be glad to pay
+them?"
+
+"No. But they will most of them quite naturally go over to you, which will
+make it harder for us to get rid of them. We have no use for men of that
+kind in this country."
+
+"No?" said the girl scornfully. "Well, I fancied they would have come in
+quite handy--there was a thing you did."
+
+"You heard of that?"
+
+"Yes," very coldly. "It was a horrible thing."
+
+Grant's voice changed to a curious low tone. "Did you ever see me hurt
+anything when I could help it in the old days, Hetty?"
+
+"No. One has to be honest; I remember how you once hurt your hand taking a
+jack-rabbit out of a trap."
+
+"And how you bound it up?"
+
+"Well," said Hetty, "I don't know, after the work you have done with it,
+that I should care to do that now."
+
+"There are affairs you should never hear of and I don't care to talk about
+with you," Grant said, very quietly, "but since you have mentioned this
+one you must listen to me. Just as it is one's duty to give no needless
+pain to anything, so there is an obligation on him to stop any other man
+who would do it. Is it wrong to kill a grizzly or a rattlesnake, or
+merciful to leave them with their meanness to destroy whatever they want?
+Now, if you had known a quiet American who did a tolerably dangerous thing
+because he fancied it was right, and found him shot in the back, and the
+trail of the man who crept up behind him and killed him for a few dollars,
+would you have let that man go?"
+
+Hetty ignored the question. "The man was your friend."
+
+"Well," said Grant slowly, "he had done a good deal for me, but that would
+not have counted for very much with any one when we made our decision."
+
+"No?" And Hetty glanced at him with a little astonishment.
+
+Grant shook his head. "No," he said. "We had to do the square thing--that
+and nothing more; but if we had let that man go, he would, when the chance
+was given him, have done what he did again. Well, it was--horrible; but
+there was no law that would do the work for us in this country then."
+
+Hetty shivered, but had there been light enough Grant would have seen the
+relief in her face, and as it was his pulse responded to the little quiver
+in her voice. Why it was she did not know, but the belief in him which she
+had once cherished suddenly returned to her. In the old days the man she
+had never thought of as a lover could, at least, do no wrong.
+
+"I understand." Her voice was very gentle. "There must be a good deal of
+meanness in me, or I should have known you only did it because you are a
+white man, and felt you had to. Oh, of course, I know--only it's so much
+easier to go round another way so you can't see what you don't want to.
+Larry, I'm sorry."
+
+Grant's voice quivered. "The only thing you ever do wrong, Hetty, is to
+forget to think now and then; and by and by you will find somebody who is
+good enough to think for you."
+
+The girl smiled. "He would have to be very patient, and the trouble is
+that if he was clever enough to do the thinking he wouldn't have the least
+belief in me. You are the only man, Larry, who could see people's
+meannesses and still have faith in them."
+
+"I am a blunderer who has taken up a contract that's too big for him,"
+Grant said gravely. "I have never told anyone else, Hetty, but there are
+times now and then when, knowing the kind of man I am, I get 'most sick
+with fear. All the poor men in this district are looking to me, and,
+though I lie awake at night, I can't see how I'm going to help them when
+one trace of passion would let loose anarchy. It's only right they're
+wanting, that is, most of the Dutchmen and the Americans--but there's the
+mad red rabble behind them, and the bitter rage of hard men who have been
+trampled on, to hold in. It's a crushing weight we who hold the reins have
+got to carry. Still, we were made only plain farmer men, and I guess we're
+not going to be saddled with more than we can bear."
+
+He had spoken solemnly from the depths of his nature, and all that was
+good in the girl responded.
+
+"Larry," she said softly, "while you feel just that I think you can't go
+wrong. It is what is right we are both wanting, and--though I don't know
+how--I feel we will get it by and by, and then it will be the best thing
+for homestead-boys and cattle-barons. When that time comes we will be glad
+there were white men who took up their load and worried through, and when
+this trouble's worked out and over there will be nothing to stop us being
+good friends again."
+
+"Is that quite out of the question now?"
+
+"Yes," said Hetty simply. "I am sorry, but, Larry, can't you understand?
+You are leading the homestead-boys, and my father the cattle-barons. First
+of all I've got to be a dutiful daughter."
+
+"Of course," he agreed. "Well, it can't last for ever, and we can only do
+the best we can. Other folks had the same trouble when the boys in Sumter
+fired the starting gun--North and South at each other's throats, and both
+Americans!"
+
+Hetty decided that she had gone sufficiently far, and turned in her
+saddle. "What is the Englishman telling you, Flo?" she asked.
+
+Miss Schuyler laughed. "He was almost admitting that the girls in this
+country are as pretty as those they raise in the one he came from."
+
+"Well," said Breckenridge, "if it was daylight I'd be sure."
+
+Grant fancied that it was not without a purpose his companion checked her
+horse to let the others come up, and, though it cost him an effort,
+acquiesced. His laugh was almost as ready as that of the rest as they rode
+on four abreast, until at last the lights of Cedar Range blinked beside
+the bluff. Then, they grew suddenly silent again as Muller, who it seemed
+remembered that he had been taught by the franc tireurs, rode past them
+with his rifle across his saddle. They pulled up when his figure cut
+blackly against the sky on the crest of a rise, and Hetty's laugh was
+scarcely light-hearted.
+
+"You have been very good, and I am sorry I can't ask you to come in," she
+said. "Still, I don't know that it's all our fault; we are under martial
+law just now."
+
+Grant took off his hat and wheeled his horse, and when the girls rode
+forward sat rigid and motionless, watching them until he saw the ray from
+the open door of Cedar Range. Then, Muller trotted up, and with a little
+sigh he turned homewards across the prairie.
+
+About the same time Richard Clavering lay smoking, in a big chair in the
+room where he kept his business books and papers. He wore, among other
+somewhat unusual things, a velvet jacket, very fine linen, and on one of
+his long, slim fingers a ring of curious Eastern workmanship. Clavering
+was a man of somewhat expensive tastes, and his occasional visits to the
+cities had cost him a good deal, which was partly why an accountant,
+famous for his knowledge of ranching property, now sat busy at a table. He
+was a shrewd, direct American, and had already spent several days
+endeavouring to ascertain the state of Clavering's finances.
+
+"Nearly through?" the rancher asked, with a languidness which the
+accountant fancied was assumed.
+
+"I can give you a notion of how you stand, right now," he answered. "You
+want me to be quite candid?"
+
+"Oh, yes," said Clavering, with a smile of indifference. "I'm in a tight
+place, Hopkins?"
+
+"I guess you are--any way, if you go on as you're doing. You see what I
+consider it prudent to write off the value of your property?"
+
+Clavering examined the paper handed him with visible astonishment. "Why
+have you whittled so much off the face value?"
+
+"Just because you're going to have that much taken away from you by and
+by."
+
+Clavering's laugh was quietly scornful. "By the homestead-boys?"
+
+"By the legislature of this State. The law is against you holding what
+you're doing now."
+
+"We make what law there is out here."
+
+"Well," said Hopkins, coolly, "I guess you're not going to do it long. You
+know the maxim about fooling the people. It can't be done."
+
+"Aren't you talking like one of those German socialists?"
+
+"On the contrary. I quite fancy I'm talking like a business man. Now, you
+want to realize on those cattle before the winter takes the flesh off
+them, and extinguish the bank loan with what you get for them."
+
+Clavering's face darkened. "That would strip the place, and I'd have to
+borrow to stock again."
+
+"You'd have to run a light stock for a year or two."
+
+"It wouldn't suit me to do anything that would proclaim my poverty just
+now," said Clavering.
+
+"Then you'll have to do it by and by. The interest on the bond is
+crippling you."
+
+"Well." Clavering lighted another cigar. "I told you to be straight. Go
+right on. Tell me just what you would do if the place was in your hands."
+
+"Sell out those cattle and take the big loan up. Clear off the imported
+horses and pedigree brood mares. You have been losing more dollars than
+many a small rancher makes over them the last few years."
+
+"I like good horses round the place," Clavering said languidly.
+
+"The trouble," said Hopkins, "is that you can't afford to have them. Then,
+I would cut down my personal expenses by at least two-thirds. The ranch
+can't stand them. Do you know what you have been spending in the cities?"
+
+"No. I gave you a bundle of bills so you could find it out."
+
+Hopkins' smile was almost contemptuous. "I guess you had better burn them
+when I am through. I'll mention one or two items. One hundred dollars for
+flowers; one thousand in several bills from Chicago jewellers! The
+articles would count as an asset. Have you got them?"
+
+"I haven't," said Clavering. "They were for a lady."
+
+"Well," said Hopkins, "you know best; but one would have fancied there was
+more than one of them from the bills. Here's another somewhat curious
+item: hats--I guess they came from Paris--and millinery, two hundred
+dollars' worth of them!"
+
+A little angry light crept into Clavering's eyes. "If I hadn't been so
+abominably careless you wouldn't have seen those bills. I meant to put
+them down as miscellaneous and destroy the papers. Well, I've done with
+that extravagance, any way, and it's to hear the truth I'm paying you
+quite a big fee. If I go on just as I'm doing, how long would you give
+me?"
+
+"Two years. Then the bank will put the screw on you. The legislature may
+pull you up earlier, but I can tell you more when I've squared up
+to-morrow."
+
+There was a curious look in Clavering's dark eyes, but he laughed again.
+
+"I guess that's about enough. But I'll leave you to it now," he said.
+"It's quite likely I'll have got out of the difficulty before one of those
+years is over."
+
+He went out, and a few minutes later stopped as he passed the one big
+mirror in the ranch, and surveyed himself critically for a moment with a
+dispassionate interest that was removed from vanity. Then he nodded as if
+contented.
+
+"With Torrance to back me it might be done," he said. "Liberty is sweet,
+but I don't know that it's worth at least fifty thousand dollars!"
+
+
+
+
+XII
+
+THE SPROUTING OF THE SEED
+
+
+Late in the afternoon of a bitter day Grant drove into sight of the last
+of the homesteaders' dwellings that lay within his round. It rose, a
+shapeless mound of white, from the wilderness that rolled away in billowy
+rises, shining under the sunlight that had no warmth in it. The snow that
+lay deep about its sod walls and upon the birch-branch roof hid its
+squalidness, and covered the pile of refuse and empty cans, but Grant knew
+what he would find within it, and when he pulled up his team his face grew
+anxious. It was graver than it had been a year ago, for Larry Grant had
+lost a good deal of his hopefulness since he heard those footsteps at the
+depot.
+
+The iron winter, that was but lightly felt in the homes of the
+cattle-barons, had borne hardly on the men huddled in sod-hovel, and
+birch-log shanty, swept by the winds of heaven at fifty degrees below.
+They had no thick furs to shelter them, and many had very little food,
+while on those who came from the cities the cold of the Northwest set its
+mark, numbing the half-fed body and unhinging the mind. The lean farmers
+from the Dakotas who had fought with adverse seasons, and the sinewy
+axe-men from Michigan clearings, bore it with grim patience, but there
+were here and there a few who failed to stand the strain, and, listening
+to the outcasts from the East, let passion drive out fortitude and dreamed
+of anarchy. They had come in with a pitiful handful of dollars to build
+new homes and farm, but the rich men, and in some cases their own
+supineness, had been too strong for them; and while they waited their
+scanty capital melted away. Now, with most of them it had almost gone, and
+they were left without the means to commence the fight in spring.
+
+Breckenridge saw the shadow in Grant's face, and touched his arm. "I'll go
+in and give the man his dollars, Larry," he said. "You have had about as
+much worry as is good for you to-day."
+
+Grant shook his head. "I've no use for shutting my eyes so I can't see a
+thing when I know it's there."
+
+He stepped out of the sleigh and went into the shanty. The place had one
+room, and, though a stove stood in the midst of it and the snow that kept
+some of the frost out was piled to the windows, it was dank and chill.
+Only a little dim light crept in, and it was a moment or two before Grant
+saw the man who sat idle by the stove with a clotted bandage round his
+leg. He was gaunt, and clad in jean patched with flour-bags, and his face
+showed haggard under his bronze. Behind him on a rude birch-branch couch
+covered with prairie hay a woman lay apparently asleep beneath a tattered
+fur coat.
+
+"What's the matter with her?" Grant asked.
+
+"I don't quite know. She got sick 'most two weeks ago, and talks of a pain
+that only leaves her when she's sleeping. One of the boys drove in to the
+railroad for the doctor, but he's busy down there. Any way, it would have
+taken him 'most a week to get here and back, and I guess he knew I hadn't
+the dollars to pay him with."
+
+Grant recognized the hopeless evenness of the tone, but Breckenridge, who
+was younger, did not.
+
+"But you can't let her lie here without help of any kind," he said.
+
+"Well," said the man slowly, "what else can I do?"
+
+Breckenridge could not tell him, and appealed to his comrade. "We have got
+to take this up, Larry. She looks ill."
+
+Grant nodded. "I have friends down yonder who will send that doctor out,"
+he said. "Here are your dollars from the fund. Ten of them this time."
+
+The man handed him one of the bills back. "If you want me to take more
+than five you'll have to show your book," he said. "I've been finding out
+how you work these affairs, Larry."
+
+Grant only laughed, but Breckenridge turned to the speaker with an
+assumption of severity that was almost ludicrous in his young face.
+
+"Now, don't you make yourself a consumed ass," he said. "You want those
+dollars considerably more than we do, and we've got quite a few of them
+doing nothing in the bank. That is, Larry has."
+
+Grant's eyes twinkled. "It's no use, Breckenridge. I know the kind of man
+he is. I'm going to send Miss Muller here, and we'll come round and pound
+the foolishness out of you if you try to send back anything she brings
+with her. This place is as cold as an ice-store. What's the matter with
+your stove?"
+
+"The stove's all right," and the man pointed to his leg. "The trouble is
+that I've very little wood. Axe slipped the last time I went chopping in
+the bluff, and the frost got into the cut. I couldn't make three miles on
+one leg, and pack a load of billets on my back."
+
+"But you'd freeze when those ran out, and they couldn't last you two
+days," said Breckenridge, glancing at the little pile of fuel.
+
+"Yes," said the man grimly. "I guess I would, unless one of the boys came
+along."
+
+"Anything wrong with your oxen?" asked Grant.
+
+"Well," said the man drily, "we've been living for 'most two months on one
+of them. I salted a piece of him; the rest's frozen. I had to sell the
+other to a Dutchman. Since the cattle-boys stopped me ploughing I hadn't
+much use for them, any way."
+
+"Then," said Breckenridge, "why the devil did you bring a woman out to
+this forsaken country?"
+
+Perhaps the man understood what prompted the question, for he did not
+resent it. "Where was I to take her to? I'm a farmer without dollars, and
+I had to go somewhere when I'd lost three wheat crops in Dakota. Somebody
+told me you had room for small farmers, and when I heard the land was to
+be opened for homesteading, I sold out everything, and came on here to
+begin again. Never saw a richer soil, and there's only one thing wrong
+with the country."
+
+"The men in it?" asked Breckenridge.
+
+The farmer nodded, and a little glow crept into his eyes. "Yes," he said
+fiercely. "The cattle-barons--and there'll be no room for anyone until
+we've done away with them. We've no patience for more fooling. It has got
+to be done."
+
+"That's the executive's business," said Grant.
+
+The man rose, with a little quiver of his lean frame and a big hand
+clenched. "No," he said, "it's our business, and the business of every
+honest citizen. If you don't tackle it right off, other men will put the
+contract through."
+
+"You'll have to talk plainer," said Grant.
+
+"Well," said the farmer, "that's easy. It was you and some of the others
+brought us in, and now we're here we're starving. There's land to feed a
+host of us, and every citizen is entitled to enough to make a living on.
+But while the cattle-men keep hold, how's he going to get it? Oh, yes,
+we've cut their fences and broken a few acres here and there; but how are
+we going to put through our ploughing when every man who drives a furrow
+has to whip up six of his neighbours to keep the cow-boys off him? Well,
+there's just one answer. We're going to pull those men down."
+
+"You're going to sit tight until your leaders tell you to move," Grant
+informed him.
+
+The man laughed harshly. "No," he said. "Unless they keep ahead of us
+we're going to trail them along. You're a straight man, Larry, but you
+don't see all you've done. You set this thing going, and now you can't
+step out if it goes too far for you. No, sir, you've got to keep the pace
+and come along, and it's going to be quite lively now some of the Chicago
+anarchy boys are chipping in."
+
+Grant's face was very stern. "When they're wanted, your leaders will be
+there," he said. "They've got hold, and they'll keep it, if they have to
+whip the sense into some of you. Now give me that axe of yours, and we'll
+get some wood. I don't want to hear any more wild talking."
+
+He went out, taking Breckenridge with him, and an hour later returned with
+a sleigh-load of birch branches, which he flung down before the shanty.
+Then, he turned the team towards Fremont ranch, and his face was grave as
+he stared over the horses' heads at the smear of trail that wound away, a
+blue-grey riband, before the gliding sleigh.
+
+"I wonder if that fellow meant to give us a hint," said Breckenridge.
+
+Grant nodded. "I think he did--and he was right about the rest. Two years
+ago I was a prosperous rancher, proud of the prairie I belonged to, and
+without a care; but I could see what this country was meant to be, and
+when the others started talking about the homestead movement I did my
+share. Folks seemed keen to listen; we got letters from everywhere, and we
+told the men who wrote them just what the land could do. It was sowing
+blindfold, and now the crop's above the sod it 'most frightens me. No man
+can tell what it will grow to be before it's ready for the binder, and
+while we've got the wheat we've got the weeds as well."
+
+"Wasn't it always like that? At least, it seems so from reading a little
+history. I don't know that I envy you, Larry. In the tongue of this
+country, it's a hard row you have to hoe. Of course, there are folks who
+would consider they had done enough in planting it."
+
+"Yes," Grant agreed, "we have quite a few of them over here; but, if more
+than we've planted has come up, I'm going right through."
+
+Breckenridge said nothing further, and there was silence until the lights
+of Fremont rose out of the snowy wilderness. When they reached it they
+found a weary man lying in a big chair; he pointed to the litter of plates
+on the table as he handed Grant a letter.
+
+"I haven't eaten since sun up, and drove most of sixty miles, so I didn't
+wait," he said. "Our executive boss, who told me to lose no time, seemed
+kind of worried about something."
+
+Grant opened the letter, which was terse. "Look out," he read. "We had to
+put the screw on a crazy Pole who has been making wild speeches here, and
+as he lit out I have a notion he means to see what he can do with the
+discontented in your district. We couldn't have him raising trouble round
+this place, any way. It's taking us both hands to hold the boys in
+already."
+
+"Bad news?" said Breckenridge sympathetically.
+
+"Yes," Grant said wearily. "Get your supper and sleep when you can. You'll
+be driving from sun up until after it's dark to-morrow."
+
+They ate almost in silence, but, though the messenger and Breckenridge
+retired shortly after the meal, Grant sat writing until late in the night.
+Then, he stretched his arms wearily above his head, and his face showed
+worn and almost haggard in the flickering lamplight.
+
+"It has put Hetty further from me than ever, and cost me the goodwill of
+every friend I had; while the five thousand dollars I've lost as well
+don't count for very much after that," he said.
+
+Early next morning Breckenridge and the messenger drove away, and rather
+more than a week later Fraeulein Muller, whom the former had taken to
+attend on the homesteader's wife, arrived one night at Fremont ranch. She
+came in, red-cheeked, unconcerned, and shapeless, in Muller's fur coat,
+and quietly brushed the dusty snow from her dress before she sat down as
+far as possible from the stove.
+
+"I a message from Mrs. Harper bring," she said. "Last night two men to
+Harper's house have come, and one now and then will to the other talk in
+our tongue. He is one, I think, who will destroy everything. Then they
+talk with Harper long in the stable, and to-day Harper with his rifle
+rides away. Mrs. Harper, who has fears for her husband, would have you
+know that to-night, or to-morrow he will go with other men to the Cedar
+Ranch."
+
+Grant was on his feet in a moment, and nodded to Breckenridge, who rose
+almost as quickly and glanced at him as he moved towards the door.
+
+"Yes," he said, "there's some tough hoeing to be done now. You'll drive
+Miss Muller back to Harper's, and then turn out the boys. They're to come
+on to Cedar as fast as they can."
+
+"And you?" said Breckenridge quietly.
+
+"I'm going there now."
+
+"You know the cattle-men would do almost anything to get their hands on
+you."
+
+"Oh, yes," Grant said wearily. "Aren't you wasting time?"
+
+Breckenridge was outside the next moment, but before he had the sleigh
+ready Grant lead a saddled horse out of the stable, and vanished at a
+gallop down the beaten trail. It rang dully beneath the hoofs, but the
+frost that had turned its surface dusty lessened the chance of stumbling,
+and it was not until the first league had been left behind and he turned
+at the forking beneath a big birch bluff that he tightened his grip on the
+bridle. There it was different, for the trail no longer led wide and
+trampled hard across the level prairie, but wound, an almost invisible
+riband, through tortuous hollow and over swelling rise, so narrow that in
+places the hoofs broke with a sharp crackling through the frozen crust of
+snow. That, Larry knew, might, by crippling the beast he rode, stop him
+then and there, and he pushed on warily, dazzled at times by the light of
+the sinking moon which the glistening white plain flung back into his
+eyes.
+
+It was bitter cold, and utterly still for the birds had gone south long
+ago, and there was no beast that ventured from his lair to face the frost
+that night. Dulled as the trample of hoofs was, it rang about him
+stridently, and now and then he could hear it roll repeated along the
+slope of a rise. The hand upon the bridle had lost all sense of feeling,
+his moccasined feet tingled painfully, and a white fringe crackled under
+his hand when, warned by the nipping of his ears, he drew the big fur cap
+down further over them. It is not difficult to lose the use of one's
+members for life by incautiously exposing them to the cold of the prairie,
+while a frost that may be borne by the man covered to the chin with great
+sleigh robes, is not infrequently insupportable to the one on horseback.
+
+Grant, however, took precautions, as it were mechanically, for his mind
+was too busy to feel in its full keenness the sting of the frost, and
+while his eyes were fixed on the blur of the trail his thoughts were far
+away, and it was by an almost unconscious effort he restrained the
+impatient horse. Because speed was essential, he dare risk no undue haste.
+He was not the only rider out on the waste that night, and the shiver that
+went through him was not due to the cold as he pictured the other horsemen
+pressing on towards Cedar Ranch. Of the native-born he had little fear,
+and he fancied but few of them would be there. There was even less to
+dread from any of English birth, but he feared the insensate alien, and
+still more the human vultures that had gathered about the scene of strife.
+They had neither race, nor creed, nor aspirations, but only an unhallowed
+lust for the fruits of rapine.
+
+He could also picture Hetty, sitting slight and dark-eyed at the piano, as
+he had often seen her, and Torrance listening with a curious softening of
+his lean face to the voice that had long ago wiled Larry's heart away from
+him. That led him back to the days when, loose-tressed and flushed in
+face, Hetty had ridden beside him in the track of the flying coyote, and
+he had seen her eyes glisten at his praise. There were other times when,
+sitting far apart from any of their kind, with the horses tethered beside
+them in the shadow of a bluff, she had told him of her hopes and
+ambitions, but half-formed then, and to silence his doubts sung him some
+simple song. Larry had travelled through Europe, to look about him, as he
+naively said, but it was what reminded him of that voice he had found most
+pleasure in when he listened to famous sopranos and great cathedral
+choirs.
+
+Still, he had expected little, realizing, as he had early done, that Hetty
+was not for him. It was enough to be with her when she had any need of him
+and to dream of her when absent, while it was only when he heard she had
+found her hopes were vain that he clutched at the very faint but alluring
+possibility that now her heart might turn to him. Then, had come the
+summons of duty, and when he had to choose which side he would take,
+Larry, knowing what it would cost him, had with the simple loyalty which
+had bound him as Hetty's servant without hope of reward, decided on what
+he felt was right. He was merely one of the many quiet, steadfast men whom
+the ostentatious sometimes mistake for fools, until the nation they form
+the backbone of rises to grapple with disaster or emergency. They are not
+confined to any one country; for his comrade, Muller, the placid,
+unemphatic Teuton, had been at Worth and Sedan.
+
+Though none of these memories delayed him a second, he brushed them from
+him when the moon dipped. Darkness swooped down on the prairie, and it is
+the darkness that suits rapine best; now, that he could see the trail no
+longer, he shook the bridle, and the pace grew faster. The powdery snow
+whirled behind him, the long, dim levels flitted past, until at last, with
+heart thumping, he rode up a rise from whose crest he could see Cedar
+Range. A great weight lifted from him--the row of windows were blinking
+beside the dusky bluff! But even as he checked the horse the ringing of a
+rifle came portentously out of the stillness. With a gasp he drove in his
+heels and swept at a furious gallop down the slope.
+
+
+
+
+XIII
+
+UNDER FIRE
+
+
+It was getting late and Torrance evidently becoming impatient, when
+Clavering, who had ignored the latter fact as long as he considered it
+advisable, glanced at Hetty with a smile. He stood by the piano in the big
+hall at Cedar Range, and she sat on the music-stool turning over one of
+the new songs he had brought her from Chicago.
+
+"I am afraid I will have to go," he said. "Your father is not fond of
+waiting."
+
+Though Hetty was not looking at him directly, she saw his face, which
+expressed reluctance still more plainly than his voice did; but just then
+Torrance turned to them.
+
+"Aren't you through with those songs yet, Clavering?" he said.
+
+"I'm afraid I have made Miss Torrance tired," said Clavering. "Still, we
+have music enough left us for another hour or two."
+
+"Then why can't you stay on over to-morrow and get a whole night at it? I
+want you just now."
+
+Clavering glanced at Hetty, and, though she made no sign, fancied that she
+was not quite pleased with her father.
+
+"Am I to tell him I will?" he asked.
+
+Hetty understood what prompted him, but she would not commit herself. "You
+will do what suits you," she said. "When my father asks any one to Cedar I
+really don't often make myself unpleasant to him."
+
+Clavering's eyes twinkled as he walked towards the older man, while Hetty
+crossed the room to where Miss Schuyler sat. Both apparently became
+absorbed in the books Clavering had brought, but they could hear the
+conversation of the men, and it became evident later that one of them
+listened. Torrance had questions to ask, and Clavering answered them.
+
+"Well," he said, "I had a talk with Purbeck which cost us fifty dollars.
+His notion was that the Bureau hadn't a great deal to go upon if they
+meant to do anything further about dispossessing us. In fact, he quite
+seemed to think that as the legislature had a good many other worries just
+now, it would suit them to let us slide. He couldn't recommend anything
+better than getting our friends in the lobbies to keep the screw on them
+until the election."
+
+Torrance looked thoughtful. "That means holding out for another six
+months, any way. Did you hear anything at the settlement?"
+
+"Yes. Fleming wouldn't sell the homestead-boys anything after they broke
+in his store. Steele's our man, and it was Carter they got their
+provisions from. Now, Carter had given Jackson a bond for two thousand
+dollars when he first came in, and as he hadn't made his payments lately,
+and we have our thumb on Jackson, the Sheriff has closed down on his
+store. He'll be glad to light out with the clothes he stands in when we're
+through with him."
+
+Torrance nodded grim approval. "Larry wouldn't sit tight."
+
+"No," said Clavering. "He wired right through to Chicago for most of a
+carload of flour and eatables, but that car got billed wrong somehow, and
+now they're looking for her up and down the side-tracks of the Pacific
+slope. Larry's men will be getting savage. It is not nice to be hungry
+when there's forty degrees of frost."
+
+Torrance laughed softly. "You have fixed the thing just as I would."
+
+Then his daughter stood up with a little flush in her face. "You could not
+have meant that, father?" she said.
+
+"Well," said Torrance, drily, "I quite think I did, but there's a good
+deal you can't get the hang of, Hetty--and it's getting very late."
+
+He looked at his daughter steadily, and Flora Schuyler looked at all of
+them, and remembered the picture--Torrance sitting lean and sardonic with
+the lamplight on his face, Clavering watching the girl with a curious
+little smile, and Hetty standing very slim and straight, with something in
+the poise of her shapely head that had its meaning to Miss Schuyler. Then
+with a "Good-night" to Torrance, and a half-ironical bend of the head to
+Clavering, she turned to her companion, and they went out together before
+he could open the door for them.
+
+Five minutes later Hetty tapped at Miss Schuyler's door. The pink tinge
+still showed in her cheeks, and her eyes had a suspicious brightness in
+them.
+
+"Flo," she said, "you'll go back to New York right off. I'm sorry I
+brought you here. This place isn't fit for you."
+
+"I am quite willing, so long as you are coming too."
+
+"I can't. Isn't that plain? This thing is getting horrible--but I have to
+see it through. It was Clavering fixed it, any way."
+
+"Put it away until to-morrow," Flora Schuyler advised. "It will be easier
+to see whether you have any cause to be angry then."
+
+Hetty turned towards her with a flash in her eyes. "I know just what you
+mean, and it would be nicer just to look as if I never felt anything, as
+some of those English folks you were fond of did; but I can't. I wasn't
+made that way. Still, I'm not going to apologize for my father. He is
+Torrance of Cedar, and I'm standing in with him--but if I were a man I'd
+go down and whip Clavering. I could almost have shaken him when he wanted
+to stay here and tried to make me ask him."
+
+"Well," said Flora Schuyler, quietly, "I am going to stay with you; but I
+don't quite see what Clavering has done."
+
+"No?" said Hetty. "Aren't you just a little stupid, Flo? Now, he has made
+me ashamed--horribly--and I was proud of the men we had in this country.
+He's starving the women and the little children; there are quite a few of
+them lying in freezing shanties and sod-huts out there in the snow. It's
+just awful to be hungry with the temperature at fifty below."
+
+Miss Schuyler shivered. It was very warm and cosy sitting there, behind
+double casements, beside a glowing stove; but there had been times when,
+wrapped in costly furs and great sleigh-robes and generously fed, she had
+felt her flesh shrink from the cold of the prairie.
+
+"But they have Mr. Grant to help them," she said.
+
+Even in her agitation Hetty was struck by something which suggested
+unquestioning faith in her companion's tone.
+
+"You believe he could do something," she said.
+
+"Of course! You know him better than I do, Hetty."
+
+"Well," said Hetty, "though he has made me vexed with him, I am proud of
+Larry; and there's just one thing he can't do. That is, to see women and
+children hungry while he has a dollar to buy them food with. Oh, I know
+who was going to pay for the provisions that came from Chicago that
+Clavering got the railroad men to send the wrong way, and if Larry had
+only been with us he would have been splendid. As it is, if he feeds them
+in spite of Clavering, I could 'most forgive him everything."
+
+"Are you quite sure that you have a great deal to forgive?"
+
+Hetty, instead of resenting the question, stretched out her hand
+appealingly. "Don't be clever, Flo. Come here quite close, and be nice to
+me. This thing is worrying me horribly; and I'm ashamed of myself and--of
+everybody. Oh, I know I'm a failure. I couldn't sing to please folks and I
+sent Jake Cheyne away, while now, when the trouble's come, I'm too mean
+even to stand behind my father as I meant to do. Flo, you'll stay with me.
+I want you."
+
+Miss Schuyler, who had not seen Hetty in this mood before, petted her,
+though she said very little, for she felt that the somewhat unusual
+abasement might, on the whole, be beneficial to her companion. So there
+was silence in the room, broken only by the snapping of the stove and the
+faint moaning of the bitter wind about the lonely building, while Miss
+Schuyler sat somewhat uncomfortably on the arm of Hetty's chair with the
+little dusky head pressed against her shoulder. Hetty could not see her
+face or its gravity might have astonished her. Miss Schuyler had not
+spoken quite the truth when, though she had only met him three times, she
+admitted that Hetty knew Larry Grant better than she did. In various
+places and different guises Flora Schuyler had seen the type of manhood he
+stood for, but had never felt the same curious stirring of sympathy this
+grave, brown-faced man had aroused in her.
+
+A hound bayed savagely, and Hetty lifted her head. "Strangers!" she said.
+"Bowie knows all the cattle-boys. Who can be coming at this hour?"
+
+The question was not unwarranted, for it was close on midnight, but Flora
+Schuyler did not answer. She could hear nothing but the moan of the wind,
+the ranch was very still, until once more there came an angry growl. Then,
+out of the icy darkness followed the sound of running feet, a hoarse cry,
+and a loud pounding at the outer door.
+
+Hetty stood up, trembling and white in the face, but very straight. "Don't
+be frightened, Flo," she said. "We'll whip them back to the place they
+came from."
+
+"Who is it?" asked Miss Schuyler.
+
+Again the building rang to the blows upon the outer door; but Hetty's
+voice was even, and a little contemptuous.
+
+"The rustlers!" she said.
+
+There was a trampling below, and a corridor beneath the girls vibrated
+with the footsteps of hurrying men, while Torrance's voice rose faintly
+through the din; a very unpleasant silence, until somebody rapped upon the
+door. Flora Schuyler felt her heart throbbing painfully, and gasped when
+Torrance looked in. His lean face was very stern.
+
+"Put the lamp out, and sit well away from the window," he said.
+
+"No," said Hetty in a voice Miss Schuyler had not heard before; "we are
+coming down."
+
+Torrance considered for a second, and then smiled significantly as he
+glanced at his daughter's face. "Well, you would be 'most as safe down
+there--and I guess it was born in you," he said.
+
+The girls followed him down the cedar stairway and into the hall. A lamp
+burning very low stood on a table in one corner, but the big room was dim
+and shadowy, and the girls could scarcely see the five or six men standing
+near, not in front of, one open window. Framed by its log casing the white
+prairie faded into the dimness under a smear of indigo sky. Here and there
+a star shone in it with intense brilliancy, and though the great stove
+roared in the draught it seemed to Miss Schuyler that a destroying cold
+came in. Already she felt her hands grow numb.
+
+"Where are the boys, Hetty?" she asked.
+
+"In at the railroad, most of them. One or two at the back. Now, I'll show
+you how to load a rifle, Flo."
+
+Miss Schuyler followed her to the table, where several rifles were lying
+beside a big box of cartridges, and Hetty took one of them up.
+
+"You push this slide back, and drop the cartridge in," she said. "Now it
+has gone into this pipe here, and you drop in another. Get hold, and push
+them in until you can't get in any more. Why--it can't hurt you--your
+hands are shaking!"
+
+There was a rattle, and the venomous, conical-headed cartridge slipped
+from Miss Schuyler's fingers. She had never handled one before, and it
+seemed to her that a horrible, evil potency was bound up in that
+insignificant roll of metal. Then, while the rifle click-clacked in
+Hetty's hands, Torrance stood by the window holding up a handkerchief. He
+called out sharply, and there was a murmur of derision in the darkness
+outside.
+
+"Come out!" said a hoarse voice. "We'll give you a minute. Then you can
+have a sleigh to drive to perdition in."
+
+The laughter that followed frightened Miss Schuyler more than any threats
+would have done. It seemed wholly horrible, and there was a hint in it of
+the fierce exultation of men driven to desperation.
+
+"That wouldn't suit me," said Torrance. "What do you want here, any way?"
+
+"Food," somebody answered. "You wanted to starve us, Torrance, and rode us
+out when we went chopping stove wood in the bluff. Well, you don't often
+miss your supper at the Range, and there's quite enough of it to make a
+decent blaze. You haven't much of that minute left. Are you coming out?"
+
+"No," said Torrance briefly, and, dropping the handkerchief, moved from
+the window.
+
+The next moment there was a flash in the darkness, and something came
+whirring into the room. The girls could not see it, but they heard the
+thud it struck with and saw a chip start from the cedar panelling. Then,
+there was a rush of feet, and twice a red streak blazed from the window. A
+man jerked a cartridge, which fell with a rattle from his rifle, and a
+little blue smoke blew across the room. Flora Schuyler shivered as the
+acrid fumes of it drifted about her, but Hetty stood very straight, with
+one hand on the rim of the table.
+
+"Got nobody, and they're into the shadow now," said a man disgustedly, and
+Flora Schuyler, seeing his face, which showed a moment fierce and brutish
+as he turned, felt that she could not forget it, and most illogically
+hated him.
+
+For almost a minute there was silence. Nobody moved in the big room, where
+the shadows wavered as the faint flickering lamplight rose and fell, and
+there was no sound but the doleful wail of the night wind from the
+prairie. It was broken by a dull crash that was repeated a moment later,
+and the men looked at one another.
+
+"They've brought their axes along," said somebody. "If there's any of the
+Michigan boys around they'll drive that door in."
+
+"Watch it, two of you," said Torrance. "Jake, can't you get a shot at
+them?"
+
+A man crouched by the open window, which was some little height from the
+ground, his arms upon the sill, and his head showing against the darkness
+just above them. He was, it seemed to Miss Schuyler, horribly deliberate,
+and she held her breath while she watched, as if fascinated, the long
+barrel move a little. Then its muzzle tilted suddenly, a train of red
+sparks blew out, and something that hummed through the smoke struck the
+wall. The man dropped below the sill, and called hoarsely through the
+crash of the falling axes.
+
+"Got the pillar instead of him. There's a streak of light behind me. Well,
+I'll try for him again."
+
+Hetty emptied the box of cartridges, and, with hands that did not seem to
+tremble, stood it up before the lamp. Once more the man crouched by the
+window, a blurred, huddled object with head down on the rifle stock, and
+there was another streak of flame. Then, the thud of the axes suddenly
+ceased, and he laughed a little discordant laugh.
+
+"Got him this time. The other one's lit out," he said.
+
+Miss Schuyler shuddered, and clutched at the table, while, though Hetty
+was very still, she fancied she heard a stifled gasp. The silence was even
+more disconcerting than the pounding of the axes or the crash of the
+firing. Flora Schuyler could see the shadowy figures about the window, and
+just distinguish some of them. The one standing close in front of it, as
+though disdainful of the risk he ran, was Torrance; the other, who now and
+then moved lithely, and once rested a rifle on the sill, was Clavering;
+another, the man who had fired the last shot; but the rest were blurred,
+formless objects, a little darker than the cedar panelling. Now and then
+the streak of radiance widened behind the box, and the cold grew numbing
+as the icy wind flowed in.
+
+Suddenly a voice rose up outside. "You can't keep us out, Torrance. We're
+bound to get in; but I'll try to hold the boys now if you'll let us have
+our wounded man, and light out quietly."
+
+Torrance laughed. "You are not making much of a show, and I'm quite ready
+to do the best I can," he said. "If there's any life in him we want your
+man for the Sheriff."
+
+Then he turned to the others. "I was 'most forgetting the fellow outside
+there. We'll hold them off from the window while you bring him in."
+
+It appeared horribly risky, but Torrance spoke with a curious
+unconcernedness, and Clavering laughed as, signing to two men, he prepared
+to do his bidding. There was a creaking and rattling, and the great door
+at one end of the hall swung open, and Flora Schuyler, staring at the
+darkness, expected to see a rush of shadowy figures out of it. But she saw
+only the blurred outline of two men who stooped and dragged something in,
+and then the door swung to again.
+
+They lifted their burden higher. Torrance, approaching the table, took up
+the lamp, and Miss Schuyler had a passing glimpse of a hanging head and a
+drawn grey face as they tramped past her heavily. She opened her blue lips
+and closed them again, for she was dazed with cold, and the cry that would
+have been a relief to her never came. It was several minutes later when
+Torrance's voice rose from by the stove.
+
+"We'll leave him here in the meanwhile, where he can't freeze," he said.
+"Shot right through the shoulder, but there's no great bleeding. The cold
+would stop it."
+
+Hetty was at her father's side the next moment. "Flo," she said, "we have
+to do something now."
+
+Torrance waved them back. "The longer that man stops as he is, the better
+chances he's going to have." He glanced towards the window. "Boys, can you
+see what they're doing now?"
+
+"Hauling out prairie hay," said Clavering. "They've broken into the store,
+and from what one fellow shouted they've found the kerosene."
+
+Torrance said nothing whatever, and his silence was significant. Listening
+with strained attention, Flora Schuyler could hear a faint hum of voices,
+and now and then vague sounds amidst a patter of hurrying steps. They told
+her very little, but the tension in the attitude of the half-seen men had
+its meaning. It was evident that their assailants purposed to burn them
+out.
+
+Ten minutes passed, as it were interminably, and still nobody moved. The
+voices had grown a little louder, and there was a rattle as though men
+unseen behind the buildings were dragging up a wagon. Suddenly a rhythmic
+drumming came softly through it, and Clavering glanced at Torrance.
+
+"Somebody riding this way at a gallop," he said.
+
+The beat of hoofs grew louder. The men without seemed to be running to and
+fro, and shouting to one another, while those in the hall clustered about
+the window, reckless of the risk they ran. Standing a little behind them
+Hetty saw a dim mounted figure sweep out of the waste of snow, and a
+hoarse shout went up. "Hold on! Throw down that rifle! It's Larry Grant."
+
+
+
+
+XIV
+
+TORRANCE'S WARNING
+
+
+In another moment the horseman pulled up, and sat motionless in his saddle
+with his head turned towards the house. Hetty could see him silhouetted,
+shapeless and shadowy in his big fur-coat, against the whiteness of the
+snow, and the relief she felt betrayed itself in her voice as she turned
+to Miss Schuyler.
+
+"Yes," she said, "it's Larry. There will be no more trouble now."
+
+Flora Schuyler laughed a little breathless laugh, for though she also felt
+the confidence her companion evinced, the strain had told on her.
+
+"Of course," she said, "he knew you wanted him. There are men like that."
+
+It was a simple tribute, but Hetty thrilled with pride. Larry was at least
+consistent, and now, as it had been in the days both looked back upon, he
+had come when she needed him. She also recognized even then that the fact
+that he is generally to be found where he is wanted implies a good deal in
+the favour of any man.
+
+And now half-seen objects moved out from behind barn and stable, and the
+horseman turned towards them. His voice rose sharply and commandingly.
+
+"What are you doing here?" he demanded.
+
+There was no answer for several moments, and then a man stepped forward
+gesticulating fiercely as he commenced a tirade that was less than half
+intelligible. Larry checked him with a lifted hand.
+
+"There's a good deal of that I can't quite understand, and the rest
+doesn't seem to fit this case," he said, with a laugh that had more effect
+upon some of those who heard it than a flow of eloquence would have had.
+"Boys, we have no use for worrying about the meanness of European kings
+and folks of that kind. If you have brought any along I'd sooner listen to
+sensible Americans."
+
+Another man stepped forward, and there was no doubt about his accent,
+though his tone was deprecatory.
+
+"Well, it just comes to this," he said. "Torrance and the cattle-men have
+done their best to starve us and freeze us out, and, since he has made it
+plain that there's no room for both of us, somebody has got to go. Now, we
+have come a long way and we mean to stay. We're not looking for trouble,
+but we want our rights."
+
+There was a murmur of encouragement from the rest, but again Larry's laugh
+had its effect. "Then you're taking a kind of curious way of getting
+them," he said. "I don't know that trying to burn folks' houses ever did
+anybody much good, and it's quite likely to bring a regiment of United
+States cavalry down on you. Mr. Torrance, I fancied I heard firing. Have
+you anybody hurt inside?"
+
+"One of your men," said Torrance drily. "We hope to pull him round, and
+let the Sheriff have him."
+
+It was not a conciliatory answer, and came near undoing what Grant had
+accomplished; but the grim old cattle-baron was not the man to propitiate
+an enemy. A murmur followed it, and somebody said, "Boys, you hear him!
+Bring along that wagon. We're going in."
+
+The form of speech was Western, but the voice was guttural, and when there
+was a rattle of wheels Grant suddenly changed his tone.
+
+"Stop right there," he said. "Throw every truss of hay down. The man who
+holds off when I tell him what to do is going to have trouble with the
+executive."
+
+It was a bold venture, and any sign of effort or unevenness of inflection
+would have rendered it futile, but the voice was sharp and ringing, and
+the fashion in which the horseman flung up his arm commanding. It was,
+also, tactful, for some of those who heard it had been drilled into
+unreflecting obedience, and there is in the native American the respect
+for a duly accredited leader, which discipline has further impressed upon
+the Teuton. Still, those who watched from the window felt that this was
+the crisis, and tightened their numbed fingers on the rifles, knowing that
+if the horseman failed they would shortly need them again. None of them,
+however, made any other movement, and Miss Schuyler, who, grasping Hetty's
+hand, saw the dim figures standing rigid and intent, could only hear the
+snapping of the stove.
+
+"Hetty," she gasped, "I shall do something silly in another moment."
+
+The tension only lasted a moment or two. A man sprang up on the pole of
+the wagon, and a truss of hay went down. Another followed, and then, men
+who had also felt the strain and now felt it a relief to do anything,
+clustered about the wagon. In a few minutes it was empty, and the men who
+had been a mob turned to the one who had changed them into an organized
+body.
+
+"What do you want now?" asked one of them.
+
+"Run that wagon back where you got it from," said Larry.
+
+It was done, and when the clustering figures vanished amidst a rattle of
+wheels Torrance laid aside his rifle and sat down on the table.
+
+"I guess there'll be no more trouble, boys. That's a thing there's not
+many men could have done," he added.
+
+His daughter also sat down in the nearest chair, with Flora Schuyler's
+hand still within her own. She had been very still while the suspense
+lasted, but she was trembling now, and her voice had a little quiver in it
+as she said, "Wasn't he splendid, Flo?"
+
+It was some minutes before Grant and the other men came back again, and
+fragments of what he said were audible. "Then, you can pick out four men,
+and we'll hear them at the committee. I have two or three questions to ask
+you by and by. Half a dozen of you keep a look-out. The rest can get into
+the stable out of the frost."
+
+The men dispersed, and Grant turned towards the house. "I don't think you
+need have any further anxiety, and you can shut that window if you want
+to, Mr. Torrance."
+
+Torrance laughed. "I don't know that I've shown any yet."
+
+"I hope you haven't felt it," said Grant. "It is cold out here, and I'm
+willing to come in and talk to you."
+
+Somebody had moved the box away from the lamp, and Clavering's face showed
+up against the wavering shadow as he turned towards his leader. Flora
+Schuyler saw a little unpleasant smile on his lips as he pointed
+suggestively to the men with rifles he had sent towards the door.
+
+"That would suit us, sir," he said.
+
+Torrance understood him, for he shook his head impatiently. "It wouldn't
+pay. There would be too many of his friends wondering what had become of
+him. Get the door open and tell him to come in. Light the big lamps,
+somebody."
+
+The door was opened, and, as if in confirmation of Torrance's warning, a
+voice rose up outside. "We have let him go, but if you try any meanness,
+or he isn't ready when we want him, we'll pull the place down," it said.
+
+Larry walked out of the darkness into the blaze of light, and only smiled
+a little when the great door swung to behind him and somebody brought the
+window banging down. Two men with rifles stepped between him and the
+former; but if Torrance had intended to impress him, he had apparently
+failed, for he moved forward with quiet confidence. The fur cap he held in
+his hand was white, and the great fur coat stood out from his body stiff
+with frost, while Hetty winced when she saw the pallor of his face. It was
+evident that it was not without a strenuous effort he had made the mob
+subservient to him.
+
+But his eyes were grave and steady, in spite of the weariness in them, and
+as he passed the girls he made a little formal inclination with his head.
+He stopped in front of Torrance, who rose from his seat on the table, and
+for a moment the two men looked at one another. Both stood very straight,
+one lean, and dark, and commanding, with half-contemptuous anger in his
+black eyes; the other of heavier frame and brown of skin and hair save
+where what he had done had left its stamp of pallor. Yet, different as
+they were in complexion and feature, it seemed to Miss Schuyler, who
+watched them intently, that there was a curious, indefinite resemblance
+between them. They were of the same stock and equally resolute, each
+ready, it seemed, to stake all he had on what he held the right.
+
+Flora Schuyler, who had trained her observation, also read what they felt
+in their faces, and saw in that of Torrance grudging approval tempered by
+scorn of the man who had trampled on the traditions of those he sprang
+from. She fancied that Larry recognized this and that it stung him, though
+he would not show that it did, and his attitude pleased her most. It was
+unyielding, but there was a deference that became him in it.
+
+"I am sorry I did not arrive soon enough to save you this inconvenience,
+sir," he said.
+
+Torrance smiled grimly, and there was a hardness in his voice. "You have
+been here a good many times, Larry, and we did our best for you. None of
+us fancied that you would repay us by coming back with a mob of rabble to
+pull the place down."
+
+Grant winced perceptibly. "Nobody is more sorry than I am, sir."
+
+"Aren't you a trifle late?"
+
+"I came as soon as I got word."
+
+Torrance made a little gesture of impatience. "That's not what I mean.
+There is very little use in being sorry now. Before the other fools you
+joined started there talking there was quietness and prosperity in this
+country. The men who had made it what it is got all, but nothing more than
+they were entitled to, and one could enjoy what he had worked for and
+sleep at night. This was not good enough for you--and this is what you
+have made of it."
+
+He stretched out his arm with a forceful gesture, pointing to the men with
+rifles, the two white-faced girls, and the splinters on the wall, then
+dropped his hand, and Larry's eyes rested on the huddled figure lying by
+the stove. He moved towards it, and bent down without a word, and it was
+at least five minutes before he came back again, his face dark and stern.
+
+"You have done nothing for him?" he said.
+
+[Illustration: "AREN'T YOU A TRIFLE LATE?"--Page 160.]
+
+"No," said Torrance, "we have not. I guess nature knows what's best for
+him, and I didn't see anything to be gained by rousing him with brandy to
+start the bleeding."
+
+"Well, first of all, I want that man."
+
+"You can have him. We had meant him for the Sheriff, but what you did just
+now lays me in your debt, and I would not like to feel I owed you
+anything."
+
+Grant made a little gesture. "I don't think I have quite deserved that,
+sir. I owe you a good deal, and it makes what I have to do harder still.
+Can't you remember that there was a time when you were kind to me?"
+
+"No," said Torrance drily. "I don't want to be reminded when I have done
+foolish things. I tried to warn you, but you would not listen to me, that
+the trail you have started on will take you a good deal farther than you
+meant to go. If you have anything to tell me, I would sooner talk
+business. Are you going to bring your friends round here at night again?"
+
+"They came without me, and, if I can help it, will not come back. This
+thing will be gone into, and the leaders punished by our committee. Now,
+are you willing to stop the intimidation of the storekeepers, which has
+brought about this trouble, and let us get provisions in the town? I can
+offer you something in exchange."
+
+"No," said Torrance. "Do what suits you best. I can make no terms with
+you. If it hadn't been for my foolishness in sending the boys off with the
+cattle, very few of your friends would have got away from Cedar Range
+to-night."
+
+"I'll take my man away. I can thank you for that at least," was Grant's
+answer.
+
+He moved to the door and opened it, and three men came in. They did his
+bidding, and all made way for them when they tramped out unsteadily with
+their burden. Then, he turned once more to Torrance with his fur cap in
+his hand.
+
+"I am going now, sir, and it is hard to tell what may happen before we
+meet again. We have each got a difficult row to hoe, and I want to leave
+you on the best terms I can."
+
+Torrance looked at him steadily, and Grant returned it with a curious
+gravity, though there were fearless cattle-men at Cedar Range who did not
+care to meet its owner's gaze when he regarded them in that fashion. With
+a just perceptible gesture he directed the younger man's attention to the
+red splashes on the floor.
+
+"That alone," he said quietly, "would stand between you and me. We made
+this land rich and peaceful, but that did not please you and the rest, who
+had not sense to see that while human nature's what it is, there's no use
+worrying about what you can't have when you have got enough. You went
+round sowing trouble, and by and by you'll have to reap it. You brought in
+the rabble, and were going to lead them, and make them farmers; but now
+they will lead you where you don't want to go, and when you have given
+them all you have, turn and trample on you. With the help of the men who
+are going back on their own kind, they may get us down, but when that time
+comes there will not be a head of cattle left, or a dollar in the
+treasury."
+
+"I can only hope you are mistaken, sir," said Grant.
+
+"I have lived quite a long while, but I have never seen the rabble keep
+faith with anyone longer than it suited them," the older man said. "Any
+way, that is not the question. You will be handed to the Sheriff if you
+come here again. I have nothing more to tell you, and this is, I hope, the
+last time I shall ever speak to you."
+
+Miss Schuyler watched Grant closely, but though his face was drawn and
+set, she saw only a respect, which, if it was assumed, still became him in
+his bearing as he turned away. As he passed the girls he bent his head,
+and Hetty, whose cheeks were flushed, rose with a formal bow, though her
+eyes shone suspiciously, but Flora Schuyler stepped forward and held out
+her hand.
+
+"Mr. Torrance can't object to two women thanking you for what you have
+done; and if he does, I don't greatly mind," she said.
+
+Torrance only smiled, but the warm bronze seemed to have returned to
+Larry's face as he passed on. Flora Schuyler had thanked him, but he had
+seen what was worth far more to him in Hetty's eyes, and knew that it was
+only loyalty to one who had the stronger claim that held her still. After
+the door closed behind him there was once more a curious stillness in the
+hall until Torrance went out with his retainers. A little later Clavering
+found the girls in another room.
+
+"You seem quite impressed, Miss Schuyler," he said.
+
+"I am," said Flora Schuyler. "I have seen a man who commands one's
+approbation--and an American."
+
+Clavering laughed. "Then, they're not always quite the same thing?"
+
+"No," Flora Schuyler said coldly. "That was one of the pleasant fancies I
+had to give up a long time ago."
+
+"I would like a definition of the perfected American," said Clavering.
+
+Miss Schuyler yawned. "Can't you tell him, Hetty? I once heard you talk
+quite eloquently on that subject."
+
+"I'll try," said Hetty. "It's the man who wants to give his country
+something, and not get the most he can out of it. The one who goes round
+planting seeds that will grow and bear fruit, even if it is long after he
+is there to eat it. No country has much use for the man who only wants to
+reap."
+
+Clavering assented, but there was a sardonic gleam in his eyes. "Well," he
+said reflectively, "there was once a man who planted dragon's teeth, and
+you know what kind of crop they yielded him."
+
+"He knew what he was doing," said Flora Schuyler. "The trouble is that now
+few men know a dragon's tooth when they see it."
+
+Clavering laughed. "Then the ones who don't should be stopped right off
+when they go round planting anything."
+
+
+
+
+XV
+
+HETTY'S BOUNTY
+
+
+It was a clear, cold afternoon, and Hetty, driving back from Allonby's
+ranch, sent the team at a gallop down the dip to the Cedar Bridge. The
+beaten trail rang beneath the steel shoes of the rocking sleigh, the
+birches streamed up blurred together out of the hollow, and Flora Schuyler
+felt the wind sting her cheeks like the lash of a whip. The coldness of it
+dimmed her eyes, and she had only a hazy and somewhat disconcerting vision
+of a streak of snow that rolled back to the horses' feet amidst the
+whirling trees. It was wonderfully exhilarating--the rush of the lurching
+sleigh, the hammering of the hoofs, and the scream of the wind--but Miss
+Schuyler realized that it was also unpleasantly risky as she remembered
+the difficult turn before one came to the bridge.
+
+She decided, however, that there was nothing to be gained by pointing this
+out to her companion, for Hetty, who sat swaying a little in the driving
+seat, had been in a somewhat curious mood since the attack on Cedar Range,
+and unusually impatient of advice or remonstrance. Indeed, Flora Schuyler
+fancied that it was the restlessness she had manifested once or twice of
+late which impelled her to hurl the sleigh down into the hollow at that
+reckless pace. So she said nothing, until the streak of snow broke off
+close ahead, and there were only trees in front of them. Then, a wild
+lurch cut short the protest she made, and she gasped as they swung round
+the bend and flashed across the bridge. The trail, however, led steeply
+upwards now, and Hetty, laughing, dropped the reins upon the plodding
+horses' necks.
+
+"Didn't that remind you of the Chicago Limited?" she said.
+
+"I was wondering," said Miss Schuyler breathlessly, "if you had any reason
+for trying to break your neck."
+
+"Well," said Hetty, with a twinkle in her eyes, "I felt I had to do
+something a little out of the usual, and it was really safe enough.
+Everybody feels that way now and then, and I couldn't well work it off by
+quarrelling with you, or going out and talking to the boys as my father
+does. I don't know a better cure than a gallop or a switchback in a
+sleigh."
+
+"Some folks find it almost as soothing to tell their friends what is
+worrying them, and I scarcely think it's more risky," said Miss Schuyler.
+
+Hetty's face became grave. "Well," she said, "one can talk to you, and I
+have been worried, Flo. I know that it is quite foolish, but I can't help
+it. I came back to see my father through the trouble, and I'm going to;
+but while I know that he's ever so much wiser than I am, some of the
+things he has to do hurt me. It's our land, and we're going to keep it;
+but it's not nice to think of the little children starving in the snow."
+
+This, Miss Schuyler decided, was perfectly correct, so far as it went; but
+she also felt tolerably certain that, while it was commendable, Hetty's
+loyalty to her father would be strenuously tested, and did not alone
+account for her restlessness.
+
+"And there was nothing else?" she said.
+
+"No," said Hetty, a little too decisively. "Of course! Any way, now I have
+told you we are not going to worry about these things to-day, and I drove
+fast partly because the trail is narrow, and one generally meets somebody
+here. Did it ever strike you, Flo, that if there's anyone you know in a
+country that has a bridge in it, you will, if you cross it often enough,
+meet him there?"
+
+"No," and Miss Schuyler smiled satirically, "it didn't, though one would
+fancy it was quite likely. I, however, remember that we met Larry here not
+very long ago. That Canadian blanket suit shows you off quite nicely,
+Hetty. It is especially adapted to your kind of figure."
+
+Hetty flicked the horses, then pulled them up again, and Miss Schuyler
+laughed as a sleigh with two men in it swung out from beneath the trees in
+front of them.
+
+"This is, of course, a coincidence," she said.
+
+Hetty coloured. "Don't be foolish, Flo," she said. "How could I know he
+was coming?"
+
+Flora Schuyler did not answer, and Hetty was edging her horses to the side
+of the trail, in which two sleighs could scarcely pass, when a shout came
+down.
+
+"Wait. We'll pull up and lead our team round."
+
+In another minute Grant stepped out of his sleigh, and would have passed
+if Hetty had not stopped him. She sat higher than her companion, and
+probably knew that the Canadian blanket costume, with its scarlet
+trimmings, became her slender figure. The crimson toque also went well
+with the clustering dark hair and dark eyes, and there was a brightness in
+the latter which was in keeping with the colour the cold wind had brought
+into the delicate oval face. The man glanced at her a moment, and then
+apparently found that a trace required his attention.
+
+"I am glad we met you, Larry," said the girl. "Flo thanked you the night
+you came to Cedar, and I wanted to, but, while you know why I couldn't, I
+would not like you to think it was very unkind of me. Whatever my father
+does is right, you see."
+
+"Of course," said Grant gravely. "You have to believe it, Hetty."
+
+Hetty's eyes twinkled. "That was very nice of you. Then you must be
+wrong."
+
+"Well," said Grant, with a merry laugh, "it is quite likely that I am now
+and then. One can only do the best he can, and to be right all the time is
+a little too much to expect from any man."
+
+Miss Schuyler, who was talking to Breckenridge, turned and smiled, and
+Hetty said, "Then, that makes it a little easier for me to admit that the
+folks I belong to go just a little too far occasionally. Larry, I hate to
+think of the little children going hungry. Are there many of them?"
+
+Grant's face darkened for a moment. "I'm afraid there are quite a few--and
+sick ones, too, lying with about half enough to cover them in
+sod-hovels."
+
+Hetty shuddered and her eyes grew pitiful, for since the grim early days
+hunger and want had been unknown in the cattle country. "If I want to do
+something for them it can't be very wrong," she said. "Larry, you will
+take a roll of bills from me, and buy them whatever will make it a little
+less hard for them?"
+
+"No," said Grant quietly, "I can't, Hetty. Your father gives you that
+money, and we have our own relief machinery."
+
+The girl laid her hand upon his arm appealingly. "I have a little my
+mother left me, and it was hers before she married my father. Can't you
+understand? I am with my father, and would not lift my finger to help you
+and the homestead-boys against him, but it couldn't do anybody any harm if
+I sent a few things to hungry children. You have just got to take those
+dollars, Larry."
+
+"Then I dare not refuse," said Grant, after thinking a moment. "They need
+more than we can give them. But you can't send me the dollars."
+
+"No," said Hetty, "and I have none with me now. But if a responsible man
+came to the bluff to-morrow night at eight o'clock, my maid could slip
+down with the wallet--you must not come. It would be too dangerous. My
+father, and one or two of the rest, are very bitter against you."
+
+"Well," said Grant, smiling gravely, "a responsible man will be there.
+There are folks who will bless you, Hetty."
+
+"You must never tell them, or anybody," the girl insisted.
+
+Grant said nothing further, and led his team past; but Hetty noticed the
+shadow in his bronzed face and the wistfulness in his eyes. Then, she
+shook the reins, and as the horses plodded up the slope Miss Schuyler
+fancied that she sighed.
+
+In the meanwhile Grant got into his sleigh, and Breckenridge, who had been
+vanquished by Miss Schuyler in an exchange of badinage, found him somewhat
+silent during the journey to Fremont ranch. He retired to rest soon after
+they reached it, and set out again before daylight the next morning, and
+it was late at night when he came back very weary, with his garments stiff
+with frost. The great bare room where Breckenridge awaited him was filled
+with a fusty heat, and as he came in, partly dazed by the change of
+temperature, Grant did not see the other man who sat amidst the
+tobacco-smoke beside the glowing stove. He sank into a hide chair limply,
+and when Breckenridge glanced at him inquiringly, with numbed fingers
+dragged a wallet out of his pocket.
+
+"Yes," he said, "I got the dollars. I don't know that it was quite the
+square thing, but with Harper's wife and the Dutchman's children 'most
+starving in the hollow, I felt I had to take them."
+
+Breckenridge made a little warning gesture, and the man behind the stove,
+reaching forward, picked up a packet that had dropped unnoticed by the
+rest when Grant took out the wallet.
+
+"You seem kind of played out, Larry, and I guess you didn't know you
+dropped the thing," he said.
+
+Grant blinked at him; for a man who has driven for many hours in the cold
+of the Northwest is apt to suffer from unpleasant and somewhat bewildering
+sensations when his numbed brain and body first throw off the effect of
+the frost.
+
+"No," he said unevenly. "Let me alone a minute. I didn't see you."
+
+The man, who was one of the homesteaders' leaders in another vicinity, sat
+still with the packet in his hand until, perhaps without any intention of
+reading it, his eyes rested on the address. Then he sat upright suddenly
+and stared at Grant.
+
+"Do you know what you have got here, Larry?" he asked.
+
+Grant stretched out his hand and took the packet, then laid it upon the
+table with the address downwards.
+
+"It's something that dropped out of the wallet," he said.
+
+The other man laughed a little, but his face was intent. "Oh, yes, that's
+quite plain; but if I know the writing it's a letter with something in it
+from Torrance to the Sheriff. There's no mistaking the way he makes the
+'g.' Turn it over and I'll show you."
+
+Grant laid a brown hand on the packet. "No. Do you generally look at
+letters that don't belong to you, Chilton?"
+
+Breckenridge saw that Grant was recovering, and that the contemptuous
+manner of his question was intentional, and guessed that his comrade had
+intended to sting the other man to resentment, and so lead him from the
+point at issue. Chilton coloured, but he persisted.
+
+"Well," he said, "I guess that one belongs to the committee. I didn't mean
+to look at the thing, but, now I'm sure of it, I have to do what I can for
+the boys who made me their executive. I don't ask you how you got it,
+Larry."
+
+"I got it by accident."
+
+Chilton looked astonished, and almost incredulous. "Well, we needn't worry
+over that. The question is, what you're going to do with it?"
+
+"I'm going to send it back."
+
+Chilton made a gesture of impatience. "That's what you can't do. As we
+know, the cattle-men had a committee at Cedar a day or two ago, and now
+here's a packet stuffed with something going to the Sheriff. Doesn't it
+strike you yet that it's quite likely there's a roll of dollar bills and a
+letter telling him what he has to do inside it?"
+
+"Well?" said Grant, seeing that he must face the issue sooner or later.
+
+"We don't want their dollars, but that letter's worth a pile of them to
+us. We could get it printed by a paper farther east, with an article on it
+that would raise a howl from everybody. There are one or two of them quite
+ready for a chance of getting a slap at the legislature, while there's
+more than one man who would be glad to hawk it round the lobbies. Then his
+friends would have no more use for the Sheriff, and we might even get a
+commission sent down to straighten things up for us."
+
+"The trouble is that we can't make any use of it," said Grant.
+
+"No?" said Chilton, and the men looked at each other steadily.
+
+"No," repeated Grant. "It wasn't meant that I should get it, and I'm going
+to send it back."
+
+"Then, while I don't want to make trouble, I'll have to mention the thing
+to my committee."
+
+"You'll do just what you believe is right. Any way, we'll have supper now.
+It will be ready."
+
+Chilton stood still a moment. "You are quite straight with us in this?"
+
+"Yes," said Grant, "but I'm not going to give you that letter. Are you
+coming in to supper? It really wouldn't commit you to anything."
+
+"I am," said Chilton simply. "I have known you quite a long while, and
+your assurance is good enough for me; but you would have found it
+difficult to make other folks believe you."
+
+They sat down at table, and Larry smiled as he said, "It's the first time
+I have seen your scruples spoil your appetite, Chilton, but I had a notion
+that you were not quite sure about taking any supper from me."
+
+"Well," laughed Chilton, "that just shows how foolish a man can be,
+because the supper's already right here inside me. When I came in
+Breckenridge got it for me. Still, I have driven a long way, and I can
+worry through another."
+
+He made a very creditable attempt, and when he had been shown to his room
+Grant glanced at Breckenridge.
+
+"You know how I got the letter?"
+
+"Yes," said Breckenridge. "Miss Torrance must have inadvertently slipped
+it into the wallet. You couldn't have done anything else, Larry; but the
+affair is delicate and will want some handling. How are you going to get
+the packet back?"
+
+"Take it myself," Grant said quietly.
+
+It was ten o'clock the next night, and Hetty Torrance and Miss Schuyler
+sat talking in their little sitting-room. Torrance was away, but his
+married foreman, who had seen service in New Mexico, and his wife, slept
+in the house, and Cedar Range was strongly guarded. Now and then, the
+bitter wind set the door rattling, and there was a snapping in the stove;
+but when the gusts passed the ranch seemed very still, and Miss Schuyler
+could hear the light tread of the armed cow-boy who, perhaps to keep
+himself warm, paced up and down the hall below. There was another at a
+window in the corridor, and one or two more on guard in the stores and
+stables.
+
+"Wasn't Chris Allonby to have come over to-day?" asked Miss Schuyler.
+
+"Yes," said Hetty. "I'm sorry he didn't. I have a letter for the Sheriff
+to give him, and wanted to get rid of the thing. It is important, and I
+fancy, from what my father told me, if any of the homestead-boys got it
+they could make trouble for us. Chris is to ride in with it and hand it to
+the Sheriff."
+
+"I wouldn't like a letter of that kind lying round," said Miss Schuyler.
+"Where did you put it, Hetty?"
+
+Hetty laughed. "Where nobody would ever find it--under some clothes of
+mine. Talking about it makes one uneasy. Pull out the second drawer in the
+bureau, Flo."
+
+Miss Schuyler did so, and Hetty turned over a bundle of daintily
+embroidered linen. Then, her face grew very grave, she laid each article
+back again separately.
+
+"Nothing there!" said Miss Schuyler.
+
+Hetty's fingers quivered. "Pull the drawer out, Flo. No. Never mind
+anything. Shake them out on the floor."
+
+It was done, and a litter of garments lay scattered about them, but no
+packet appeared, and Hetty sat down limply, very white in the face.
+
+"It was there," she said, "by the wallet with the dollars. It must have
+got inside somehow, and I sent the wallet to Larry. This is horrible,
+Flo."
+
+"Think!" said Miss Schuyler. "You couldn't have put it anywhere else?"
+
+"No," said Hetty faintly. "If the wrong people got it, it would turn out
+the Sheriff and make an outcry everywhere. That is what I was told, though
+I don't know what it was about."
+
+"Still, you know it would be safe with Mr. Grant."
+
+"Yes," said Hetty. "Larry never did anything mean in his life. But you
+don't understand, Flo. He didn't know it was there, and it might have
+dropped out on the prairie, while, even if he found it, how is he going to
+get it back to me? The boys would fire on him if he came here."
+
+Flora Schuyler looked frightened. "You will have to tell your father,
+Hetty."
+
+Hetty trembled a little. "It is going to be the hardest thing I ever did.
+He is just dreadful in his quietness when he is angry--and I would have to
+tell him I had been meeting Larry and sending him dollars. You know what
+he would fancy."
+
+It was evident that Hetty was very much afraid of her father, and as clear
+to Miss Schuyler that the latter would have some cause for unpleasant
+suspicions. Then, the girl turned to her companion appealingly.
+
+"Flo," she said, "tell me what to do. The thing frightens me."
+
+Miss Schuyler slipped an arm about her. "Wait," she said. "Your father
+will not be here until noon to-morrow, and that letter is in the hands of
+a very honest man. I think you can trust him to get it back to you."
+
+"But he couldn't send anybody without giving me away, and he knows it
+might cost him his liberty to come here," said Hetty.
+
+"I scarcely fancy that would stop him."
+
+Hetty turned, and looked at her friend curiously. "Flo, I wonder how it
+would have suited if Larry had been fond of you."
+
+Miss Schuyler did not wince; but the smile that was on her lips was absent
+from her eyes. "You once told me I should have him. Are you quite sure you
+would like to hand him over now?"
+
+Hetty did not answer the question; instead, she blushed furiously. "We are
+talking nonsense--and I don't know how I can face my father to-morrow,"
+she said.
+
+It was at least an hour later, and the cow-boy below had ceased his
+pacing, when Hetty, who felt no inclination for sleep, fancied she heard a
+tapping at the window. She sprang suddenly upright, and saw apprehension
+in Miss Schuyler's face. The cow-boys were some distance away, and a
+little verandah ran round that side of the house just below the window.
+Flora Schuyler had sufficient courage; but it was not of the kind which
+appears to advantage in the face of bodily peril, and the colour faded in
+her cheeks. It was quite certain now that somebody was tapping at or
+trying to open the window.
+
+"Shake yourself together, Flo," said Hetty, in a hoarse whisper. "When I
+tell you, turn the lamp down and open the door. I am going to see who is
+there."
+
+The next moment she had opened a drawer of the bureau, while as she
+stepped forward with something glinting in her hand, Flora Schuyler, who
+heard a whispered word, turned the lamp right out in her confusion, and,
+because she dared not stand still, crept after her companion. With a swift
+motion, Hetty drew the window-curtains back, and Miss Schuyler gasped. The
+stars were shining outside, and the dark figure of a man was silhouetted
+against the blue clearness of the night.
+
+"Come back," she cried. "Oh, he's coming in. Hetty, I must scream."
+
+Hetty's fingers closed upon her arm with a cruel grip. "Stop," she said.
+"If you do, they'll shoot him. Don't be a fool, Flo."
+
+It was too dark to see clearly, but Flora Schuyler realized with a painful
+fluttering of her heart and a great relief whose the white face outside
+the window must be.
+
+
+
+
+XVI
+
+LARRY SOLVES THE DIFFICULTY
+
+
+For the space of several seconds the girls stood staring at the figure
+outside the window. Then, the man turned sharply, and Hetty gasped as she
+heard the crunch of footsteps in the snow below. There was a little of it
+on the verandah, and the stars shone brilliantly.
+
+"Catch hold of the frame here, Flo," she said breathlessly. "Now, push
+with all your might."
+
+Miss Schuyler did as she was bidden. The double sashes moved with a sharp
+creaking, and while she shivered as the arctic cold struck through her,
+Hetty stretched out an arm and drew the man in. Then with a tremendous
+effort she shut the window and pulled the curtains together. There was
+darkness in the room now, and one of the cow-boys called out below.
+
+"Hear anything, Jake?"
+
+"Somebody shutting a door in the house there," said another man, and
+Hetty, passing between the curtains, could see two figures move across the
+snow, and the little scintillation from something that was carried by one
+of them, and she realized that they had very narrowly averted a tragedy.
+
+"Flo," she said, with a little quiver in her voice, "light the lamp quick.
+If they see the room dark they might come up."
+
+Miss Schuyler was unusually clumsy, but at last the light sprang up, and
+showed Larry standing just inside the curtain with the dust of snow on his
+fur coat and cap. His face looked a little less bronzed than usual, but he
+showed no other sign of discomposure. Hetty was very pale as she stood in
+front of him with the pistol still in her hand. She dropped it on a chair
+with a shiver, and broke into a little strained laugh.
+
+"You are quite sure they didn't see you, Larry? You took a terrible risk
+just now."
+
+Grant smiled, more with his lips than his eyes. "Yes," he said, "I guess I
+did. I taught you to shoot as well as most men, Hetty."
+
+Hetty gasped again and sank limply into the nearest chair. "What brought
+you here?" she said. "Still, you can't get away now. Sit down, Larry."
+
+Grant sat down with a bow to Miss Schuyler, and fumbled in the pocket of
+his big fur coat. "I came to give you something you sent me by mistake,"
+he said. "I would not have come this way if I could have helped it, but I
+saw there was a man with a rifle every here and there as I crept up
+through the bluff, and it was quite a while before I could swing myself up
+by a pillar on to the verandah. You have been anxious about this, Hetty?"
+
+He laid a packet on the table, and Hetty's eyes shone as she took it up.
+
+"Couldn't you have given it to somebody to bring me? It would have been
+ever so much safer," she said.
+
+"No," said the man simply, "I don't think I could."
+
+Hetty understood him, and so did Miss Schuyler, while the meaning of the
+glance her companion cast at her was equally plain. Miss Torrance's face
+was still pallid, but there was pride in her eyes.
+
+"I wonder if you guessed what was in that letter, Mr. Grant?" Flora
+Schuyler asked.
+
+Larry smiled. "I think I have a notion."
+
+"Of course!" said Hetty impulsively. "We knew you had, and that was why we
+felt certain you would try to bring it back to me."
+
+"If it could have been managed in a different fashion it would have
+pleased me better," Grant said, with a little impatient gesture. "I am
+sorry I frightened you, Hetty."
+
+The colour crept back into Hetty's cheeks. "I was frightened, but only
+just a little at first," she said. "It was when I saw who it was and heard
+the boys below, that I grew really anxious."
+
+She did not look at the man as she spoke; but it was evident to Miss
+Schuyler that he understood the significance of the avowal.
+
+"Then," he said, "I must try to get away again more quietly."
+
+"You can't," said Hetty. "Not until the man by the store goes away. You
+have taken too many chances already. You have driven a long way in the
+cold. Take off that big coat, and Flo will make you some coffee."
+
+Grant, turning, drew the curtains aside a moment, and let them fall back
+again. Then, he took off the big coat and sat down with a little smile of
+contentment beside the glowing stove on which Miss Schuyler was placing a
+kettle.
+
+"Well," he said, "I am afraid you will have to put up with my company
+until that fellow goes away; and I need not tell you that this is very
+nice for me. One hasn't much time to feel it, but it's dreadfully lonely
+at Fremont now and then."
+
+Hetty nodded sympathetically, for she had seen the great desolate room at
+Fremont where Grant and Breckenridge passed the bitter nights alone. The
+man's half-audible sigh was also very expressive, for after his grim life
+he found the brightness and daintiness of the little room very pleasant.
+It was sparely furnished; but there was taste in everything, and in
+contrast with Fremont its curtains, rugs, and pictures seemed luxurious.
+Without were bitter frost and darkness, peril, and self-denial; within,
+warmth and refinement, and the companionship of two cultured women who
+were very gracious to him. He also knew that he had shut himself out from
+the enjoyment of their society of his own will, that he had but to make
+terms with Torrance, and all that one side of his nature longed for might
+be restored to him.
+
+Larry was as free from sensuality as he was from asceticism; but there
+were times when the bleak discomfort at Fremont palled upon him, as did
+the loneliness and half-cooked food. His overtaxed body revolted now and
+then from further exposure to Arctic cold and the deprivation of needed
+sleep, while his heart grew sick with anxiety and the distrust of those he
+was toiling for. He was not a fanatic, and had very slight sympathy with
+the iconoclast, for he had an innate respect for the law, and vague
+aspirations after an ampler life made harmonious by refinement, as well as
+a half-comprehending reverence for all that was best in art and music.
+There are many Americans like him, and when such a man turns reformer he
+has usually a hard row, indeed, to hoe.
+
+"What do you do up there at nights?" asked Hetty.
+
+Larry laughed. "Sometimes Breckenridge and I sit talking by the stove, and
+now and then we quarrel. Breckenridge has taste, and generally smooths one
+the right way; but there are times when I feel like throwing things at
+him. Then we sit quite still for hours together listening to the wind
+moaning, until one of the boys comes in to tell me we are wanted, and it
+is a relief to drive until morning with the frost at fifty below. It is
+very different from the old days when I was here and at Allonby's two or
+three nights every week."
+
+"It must have been hard to give up what you did," said Hetty, with a
+diffidence that was unusual in her. "Oh, I know you did it willingly, but
+you must have found it was very different from what you expected. I mean
+that the men you wanted to smooth the way for had their notions too, and
+meant to do a good deal that could never please you. Suppose you found
+they didn't want to go along quietly, making this country better, but only
+to trample down whatever was there already?"
+
+Flora Schuyler looked up. "I think you will have to face that question,
+Mr. Grant," she said. "A good many men of your kind have had to do it
+before you. Isn't a faulty ruler better than wild disorder?"
+
+"Yes," said Hetty eagerly. "That is just what I mean. If you saw they
+wanted anarchy, Larry, you would come back to us? We should be glad to
+have you!"
+
+The man turned his eyes away, and Flora Schuyler saw his hands quiver.
+
+"No," he said. "I and the rest would have to teach them what was good for
+them, and if it was needful try to hold them in. Whatever they did, we who
+brought them here would have to stand in with them."
+
+Hetty accepted the decision in his tone, and sighed. "Well," she said, "we
+will forget it; and Flo has the coffee ready. That is yours, Larry, and
+here's a box of crackers. Now, we'll try to think of pleasant things. It's
+like our old-time picnics. Doesn't it remind you of the big bluff--only we
+had a black kettle then, and you made the fire of sticks? There was the
+day you shot the willow grouse. It isn't really so very long ago!"
+
+"It seems years," said the man, wistfully. "So much has happened since."
+
+"Well," said Hetty, "I can remember all of it still--the pale blue sky
+behind the bluff, with the little curl of grey smoke floating up against
+it. You sat by the fire, Larry, roasting the grouse, and talking about
+what could be done with the prairie. It was all white in the sunshine, and
+empty as far as one could see, but you told me it would be a great red
+wheat-field by and by. I laughed at you for dreaming things that couldn't
+be, but we were very happy that day."
+
+Grant's face was very sad for a moment, but he turned to Miss Schuyler
+with a little smile. "Hetty is leaving you out," he said.
+
+"I wasn't there, you see," Miss Schuyler said quickly. "Those days belong
+to you and Hetty."
+
+Hetty glanced at her sharply, and fancied there was a slightly strained
+expression in the smiling face, but the next moment Miss Schuyler
+laughed.
+
+"What are you thinking, Flo?" said Hetty.
+
+"It was scarcely worth mentioning. I was wondering how it was that the
+only times we have crossed the bridge we met Mr. Grant."
+
+"That's quite simple," said Larry. "Each time it was on Wednesday, and I
+generally drive round to see if I am wanted anywhere that day. They have
+had to do almost without provisions at the homesteads in the hollow
+lately. Your dollars will be very welcome, Hetty."
+
+Hetty blushed for no especial reason, except that when Grant mentioned
+Wednesday she felt that Flora Schuyler's eyes were upon her. Then, a voice
+rose up below.
+
+"Hello! All quiet, Jake?"
+
+There were footsteps in the snow outside, and when the sentry answered,
+the words just reached those who listened in the room.
+
+"I had a kind of notion I saw something moving in the bluff, but I
+couldn't be quite sure," he said. "There was a door or window banged up
+there on the verandah a while ago, but that must have been done by one of
+the women in the house."
+
+Grant rose and drew back the curtain, when, after a patter of footsteps,
+the voices commenced again.
+
+"Somebody has come in straight from the bluff," said one of the men. "You
+can see where he has been, but I'm blamed if I can figure where he went to
+unless it was up the post into the verandah, and he couldn't have done
+that without Miss Torrance hearing him. I'll stop right here, any way, and
+I wish my two hours were up."
+
+"I'm that stiff I can scarcely move," said the man relieved, and there was
+silence in the room, until Hetty turned to the others in dismay.
+
+"He is going to stay there two hours, and he would see us the moment we
+opened the window," she said.
+
+Grant quickly put on his big fur coat, and unnoticed, he fancied, slipped
+one hand down on something that was girded on the belt beneath it.
+
+"I must get away at once--through the house," he said.
+
+Hetty had, however, seen the swift motion of his hand.
+
+"There's a man with a rifle in the hall," she said, shudderingly. "Flo,
+can't you think of something?"
+
+Flora Schuyler looked at them quietly. "I fancy it would not be very
+difficult for Mr. Grant to get away, but the trouble is that nobody must
+know he has been near the place. That is the one thing your father could
+not forgive, Hetty."
+
+Hetty turned her head a little, but Grant nodded. "Had it been otherwise I
+should have gone an hour ago," he said.
+
+"Well," said Flora Schuyler, with a curious look in her face, "while I
+fancy we can get you away unnoticed, if anybody did see you, it needn't
+appear quite certain that it was any affair with Hetty that brought you."
+
+"No?" said Hetty, very sharply. "What do you mean, Flo?"
+
+Miss Schuyler smiled a little and looked Grant in the eyes. "What would
+appear base treachery in Hetty's case would be less astonishing in me. Mr.
+Grant, you must not run risks again to talk to me, but since you have done
+it I must see you through. You are sure there is only one cow-boy in the
+hall, Hetty?"
+
+Hetty turned and looked at them. Flora Schuyler was smiling bravely, the
+man standing still with grave astonishment in his eyes.
+
+"No," she said, with quick incisiveness, "I can't let you, Flo."
+
+"I don't think I asked your permission," said Miss Schuyler. "Could you
+explain this to your father, Hetty? I believe he would not be angry with
+me. Adventurous gallantry is, I understand, quite approved of on the
+prairie. Call your maid. Mr. Grant, will you come with me?"
+
+For several seconds Hetty stood silent, recognizing that what Torrance
+might smile at in his guest would appear almost a crime in his daughter,
+but still horribly unwilling. Then, as Flora Schuyler, with a
+half-impatient gesture, signed to Grant, she touched a little gong, and a
+few moments later her maid met them in the corridor. The girl stopped
+suddenly, gasping a little as she stared at Grant, until Hetty grasped her
+arm, nipping it cruelly.
+
+"If you scream or do anything silly you will be ever so sorry," she said.
+"Go down into the hall and talk to Jo. Keep him where the stove is, with
+his back to the door."
+
+"But how am I to do it?" the girl asked.
+
+"Take him something to eat," Miss Schuyler said impatiently. "Any way, it
+should not be hard to fool him--I have seen him looking at you. Now, I
+wonder if that grey dress of mine would fit you--I have scarcely had it
+on, but it's a little too tight for me."
+
+The girl's eyes glistened, she moved swiftly down the corridor, Flora
+Schuyler laughed, and Grant looked away.
+
+"Larry," said Hetty, "it isn't just what one would like--but I am afraid
+it is necessary."
+
+Five minutes later Hetty moved across the hall, making a little noise, so
+that the cow-boy, who stood near the other end of it, with the maid close
+by him, should notice her. She softly opened the outer door, and then came
+back and signed to Grant and Flora Schuyler, who stood waiting in the
+corridor.
+
+"No," he said, and the lamplight showed a darker hue than the bronze of
+frost and sun in his face. "Miss Schuyler, I have never felt quite so mean
+before, and you will leave the rest to me."
+
+"It seems to me," she said coolly, "that what you feel does not count for
+much. Just now you have to do what is best for everybody. Stoop as low as
+you can."
+
+She stretched out her hand with a little imperious gesture, and laid it on
+his arm, drawing herself up to her full height as she stood between him
+and the light. They moved forward together, and Hetty closed her hand as
+she watched them pass into the hall. The end was dim and shadowy, for the
+one big lamp that was lighted stood some distance away by the stove, where
+the man on watch was talking to the maid. Hetty realized that the girl was
+playing her part well as she saw her make a swift step backwards, and
+heard the man's low laugh.
+
+Flora Schuyler and Grant were not far from the door now, the girl walking
+close to her companion. In another moment they would have passed out of
+sight into the shadow, but while Hetty felt her fingers trembling, the man
+on watch, perhaps hearing their footsteps, turned round.
+
+"Hallo!" he said. "It seems kind of cold. What can Miss Schuyler want with
+opening the door? Is that Miss Torrance behind her?"
+
+He moved forward a pace, apparently not looking where he was going, but
+towards the door, and might have moved further, but that the maid swiftly
+stretched out one foot, and a chair with the tray laid on it went over
+with a crash.
+
+"Now there's going to be trouble. See what you've done," she said.
+
+The man stopped, staring at the wreck upon the floor.
+
+"Well," he said, "I'm blamed if I touched the thing. What made it fall
+over, any way?"
+
+"Pick them up," the girl said sharply. "You don't want to make trouble for
+me!"
+
+He stooped, and Hetty gasped with relief as she saw him carefully scraping
+some dainty from the floor, for just then one of the two figures slipped
+away from the other, and there was a sound that might have been made by a
+softly closing door. The cow-boy looked up quickly, and saw Miss Torrance
+and Miss Schuyler standing close together, then stood up as they came
+towards him. Hetty paused and surveyed the overturned crockery, and then,
+though her heart was throbbing painfully, gave the man a glance of
+ironical inquiry. He looked at the maid as if for inspiration, but she
+stood meekly still, the picture of bashful confusion.
+
+"I'm quite sorry, Miss Torrance," he said. "The concerned thing went
+over."
+
+Hetty laughed. "Well," she said, "it's a very cold night, and Lou can get
+you some more supper. She is, however, not to stay here a minute after she
+has given it you."
+
+She went out with Miss Schuyler, and the two stood very silent by a window
+in the corridor. One of them fancied she saw a shadowy object slip round
+the corner of a barn, but could not be sure, and for five very long
+minutes they stared at the faintly shining snow. Nothing moved upon it,
+and save for the maid's voice in the hall, the great building was very
+still. Hetty touched Miss Schuyler's arm.
+
+"He has got away," she said. "Come back with me. I don't feel like
+standing up any longer."
+
+They sat down limply when they returned to the little room, and though
+Miss Schuyler did not meet her companion's gaze, there was something that
+did not seem to please the latter in her face.
+
+"Flo," she said, "one could almost fancy you felt it as much as I did. It
+was awfully nice of you."
+
+Miss Schuyler smiled, though there was a tension in her voice. "Of course
+I felt it," she said. "Hetty, I'd watch that maid of yours. She's too
+clever."
+
+Hetty said nothing for a moment, then, suddenly crossing the room, she
+stooped down and kissed Miss Schuyler.
+
+"I have never met any one who would do as much for me as you would, Flo,"
+she said. "I don't think there is anything that could come between us."
+
+There was silence for another moment, and during it Miss Schuyler looked
+steadily into Hetty's eyes. "No," she said, "although you do not seem
+quite sure, I don't think there is."
+
+It was early the next morning when Christopher Allonby arrived at the
+Range. He smiled as he glanced at the packet Hetty handed him.
+
+"I have never seen your father anything but precise," he said.
+
+"Has anything led you to fancy that he has changed?" asked Hetty.
+
+Allonby laughed as he held out the packet. "The envelope is all creased
+and crumpled. It might have been carried round for ever so long in
+somebody's pocket. Now, I know you don't smoke, Hetty."
+
+"There is no reason why I should not, but, as it happens, I don't," said
+Miss Torrance.
+
+"Then, the packet has a most curious, cigar-like smell," said Allonby,
+smiling. "Now, I don't think Mr. Torrance carries loose cigars and letters
+about with him together. I wonder what deduction one could make from
+this."
+
+Hetty glanced at Miss Schuyler. "You could never make the right one,
+Chris," she said.
+
+Allonby said nothing further and went out with the letter; a day or two
+later he handed it to the Sheriff.
+
+"I guess you know what's inside it?" said the latter.
+
+"Yes," said the lad. "I want to see you count them now."
+
+The Sheriff glanced at him sharply, took out a roll of bills and flicked
+them over.
+
+"Yes," he said, "that's quite right; but one piece of what I have to do is
+going to be difficult."
+
+"Which?" said Allonby.
+
+"Well," said the Sheriff, "I guess you know. I mean the getting hold of
+Larry."
+
+
+
+
+XVII
+
+LARRY'S PERIL
+
+
+One afternoon several days later, Christopher Allonby drove over to Cedar
+Range, and, though he endeavoured to hide his feelings, was evidently
+disconcerted when he discovered that Miss Schuyler and Hetty were alone.
+Torrance had affairs of moment on hand just then, and was absent from
+Cedar Range frequently.
+
+"One could almost have fancied you were not pleased to see us, and would
+sooner have talked to Mr. Torrance," said Miss Schuyler.
+
+The lad glanced at her reproachfully.
+
+"Hetty knows how diffident I am, but it seems to me a lady with your
+observation should have seen the gratification I did not venture to
+express."
+
+"It was not remarkably evident," said Miss Schuyler. "In fact, when you
+heard Mr. Torrance was not here I fancied I saw something else."
+
+"I was thinking," said Allonby, "wondering how I could be honest and, at
+the same time, complimentary to everybody. It was quite difficult. People
+like me generally think of the right thing afterwards, you see."
+
+Hetty shook her head. "Sit down, and don't talk nonsense, Chris," she
+said. "You shouldn't think too much; when you're not accustomed to it, it
+isn't wise. What brought you?"
+
+"I had a message for your father," said the lad, and Flora Schuyler
+fancied she saw once more the signs of embarrassment in his face.
+
+"Then," said Hetty, "you can tell it me."
+
+"There's a good deal of it, and it's just a little confusing," said
+Allonby.
+
+Flora Schuyler glanced at Hetty, and then smiled at the lad. "That is
+certainly not complimentary," she said. "Don't you think Hetty and I could
+remember anything that you can?"
+
+Allonby laughed. "Of course you could. But, I had my instructions. I was
+told to give Mr. Torrance the message as soon as I could, without
+troubling anybody."
+
+"Then it is of moment?"
+
+"Yes. That is, we want him to know, though there's really nothing in it
+that need worry anybody."
+
+"Then, it is unfortunate that my father is away," said Hetty.
+
+Allonby sat silent a moment or two, apparently reflecting, and then looked
+up suddenly, as though he had found the solution of the difficulty.
+
+"I could write him."
+
+Hetty laughed. "That was an inspiration! You can be positively brilliant,
+Chris. You will find paper and special envelopes in the office, as well as
+a big stick of sealing-wax."
+
+Allonby, who appeared unable to find a neat rejoinder, went out; and when
+he left Flora Schuyler smiled as she saw the carefully fastened envelope
+lying on Torrance's desk, as well as something else. Torrance was
+fastidiously neat, and the blotting pad from which the soiled sheets had
+been removed bore the impress of Christopher Allonby's big, legible
+writing. It was, however, a little blurred, and Miss Schuyler, who had her
+scruples, made no attempt to read it then. It was the next afternoon, and
+Torrance had not yet returned, when a mounted man rode up to the Range,
+and was shown into the room where the girls sat together.
+
+"Mr. Clavering will be kind of sorry Mr. Torrance wasn't here, but he has
+got it fixed quite straight," he said.
+
+"What has he fixed?" said Hetty.
+
+"Well," said the man, "your father knows, and I don't, though I've a kind
+of notion we are after one of the homestead-boys. Any way, what I had to
+tell him was this. He could ride over to the Cedar Bluff at about six this
+evening with two or three of the boys, if it suited him, but if it didn't,
+Mr. Clavering would put the thing through."
+
+Hetty asked one or two leading questions, but the man had evidently
+nothing more to tell, and when he went out, the two girls looked at one
+another in silence. Hetty's eyes were anxious and her face more colourless
+than usual.
+
+"Flo," she said sharply, "are we thinking the same thing?"
+
+"I don't know," said Miss Schuyler. "You have not told me your notions
+yet. Still, this is clear to both of us, Mr. Clavering expects to meet
+somebody at the Cedar Bluff, and your father is to bring two or three men
+with him. The question is, what could they be wanted for?"
+
+"No," said Hetty, with a little quiver in her voice, "it is who they
+expect to meet. You know what day this is?"
+
+"Wednesday."
+
+Once more there was silence for a few seconds, but the thoughts of the two
+girls were unconcealed now, and when she spoke Hetty closed her hand.
+
+"Think, Flo. There must be no uncertainty." Miss Schuyler slipped out of
+the room and when she came back she brought an envelope, splashed with red
+wax, on a blotting-pad.
+
+"There's the key. All is fair--in war!" she said.
+
+A pink tinge crept into Hetty's cheeks, and a sparkle into her eyes as she
+looked at her companion.
+
+"Don't make me angry with you, Flo," she said. "We can't read it."
+
+"No?" said Miss Schuyler quietly, holding up the pad. "Now I think we can.
+This is another manifestation of the superiority of the masculine mind.
+Give me your hand-glass, Hetty."
+
+"Of course," said Hetty, with a little gasp. "Still--it's horribly mean."
+
+There was a slightly contemptuous hardness in Flora Schuyler's eyes. "If
+you let the man who rides by the bluff on Wednesdays fall into Clavering's
+hands, it would be meaner still."
+
+The next moment Hetty was out of the room, and Miss Schuyler sat down with
+a face that had grown suddenly weary. But it betrayed nothing when Hetty
+came back with the glass, and when she held up the blotter in hands that
+were perfectly steady, they read:
+
+"I have fixed it with the Sheriff. Clavering's boys had, as you guessed,
+been watching for Larry on the wrong day; but now we have found out it is
+Wednesday we'll make sure of him. If you care to come around to the bluff
+about six that night, you will probably see us seize him; but if you would
+sooner stand out in this case, it wouldn't count. We don't expect any
+difficulty."
+
+Hetty flushed crimson. "Flo," she said, "it was the letter arranging his
+own arrest he brought me back."
+
+"That is not the point," said Miss Schuyler sharply. "What are you going
+to do?"
+
+Hetty laughed mockingly. "You and I are going to drive over to the
+Newcombes and stay the night. You get nervous when my father is away. But
+we are not going there quite straight; and you had better put your warmest
+things on."
+
+An hour later two of the best horses in Torrance's stable drew the
+lightest sleigh up to the door, and Miss Schuyler turned with a smile to
+the remonstrating housekeeper.
+
+"Nothing would induce me to stay here another night when Mr. Torrance was
+away," she said. "You can tell him that, if he is vexed with Hetty, and
+you needn't worry. We will be safe at Mrs. Newcombe's before an hour is
+over."
+
+The housekeeper shook her head. "I guess not. It's a league round by the
+bridge, and you couldn't find the other trail in the dark."
+
+Miss Schuyler laughed. "Then, look at the time, and we'll let you know
+when we get there," she said.
+
+Hetty whipped the team, and with a whirling of dusty snow beneath the
+runners, they swept away. Both sat silent, until the beat of hoofs rang
+amidst the trees as they swept through the gloom of the big bluff at a
+gallop, and Hetty laughed excitedly.
+
+"Hold fast, Flo. You did that very well; but we have our alibi to prove,
+and are not going near the bridge," she said.
+
+She flicked the horses, and the trees swept away behind them and the long
+white levels rolled back faster yet to the drumming hoofs. The rush of
+cold wind stung Miss Schuyler's face like the lash of a whip, her eyes
+grew hazy, and she held the furs about her as she swayed with the lurching
+of the sleigh. Darkness was closing in when they came to the forking of
+the trail, and, with a little cry of warning, Hetty lashed the team. The
+lurches grew sharper, and Miss Schuyler gasped now and then as she felt
+the sleigh swing rocking down a long declivity. Scattered birches raced up
+out of it, and the hammering beat of hoofs swelled into a roar as it
+rolled along a thicker belt of trees.
+
+They rose higher and higher, a dusky wall athwart the way, and Miss
+Schuyler felt for a better hold for her feet, and grasped the big strapped
+robe as she looked in vain for any opening. That team had done nothing for
+more than a week, and there was no stinting of oats and maize at Cedar.
+Hetty, however, did not attempt to hold them, but sat swaying to the
+jolting, leaning forward as the shadowy barrier rushed up towards them,
+until, before she quite realized how they got there, Miss Schuyler found
+herself hurled forward down what appeared to be a steadily sloping tunnel.
+Dim trees swept by and drooping boughs lashed at her. Now and then there
+was a sharp crackling or a sickening lurch, and still they sped on
+furiously, until a faint white shining appeared ahead.
+
+"What is it?" she gasped.
+
+"The river," said Hetty. "Hold fast! There's a piece like a toboggan-leap
+quite near."
+
+She flung herself backwards as the lace-like birch twigs smote her furs;
+and when one of the horses stumbled Miss Schuyler with difficulty stifled
+a cry. The beast, however, picked up its stride again, there was a lurch,
+and the rocking sleigh appeared to leap clear of the snow. A crash
+followed, and they were flying out of the shadow again across a strip of
+faintly shining plain with another belt of dusky trees rolling back
+towards them. Beyond them, low in the soft indigo, a pale star was
+shining. Hetty glanced at it as she shook the reins, and once more
+something in her laugh stirred Miss Schuyler.
+
+"I know when that star comes out," she said. "If Larry's only there we can
+warn him and make our ride on time."
+
+In another minute they were in among the trees, and Hetty, springing down,
+plodded through the loose snow at the horses' heads, urging them with hand
+and voice up the incline which wound tortuously into the darkness. Now and
+then, one of them stumbled, and there was a great trampling of hoofs, but
+the girl's mittened hand never loosed its grasp; and it was with a little
+breathless run she clutched the sleigh and swung herself in when the team
+swept out on the level again. Still, at least a minute had passed before
+she had the horses in hand. The trail forked again somewhere in the
+dimness they were flashing through, and it was difficult to see the dusky
+smear at all.
+
+A lurch that flung Miss Schuyler against her showed that Hetty had found
+the turning; and a little later, with a struggle, she checked the team,
+and they slid behind one of the low, rolling rises that seamed the prairie
+here and there. There was no wind in the hollow behind it and a great
+stillness under the high vault of blue studded with twinkling stars. The
+dim whiteness of a long ridge cut sharply against it, and the pale
+colouring and frosty glitter conveyed the suggestion of pitiless cold.
+Flora Schuyler shivered, and drew the furs closer round her.
+
+"Is this the place?" she asked.
+
+"Yes," said Hetty, with a little gasp. "If we don't meet him here he will
+have passed or gone by the other trail, and it will be too late to stop
+him. Can you hear anything, Flo?"
+
+Miss Schuyler strained her ears, but, though the horses were walking now,
+she could hear nothing. The deep silence round them was emphasized by the
+soft trample of the hoofs and thin jingle of steel that seemed unreal and
+out of place there in the wilderness of snow and stars.
+
+"No," she said, in a strained voice; "I can hear nothing at all. It almost
+makes one afraid to listen."
+
+They drove slowly for a minute or two, and then Hetty pulled up the team.
+"I can't go on, and it is worse to stand still," she said. "Flo, if he
+didn't stop--and he wouldn't--they would shoot him. He must be coming.
+Listen. There's a horrible buzzing in my ears--I can't hear at all."
+
+Miss Schuyler listened for what appeared an interminable time, and
+wondered afterwards that she had borne the tension without a sign. The
+great stillness grew overwhelming now the team had stopped, and there was
+that in the utter cold and sense of desolation that weighed her courage
+down. She felt her insignificance in the face of that vast emptiness and
+destroying frost, and wondered at the rashness of herself and Hetty and
+Larry Grant who had ventured to believe they could make any change in the
+great inexorable scheme of which everything that was to be was part. Miss
+Schuyler was not fanciful, but during the last hour she had borne a heavy
+strain, and the deathly stillness of the northwestern waste under the
+Arctic frost is apt to leave its impress on the most unimaginative.
+
+Suddenly very faint and far off, a rhythmic throbbing crept out of the
+darkness, and Flora Schuyler, who, fearing her ears had deceived her at
+first, dared not speak, felt her chilled blood stir when Hetty flung back
+her head.
+
+"Flo--can't you hear it? Tell me!"
+
+Miss Schuyler nodded, for she could not trust her voice just then; but the
+sound had grown louder while she listened and now it seemed flung back by
+the rise. Then, she lost it altogether as Hetty shook the reins and the
+sleigh went on again. In a few minutes, however, there was an answer to
+the thud of hoofs, and another soft drumming that came quivering through
+it sank and swelled again. By and by a clear, musical jingling broke in,
+and at last, when a moving object swung round a bend of the rise, a voice
+that rang harsh and commanding reached them.
+
+"Pull right up there, and wait until we see who you are," it said.
+
+"Larry!" cried Hetty; and the second time her strained voice broke and
+died away. "Larry!"
+
+It was less than a minute later when a sleigh stopped close in front of
+them, and, leaving one man in it, Grant sprang stiffly down. It took Hetty
+a minute or two more to make her warning plain, and Miss Schuyler found it
+necessary to put in a word of amplification occasionally. Then, Grant
+signed to the other man.
+
+"Will you drive Miss Schuyler slowly in the direction she was going,
+Breckenridge?" he said. "Hetty, I want to talk to you, and can't keep you
+here."
+
+Hetty was too cold to reflect, and, almost before she knew how he had
+accomplished it, found herself in Grant's sleigh and the man piling the
+robes about her. When he wheeled the horses she was only conscious that he
+was very close to her and that Breckenridge and Miss Schuyler were driving
+slowly a little distance in front of them. Then, glancing up, as though
+under compulsion, she saw that Grant was looking down upon her.
+
+"It is not what I meant to tell you, but doesn't this remind you of old
+times, Hetty?" he said.
+
+"I don't want to remember them--and what have they to do with what
+concerns us now?" said the girl.
+
+There was a new note in the man's voice that was almost exultant in its
+quietness. "A good deal, I think. Hetty, if you hadn't driven so often
+beside me here, would you have done what you have to-night?"
+
+"No," said the girl tremulously.
+
+"No," Grant said. "You have done a rash as well as a very generous
+thing."
+
+"It was rash; but what could I do? We were, as you remind me, good friends
+once."
+
+"Yes," he said. "I can't thank you, Hetty--thanks of any kind wouldn't be
+adequate--and there is nothing else I can offer to show my gratitude,
+because all I had was yours already. You have known that a long while,
+haven't you?"
+
+The girl looked away from him. "I was not good enough to understand its
+value at first, and when I did I tried to make you take it back."
+
+"I couldn't," he said gently. "It was perhaps worth very little; but it
+was all I had, and--since that day by the river--I never asked for
+anything in return. It was very hard not to now and then, but I saw that
+you had only kindness to spare for me."
+
+"Then why do you talk of it again?"
+
+"I think," said Grant very quietly, "it is different now. After to-night
+nothing can be quite the same again. Hetty, dear, if you had missed me and
+I had ridden on to the bridge----"
+
+"Stop!" said the girl with a shiver. "I dare not think of it. Larry, can't
+you see that just now you must not talk in that strain to me?"
+
+"But there is a difference?" and Grant looked at her steadily.
+
+For a moment the girl returned his gaze, her face showing very white in
+the faint light flung up by the snow; but she sat very straight and still,
+and the man's passion suddenly fell from him.
+
+"Yes," she said softly, "there is. I was only sure of it when I fancied I
+had missed you a few minutes ago; but that can't affect us, Larry. We can
+neither of us go back on those we belong to, and I know how mean I was
+when I tried to tempt you. You were staunch, and if I were less so, you
+would not respect me."
+
+Grant sighed. "You still believe your father right?"
+
+"Yes," said Hetty. "I must hope so; and if he is wrong, I still belong to
+him."
+
+"But you can believe that I am right, too?"
+
+"Yes," said Hetty simply. "I am, at least, certain you think you are.
+Still, it may be a long and bitter while before we see this trouble
+through. I have done too much to-night--that is, had it been for anyone
+but you--and you will not make my duty too hard for me."
+
+Larry's pulses were throbbing furiously; but he had many times already
+checked the passionate outbreak that he knew would have banished any
+passing tenderness the girl had for him.
+
+"No, my dear," he said. "But the trouble can't last for ever, and when it
+is over you will come to me? I have been waiting--even when I felt it was
+hopeless--year after year for you."
+
+Hetty smiled gravely. "Whether I shall ever be able to do that, Larry,
+neither you nor I can tell; but at least I shall never listen to anyone
+else. That is all I can promise; and we must go on, each of us doing what
+is put before us, and hoping for the best."
+
+Larry swept off his fur cap, and, stooping, kissed her on the cheek. "It
+is the first time, Hetty. I will wait patiently for the next; but I shall
+see you now and then?"
+
+The girl showed as little sign of resentment as she did of passion. "If I
+meet you; but that must come by chance," she said. "I want you to think
+the best of me, and if the time should come, I know I would be proud of
+you. You have never done a mean thing since I knew you, Larry, and that
+means a good deal now."
+
+Grant pulled the team up in silence, and called to Breckenridge, who
+checked his horses and getting down looked straight in front of him as his
+comrade handed Hetty into her sleigh. Then they stood still, saying
+nothing while the team swept away.
+
+Hetty was also silent, though she drove furiously, and Flora Schuyler did
+not consider it advisable to ask any questions, while the rush of icy wind
+and rocking of the sleigh afforded scanty opportunity for conversation.
+She was also very cold, and greatly relieved, when a blink of light rose
+out of the snow. Five minutes later somebody handed her out of the sleigh,
+and she saw a man glance at the team.
+
+"You have been sending them along. Was it you or Hetty who drove, Miss
+Schuyler?" he said.
+
+Flora Schuyler laughed. "Hetty, of course; but I want you to remember when
+we came in," she said, mentioning when they left Cedar. "I told Mrs.
+Ashley we would get here inside an hour, and she wouldn't believe me."
+
+"If anyone wants to know when you came in, send them to me," said the man.
+"There are not many horses that could have made it in the time."
+
+
+
+
+XVIII
+
+A FUTILE PURSUIT
+
+
+Hetty's sleigh was sliding, a dim moving shadow, round a bend in the rise
+when Breckenridge touched his comrade, who stood gazing silently across
+the prairie.
+
+"It's abominably cold, Larry," he said, with a shiver. "Hadn't we better
+get on?"
+
+Grant said nothing as he took his place on the driving-seat, and the team
+had plodded slowly along the trail for at least five minutes before he
+spoke.
+
+"You heard what Miss Torrance told me?" he said.
+
+"Yes," Breckenridge said. "I notice, however, we are still heading for the
+bridge. Can't you cross the ice, Larry?"
+
+"If I wanted to I fancy I could."
+
+"Then why don't you?"
+
+Grant laughed. "Well," he said, "there's only one trail through the bluff,
+and it's not the kind I'm fond of driving over in the dark."
+
+Breckenridge twisted in his seat, and looked at him. "Pshaw!" he said. "It
+would be a good deal less risky than meeting the Sheriff at the bridge.
+You are not going to do anything senseless, Larry?"
+
+"No; only what seems necessary."
+
+Breckenridge considered. "Now," he said slowly, "I can guess what you're
+thinking, and, of course, it's commendable; but one has to be reasonable.
+Is there anything that could excite the least suspicion that Miss Torrance
+warned you?"
+
+"There are two or three little facts that only need putting together."
+
+"Still, if we called at Muller's and drove home by the other trail it
+wouldn't astonish anybody."
+
+"It would appear a little too much of a coincidence in connection with the
+fact that Miss Torrance and I were known to be good friends, and the time
+she left Cedar. As the cattle-men have evidently found out, I have crossed
+the bridge at about the same time every Wednesday; and two of the cow-boys
+saw us near Harper's."
+
+"Larry," said Breckenridge, "if you were merely one of the rest your
+intentions would no doubt become you, but the point is that every
+homesteader round here is dependent on you. If you went down, the
+opposition to the cattle-men would collapse, or there would be general
+anarchy, and that is precisely why Torrance and the Sheriff are anxious to
+get their hands on you. Now, doesn't it strike you that it's your plain
+duty to keep clear of any unnecessary peril?"
+
+Grant shook his head. "No," he said. "It seems to me that argument has
+quite frequently accounted for a good deal of meanness. It is tolerably
+presumptuous for any man to consider himself indispensable."
+
+"Well," said Breckenridge, divided between anger and approval, "I have
+found out already that it's seldom any use trying to convince you, but
+each time you made this round I've driven with you, and it's quite obvious
+that if one of us crossed the bridge it would suit the purpose. Now, I
+don't think the Sheriff could rake up very much against me."
+
+Grant laid his hand on the lad's shoulder. "I'm going to cross the bridge,
+but I don't purpose that either of us should fall into the Sheriff's
+clutches," he said. "You saw what Jardine's glass had gone down to?"
+
+Breckenridge nodded. "It dropped like that before the last blizzard we
+had."
+
+Grant turned and looked about him, and Breckenridge shivered as he
+followed his gaze. They had driven out from behind the rise now and a
+bitter wind met them in the face. There was not very much of it as yet,
+but all feeling seemed to die out of the lad's cheeks under it, and it
+brought a little doleful moaning out of the darkness. Behind them stars
+shone frostily in the soft indigo, but elsewhere a deepening obscurity was
+creeping up across the prairie, and sky and snow were blurred and merged
+one into the other.
+
+"There's one meaning to that," said Grant. "We'll have snow in an hour or
+two, and when it comes it's going to be difficult to see anything. In the
+meanwhile, we'll drive round by Busby's and get our supper while the
+cow-boys cool. The man who hangs around a couple of hours doing nothing in
+a frost of this kind is not to be relied upon when he's wanted in a
+hurry."
+
+He flicked the horses, and in half an hour the pair were sitting in a
+lonely log-house beside a glowing stove while its owner prepared a meal.
+Two other men with bronzed faces sat close by, and Breckenridge fancied he
+had never seen his comrade so cheerful. His cares seemed to have fallen
+from him, his laugh had a pleasant ring, and there was something in his
+eyes which had not been there for many weary months. Breckenridge wondered
+whether it could be due to anything Miss Torrance had said to him, but
+kept his thoughts to himself, for that was a subject upon which one could
+not ask questions.
+
+In the meanwhile, Clavering and the Sheriff found the time pass much less
+pleasantly--on the bluff. The wind that whistled through it grew colder as
+one by one the stars faded out, and there was a mournful wailing amidst
+the trees. Now and then, a shower of twigs came rattling down from
+branches dried to brittleness by the frost, and the Sheriff brushed them
+off disgustedly, as, huddling lower in the sleigh from which the horses
+had been taken out, he packed the robes round him. He had lived softly,
+and it would have suited him considerably better to have spent that bitter
+evening in the warmth and security of Clavering's ranch.
+
+"No sign of him yet?" he said, when Christopher Allonby and Clavering came
+up together. "Larry will stay at home to-night. He has considerably more
+sense than we seem to have."
+
+"I have seen nothing," said Allonby, who, in the hope of restoring his
+circulation, had walked up the trail. "Still, the night is getting
+thicker, and nobody could make a sleigh out until it drove right up to
+him."
+
+"If Larry did come, you could hear him," said the Sheriff.
+
+Allonby lifted his hand, and, as if to supply the answer, with a great
+thrashing of frost-nipped twigs the birches roared about them. The blast
+that lashed them also hurled the icy dust of snow into the Sheriff's
+face.
+
+"I don't know," said the lad. "Nobody could hear very much through that."
+
+"Ugh!" said the Sheriff. "We will have a blizzard on us before long, and
+Government pay doesn't warrant one taking chances of that kind. Aren't we
+playing a fool's game, Clavering?"
+
+Clavering laughed somewhat unpleasantly. "There are other emoluments
+attached to your office which should cover a little inconvenience," he
+said. "Now, I fancy I know Larry Grant better than the rest of you, and it
+would take quite a large-sized blizzard to keep him at home when he had
+anything to do. Once you put him out of the way it will make things a good
+deal more pleasant for everybody. Larry is the one man with any brains the
+homesteaders have in this part of the country, and while they would make
+no show without him, we can expect nothing but trouble while he's at
+liberty. It seems to me that warrants our putting up with a little
+unpleasantness."
+
+"Quite improving!" said Allonby, who was not in the best of temper just
+then. "One could almost wonder if you had any personal grudge against the
+man, Clavering. You are so astonishingly disinterested when you talk of
+him. Now, if I didn't like a man I'd make an opportunity of telling him."
+
+Clavering laughed. "You're young, Chris, or you wouldn't worry about
+folks' motives when their efforts suit you. What are the men doing?"
+
+"Freezing, and grumbling!" said Allonby. "They've made up their minds to
+get Larry this time or we wouldn't have kept them here. It's the horses
+I'm anxious about. They seem to know what is coming, and they're going to
+give us trouble."
+
+"A fool's game!" repeated the Sheriff, with a shiver. "Got any of those
+cigars with you, Clavering? If I'm to stay here, I have to smoke."
+
+Clavering threw him the case and turned away with Allonby. They went down
+through the bluff together and stood a few moments looking up the trail.
+It led downwards towards them, a streak of faintly shining whiteness,
+through the gloom of the trees, and the wind that set the branches
+thrashing whirled powdery snow into their faces, though whether this came
+down from the heavens or was uplifted from the frozen soil they did not
+know. With eyes dimmed and tingling cheeks, they moved back again amidst
+the birches; but even there it was bitterly cold, and Allonby was glad to
+turn his face from the wind a moment as they stopped to glance at the
+tethered horses. They were stamping impatiently, while the man on watch,
+who would have patted one of them, sprang backwards when the beast lashed
+out at him.
+
+"If Larry doesn't come soon, I guess we're going to find it hard to keep
+them here," he said. "They're 'most pulling the branches they're hitched
+to off the trees."
+
+Allonby nodded. "Larry would be flattered if he knew the trouble you and I
+were taking over him, Clavering," he said. "It's also the first time I've
+seen you worry much about this kind of thing."
+
+"What kind of thing?"
+
+"Citizen's duty! I think that's the way you put it?"
+
+Clavering laughed. "If you want to be unpleasant, Chris, can't you try a
+different line? That one's played out. It's too cold to quarrel."
+
+"I don't feel pleasant," said Allonby. "In fact, I don't like this thing,
+any way. Before Larry got stuck with his notions he was a friend of
+mine."
+
+"If the boys don't get too cold to shoot it's quite likely he will be
+nobody's friend to-morrow," said Clavering cruelly. "We'll go round and
+look at them."
+
+They went back into the trail once more, and the icy gusts struck through
+them as they plodded up it; but they found no man keeping watch beside it,
+as there should have been. The cow-boys had drawn back for shelter among
+the trees, and Clavering, who found them stamping and shivering, had some
+difficulty in getting them to their posts again. They had been there two
+hours, and the cold was almost insupportable.
+
+"I guess it's no use," said Allonby. "As soon as we have gone on every boy
+will be back behind his tree, and I don't know that anybody could blame
+them. Any way I'm 'most too cold for talking."
+
+They went back together, and, while the cow-boys, who did as Allonby had
+predicted, slowly froze among the trees, rolled themselves in the
+sleigh-robes and huddled together. It was blowing strongly now, and a
+numbing drowsiness had to be grappled with as the warmth died out of them.
+At last when a few feathery flakes came floating down, the Sheriff shook
+himself with a sleepy groan.
+
+"There is not a man living who could keep me here more than another
+quarter of an hour," he said. "Are the boys on the look-out by the trail,
+Allonby?"
+
+"They were," said the lad drowsily. "I don't know if they're there now,
+and it isn't likely. Clavering can go and make sure if he likes to, but if
+anyone wants me to get up, he will have to lift me."
+
+Neither Clavering nor the Sheriff appeared disposed to move, and it was
+evident that both had abandoned all hope of seeing Larry Grant that night.
+Ten minutes that seemed interminable passed, and the white flakes that
+whirled about them grew thicker between the gusts and came down in a
+bewildering rush. The Sheriff shook the furs off him and stood up with a
+groan.
+
+"Tell them to bring the horses. I have had quite enough," he said.
+
+Allonby staggered to his feet, and reeled into the wood. There was a
+hoarse shouting, and a trampling of hoofs that was drowned in a roar of
+wind, and when that slackened a moment a faint cry went up.
+
+"Hallo!" said the Sheriff; "he's coming."
+
+Then, nobody quite remembered what he did. Here and there a man struggled
+with a plunging horse in the darkness of the wood, and one or two
+blundered into each other and fell against the trunks as they ran on foot.
+They were dazed with cold, and the snow, that seemed to cut their cheeks,
+was in their eyes.
+
+Allonby, however, saw that Clavering was mounted, and the horse he rode
+apparently going round and round with him, while by and by he found
+himself in the saddle. He was leaning low over the horse's neck, with one
+moccasined foot in the stirrup and the other hanging loose, while the
+branches lashed at him, when something dark and shapeless came flying down
+the trail.
+
+He heard a hoarse shout and a rifle flashed, but the wind drowned the
+sound and before he was in the trail the sleigh, which was what he
+supposed the thing to be, had flashed by. One cannot handily fit spurs to
+moccasins, and, as his hands were almost useless, it was some time before
+he induced the horse, which desired to go home uphill, to take the
+opposite direction. Then, he was off at a gallop, with a man whom he
+supposed to be Clavering in front of him, and the Sheriff, who seemed to
+be shouting instructions, at his side. Allonby did not think that anybody
+heard them, but that was of no great moment to him then, for the trail was
+narrow and slippery here and there, and he was chiefly concerned with the
+necessity of keeping clear of his companion. He could not see the sleigh
+now and scarcely fancied that anybody else did, but he could hear the beat
+of hoofs in front of him when the wind sank a trifle, and rode on
+furiously down-hill at a gallop. The horse had apparently yielded to its
+terror of the storm, and Allonby had more than a suspicion that, had he
+wanted to, he could neither have turned it nor pulled it up.
+
+Clavering still held in front of him, but the Sheriff was dropping back a
+little, and the lad did not know whether any of the rest were following.
+He was, however, certain that, barring a fall, a mounted man could
+overtake a sleigh, and that the up grade beyond the bridge would tell on
+the beasts that dragged a weight behind them. So while the snow whirled
+past him and the dim trees flashed by, he urged on the beast until he
+heard the bridge rattle under him and felt the pace slacken--the trail had
+begun to lead steeply up out of the hollow.
+
+The horse was flagging a little by the time they reached the crest of the
+rise, and for a few moments Allonby saw nothing at all. The roar of the
+trees deafened him, and the wind drove the snow into his eyes. Then, as he
+gasped and shook it from him when the gust had passed, he dimly made out
+something that moved amidst the white haze and guessed that it was
+Clavering. If that were so, he felt it was more than likely that the
+sleigh was close in front of him. A few minutes later he had come up with
+the man whose greater weight was telling, and while they rode stirrup to
+stirrup and neck by neck, Allonby fancied there was something dim and
+shadowy in front of them.
+
+Clavering shouted as he dropped behind, and Allonby who failed to catch
+what he said was alone, blinking at the filmy whiteness, through which he
+had blurred glimpses of the object ahead, now growing more distinct. He
+could also, when the wind allowed it, hear the dull beat of hoofs. How
+long it took him to overtake it he could never remember; but at last the
+sleigh was very close to him, and he shouted. There was no answer; but
+Allonby, who could scarcely hear his own voice, did not consider this
+astonishing, and tried again. Still no answer came back, and, coming up
+with the sleigh at every stride, he dragged the butt of his sling rifle
+round and fumbled at the strap with a numbed and almost useless hand.
+
+He could see the back of the sleigh, but nothing else, and lurching
+perilously in the saddle he got the rifle in his hand; but, cold and
+stiffened as he was, he dared not loose his grasp on the bridle, and so,
+with the butt at his hip, he raced up level with the sleigh. Then, the
+horse, perhaps edged off the beaten trail into the snow outside it,
+blundered in its stride, and the rifle, that fell as the lad swayed, was
+left behind. He had both hands on the bridle the next moment, and leaning
+down sideways fancied there was nobody in the sleigh. It took him a second
+or two to make quite sure of it, and at least a minute more before he
+brought the horse to a standstill in the trail. By that time the sleigh
+had swept on into the sliding whiteness. Wheeling his horse, Clavering
+rode out of the snow and pulled up in evident astonishment.
+
+"Have you let him get away?" he gasped.
+
+"He wasn't there," said Allonby.
+
+"Not there! I saw him and another man when they drove past us in the
+bluff."
+
+"Well," said Allonby, "I'm quite certain there's nobody in that sleigh
+now."
+
+The wind that roared about them cut short the colloquy, and a minute or
+two later Allonby became sensible that Clavering was speaking again.
+
+"Larry and the other man must have dropped into the soft snow when the
+team slowed up on the up grade, knowing the horses would go on until they
+reached their stable," he said. "Well, they'll be away through the bluff
+now, and a brigade of cavalry would scarcely find them on such a night. In
+fact, we will have to trust the beasts to take us home."
+
+Just then the Sheriff, with one or two cow-boys, rode up, and Allonby, who
+did not like the man, laughed as he signed him to stop.
+
+"You can go back and get your driving horses in. We have been chasing a
+sleigh with no one in it," he said. "Larry has beaten us again!"
+
+
+
+
+XIX
+
+TORRANCE ASKS A QUESTION
+
+
+There was but one lamp lighted in the hall at Cedar Range, and that was
+turned low, but there was light enough to satisfy Clavering, who stood
+beneath it with Hetty's maid close beside him and a little red leather
+case in his hand. The girl's eyes were eager, but they were fixed upon the
+case and not the man, who had seen the keenness in them and was not
+displeased. Clavering had met other women in whom cupidity was at least as
+strong as vanity.
+
+"Now I wonder if you can guess what is inside there, and who it is for,"
+he said.
+
+The maid drew a trifle nearer, stooping slightly over the man's hand, and
+she probably knew that the trace of shyness, which was not all assumed,
+became her. She was also distinctly conscious that the pose she fell into
+displayed effectively a prettily rounded figure.
+
+"Something for Miss Torrance?" she said.
+
+Clavering's laugh was, as his companion noticed, not quite spontaneous.
+"No," he said. "I guess you know as well as I do that Miss Torrance would
+not take anything of this kind from me. She has plenty of them already."
+
+The maid knew this was a fact, for she had occasionally spent a delightful
+half-hour adorning herself with Hetty's jewellery.
+
+"Well," she said, with a little tremor of anticipation in her voice, "what
+is inside it?"
+
+Clavering laid the case in her hand. "It is yours," he said. "Just press
+that spring."
+
+It was done, and she gasped as a gleam of gold and a coloured gleam met
+her eyes. "My!" she said. "They're real--and it's for me?"
+
+Clavering smiled a little, and taking her fingers lightly closed them on
+the case.
+
+"Of course," he said. "Well, you're pleased with it?"
+
+The sparkle in the girl's eyes and the little flush in her face was plain
+enough, but the man's soft laugh was perfectly genuine. It was scarcely a
+gift he had made her; but while he expected that the outlay upon the
+trinket would be repaid him, he could be generous when it suited him, and
+was quite aware that a less costly lure would have served his purpose
+equally. He also knew when it was advisable to offer something more
+tasteful than the obtrusive dollar.
+
+"Oh," said the girl, "it's just lovely!"
+
+Clavering, who had discretion, did not look round, but, though he kept his
+dark eyes on his companion's face, he listened carefully. He could hear
+the wind outside, and the crackle of the stove, but nothing else, and knew
+that the footsteps of anyone approaching would ring tolerably distinctly
+down the corridor behind the hall. He also remembered that the big door
+nearest them was shut.
+
+"Well," he said, "it wouldn't do to put anything that wasn't pretty on a
+neck like that, and I wonder if you would let me fix it."
+
+The girl made no protest; but though she saw the admiration in the man's
+dark eyes as she covertly looked up, it would have pleased her better had
+he been a trifle more clumsy. His words and glances were usually bold
+enough, but, as he clasped the little brooch on, his fingers were almost
+irritatingly deft and steady. Men, she knew, did not make fools of
+themselves from a purely artistic appreciation of feminine comeliness.
+
+"Now," she said, slipping away from him with a blush, "I wonder what you
+expect for this."
+
+Clavering's eyebrows went up and there was a faint assumption of
+haughtiness in his face, which became it.
+
+"Only the pleasure of seeing it where it is. It's a gift," he said.
+
+"Well," said the girl, "that was very kind of you; but you're quite sure
+you never gave Miss Torrance anything of this kind?"
+
+"No. I think I told you so."
+
+The maid was not convinced. "But," she said, looking at him sideways, "I
+thought you did. She has a little gold chain, very thin, and not like the
+things they make now--and just lately she is always wearing it."
+
+"I never saw it."
+
+The girl smiled significantly. "I guess that's not astonishing. She wears
+it low down on her neck--and the curious thing is that it lay by and she
+never looked at it for ever so long."
+
+Clavering felt that the dollars the trinket had cost him had not been
+wasted; but though he concealed his disgust tolerably well, the maid
+noticed it. She had, however, vague ambitions, and a scarcely warranted
+conviction that, given a fair field, she could prove herself a match for
+her mistress.
+
+"Then, if it wasn't you, it must have been the other man," she said.
+
+"The other man?"
+
+"Yes," with a laugh. "The one I took the wallet with the dollars to."
+
+Clavering hoped he had not betrayed his astonishment; but she had seen the
+momentary flash in his eyes and the involuntary closing of his hand.
+
+"Now," he said firmly, "that can't be quite straight, and one should be
+very careful about saying that kind of thing."
+
+The girl looked at him steadily. "Still, I took a wallet with dollar bills
+in it to Mr. Grant--at night. I met him on the bluff, and Miss Torrance
+sent them him."
+
+It was possible that Clavering would have heard more had he followed the
+line of conduct he had adopted at first; but he stood thoughtfully silent
+instead, which did not by any means please his companion as well. He had a
+vague notion that this was a mistake; but the anger he did not show was
+too strong for him. Then, he fancied he heard a footstep on the stairway,
+and laughed in a somewhat strained fashion.
+
+"Well, we needn't worry about that; and I guess if I stay here any longer,
+Mr. Torrance will be wondering where I have gone," he said.
+
+He went out by one door, and a few moments later Miss Schuyler came in by
+another. She swept a hasty glance round the hall, most of which was in the
+shadow, and her eyes caught the faint sparkle at the maid's neck. The next
+moment the girl moved back out of the light; but Miss Schuyler saw her
+hand go up, and fancied there was something in it when it came down again.
+She had also heard a man's footstep, and could put two and two together.
+
+"Miss Torrance wants the silk. It was here, but I don't see it," she said.
+"Who went out a moment or two ago?"
+
+The girl opened a bureau. "Mr. Clavering. He left his cigar-case when he
+first came in."
+
+She took out a piece of folded silk, and Miss Schuyler noticed the fashion
+in which she held it.
+
+"It is the lighter shade we want; but the other piece is very like it.
+Unroll it so I can see it," she said.
+
+The maid seemed to find this somewhat difficult; but Miss Schuyler had
+seen a strip of red leather between the fingers of one hand, and
+understanding why it was so, went out thoughtfully. She knew the
+appearance of a jewel-case tolerably well, and had more than a suspicion
+as to whom the girl had obtained it from. Miss Schuyler, who would not
+have believed Clavering's assertion about the trinket had she heard it,
+wondered what he expected in exchange for it, which perhaps accounted for
+the fact that she contrived to overtake him in the corridor at the head of
+the stairs.
+
+"When you left Hetty and me alone we understood it was because Mr.
+Torrance was waiting for you," she said.
+
+"Yes," said Clavering, smiling. "It is scarcely necessary to explain that
+if he hadn't been I would not have gone. I fancied he was in the hall."
+
+Flora Schuyler nodded as though she believed him, but she determined to
+leave no room for doubt. "He is in his office," she said. "Have you the
+deerskin cigar-case you showed us with you? You will remember I was
+interested in the Indian embroidery."
+
+"I'm sorry I haven't," said Clavering. "Torrance's cigars are better than
+mine, so I usually leave mine at home. But I'll bring the case next time,
+and if you would like to copy it, I could get you a piece of the dressed
+hide from one of the Blackfeet."
+
+He turned away, and Flora Schuyler decided not to tell Hetty what she had
+heard--Hetty was a little impulsive occasionally--but it seemed to Miss
+Schuyler that it would be wise to watch her maid and Clavering closely.
+
+In the meantime, the man walked away towards Torrance's office,
+considering what the maid had told him. He had found it difficult to
+credit, but her manner had convinced him, and he realized that he could
+not afford the delay he had hitherto considered advisable. A young woman,
+he reflected, would scarcely send a wallet of dollars at night to a man
+whose plans were opposed to her father's without a strong motive, and the
+fact that Hetty wore a chain hidden about her neck had its meaning. He
+had, like most of his neighbours, laughed at Larry's hopeless devotion,
+but he had seen similar cases in which the lady at last relented, and
+while he knew Hetty's loyalty to her own people, and scarcely thought that
+she had more than a faint, tolerant tenderness for Larry, it appeared
+eminently desirable to prevent anything of that kind happening. Torrance,
+who was sitting smoking, glanced at him impatiently when he went in.
+
+"You have been a long while," he said.
+
+"I have a sufficient excuse, sir," said Clavering.
+
+"Well," said Torrance drily, "they are quite clever girls, but I have
+found myself wishing lately they were a long way from here. That, however,
+is not what I want to talk about. Apparently none of us can get hold of
+Larry."
+
+"It is not for the want of effort. There are few things that would please
+me better."
+
+Torrance glanced at Clavering sharply. "No. I fancied once or twice you
+had a score of your own against him. In fact, I heard Allonby say
+something of the same kind, too."
+
+"Chris is a trifle officious," said Clavering. "Any way, it's quite
+evident that we shall scarcely hold the homestead-boys back until we get
+our thumb on Larry."
+
+"How are we going to do it? He has come out ahead of us so far."
+
+"We took the wrong way," said Clavering. "Now, Larry, as you know, puts
+all his dealings through the Tillotson Company. Tillotson, as I found out
+in Chicago, has a free hand to buy stocks or produce with his balances,
+and Larry, who does not seem to bank his dollars, draws on him. It's not
+an unusual thing. Well, I've been writing to folks in Chicago, and they
+tell me Tillotson is in quite a tight place since the upward move in lard.
+It appears he has been selling right along for a fall."
+
+Torrance looked thoughtful. "Tillotson is a straight man, but I've had a
+notion he has been financing some of the homestead-boys. He handles all
+Larry's dollars?"
+
+Clavering nodded. "He put them into lard. Now, the Brand Company hold
+Tillotson's biggest contract, and if it suited them they could break him.
+I don't think they want to. Tillotson is a kind of useful man to them."
+
+Torrance brought his fist down on the table. "Well," he said grimly, "we
+have a stronger pull than Tillotson. Most of the business in this country
+goes to them, and if he thought it worth while, Brand would sell all his
+relations up to-morrow. I'll go right through to Chicago and fix the
+thing."
+
+Clavering smiled. "If you can manage it, you will cut off Larry's
+supplies."
+
+"Then," said Torrance, "I'll start to-morrow. Still, I don't want to leave
+the girls here, and it would suit me if you could drive them over to
+Allonby's. I don't mind admitting that they have given me a good deal of
+anxiety, though they've made things pleasant, too, and I've 'most got
+afraid of wondering what Cedar will feel like when they go away."
+
+"Will Miss Torrance go away?"
+
+"She will," said Torrance, with a little sigh, though there was pride in
+his eyes, "when the trouble's over--but not before. She came home to see
+the old man through."
+
+Clavering seized the opportunity. "Did you ever contemplate the
+possibility of Miss Torrance marrying anybody here?"
+
+"I have a notion that there's nobody good enough," Torrance said quickly.
+
+Clavering nodded, though he felt the old man's eyes upon him, and did not
+relish the implication. "Still, I fancy the same difficulty would be met
+with anywhere else, and that encourages me to ask if you would have any
+insuperable objections to myself?"
+
+Torrance looked at him steadily. "I have been expecting this. Once I
+thought it was Miss Schuyler; but she does not like you."
+
+"I am sorry," and Clavering wondered whether his host was right, "though,
+the latter fact is not of any great moment. I have long had a sincere
+respect for Miss Torrance, but I am afraid it would be difficult to tell
+you all I think of her."
+
+"The point," said Torrance, somewhat grimly, "is what she thinks of you."
+
+"I don't know. It did not seem quite fitting to ask her until I had spoken
+to you."
+
+Torrance said nothing for almost a minute, and to Clavering the silence
+became almost intolerable. The old man's forehead was wrinkled and he
+stared at the wall in front of him with vacant eyes. Then, he spoke very
+slowly.
+
+"That was the square thing, and I have to thank you. For twenty years now
+I have worked and saved for Hetty--that she might have the things her
+mother longed for and never got. And I've never been sorry--the girl is
+good all through. It is natural that she should marry; and even so far as
+the dollars go, she will bring as much to her husband as he can give her,
+and if it's needful more; but there are one or two points about you I
+don't quite like."
+
+The old man's voice vibrated and his face grew softer and the respect that
+Clavering showed when he answered was not all assumed.
+
+"I know my own unworthiness, sir, but I think any passing follies I may
+have indulged in are well behind me now."
+
+"Well," said Torrance drily, "it's quite hard to shake some tastes and
+habits off, and one or two of them have a trick of hanging on to the man
+who thinks he has done with them. Now, I want a straight answer. Do you
+know any special reason why it would not be the square thing for you to
+marry my daughter?"
+
+A faint colour crept into Clavering's face. "I know a good many which
+would make the bargain unfair to her," he said, "but there are very few
+men in this country who would be good enough for her."
+
+Torrance checked him with a lifted hand. "That is not what I mean. It is
+fortunate for most of us that women of her kind believe the best of us and
+can forgive a good deal. I am not speaking generally: do you know any
+special reason--one that may make trouble for both of you? It's a plain
+question, and you understand it. If you do, we'll go into the thing right
+now, and then, if it can be got over, never mention it again."
+
+Clavering sat silent, knowing well that delay might be fatal, and yet held
+still by something he had heard in the old man's voice and seen in his
+eyes. However, he had succeeded in signally defeating one blackmailer.
+
+"Sir," he said, very slowly, "I know of no reason now."
+
+Torrance had not moved his eyes from him. "Then," he said, "I can only
+take your word. You are one of us and understand the little things that
+please girls like Hetty. If she will take you, you can count on my good
+will."
+
+Clavering made a little gesture of thanks. "I ask nothing more, and may
+wait before I urge my suit; but it seems only fair to tell you that my
+ranching has not been very profitable lately and my affairs----"
+
+Torrance cut him short. "In these things it is the man that counts the
+most, and not the dollars. You will not have to worry over that point, now
+you have told me I can trust Hetty to you."
+
+He said a little more on the same subject, and then Clavering went out
+with unpleasantly confused sensations through which a feeling of
+degradation came uppermost. He had not led an exemplary life, but pride
+had kept him clear of certain offences, and he had as yet held his word
+sacred when put upon his honour. It was some minutes before he ventured to
+join Hetty and Miss Schuyler, who he knew by the sound of the piano were
+in the hall.
+
+Hetty sat with her fingers on the keyboard, the soft light of the lamps in
+the sconces shining upon her--very pretty, very dainty, an unusual
+softness in the eyes. She turned towards Clavering.
+
+"You went in to get it"--touching the music--"just because you heard me
+say I would like those songs. A four days' ride, and a blizzard raging on
+one of them!" she said.
+
+Clavering looked at her gravely with something in his eyes that puzzled
+Miss Schuyler, who had expected a wittily graceful speech.
+
+"You are pleased with them?" he said.
+
+"Yes," said the girl impulsively. "But I feel horribly mean because I sent
+you, although, of course, I didn't mean to. It was very kind of you, but
+you must not do anything of that kind again."
+
+Clavering, who did not appear quite himself, watched her turn over the
+music in silence, for though the last words were spoken quietly, there
+was, he and Miss Schuyler fancied, a definite purpose behind them.
+
+"Then, you will sing one of them?" he said.
+
+Hetty touched the keys--there was a difference in her when she sang, for
+music was her passion, and as the clear voice thrilled the two who
+listened, a flush of exaltation, that was almost spiritual, crept into her
+face. Clavering set his lips, and when the last notes sank into the
+stillness Miss Schuyler wondered what had brought the faint dampness to
+his forehead. She did not know that all that was good in him had revolted
+against what he had done, and meant to do, just then, and had almost
+gained the mastery. Unfortunately, instead of letting Hetty sing again and
+fix Clavering's half-formed resolution, she allowed her distrust of him to
+find expression; for capable young woman though she was, Flora Schuyler
+sometimes blundered.
+
+"The song was worth the effort," she said. "Mr. Clavering is, however,
+evidently willing to do a good deal to give folks pleasure."
+
+Clavering glanced at her with a little smile. "Folks? That means more than
+one."
+
+"Yes; it generally means at least two."
+
+Hetty laughed as she looked round. "Is there anybody else he has been
+giving music to?"
+
+"I fancy the question is unnecessary," Flora said. "He told us he came
+straight here, and there is nobody but you and I at Cedar he would be
+likely to bring anything to."
+
+"Of course not! Well, I never worry over your oracular observations. They
+generally mean nothing when you understand them," said Hetty.
+
+Flora Schuyler smiled maliciously at Clavering. She did not know that when
+a good deed hung in the balance she had, by rousing his intolerance of
+opposition, just tipped the beam.
+
+
+
+
+XX
+
+HETTY'S OBSTINACY
+
+
+It was very cold, the red sun hung low above the prairie's western rim,
+and Clavering, who sat behind Hetty and Miss Schuyler in the lurching
+sleigh, glanced over his shoulder anxiously.
+
+"Hadn't you better pull up and let me have the reins, Miss Torrance?" he
+said.
+
+Hetty laughed. "Why?" she asked, "I haven't seen the horse I could not
+drive."
+
+"Well," said Clavering drily, "this is the first time you have either seen
+or tried to drive Badger, and I not infrequently get out and lead the team
+down the slope in front of you when I cross the creek. It has a very
+awkward bend in it."
+
+Hetty looked about her, and, as it happened, the glare of sunlight flung
+back from the snow was in her eyes. Still, she could dimly see the trail
+dip over what seemed to be the edge of a gully close ahead, and she knew
+the descent to the creek in its bottom was a trifle perilous. She was,
+however, fearless and a trifle obstinate, and Clavering had,
+unfortunately, already ventured to give her what she considered quite
+unnecessary instructions as to the handling of the team. There had also
+been an indefinite change in his attitude towards her during the last week
+or two, which the girl, without exactly knowing why, resented and this
+appeared a fitting opportunity for checking any further presumption.
+
+"You can get down now if you wish," she said. "We will stop and pick you
+up when we reach the level again."
+
+Clavering said nothing further, for he knew that Miss Torrance was very
+like her father in some respects, and Hetty shook the reins. The next
+minute they had swept over the brink, and Flora Schuyler saw the trail dip
+steeply but slantwise to lessen the gradient to the frozen creek. The
+sinking sun was hidden by the high bank now and the snow had faded to a
+cold blue-whiteness, through which the trail ran, a faint line of dusky
+grey. It was difficult to distinguish at the pace the team were making,
+and the ground dropped sharply on one side of it.
+
+"Let him have the reins, Hetty," she said.
+
+Unfortunately Clavering, who was a trifle nettled and knew that team,
+especially the temper of Badger the near horse better than Hetty did,
+laughed just then.
+
+"Hold fast, Miss Schuyler, and remember that if anything does happen, the
+right-hand side is the one to get out from," he said.
+
+"Now," said Hetty, "I'm not going to forgive you that. You sit quite
+still, and we'll show him something, Flo."
+
+She touched the horses with the lash, and Badger flung up his head;
+another moment and he and the other beast had broken into a gallop. Hetty
+threw herself backwards with both hands on the reins, but no cry escaped
+her, and Clavering, who had a suspicion that he could do no more than she
+was doing now, even if he could get over the back of the seat in time,
+which was out of the question, set his lips as he watched the bank of snow
+the trail twisted round rush towards them. The sleigh bounced beneath him
+in another second or two, there was a stifled scream from Flora Schuyler,
+and leaning over he tore the robe about the girls from its fastenings.
+Then, there was a bewildering jolting and a crash, and he was flung out
+head foremost into dusty snow.
+
+When he scrambled to his feet again Hetty was sitting in the snow close by
+him, and Flora Schuyler creeping out of a wreath of it on her hands and
+knees. The sleigh lay on one side, not far away, with the Badger rolling
+and kicking amidst a tangle of harness, though the other horse was still
+upon its feet.
+
+Clavering was pleased to find all his limbs intact, and almost as
+gratified to see only indignant astonishment in Hetty's face. She rose
+before he could help her and in another moment or two Flora Schuyler also
+stood upright, clinging to his arm.
+
+"No," she said, with a little gasp, "I don't think I'm killed, though I
+felt quite sure of it at first. Now I only feel as though I'd been through
+an earthquake."
+
+Hetty turned and looked at Clavering, with a little red spot in either
+cheek. "Why don't you say something?" she asked. "Are you waiting for
+me?"
+
+"I don't know that anything very appropriate occurs to me. You know I'm
+devoutly thankful you have both escaped injury," said the man, who was
+more shaken than he cared to admit.
+
+"Then I'll have to begin," and Hetty's eyes sparkled. "It was my fault,
+Mr. Clavering, and, if it is any relief to you, I feel most horribly
+ashamed of my obstinacy. Will that satisfy you?"
+
+Clavering turned his head away, for he felt greatly inclined to laugh, but
+he knew the Torrance temper. Hetty had been very haughty during that
+drive, but she had not appeared especially dignified when she sat blinking
+about her in the snow, nor had Miss Schuyler, and he felt that they
+realized it; and in feminine fashion blamed him for being there. It was
+Miss Schuyler who relieved the situation.
+
+"Hadn't you better do something for the horse? It is apparently trying to
+hang itself--and I almost wish it would. It deserves to succeed."
+
+Clavering could have done very little by himself, but in another minute
+Hetty was kneeling on the horse's head, while, at more than a little risk
+from the battering hoofs, he loosed some of the harness. Then, the Badger
+was allowed to flounder to his feet, and Clavering proceeded to readjust
+his trappings. A buckle had drawn, however, and a strap had burst.
+
+"No," said Hetty sharply. "Not that way. Don't you see you've got to lead
+the trace through. It is most unfortunate Larry isn't here."
+
+Clavering glanced at Miss Schuyler, and both of them laughed, while Hetty
+frowned.
+
+"Well," she said, "he would have fixed the thing in half the time, and we
+can't stay here for ever."
+
+Clavering did what he could; but repairing harness in the open under
+twenty or thirty degrees of frost is a difficult task for any man,
+especially when he has no tools to work with and cannot remove his
+mittens, and it was at least twenty minutes before he somewhat doubtfully
+announced that all was ready. He handed Miss Schuyler into the sleigh, and
+then passed the reins to Hetty, who stood with one foot on the step,
+apparently waiting for something.
+
+"I don't think he will run away again," he said.
+
+The girl glanced at him sharply. "I am vexed with myself. Don't make me
+vexed with you," she said.
+
+Clavering said nothing, but took the reins and they slid slowly down into
+the hollow, and, more slowly still, across the frozen creek and up the
+opposite ascent. After awhile Hetty touched his shoulder.
+
+"I really don't want to meddle; but, while caution is commendable, it will
+be dark very soon," she said.
+
+"Something has gone wrong," Clavering said gravely. "I'm afraid I'll have
+to get down."
+
+He stood for several minutes looking at the frame of the sleigh and an
+indented line ploughed behind it in the snow, and then quietly commenced
+to loose the horses.
+
+"Well," said Hetty sharply, "what are you going to do?"
+
+"Take them out," said Clavering.
+
+"Why?"
+
+Clavering laughed. "They are not elephants and have been doing rather more
+than one could expect any horse to do. It is really not my fault, you
+know, but one of the runners has broken, and the piece sticks into the
+snow."
+
+"Then, whatever are we to do?"
+
+"I am afraid you and Miss Schuyler will have to ride on to Allonby's. I
+can fix the furs so they'll make some kind of saddle, and it can't be more
+than eight miles or so."
+
+Miss Schuyler almost screamed. "I can't," she said.
+
+"Don't talk nonsense, Flo," said Hetty. "You'll just have to."
+
+Clavering's fingers were very cold, and the girls' still colder, before he
+had somehow girthed a rug about each of the horses and ruthlessly cut and
+knotted the reins. The extemporized saddles did not look very secure, but
+Hetty lightly swung herself into one, though Miss Schuyler found it
+difficult to repress a cry, and was not sure that she quite succeeded,
+when Clavering lifted her to the other.
+
+"I'm quite sure I shall fall off," she said.
+
+Hetty was evidently very much displeased at something, for she seemed to
+forget Clavering was there. "If you do I'll never speak to you again," she
+said. "You might have been fond of him, Flo. There wasn't the least
+necessity to put your arm right around his neck."
+
+Clavering wisely stooped to do something to one of his moccasins, for he
+saw an ominous sparkle in Miss Schuyler's eyes, but he looked up
+prematurely and the smile was still upon his lips when he met Hetty's
+gaze.
+
+"How are you going to get anywhere?" she asked.
+
+"Well," said Clavering, "it is quite a long while now since I was able to
+walk alone."
+
+Hetty shook her bridle, and the Badger started at a trot; but when Miss
+Schuyler followed, Clavering, who fancied that her prediction would be
+fulfilled, also set off at a run. He was, however, not quite fast enough,
+for when he reached her Miss Schuyler was sitting in the snow. She
+appeared to be unpleasantly shaken and her lips were quivering. Clavering
+helped her to her feet, and then caught the horse.
+
+"The wretched thing turned round and slid me off," she said, when he came
+back with it, pointing to the rug.
+
+Clavering tugged at the extemporized girth. "I am afraid you can only try
+again. I don't think it will slip now," he said.
+
+Miss Schuyler, who had evidently lost her nerve, mounted with difficulty
+and after trotting for some minutes pulled up once more, and was sitting
+still looking about her hopelessly when Clavering rejoined her.
+
+"I am very sorry, but I really can't hold on," she said.
+
+Clavering glanced at the prairie, and Hetty looked at him. Nothing moved
+upon all the empty plain which was fading to a curious dusky blue.
+Darkness crept up across it from the east, and a last faint patch of
+orange was dying out on its western rim, while with the approaching night
+there came a stinging cold.
+
+"It might be best if you rode on, Miss Torrance, and sent a sleigh back
+for us," he said. "Walk your horse, Miss Schuyler, and I'll keep close
+beside you. If you fell I could catch you."
+
+Hetty's face was anxious, but she shook her head. "No, it was my fault,
+and I mean to see it through," she said. "You couldn't keep catching her
+all the time, you know. I'm not made of eider-down, and she's a good deal
+heavier than me. It really is a pity you can't ride, Flo."
+
+"Nevertheless," said Miss Schuyler tartly, "I can't--without a saddle--and
+I'm quite thankful I can't drive."
+
+Hetty said nothing, and they went on in silence, until when a dusky bluff
+appeared on the skyline, Clavering, taking the bridle, led Miss Schuyler's
+horse into a forking trail.
+
+"This is not the way to Allonby's," said Hetty.
+
+"No," said Clavering quietly. "I'm afraid you would be frozen before you
+got there. The homestead-boys who chop their fuel in the bluff have,
+however, some kind of shelter, and I'll make you a big fire."
+
+"But----" said Hetty.
+
+Clavering checked her with a gesture. "Please let me fix this thing for
+you," he said. "It is getting horribly cold already."
+
+They went on a trifle faster without another word, and presently, with
+crackle of dry twigs beneath them, plodded into the bush. Dim trees
+flitted by them, branches brushed them as they passed, and the stillness
+and shadowiness affected Miss Schuyler uncomfortably. She started with a
+cry when there was a sharp patter amidst the dusty snow; but Clavering's
+hand was on the bridle as the horse, snorting, flung up its head.
+
+"I think it was only a jack-rabbit; and I can see the shelter now," he
+said.
+
+A few moments later he helped Miss Schuyler down, and held out his hand to
+Hetty, who sprang stiffly to the ground. Then, with numbed fingers, he
+broke off and struck a sulphur match, and the feeble flame showed the
+refuge to which he had brought them. It was just high enough to stand in,
+and had three sides and a roof of birch logs, but the front was open and
+the soil inside it frozen hard as adamant. An axe and a saw stood in a
+corner, and there was a hearth heaped ready with kindling chips.
+
+"If you will wait here I'll try to get some wood," he said.
+
+He went out and tethered the horses, and when his footsteps died away,
+Miss Schuyler shivering crept closer to Hetty, who flung an arm about
+her.
+
+"It's awful, Flo--and it's my fault," she said. Then she sighed. "It would
+all be so different if Larry was only here."
+
+"Still," said Flora Schuyler, "Mr. Clavering has really behaved very well;
+most men would have shown just a little temper."
+
+"I almost wish he had--it would have been so much easier for me to have
+kept mine and overlooked it graciously. Flo, I didn't mean to be
+disagreeable, but it's quite hard to be pleasant when one is in the
+wrong."
+
+It was some time before Clavering came back with an armful of birch
+branches, and a suspiciously reddened gash in one of his moccasins--for an
+axe ground as the Michigan man grinds it is a dangerous tool for anyone
+not trained to it to handle in the dark. In ten minutes he had a great
+fire blazing, and the shivering girls felt their spirits revive a little
+under the cheerful light and warmth. Then, he made a seat of the branches
+close in to the hearth and glanced at them anxiously.
+
+"If you keep throwing wood on, and sit there with the furs wrapped round
+you, you will be able to keep the cold out until I come back," he said.
+
+"Until you come back!" said Hetty, checking a little cry of dismay. "Where
+are you going?"
+
+"To bring a sleigh."
+
+"But Allonby's is nearly eight miles away. You could not leave us here
+three hours."
+
+"No," said Clavering gravely. "You would be very cold by then. Still, you
+need not be anxious. Nothing can hurt you here; and I will come, or send
+somebody for you, before long."
+
+Hetty sat very still while he drew on the fur mittens he had removed to
+make the fire. Then, she rose suddenly.
+
+"No," she said. "It was my fault--and we cannot let you go."
+
+Clavering smiled. "I am afraid your wishes wouldn't go quite as far in
+this case as they generally do with me. You and Miss Schuyler can't stay
+here until I could get a sleigh from Allonby's."
+
+He turned as he spoke, and was almost out of the shanty before Hetty,
+stepping forward, laid her hand upon his arm.
+
+"Now I know," she said. "It is less than three miles to Muller's, but the
+homestead-boys would make you a prisoner if you went there. Can't you see
+that would be horrible for Flo and me? It was my wilfulness that made the
+trouble."
+
+Clavering very gently shook off her grasp, and Miss Schuyler almost
+admired him as he stood looking down upon her companion with the
+flickering firelight on his face. It was a striking face, and the smile in
+the dark eyes became it. Clavering had shaken off his furs, and the
+close-fitting jacket of dressed deerskin displayed his lean symmetry, for
+he had swung round in the entrance to the shanty and the shadows were
+black behind him.
+
+"I think the fault was mine. I should not have been afraid of displeasing
+you, which is what encourages me to be obstinate now," he said. "One
+should never make wild guesses, should they, Miss Schuyler?"
+
+He had gone before Hetty could speak again, and a few moments later the
+girls heard a thud of hoofs as a horse passed at a gallop through the
+wood. They stood looking at each other until the sound died away, and only
+a little doleful wind that sighed amidst the birches and the snapping of
+the fire disturbed the silence. Then, Hetty sat down and drew Miss
+Schuyler down beside her.
+
+"Flo," she said, with a little quiver in her voice, "what is the use of a
+girl like me? I seem bound to make trouble for everybody."
+
+"It is not an unusual complaint, especially when one is as pretty as you
+are," said Miss Schuyler. "Though I must confess I don't quite understand
+what you are afraid of, Hetty."
+
+"No?" said Hetty. "You never do seem to understand anything, Flo. If he
+goes to Muller's the homestead-boys, who are as fond of him as they are of
+poison, might shoot him, and he almost deserves it. No, of course, after
+what he is doing for us, I don't mean that. It is the meanness that is in
+me makes me look for faults in everybody. He was almost splendid--and he
+has left his furs for us--but he mayn't come back at all. Oh, it's
+horrible!"
+
+Hetty's voice grew indistinct, and Flora Schuyler drew the furs closer
+about them, and slipped an arm round her waist. She began to feel the cold
+again, and the loneliness more, while, even when she closed her eyes, she
+could not shut out the menacing darkness in front of her. Miss Schuyler
+was from the cities, and it was not her fault that, while she possessed
+sufficient courage of a kind, she shrank from the perils of the
+wilderness. She would have found silence trying, but the vague sounds
+outside, to which she could attach no meaning, were more difficult to
+bear. So she started when a puff of wind set the birch twigs rattling or
+something stirred the withered leaves, and once or twice a creaking branch
+sent a thrill of apprehension through her and she almost fancied that evil
+faces peered at her from the square gap of blackness. Now and then, a wisp
+of pungent smoke curled up and filled her eyes, and little by little she
+drew nearer to the fire with a physical craving for the warmth of it and
+an instinctive desire to be surrounded by its brightness, until Hetty
+shook her roughly by the arm.
+
+"Flo," she said, "you are making me almost as silly as you are, and that
+capote--it's the prettiest I have seen you put on--is burning. Sit still,
+or I'll pinch you--hard."
+
+Hetty's grip had a salutary effect, and Miss Schuyler, shaking off her
+vague terrors, smiled a trifle tremulously.
+
+"I wish you would," she said. "Your fingers are real, any way. I can't
+help being foolish, Hetty--and is the thing actually burning?"
+
+Hetty laughed. "I guessed that would rouse you--but it is," she said. "I
+have made my mind up, Flo. If he doesn't come in an hour or so, we'll go
+to Muller's, too."
+
+Miss Schuyler was by no means sure that this would please her, but she
+said nothing and once more there was a silence she found it difficult to
+bear.
+
+In the meanwhile, Clavering, whose foot pained him, was urging the Badger
+to his utmost pace. He rode without saddle or stirrups, which, however,
+was no great handicap to anyone who had spent the time he had in the
+cattle country, and, though it was numbingly cold and he had left his furs
+behind him, scarcely felt the frost, for his brain was busy. He knew Hetty
+Torrance, and that what he had done would count for much with her; but
+that was not what had prompted him to make the somewhat perilous venture.
+Free as he was in his gallantries, he was not without the chivalrous
+daring of the South his fathers came from, and Hetty was of his own caste.
+She, at least, would have been sure of deference from him, and, perhaps,
+have had little cause for complaint had he married her. Of late the
+admiration he felt for her was becoming tinged with a genuine respect.
+
+He knew that the homesteaders, who had very little cause to love him, were
+in a somewhat dangerous mood just then, but that was of no great moment to
+him. He had a cynical contempt for them, and a pride which would have made
+him feel degraded had he allowed any fear of what they might do to
+influence him. He had also, with less creditable motives, found himself in
+difficult positions once or twice already, and his quickly arrogant
+fearlessness had enabled him to retire from them without bodily hurt or
+loss of dignity.
+
+The lights of Muller's homestead rose out of the prairie almost before he
+expected to see them, and a few minutes later he rode at a gallop up to
+the door. It opened before he swung himself down, for the beat of hoofs
+had carried far, and when he stood in the entrance, slightly dazed by the
+warmth and light, there was a murmur of wonder.
+
+"Clavering!" said somebody, and a man he could not clearly see laid a hand
+on his shoulder.
+
+He shook the grasp off contemptuously, moved forward a pace or two, and
+then sat down blinking about him. Muller sat by the stove, a big pipe in
+hand, looking at him over his spectacles. His daughter stood behind him
+knitting tranquilly, though there was a shade more colour than usual in
+her cheeks, and a big, grim-faced man stood at the end of the room with
+one hand on a rifle that hung on the wall. Clavering instinctively glanced
+over his shoulder, and saw that another man now stood with his back to the
+door.
+
+"You have come alone?" asked the latter.
+
+"Oh, yes," said Clavering unconcernedly. "You might put my horse in, one
+of you. If I could have helped it, I would not have worried you, but my
+sleigh got damaged and Miss Torrance and another lady are freezing in the
+Bitter Creek bluff, and I know you don't hurt women."
+
+"No," said the man dropping his hand from the rifle, with a little
+unpleasant laugh. "We haven't got that far yet, though your folks are
+starving them."
+
+"Well," said Clavering, "I'm going to ask you to send a sledge and drive
+them back to Cedar or on to Allonby's."
+
+The men exchanged glances. "It's a trick," said one.
+
+"So!" said Muller. "Der ambuscade. Lotta, you ride to Fremont, und Larry
+bring. I show you how when we have drubbles mit der franc tireurs we fix
+der thing."
+
+Clavering exclaimed impatiently. "You have no time for fooling when there
+are two women freezing in the bluff. Would I have come here, knowing you
+could do what you liked with me, if I had meant any harm to you?"
+
+"That's sense, any way," said one of the men. "I guess if he was playing
+any trick, one of us would be quite enough to get even with him. You'll
+take Truscott with you, Muller, and get out the bob-sled."
+
+Muller nodded gravely. "I go," he said. "Lotta, you der big kettle fill
+before you ride for Larry. We der bob-sled get ready."
+
+"You are not going to be sorry," said Clavering. "This thing will pay you
+better than farming."
+
+The man by the door turned with a hard laugh. "Well," he said, "I guess
+we'd feel mean for ever if we took a dollar from you!"
+
+Clavering ignored the speech. "Do you want me?" he said, glancing at
+Muller.
+
+"No," said the man, who now took down the rifle from the wall. "Not just
+yet. You're going to stop right where you are. The boys can do without me,
+and I'll keep you company."
+
+Ten minutes later the others drove away, and, with a significant gesture,
+Clavering's companion laid the rifle across his knees.
+
+
+
+
+XXI
+
+CLAVERING APPEARS RIDICULOUS
+
+
+There was silence in the log-house when the men drove away, and Clavering,
+who sat in a corner, found the time pass heavily. A clock ticked noisily
+upon the wall, and the stove crackled when the draughts flowed in; but
+this, he felt, only made the stillness more exasperating. The big,
+hard-faced bushman sat as motionless as a statue and almost as
+expressionless, with a brown hand resting on the rifle across his knees,
+in front of a row of shelves which held Miss Muller's crockery. Clavering
+felt his fingers quiver in a fit of anger as he watched the man, but he
+shook it from him, knowing that he would gain nothing by yielding to
+futile passion.
+
+"I guess I can smoke," he said flinging his cigar-case on the table. "Take
+one if you feel like it."
+
+The swiftness with which the man's eyes followed the first move of his
+prisoner's hand was significant, but he shook his head deliberately.
+
+"I don't know any reason why you shouldn't, but you can keep your cigars
+for your friends," he said.
+
+He drawled the words out, but the vindictive dislike in his eyes made them
+very expressive, and Clavering, who saw it, felt that any attempt to gain
+his jailer's goodwill would be a failure. As though to give point to the
+speech, the man took out a pipe and slowly filled it with tobacco from a
+little deerskin bag.
+
+"What are you going to do with me?" asked Clavering, partly to hide his
+anger, and partly because he was more than a little curious on the
+subject.
+
+"Well," said the man reflectively. "I don't quite know. Keep you here
+until Larry comes, any way. It wouldn't take long to fix it so you'd be
+sorry you had worried poor folks if the boys would listen to me."
+
+This was even less encouraging; but there were still points on which
+Clavering desired enlightenment.
+
+"Will Muller bring Miss Torrance and her companion here?" he asked.
+
+The bushman nodded. "I guess he will. It's quite a long way to Allonby's,
+and they'll be 'most frozen after waiting in the bluff. Now, I'm not
+anxious for any more talk with you."
+
+A little flush crept into Clavering's forehead; but it was not the man's
+contemptuous brusqueness which brought it there, though that was not
+without its effect. It was evident that the most he could hope for was
+Larry's clemency, and that would be difficult to tolerate. But there was
+another ordeal before him. Hetty was also coming back, and would see him a
+prisoner in the hands of the men he had looked down upon with ironical
+contempt. Had the contempt been assumed, his position would have been less
+intolerable; but it was not, and the little delicately venomous jibes he
+seldom lost an opportunity of flinging at the homesteaders expressed no
+more than he felt, and were now and then warranted.
+
+Clavering, of course, knew that to pose as a prisoner as the result of his
+efforts on her behalf would stir Hetty's sympathy, and his endurance of
+persecution at the hands of the rabble for his adherence to the principles
+he fancied she held would further raise him in her estimation; but he had
+no desire to acquire her regard in that fashion. He would have preferred
+to take the chances of a rifle-shot, for while he had few scruples he had
+been born with a pride which, occasionally at least, prevented his
+indulgence in petty knavery; and, crushing down his anger, he set himself
+to consider by what means he could extricate himself.
+
+None, however, were very apparent. The homesteader showed no sign of
+drowsiness or relaxed vigilance, but sat tranquilly alert, watching him
+through the curling smoke. It was also some distance to the door, which,
+from where Clavering sat, appeared to be fastened and he knew the quick
+precision with which the bushman can swing up a rifle, or if it suits him
+fire from the hip. A dash for liberty could, he fancied, have only one
+result; it was evident that he must wait.
+
+Now waiting is difficult to most men, and especially to those in whose
+veins there flows the hot Southern blood, and Clavering felt the taste of
+the second excellent cigar grow bitter in his mouth. He sat very still,
+with half-closed eyes, and a little ironical smile upon his lips when his
+grim companion glanced at him. In the meantime the stove crackled less
+noisily and the room grew steadily colder. But Clavering scarcely felt the
+chill, even when the icy draughts whirled the cigar-smoke about him, for
+he began to see that an opportunity would be made for him, and waited,
+strung up and intent. When he thought he could do so unobserved, he
+glanced at the clock whose fingers now moved with a distressful rapidity,
+knowing that his chance would be gone if the bob-sled arrived before the
+cold grew too great for his jailer.
+
+Ten minutes dragged by, then another five, and still the man sat smoking
+tranquilly, while Clavering realized that, allowing for all probable
+delays, Muller and Miss Torrance should arrive before the half-hour was
+up. Ten more minutes fled by, and Clavering, quivering in an agony of
+impatience, found it almost impossible to sit still; but at last the
+bushman stood up and laid his rifle on the table.
+
+"You will stop right where you are," he said. "I'm going to put a few
+billets in the stove."
+
+Clavering nodded, for he dared not trust himself to speak, and the man,
+who took up an armful of the billets, dropped a few of them through the
+open top of the stove. One, as it happened, jammed inside it, so that he
+could get no more in, and he laid hold of an iron scraper to free it with.
+He now stood with his back to Clavering, but the rifle still lay within
+his reach upon the table.
+
+Clavering rose up, and, though his injured foot was painful, moved forward
+a pace or two noiselessly in his soft moccasins. A billet had rolled in
+his direction, and swaying lithely from the waist, with his eyes fixed
+upon the man, he seized it. The homesteader was stooping still, and he
+made another pace, crouching a trifle, with every muscle hardening.
+
+Then, the man turned sharply, and hurled the scraper straight at
+Clavering. It struck him on the face, but he launched himself forward,
+and, while the homesteader grabbed at his rifle, fell upon him. He felt
+the thud of the billet upon something soft, but the next moment it was
+torn from him, the rifle fell with a clatter, and he and the bushman
+reeled against the stove together. Then, they fell against the shelves and
+with a crash they and the crockery went down upon the floor.
+
+Clavering was supple and wiry and just then consumed with an almost
+insensate fury. He came down uppermost but his adversary's leg was hooked
+round his knee, and the grip of several very hard fingers unpleasantly
+impeded his respiration. Twice he struck savagely at a half-seen brown
+face, but the grip did not relax, and the knee he strove to extricate
+began to pain him horribly. The rancher possessed no mean courage and a
+traditional belief in the prowess of his caste, was famed for proficiency
+in most manly sports; but that did not alter the fact that the other man's
+muscle, hardened by long use of the axe, was greater than his own, and the
+stubborn courage which had upheld the homesteader in his struggle with
+adverse seasons and the encroaching forest was at least the equal of that
+born in Clavering.
+
+So the positions were slowly reversed, until at last Clavering lay with
+his head amidst a litter of broken cups and plates, and the homesteader
+bent over him with a knee upon his chest.
+
+"I guess you've had 'bout enough," he said. "Will you let up, or do you
+want me to pound the life out of you?"
+
+Clavering could not speak, but he managed to make a movement with his
+head, and the next moment the man had dragged him to his feet and flung
+him against the table. He caught at it, gasping, while his adversary
+picked up the rifle.
+
+"You will be sorry for this night's work yet," he said.
+
+The homesteader laughed derisively. "Well," he said, "I guess you're sorry
+now. Anyone who saw you would think you were. Get right back to the chair
+yonder and stay there."
+
+It was at least five minutes before Clavering recovered sufficiently to
+survey himself, and then he groaned. His deerskin jacket was badly rent,
+there was a great burn on one side of it, and several red scratches
+defaced his hands. From the splotches on them after he brushed back his
+ruffled hair he also had a suspicion that his head was cut, and the
+tingling where the scraper had struck him suggested a very visible weal.
+He felt dizzy and shaken, but his physical was less than his mental
+distress. Clavering was distinguished for his artistic taste in dress and
+indolent grace; but no man appears dignified or courtly with discoloured
+face, tattered garments, and dishevelled hair. He thought he heard the
+bob-sled coming and in desperation glanced at his jailer.
+
+"If you would like ten dollars you have only got to let me slip into that
+other room," he said.
+
+The bushman grinned sardonically, and Clavering's fears were confirmed.
+"You're that pretty I wouldn't lose sight of you for a hundred," he said.
+"No, sir; you're going to stop where you are."
+
+Clavering anathematized him inwardly, knowing that the beat of hoofs was
+unmistakable--he must face what he dreaded most. A sword-cut, or even a
+rifle-shot, would, he fancied, have entitled him to sympathy, not untinged
+with admiration, but he was unpleasantly aware that a man damaged in an
+encounter with nature's weapons is apt to appear either brutal or
+ludicrous, and he had noticed Miss Torrance's sensibility. He set his
+lips, and braced himself for the meeting.
+
+A few minutes later the door opened, and, followed by the fraeulein Muller,
+Hetty and Miss Schuyler came in. They did not seem to have suffered
+greatly in the interval, which Clavering knew was not the case with him,
+and he glanced at the homesteader with a little venomous glow in his eyes
+when Hetty turned to him.
+
+"Oh!" she said with a gasp, and her face grew pale and stern as closing
+one hand she, too, looked at the bushman.
+
+Clavering took heart at this; but his enemy's vindictiveness was evidently
+not exhausted, for he nodded comprehendingly.
+
+"Yes," he said, "he's damaged. He got kind of savage a little while ago,
+and before I could quiet him he broke up quite a lot of crockery."
+
+The imperious anger faded out of Hetty's face, and Flora Schuyler
+understood why it did so as she glanced at Clavering. There was nothing
+that could appeal to a fastidious young woman's fancy about him just then;
+he reminded Miss Schuyler of a man she had once seen escorted homewards by
+his drunken friends after a fracas in the Bowery. At the same time it was
+evident that Hetty recognized her duty, and was sensible, if not of
+admiration, at least of somewhat tempered sympathy.
+
+"I am dreadfully sorry, Mr. Clavering--and it was all my fault," she said.
+"I hope they didn't hurt you very much."
+
+Clavering, who had risen, made her a little inclination; but he also set
+his lips, for Hetty had not expressed herself very tactfully, and just
+then Muller and another man came in and stood staring at them. The rancher
+endeavoured to smile, with very small success for he was consumed with an
+unsatisfied longing to destroy the bushman.
+
+"I don't think you need be, Miss Torrance," he said. "I am only sorry I
+could not come back for you; but unfortunately--circumstances--prevented
+me."
+
+"You have done enough," said Hetty impulsively, apparently forgetting the
+presence of the rest. "It was splendid of you."
+
+Then the bushman looked up again with an almost silent chuckle. "I guess
+if it had been your plates he sat on, you wouldn't be quite so sure of
+it--and the circumstance was me," he said.
+
+Hetty turned from the speaker, and glanced at the rest. Muller was
+standing near the door, with his spectacles down on his nose and mild
+inquiry in his pale blue eyes, and a big bronzed Dakota man beside him was
+grinning visibly. The fraeulein was kneeling despairingly amidst her
+shattered china, while Flora Schuyler leaned against the table with her
+lips quivering and a most suspicious twinkle in her eyes.
+
+"Flo," said Hetty half-aloud. "How can you?"
+
+"I don't know," said Miss Schuyler, with a little gasp. "Don't look at me,
+Hetty. I really can't help it."
+
+Hetty said no more, but she glanced at the red-cheeked fraeulein, who was
+gazing at a broken piece of crockery with tearful eyes, and turned her
+head away. Clavering saw the effort it cost her to keep from laughing, and
+writhed.
+
+"Well," said the man who had come with Muller, pointing to the wreck,
+"what started you smashing up the house?"
+
+"It's quite simple," said the bushman. "Mr. Clavering and I didn't quite
+agree. He had a billet in his hand when he crept up behind me, and somehow
+we fell into the crockery. I didn't mean to damage him, but he wanted to
+get away, you see."
+
+Hetty swung round towards Muller. "You haven't dared to make Mr. Clavering
+a prisoner?"
+
+Muller was never very quick at speech, and the American by his side
+answered for him. "Well, we have got to keep him until Larry comes. He'll
+be here 'most directly."
+
+"Flo," said Hetty, with relief in her face, "Larry is coming. We need not
+worry about anything now."
+
+The fraeulein had risen in the meanwhile, and was busy with the kettle and
+a frying-pan. By and by, she set a steaming jug of coffee and a hot
+cornmeal cake before her guests for whom Muller had drawn out chairs. They
+were glad of the refreshment, and still more pleased when Grant and
+Breckenridge came in. When Larry shook hands with them, Hetty contrived to
+whisper in his ear:
+
+"If you want to please me, get Clavering away."
+
+Grant glanced at her somewhat curiously, but both were sensible that other
+eyes were upon them, and with a just perceptible nod he passed on with
+Muller into the adjoining room. Clavering and the two Americans followed
+him with Breckenridge, and Grant who had heard something of what had
+happened from the fraeulein, asked a few questions.
+
+"You can go when it pleases you, Clavering," he said. "I am sorry you have
+received some trifling injury, but I have an idea that you brought it upon
+yourself. In the face of your conduct to them it seems to me that my
+friends were warranted in detaining you until they made sure of the
+correctness of your story."
+
+Clavering flushed, for there was a contemptuous incisiveness in Grant's
+voice which stung his pride.
+
+"I don't know that I am very grateful," he said angrily, "and you are
+probably doing this because it suits you. In any case, your friends dare
+not have offered violence to me."
+
+Grant smiled grimly. "I wouldn't try them too far. But I don't quite catch
+your meaning. I can gain nothing by letting you go."
+
+"It should be tolerably plain. I fancied you desired to please some
+friends at Cedar who send money to you."
+
+There was a murmur of astonishment from the rest and Clavering saw that
+the shot had told.
+
+"I guess he's lying, Larry," said one of them.
+
+Grant stood still a moment with his eyes fixed on Clavering. "I wonder,"
+he said, "if you are hazarding a guess."
+
+"No," said Clavering, "I don't think I am. I know you got a wallet of
+dollars--though I don't know who sent them. Are you prepared to deny it?"
+
+"I'm not prepared to exchange any words with you," said Grant. "Go while
+the door is open, and it would not be advisable for you to fall into our
+hands again. We hanged a friend of yours who, I fancy, lived up to, at
+least, as high a standard as you seem to do."
+
+When Clavering had left the room, the others turned to Grant. "You have
+something to tell us?"
+
+"No," said Grant quietly. "I don't think I have."
+
+The men looked at each other, and one of them said, "That fellow's story
+sounded kind of ugly. What were you taking dollars from the cattle-men
+for, Larry?"
+
+Grant saw the growing distrust in their eyes, but his own were resolute.
+
+"I can't help that," he said. "I am with you, as I have always been, but
+there are affairs of mine I can't have anybody inquiring into. That is all
+I can tell you. You will have to take me on trust."
+
+"You're making it hard," said the man who had spoken first.
+
+Before Grant could answer, Clavering returned ready for his ride, but
+Grant gave him no opportunity to address Hetty and Miss Schuyler. "It is
+too far to drive to Allonby's in the sled," he said to them. "My sleigh is
+at your service. Shall I drive you?"
+
+Hetty, for a moment, looked irresolute, but she saw Clavering's face, and
+remembered what was due to him and what he had apparently suffered for her
+sake.
+
+"It wouldn't be quite fair to dismiss Mr. Clavering in that fashion," she
+said.
+
+Grant glanced at her, and the girl longed for an opportunity of making him
+understand what influenced her. But this was out of the question.
+
+"Then, if he will be surety for their safety, the team is at Mr.
+Clavering's disposal," he said.
+
+Clavering said nothing to Grant, but he thrust his hand into his pocket
+and laid a five-dollar bill on the table.
+
+"I am very sorry I helped to destroy some of your crockery, fraeulein, and
+this is the only amend I can make," he said. "If I knew how to replace the
+broken things I wouldn't have ventured to offer it to you."
+
+The little deprecatory gesture was graceful, and Hetty flashed an
+approving glance at him; but she also looked at Grant, as if to beseech
+his comprehension, when she went out. Larry, however, did not understand
+her, and stood gravely aside as she passed him. He said nothing, but when
+he was fastening the fur robe round her in the sleigh Hetty spoke.
+
+"Larry," she said softly, "can't you understand that one has to do the
+square thing to everybody?"
+
+Then, Clavering, who could not hear what she was saying, flicked the
+horses and the sleigh slid away into the darkness.
+
+A moment or two later, while the men still lingered talking without and
+Larry stood putting on his furs in the room, Breckenridge saw Miss Muller,
+who had been gazing at the money rise, and as though afraid her resolution
+might fail her, hastily thrust it into the stove.
+
+"You are right," he said. "That was an abominably unfair shot of
+Clavering's, Larry. Of course, you couldn't answer him or tell anybody,
+but it's horribly unfortunate. The thing made the impression he meant it
+to."
+
+"Well," said Larry bitterly, "I have got to bear it with the rest. I can't
+see any reason for being pleased with anything to-night."
+
+Breckenridge nodded, but once more a little twinkle crept into his eyes.
+"I scarcely think you need worry about one trifle, any way," he said. "If
+you think Miss Torrance or Miss Schuyler wanted Clavering to drive them,
+you must be unusually dense. They only asked him to because they have a
+sense of fairness, and I'd stake a good many dollars on the fact that when
+Miss Schuyler first saw him she was convulsed with laughter."
+
+"Did Miss Torrance seem amused?" Grant asked eagerly.
+
+"Yes," said Breckenridge decisively. "She did though she tried to hide it.
+Miss Torrance has, of course, a nice appreciation of what is becoming. In
+fact, her taste is only slightly excelled by Miss Schuyler's."
+
+Grant stared at him for a moment, and then for the first time, during
+several anxious months, broke into a great peal of laughter.
+
+
+
+
+XXII
+
+THE CAVALRY OFFICER
+
+
+The winter was relaxing its iron grip at last and there were alternations
+of snow and thaw and frost when one evening a few of his scattered
+neighbours assembled at Allonby's ranch. Clavering was there, with
+Torrance, Hetty, and Miss Schuyler, among the rest; but though the guests
+made a spirited attempt to appear unconcerned, the signs of care were
+plainer in their faces than when they last met, and there were times when
+the witty sally fell curiously flat. The strain was beginning to tell, and
+even the most optimistic realized that the legislature of the State was
+more inclined to resent than yield to any further pressure that could be
+exerted by the cattle-barons. The latter were, however, proud and stubborn
+men, who had unostentatiously directed affairs so long that they found it
+difficult to grasp the fact that their ascendancy was vanishing. Showing a
+bold front still, they stubbornly disputed possession of every acre of
+land the homesteaders laid claim upon. The latters' patience was almost
+gone, and the more fiery spirits were commencing to obstruct their
+leader's schemes by individual retaliation and occasionally purposeless
+aggression.
+
+Torrance seemed older and grimmer, his daughter paler, and there were
+moments when anxiety was apparent even in Clavering's usually careless
+face. He at least, was already feeling the pinch of straitened finances,
+and his only consolations were the increasing confidence that Torrance
+reposed in him, and Hetty's graciousness since his capture by the
+homesteaders. It was, perhaps, not astonishing that he should mistake its
+meaning, for he had no means of knowing, as Miss Schuyler did, that the
+cattle-baron's daughter met Larry Grant now and then.
+
+Hetty was sitting in a corner of the big room, with Flo Schuyler and
+Christopher Allonby close at hand, and during a lull in the conversation
+she turned to him with a smile.
+
+"You find us a little dull to-night, Chris?" she said.
+
+Allonby laughed. "There was a time when you delighted in trapping me into
+admissions of that kind, but I'm growing wise," he said. "In fact, another
+year like this one would make an old man of me. I don't mind admitting
+that there is something wrong with the rest. I have told them the stories
+they have laughed over the last three years, and could not raise a smile
+from one of them; and when I got my uncle started playing cards I actually
+believe your father forgot what trumps were, for the first time in his
+life!"
+
+"That is significant," said Hetty, whose face had grown serious. "Nothing
+has gone well for us lately, Chris."
+
+Allonby sighed. "We don't like to acknowledge it, but it's a fact," he
+said. "Still, there's hope yet, if we can just stir up the homestead-boys
+into wrecking a railroad bridge or burning somebody's ranch."
+
+"It is a little difficult to understand how that would improve affairs,
+especially for the man whose place was burned," said Miss Schuyler drily.
+
+"One can't afford to be too particular," said Allonby, with a deprecating
+gesture. "You see, once they started in to do that kind of thing the State
+would have to crush them, which, of course, would suit us quite nicely. As
+it is, after the last affair at Hamlin's, they have sent in a draft of
+cavalry."
+
+"And you are naturally taking steps to bring about the things that would
+suit you?" asked Flora Schuyler.
+
+Allonby did not see the snare. "Well," he said, "I am not an admirer of
+Clavering, but I'm willing to admit that he has done everything he could;
+in fact, I'm 'most astonished they have stood him so long, and I don't
+think they would have done so, but for Larry. Anyway, it's comforting to
+know Larry is rapidly making himself unpopular among them."
+
+A spot of colour showed in Hetty's cheek, and there was a little gleam in
+Flora Schuyler's eyes as she fixed them on the lad.
+
+"You evidently consider Mr. Grant is taking an unwarranted liberty in
+persuading his friends to behave themselves as lawful citizens should?"
+she said.
+
+"I don't quite think you understand me, of course, one could scarcely
+expect it from a lady; but if you look at the thing from our point of
+view, it's quite easy."
+
+Flora Schuyler smiled satirically. "I fancy I do, though I may be
+mistaken. Subtleties of this kind are, as you suggest, beyond the average
+woman."
+
+"You are laughing at me, and it's quite likely I deserve it. We will talk
+of something else. I was telling you about the cavalry officer."
+
+"No," said Hetty, "I don't think you were."
+
+"Then I meant to. He has just come up from the Apache country--a kind of
+quiet man, with a good deal in him and a way of making you listen when you
+once start him talking. We half expect him here this evening, and if he
+comes, I want you to be nice to him. You could make him believe we are in
+the right quite easily."
+
+"From the Apache country?" and Flora Schuyler glanced at Hetty.
+
+Allonby nodded. "New Mexico, Arizona, or somewhere there. Now, just when
+you were beginning to listen, there's Mr. Torrance wanting me."
+
+He rose with evident reluctance, and Miss Schuyler sat reflectively silent
+when he moved away.
+
+"What are you thinking of?" asked Hetty sharply.
+
+"That the United States is not after all such a very big country. One is
+apt to run across a friend everywhere."
+
+Hetty did not answer, but Miss Schuyler knew that she was also wondering
+about the cavalry officer, when half an hour later it became evident, from
+the sounds outside, that a sleigh had reached the door, and when a little
+further time had passed Allonby ushered a man in blue uniform into the
+room. Hetty set her lips when she saw him.
+
+"Oh!" said Miss Schuyler. "I felt quite sure of it. This is the kind of
+thing that not infrequently happens, and it is only the natural sequence
+that he should turn up on the opposite side to Larry."
+
+"Flo," said Hetty sharply, "what do you mean?"
+
+"Well," she said lazily, "I fancy that you should know better than I do. I
+have only my suspicions and some little knowledge of human nature to guide
+me. Now, of course, you convinced us that you didn't care for Cheyne, but
+we have only your word to go upon in regard to Larry."
+
+Hetty turned upon her with a flash in her eyes. "Don't try to make me
+angry, Flo. It's going to be difficult to meet him as it is."
+
+"I don't think you need worry," and Flora Schuyler laughed. "He is
+probably cured by this time, and has found somebody else. They usually do.
+That ought to please you."
+
+In the meantime, Allonby and the man he was presenting to his friends were
+drawing nearer. Hetty rose when the pair stopped in front of them.
+
+"Captain Jackson Cheyne, who is coming to help us. Miss Torrance and Miss
+Schuyler, the daughter and guest of our leader," said Allonby, and the
+soldierly man with the quiet, brown face, smiling, held out his hand.
+
+"We are friends already," he said, and passed on with Allonby.
+
+"Was it very dreadful, Hetty?" said Flora Schuyler. "I could see he means
+to come back and talk to you."
+
+Hetty also fancied Cheyne wished to do so, and spent the next hour or two
+in avoiding the encounter. With this purpose she contrived to draw Chris
+Allonby into one of the smaller rooms where the card-tables were then
+untenanted, and listened with becoming patience to stories she had often
+heard before. She, however, found it a little difficult to laugh at the
+right places, and at last the lad glanced reproachfully at her.
+
+"It spoils everything when one has to show you where the point is," he
+said; and Hetty, looking up, saw Cheyne and Flora Schuyler in the
+doorway.
+
+"Miss Newcombe is looking for you, Mr. Allonby," said the latter.
+
+There was very little approval in the glance Hetty bestowed upon Miss
+Schuyler and Allonby seemed to understand it.
+
+"She generally is, and that is why I'm here," he said. "I don't feel like
+hearing about any more lepidoptera to-night, and you can take her Captain
+Cheyne instead. He must have found out quite a lot about beetles and other
+things that bite you down in Arizona."
+
+Miss Schuyler, disregarding Hetty, laughed. "You had better go," she said.
+"I see her coming in this direction now, and she has something which
+apparently contains specimens in her hand."
+
+Allonby fled, but he turned a moment in the doorway. "Do you think you
+could get me a real lively tarantula, Captain Cheyne?" he said. "If a
+young lady with a preoccupied manner asks you anything about insects, tell
+her you have one in your pocket. It's the only thing that will save you."
+
+He vanished with Miss Schuyler, and Hetty, somewhat against her wishes,
+found herself alone with Cheyne. He was deeply sunburned, and his face
+thinner than it had been, but the quiet smile she had once found pleasure
+in was still in his eyes.
+
+"Your young friend did his best, and I am half afraid he had a hint," he
+said.
+
+Hetty blushed. "I am very pleased to see you," she said hastily. "How did
+you like New Mexico?"
+
+"As well as I expected," Cheyne answered with a dry smile. "It is not
+exactly an enchanting place--deformed mountains, sun glare, adobe houses,
+loneliness, and dust. My chief trouble, however, was that I had too much
+time to think."
+
+"But you must have seen somebody and had something to do."
+
+"Yes," Cheyne admitted. "There was a mining fellow who used to come over
+and clean out my whiskey, and sing gruesome songs for hours together to a
+banjo that had, I think, two strings. I stayed out all night quite
+frequently when I had reason to believe that he was coming. Then, we
+killed a good many tarantulas--and a few equally venomous pests--but when
+all was done it left one hours to sit staring at the sage-brush and wonder
+whether one would ever shake off the dreariness of it again."
+
+"It must have been horribly lonely," Hetty said.
+
+"Well," said Cheyne, very slowly, "there was just one faint hope that now
+and then brightened everything for me. I thought you might change. Perhaps
+I was foolish--but that hope would have meant so much to me. I could not
+let it go."
+
+Hetty turned and looked at him with a softness in her eyes, for the little
+tremor in his voice had touched her.
+
+"And I was hoping you had forgotten," she said.
+
+"No," said Cheyne quietly. "I don't think I ever shall. You haven't a
+grain of comfort to offer me?"
+
+Hetty shook her head, and involuntarily one hand went up and rested a
+moment on something that lay beneath the laces at her neck. "No," she
+said. "I am ever so sorry, Jake, but I have nothing whatever to offer
+you--now."
+
+"Then," said Cheyne, with a little gesture of resignation, "I suppose it
+can be borne because it must be--and I think I understand. I know he must
+be a good man--or you would never have cared for him."
+
+Hetty looked at him steadily, but the colour that had crept into her cheek
+spread to her forehead. "Jake," she said, "no doubt there are more, but I
+have met two Americans who are, I think, without reproach. I shall always
+be glad I knew them--and it is not your fault that you are not the right
+one."
+
+Cheyne made her a little grave inclination. "Then, I hope we shall be good
+friends when I meet the other one. I am going to stay some little time in
+the cattle country."
+
+"I almost hope you will not meet just yet," Hetty said anxiously, "and you
+must never mention what I have told you to anybody."
+
+"You have only told me that I was one of two good Americans," said Cheyne,
+with a quiet smile which the girl found reassuring. "Now, you don't want
+to send me away?"
+
+"No," said Hetty. "It is so long since I have seen you. You have come to
+help us against our enemies?"
+
+Cheyne saw the girl's intention, and was glad to fall in with it, but he
+betrayed a little embarrassment. "Not exactly, though I should be content
+if my duty amounts to the same thing," he said. "We have been sent in to
+help to restore order, and it is my business just now to inquire into the
+doings of a certain Larry Grant. I wonder if you could tell me anything
+about him?"
+
+He noticed the sudden intentness of Hetty's face, though it was gone in an
+instant.
+
+"What have you found out?" she asked.
+
+"Very little that one could rely upon. Everybody I ask tells me something
+different, he seems a compound of the qualities of Coleman the Vigilante,
+our first President, and the notorious James boys. As they were gentlemen
+of quite different character, it seems to me that some of my informants
+are either prejudiced or mistaken."
+
+"Yes," said Hetty. "He is like none of them. Larry is just a plain
+American who is fearlessly trying to do what he feels is right, though it
+is costing him a good deal. You see, I met him quite often before the
+trouble began."
+
+Cheyne glanced at her sharply, but Hetty met his gaze. "I don't know," he
+answered, "that one could say much more of any man."
+
+Just then Flora Schuyler and Miss Allonby came in. "Hetty," said the
+latter, "everybody is waiting for you to sing."
+
+In the meanwhile, Allonby and his nephew sat with Torrance and Clavering,
+and one or two of the older men, in his office room. Clavering had just
+finished speaking when Allonby answered Torrance's questioning glance.
+
+"I have no use for beating round the bush," he said. "Dollars are getting
+scarce with me, and, like some of my neighbours, I had to sell out a draft
+of stock. The fact that I'm throwing them on the market now is
+significant."
+
+One of the men nodded. "Allonby has put it straight," he said. "I was over
+fixing things with the station agent, and he is going to send the first
+drafts through to Omaha in one lot if two of his biggest locomotives can
+haul the cars. Still, if Clavering has got hold of the right story, how
+the devil did the homestead-boys hear of it?"
+
+Clavering glanced at Torrance with a little sardonic smile on his lips. "I
+don't quite know, but a good many of our secrets have been leaking out."
+
+"You're quite sure you are right, Clavering?" somebody asked.
+
+"Yes. The information is worth the fifty dollars I paid for it. The
+homestead-boys mean to run that stock train through the Bitter Creek
+bridge. As you know, it's a good big trestle, and it is scarcely likely we
+would get a head of stock out of the wreck alive."
+
+There were angry ejaculations and the faces round the table grew set and
+stern. Some of the men had seen what happens when a heavy train goes
+through a railroad trestle.
+
+"It's devilish!" said Allonby. "Larry is in the thing?"
+
+"Well," said Clavering drily, "it appears the boys can't do anything
+unless they have an order from their executive, and the man who told me
+declared he had seen one signed by him. Still, one has to be fair to
+Larry, and it is quite likely some of the foreign Reds drove him into it.
+Any way, if we could get that paper--and I think I can--it would fix the
+affair on him."
+
+Torrance nodded. "Now we have the cavalry here, it would be enough to have
+him shot," he said. "Well, this is going to suit us. But there must be no
+fooling. We want to lay hands upon them when they are at work on the
+trestle."
+
+The other men seemed doubtful, and Allonby made a protest. "It is by no
+means plain how it's going to suit me to have my steers run through the
+bridge," he said. "I can't afford it."
+
+Clavering laughed. "You will not lose one of them," he said. "Now, don't
+ask any questions, but listen to me."
+
+There were objections to the scheme he suggested, but he won over the men
+who raised them, and when all had been arranged and Allonby had gone back
+to his other guests, Clavering appeared satisfied and Torrance very grim.
+Unfortunately, however, they had not bound Christopher Allonby to silence,
+and when he contrived to find a place near Miss Schuyler and Hetty he
+could not refrain from mentioning what he had heard. This was, however,
+the less astonishing since the cattle-barons' wives and daughters shared
+their anxieties and were conversant with most of what happened.
+
+"You have a kind of belief in the homestead-boys, Hetty?" he said.
+
+"Yes, but everybody knows who I belong to."
+
+"Of course! Well, I guess you are not going to have any kind of belief in
+them now. They're planning to run our big stock train through the Bitter
+Creek bridge."
+
+Hetty turned white. "They would never do that. Their leaders would not let
+them."
+
+"No?" said Allonby. "I'm sorry to mention it, but it seems they have
+Larry's order."
+
+A little flush crept into Flora Schuyler's face, but Hetty's grew still
+more colourless and her dark eyes glowed. Then she shook her shoulders,
+and said with a scornful quietness, "Larry would not have a hand in it to
+save his life. There is not a semblance of truth in that story, Chris."
+
+Allonby glanced up in astonishment, but he was youthful, and that Hetty
+could have more than a casual interest in her old companion appeared
+improbable to him.
+
+"It is quite a long time since you and Larry were on good terms, and no
+doubt he has changed," he said. "Any way, his friends are going to try
+giant powder on the bridge, and if we are fortunate Cheyne will get the
+whole of them, and Larry, too. Now, we'll change the topic, since it does
+not seem to please you."
+
+He changed it several times, but his companions, though they sat and even
+smiled now and then, heard very few of his remarks.
+
+"I'm going," he said at last, reproachfully. "I am sorry if I have bored
+you, but it is really quite difficult to talk to people who are thinking
+about another thing. It seems to me you are both in love with somebody,
+and it very clearly isn't me."
+
+He moved away, and for a moment Hetty and Miss Schuyler did not look at
+one another. Then Hetty stood up.
+
+"I should have screamed if he had stayed any longer," she said. "The thing
+is just too horrible--but it is quite certain Larry does not know. I have
+got to tell him somehow. Think, Flo."
+
+
+
+
+XXIII
+
+HETTY'S AVOWAL
+
+
+The dusk Hetty had anxiously waited for was creeping across the prairie
+when she and Miss Schuyler pulled up their horses in the gloom of the
+birches where the trail wound down through the Cedar bluff. The weather
+had grown milder and great clouds rolled across the strip of sky between
+the branches overhead, while the narrow track amidst the whitened trunks
+was covered with loose snow. There was no frost, and Miss Schuyler felt
+unpleasantly clammy as she patted her horse, which moved restively now and
+then, and shook off the melting snow that dripped upon her; but Hetty
+seemed to notice nothing. She sat motionless in her saddle with the
+moisture glistening on her furs, and the thin white steam from the
+spume-flecked beast floating about her, staring up the trail, and when she
+turned and glanced over her shoulder her face showed white and drawn.
+
+"He must be coming soon," she said, and Miss Schuyler noticed the strained
+evenness of her voice. "Yes, of course he's coming. It would be too
+horrible if we could not find him."
+
+"Jake Cheyne and his cavalry boys would save the bridge," said Flora
+Schuyler, with a hopefulness she did not feel.
+
+Hetty leaned forward and held up her hand, as though to demand silence
+that she might listen, before she answered her.
+
+"There are some desperate men among the homestead-boys, and if they found
+out they had been given away they would cut the track in another place,"
+she said. "If they didn't and Cheyne surprised them, they would fire on
+his troopers and Larry would be blamed for it. He would be chased
+everywhere with a price on his head, and anyone he wouldn't surrender to
+could shoot him. Flo, it is too hard to bear, and I'm afraid."
+
+Her voice failed her, and Miss Schuyler, who could find no words to
+reassure her, was thankful that her attention was demanded by her restive
+horse. The strain was telling on her, too, and, with less at stake than
+her companion, she was consumed by a longing to defeat the schemes of the
+cattle-men, who had, it seemed to her with detestable cunning, decided not
+to warn the station agent, and let the great train go, that they might
+heap the more obloquy upon their enemies. The risk the engineer and
+brakesmen ran was apparently nothing to them, and she felt, as Hetty did,
+that Larry was the one man who could be depended on to avert bloodshed.
+Yet there was still no sign of him.
+
+"If he would only come!" she said.
+
+There was no answer. Loose snow fell with a soft thud from the birch
+branches, and there was a little sighing amidst the trees. It was rapidly
+growing darker, but Hetty sat rigidly still in her saddle, with her hand
+clenched on the bridle. Five long minutes passed. Then, she turned
+suddenly, exultation in her voice.
+
+"Flo," she said, "he's coming!"
+
+Miss Schuyler could hear nothing for another minute or two, and then, when
+a faint sound became audible through the whispering of the trees, she
+wondered how her companion could be sure it was the fall of hoofs, or that
+the horse was not ridden by a stranger. But there was no doubt in Hetty's
+face, and Flora Schuyler sighed as she saw it relax and a softness creep
+into the dark eyes. She had seen that look in the faces of other women and
+knew its meaning.
+
+The beat of hoofs became unmistakable, and she could doubt no longer that
+a man was riding down the trail. He came into sight in another minute, a
+shadowy figure swinging to the stride of a big horse, with the line of a
+rifle-barrel across his saddle, and then, as he saw them, rode up at a
+gallop, scattering the snow.
+
+"Hetty!" he said, a swift flush of pleasure sweeping his face, and Miss
+Schuyler set her lips as she noticed that he did not even see her.
+
+Hetty gathered up her bridle, and wheeled her horse. "Ride into the
+bluff--quick," she said. "Somebody might see us in the trail."
+
+Larry did as he was bidden, and when the gloom of the trees closed about
+them, sprang down and looped his bridle round a branch. Then, he stood by
+Hetty's stirrup, and the girl could see his face, white in the faint light
+the snow flung up. She turned her own away when she had looked down on
+it.
+
+"I have had an anxious day, but this makes up for everything," he said.
+"Now--and it is so long since I have seen you--can't we, for just a few
+minutes, forget our troubles?"
+
+He held out his hand, as though to lift her down, but the girl turned her
+eyes on him and what he saw in them checked him suddenly.
+
+"No," she said, with a tremor in her voice, "we can't get away from them.
+You must not ask any question until you have heard everything!"
+
+She spoke with a swift conciseness that omitted no point and made the
+story plain, for there was a high spirit in the girl, and a tangible peril
+that could be grappled with had a bracing effect on her. Grant's face grew
+intent as he listened, and Hetty, looking down, could see the firmer set
+of his lips, and the glint in his eyes. The weariness faded out of it, and
+once more she recognized the alert, resourceful, and quietly resolute
+Larry she had known before the troubles came. He turned swiftly and
+clasped her hand.
+
+"I wonder if you know how much you have done for me?"
+
+Hetty smiled and allowed her fingers to remain in his grasp. "Then, you
+have heard nothing of this?" she said.
+
+"No," said the man. "But Hetty----"
+
+Again the girl checked him with a gesture. "And I need not ask you whether
+you would have had a hand in it?"
+
+Grant laughed a little scornful laugh that was more eloquent than many
+protestations. "No," he said, "you needn't. I think you know me better
+than that, Hetty?"
+
+"Yes," said the girl softly. "You couldn't have had anything to do with
+that kind of meanness. Larry, how was it they did not tell you?"
+
+She felt the grasp of the man's fingers slacken and saw his arm fall to
+his side. His face changed suddenly, growing stern and set, until he
+turned his head away. When he looked round again the weariness was once
+more plain in it, and she almost fancied he had checked a groan.
+
+"You have brought me back to myself," he said. "Only a few seconds ago I
+could think of nothing but what you had done for me. I think I was almost
+as happy as a man could be, and now----"
+
+Hetty laid her hand on his shoulder. "And now? Tell me, Larry."
+
+"No," said the man. "You have plenty of troubles of your own."
+
+The grasp of the little hand grew tighter, and when Grant looked up he saw
+the girl smiling down on him half-shyly, and yet, as it were,
+imperiously.
+
+"Tell me, dear," she said.
+
+Larry felt his heart throb, and his resolution failed him. He could see
+the girl's eyes, and their compelling tenderness.
+
+"Well," he said, huskily, "what I have dreaded has come. The men I have
+given up everything for have turned against me. No, you must not think I
+am sorry for what I have done, and it was right then; but they have
+listened to some of the crazy fools from Europe and are letting loose
+anarchy. I and the others--the sensible Americans--have lost our hold on
+them, and yet it was we who brought them in. We took on too big a
+contract--and I'm most horribly afraid, Hetty."
+
+The light had almost gone, but his face still showed drawn and white and
+Hetty bent down nearer him.
+
+"Put your hand in mine, Larry," she said softly. "I have something to tell
+you."
+
+The man obeyed her, wondering, while a thrill ran through him as the
+mittened fingers closed upon his own.
+
+"Hetty," he said, "I have only brought trouble on everyone. I'm not fit to
+speak to you."
+
+"No," said the girl, with a throb in her voice. "You have only done what
+very few other men would have dared to do, and many a better girl than I
+am would be proud to be fond of you. Now listen, Larry. For years you were
+ever so good to me, and I was too mean and shallow and selfish even to
+understand what you were giving me. I fancied I had a right to everything
+you could do. But come nearer, Larry."
+
+She drew him closer to her, until his garments pressed the horse's flank
+and the blanket skirt she wore, and leaned down still further with her
+hand upon his shoulder.
+
+"I found out, dear, and now I want you to forgive me and always love me."
+
+The grasp on her hand became compelling, and she moved her foot from the
+stirrup as the man's arm reached upwards towards her waist. Had she wished
+she could not have helped herself; as she slipped from the saddle the arm
+closed round her and it was several seconds before she and Grant stood a
+pace apart, with tingling blood, looking at one another. There was no sign
+of Flora Schuyler, they were alone, enfolded in the silence of the bluff.
+
+"It is wonderful," he said. "I can't even talk, Hetty. I want to realize
+it."
+
+Hetty laughed but there was a note in her voice that set the man's heart
+beating furiously. "Yes, it is wonderful it should come to me," she said.
+"No, you needn't look round, Larry. There is nothing and nobody that
+counts now except you and me. I am just beginning to understand your
+patience, and how hard I must have been to you."
+
+"I waited a long time," he said. "It was worth while. Even the troubles I
+felt crushing me seem very little now. If they were only over, and there
+was nothing to come between you and me!"
+
+"Larry," the girl said very softly, "are you sure they need do that? It
+has been so horrible lately, and I can't even sleep at night for thinking
+of the risks that you are taking."
+
+Grant closed one hand, but it was too dark now for Hetty to see his face,
+and she was glad of it.
+
+"You mean--" he said hoarsely, and stopped.
+
+"Just this," her voice almost a whisper. "I am frightened of it all, and
+when you want me I will come to you. No, wait just a little. I could never
+marry the man who was fighting against my father and the people I belong
+to, while, now I know what you are, I could never ask him to go back on
+what he felt was right; but, Larry, the men you did so much for have
+turned against you, and the things they are doing are not right, and would
+never please you. Can't we go away and leave the trouble behind us? Nobody
+seems to want us now."
+
+There was a cold dew on the man's forehead the girl could not see. "And
+your father?" he said.
+
+"I would never help anyone against him, as I told you," said the girl.
+"Still, there are times when his bitterness almost frightens me. It is
+hard to admit it, even to you, but I can't convince myself that he and the
+others are not mistaken, too. I can't believe any longer that you are
+wrong, dear. Besides, though he says very little, I feel he wants me to
+marry Clavering."
+
+"Clavering?" said Larry.
+
+"Yes," said Hetty, with a shiver. "I dislike him bitterly--and I should be
+safe with you."
+
+Grant held out his hands. "Then, you must come, my dear. One way or other
+the struggle will soon be over now, and if I have to go out an outcast I
+can still shelter you."
+
+[Illustration: THERE WAS A NOTE IN HER VOICE THAT SET THE MAN'S
+HEART BEATING FURIOUSLY.--Page 267.]
+
+The girl drew back a pace. "I can't turn against my own people--but yours
+have turned on you. That makes it easier. If you will take me, dear, we
+will go away."
+
+Grant turned from her, and ground his heel into the snow. He had already
+given up almost everything that made life bright to him, but he had never
+felt the bitterness he did at that moment, when he realized that another
+and heavier sacrifice was demanded of him.
+
+"Hetty," he said slowly, "can't you understand? I and the others brought
+the homesteaders in; this land has fed me and given me all I have, and now
+I can't go back on it and them. I would not be fit to marry you if I went
+away."
+
+The words were very simple, but the man's voice betrayed what he felt.
+Hetty understood, and the pride she had no lack of came to the rescue.
+
+"Yes," she said with a little sob, "Larry you are right. You will forgive
+me, dear, for once more tempting you. Perhaps it will all come right by
+and by. And now I must go."
+
+There was a crackle of brittle twigs, and Grant dimly saw Miss Schuyler
+riding towards them. Reaching out, he took Hetty's hands and drew her
+closer.
+
+"There is just one thing you must promise me, my dear," he said. "If your
+father insists on your listening to Clavering, you will let me know. Then
+I will come to Cedar for you, and there are still a few Americans who have
+not lost confidence in their leader and will come with me. Nothing must
+make you say yes to him."
+
+"No," said Hetty simply. "If I cannot avoid it any other way, I will send
+for you. I can't wait any longer--and here is Flo."
+
+Larry stooped; but before she laid her foot in the hand he held out for
+her to mount by, Hetty bent her head swiftly, and kissed him.
+
+"Now," she said softly, "do you think I could listen to Clavering? You
+will do what you have to, and I will wait for you. It is hard on us both,
+dear; but I can't help recognizing my duty, too."
+
+Larry lifted her to the saddle, and she vanished into the gloom of the
+birches before he could speak to Miss Schuyler, who wheeled her horse and
+followed her. A few minutes more and he was riding towards Fremont as fast
+as his horse could flounder through the slushy snow, his face grown set
+and resolute again, for he knew he had difficult work to do.
+
+"I don't quite know what has come over you, Larry," Breckenridge said an
+hour or two later with a puzzled look at Grant as he lifted his eyes from
+the writing pad on his knee. "I haven't seen you so obviously contented
+for months, and yet the work before us may be grim enough. The most
+unpleasant point about it is that Clavering must have got hold of one of
+your warrant forms. It was a mistake to trust anybody with one not filled
+in."
+
+"Well, I feel that way too," Grant confessed, "and at the same time I'm
+desperately anxious. We are going to have trouble with the boys right
+along the line, and there is no man living can tell what will happen if
+any of them go down in an affair with the cavalry."
+
+"It wouldn't be difficult to guess what the consequences would be if they
+cut the track just before the stock train came through. You are quite sure
+they have not changed their minds again?"
+
+"Yes," said Larry quietly. "I bluffed it out of Harper. He would have
+taken a hand in, and only kicked when it came to taking lives. More of the
+others cleared out over that point, too, and as the rest were half-afraid
+of some of those who objected giving them away, they changed their plans;
+but it seems quite certain they mean to pull the rails up at the bend on
+the down grade by the bunch grass hollow. It is fortunate, any way. Cheyne
+and his cavalry will be watching the bridge, you see; but you had better
+get ready. I'll have the last instructions done directly, and it will be
+morning before you are through."
+
+Breckenridge poured himself out a big cup of coffee from the jug on the
+stove, put on a black leather jacket, and went out to the stable. When he
+came back, Grant handed him a bundle of notes.
+
+"You will see every man gets one and tell him all he wants to know. I dare
+not put down too much in black and white. They are to be round at the rise
+behind the depot at six Thursday night."
+
+"You believe they will come?"
+
+"Yes," Grant said firmly. "They are good men, and I'm thankful there are
+still so many of them, because just now they are all that is standing
+between this country and anarchy."
+
+Breckenridge smiled a little, but his voice was sympathetic. "Well," he
+said, "I am glad, on my own account, too. It's nicer to have the chances
+with you when you have to reckon with men of the kind we are going to
+meet, but I shall not be sorry when this trouble's through. It is my first
+attempt at reforming and a little of it goes a long way with me. I don't
+know that there is a more thankless task than trying to make folks better
+off than they want, or deserve, to be."
+
+He went out with a packet of messages, and Grant sat still, with care in
+his face, staring straight in front of him.
+
+
+
+
+XXIV
+
+THE STOCK TRAIN
+
+
+It was almost unpleasantly hot in the little iron-roofed room at the
+railroad depot, and the agent, who flung the door open, stood still a
+minute or two blinking into the darkness. A big lamp that flickered in the
+wind cast an uncertain gleam upon the slushy whiteness under foot, and the
+blurred outline of a towering water-tank showed dimly through the sliding
+snow. He could also just discern the great locomotive waiting on the
+side-track, and the sibilant hiss of steam that mingled with the moaning
+of the wind whirling a white haze out of the obscurity. Beyond the track,
+and showing only now and then, the lights of the wooden town blinked
+fitfully; on the other hand and behind the depot was an empty waste of
+snow-sheeted prairie. The temperature had gone up suddenly, but the agent
+shivered as he felt the raw dampness strike through him, and, closing the
+door, took off and shook his jacket and sat down by the stove again.
+
+He wore a white shirt of unusually choice linen, with other garments of
+fashionable city cut, for a station agent is a person of importance in the
+West, and this one was at least as consequential as most of the rest. He
+had finished his six o'clock supper at the wooden hotel a little earlier;
+and as the next train going west would not arrive for two or three hours,
+he took out a rank cigar, and, placing his feet upon a chair, prepared to
+doze the time away, though he laid a bundle of accounts upon his knee, in
+case anyone should come in unexpectedly. This, however, was distinctly
+improbable on such a night.
+
+The stove flung out a drowsy heat, and it was not long before his eyes
+grew heavy. He could still hear the wailing of the wind and the swish of
+the snow that whirled about the lonely building, and listened for a while
+with tranquil contentment; for the wild weather he was not exposed to
+enhanced the comfort of the warmth and brightness he enjoyed. Then, the
+sounds grew less distinct and he heard nothing at all until he
+straightened himself suddenly in his chair as a cold draught struck him. A
+few flakes of snow also swept into the room and he saw that the door was
+open.
+
+"Hallo!" he called. "Wait there a moment. I guess this place doesn't
+belong to you."
+
+A man who looked big and shapeless in his whitened furs signed to somebody
+outside without answering, and four or five other men in fur caps and
+snow-sprinkled coats came in. They did not seem to consider it necessary
+to wait for permission, and it dawned upon the agent that something
+unusual was about to happen.
+
+"We have a little business to put through," said one.
+
+"Well," said the agent brusquely, "I can't attend to you now. You can come
+back later--when the train comes in."
+
+One of the newcomers smiled sardonically, and the agent recognized two of
+his companions. They were men of some importance in that country, who had,
+however joined the homestead movement and were under the ban of the
+company's chief supporters, the cattle-barons. There was accordingly no
+inducement to waste civility on them; but he had an unpleasant feeling
+that unnecessary impertinence would not be advisable.
+
+"It has got to be put through now," said the first of them, with a little
+ring in his voice. "We want a locomotive and a calaboose to take us to
+Boynton, and we are quite willing to pay anything reasonable."
+
+"It can't be done. We have only the one loco here, and she is wanted to
+shove the west-bound train up the long grade to the hills."
+
+"I guess that train will have to get through alone to-night," said another
+man.
+
+The agent got up with an impatient gesture. "Now," he said, "I don't feel
+like arguing with you. You can't have the loco."
+
+"No?" said the homesteader, with a little laugh. "Well, I figure you're
+mistaken. We have taken charge of her already and only want the bill. If
+you don't believe me, call your engineer."
+
+The agent strode to the door, and there was a momentary silence after he
+called, "Pete!"
+
+Then, a shout came out of the sliding snow: "I can't come."
+
+It broke off with significant suddenness, and the agent turned to the man
+who had first spoken. "You are going to be sorry for this, Mr. Grant," he
+said and then tried to slip away, but one of the others pulled the door to
+and stood with his back to it while Grant, smiling, said, "I'm quite
+willing to take my chances. Have the stock-cars passed Perry's siding?"
+
+"I don't know," said the agent.
+
+"Then, hadn't you better call them up and see? We are giving you the first
+chance of doing it out of courtesy, but one of us is a good operator."
+
+"I was on the Baltimore and Ohio road," said one man. "You needn't play
+any tricks with me."
+
+The agent sat down at the telegraph instrument, and looked up when it
+rapped out an answer to his message.
+
+          "Stock train left Birch Hollow. No sign of her yet."
+
+"That's all right," said the man who had served the B. and O. "Tell them
+to side-track her for half an hour, anyway, after your loco comes through.
+It's necessary. Don't worry 'bout any questions, but tell them to keep us
+a clear road, now."
+
+The agent, who saw that the other man was prepared to do the work himself,
+complied, and the latter once more nodded when the instrument clicked out
+the answer.
+
+"Make out your bill," said Grant, taking a wallet from his pocket.
+
+"No," said the agent; "we're going to have the law of you."
+
+Grant laughed. "It strikes me there is very little law in this country
+now, and your company would a good deal sooner have the dollars than a
+letter telling them you had let us take one of their locomotives away from
+you."
+
+"That," said the agent reflectively, "sounds quite sensible. Well, I'll
+take the dollars. It doesn't commit us to anything."
+
+The bills were counted over, and as the men went out Grant turned in the
+doorway. "It would not be advisable for you to wire any of the folks along
+the line to stop us," he said. "We are going through to Boynton as fast as
+your engineer can shove his loco along, and if anybody switched us into a
+side-track it would only mean the smashing up of a good deal of the
+company's property."
+
+He had gone out in another moment, and, in a few more, climbed into the
+locomotive cab, while somebody coupled on a calaboose in the rear. Then,
+he showed the engineer several bills and the agent's receipt together.
+
+"If you can hold your tongue and get us through to Boynton five minutes
+under the mail schedule time, the dollars are yours," he said.
+
+The engineer looked doubtful for a moment, then, his eyes twinkling, he
+took the bills.
+
+"Well," he said, "you've got the agent's receipt, and the rest is not my
+business. Sit tight, and we'll show you something very like flying
+to-night."
+
+Another man flung open the furnace door, a sudden stream of brightness
+flashed out as he hurled in coal, the door shut with a clang, and there
+was a whirr of slipping wheels as the engineer laid his hand on the lever.
+The great locomotive panted, and Grant, staring out through the glasses,
+saw a blinking light slide back to them. Then, the plates beneath him
+trembled, the hammering wheels got hold, and the muffled clanging and
+thudding swelled into a rhythmic din. The light darted past them, the
+filmy whiteness which had streamed down through the big headlamp's glare
+now beat in a bewildering rush against the quivering glass, and the
+fan-shaped blaze of radiance drove on faster through the snow.
+
+Five minutes passed, and Grant, who held a watch in his hand, glanced at
+the engineer as the blaze whirled like a comet along the clean-cut edge of
+a dusky bluff.
+
+"You'll have to do better," he said.
+
+"Wait till we have got her warmed up," said the man, who stood quietly
+intent, his lean hand on the throttle. "Then you'll see something."
+
+Grant sat down on a tool-locker, took out his cigar-case, and passed it to
+Breckenridge who sat opposite him. Breckenridge's face was eager and there
+was an unusual brightness in his eyes, for he was young and something
+thrilled within him in unison with the vibration of the great machine.
+There was, however, very little to see just then beyond the tense,
+motionless figure of the man at the throttle and the damp-beaded face of
+another forced up in the lurid glare from the furnace door. A dim
+whiteness lashed the glasses, and when Breckenridge pressed his face to
+one of them the blaze of radiance against which the smoke-stack was
+projected blackly only intensified the obscurity they were speeding
+through.
+
+Still, there was much to feel and hear--the shrill wail of the wind that
+buffeted their shelter, the bewildering throb and quiver of the locomotive
+which, with its suggestion of Titanic effort, seemed to find a response in
+human fibre, pounding and clashing with their burden of strain, and the
+roar of the great drivers that rose and fell like a diapason. Perhaps
+Breckenridge, who was also under a strain that night, was fanciful, but it
+seemed to him there was hidden in the medley of sound a theme or motive
+that voiced man's domination over the primeval forces of the universe, and
+urged him to the endurance of stress, and great endeavour. It was, for the
+most part, vague and elusive; but there were times when it rang exultingly
+through the subtly harmonious din, reminding him of Wagnerian music.
+
+Leaning forward, he touched Grant's knee. "Larry, it's bracing. The last
+few months were making me a little sick of everything--but this gets hold
+of one." Grant smiled, but Breckenridge saw how weary his bronzed face
+showed in the dim lantern light. "There was a time, two or three years
+ago, when I might have felt it as you seem to do," he said. "I don't seem
+to have any feeling but tiredness left me now."
+
+"You can't let go," said Breckenridge.
+
+"No," and Grant sighed, "not until the State takes hold instead of me, or
+the trouble's through."
+
+Breckenridge said nothing further, and Grant sat huddled in a corner with
+the thin blue cigar-smoke curling about him. He knew it was possible he
+was taking a very heavy risk just then, since the homesteaders might have
+changed their plans again; and his task was a double one, for he had not
+only to save the stock train, but prevent an encounter between his
+misguided followers and the cavalry. So there was silence between them
+while, lurching, rocking, roaring, the great locomotive sped on through
+the night, until the engineer, turning half-round, glanced at Grant.
+
+"Is she making good enough time to suit you? Perry's siding is just ahead,
+and we'll be on the Bitter Creek trestle five minutes after that," he
+said.
+
+Grant rose and leaned forward close to the glasses. He could see nothing
+but the radiance from the headlamp whirling like a meteor through the
+filmy haze; but the fierce vibration of everything, and the fashion in
+which the snow smote the glasses, as in a solid stream, showed the pace at
+which they were travelling. He looked round and saw that Breckenridge's
+eyes were fixed upon him. His comrade's voice reached him faint and
+strained through the hammering of the wheels.
+
+"You feel tolerably sure Harper was right about the bridge?"
+
+Grant nodded. "I do."
+
+"What if he was mistaken, and they meant to try there after all? There are
+eight of us."
+
+"We have got to take the risk," said Grant very quietly, "and it is a big
+responsibility; but if the boys got their work in and fell foul of Cheyne,
+we would have half the State ablaze."
+
+He signed for silence, and Breckenridge stared out through the glasses,
+for he feared his face would betray him, and fancied he understood the
+burden that was upon the man who, because it seemed the lesser evil, was
+risking eight men's lives.
+
+As he watched, a blink of light crept out of the snow, grew brighter, and
+swept back to them. Others appeared in a cluster behind it, a big
+water-tank flashed by, and the roar of wheels and scream of whistle was
+flung back by a snow-covered building. Then, as Breckenridge glanced to
+the opposite side, the blaze of another headlamp dazzled his eyes and he
+had a blurred vision of a waiting locomotive and a long row of
+snow-smeared cars. In another second cars and station had vanished as
+suddenly as they had sprung up out of the night, and they were once more
+alone in the sliding snow. Breckenridge drew a breath of relief.
+
+"There's the stock train, any way. And now for the bridge!" he said.
+
+"That was the easiest half of it. Muller was there--I saw him--and he
+could have warned the agent at the last minute," Grant answered.
+
+Neither of them said anything further, but Breckenridge felt his heart
+beat faster as the snow whirled by. The miles were slipping behind them,
+and he was by no means so sure as Larry was that no attempt would be made
+upon the bridge. His fancy would persist in picturing the awful leap into
+the outer darkness through the gap in the trestle, and he felt his lips
+and forehead grow a trifle colder and his flesh shrink in anticipation of
+the tremendous shock. He looked at Grant; the latter's face was very
+quiet, and had lost its grimness and weariness--there was almost a
+suggestion of exaltation in it.
+
+"We are almost on the bridge now," he said.
+
+The engineer nodded, and the next moment Breckenridge, who had been
+watching the light of the headlamp flash along the snow beside the track,
+saw it sweep on, as it were, through emptiness. Then, he heard a roar of
+timber beneath him, and fancied he could look down into a black gulf
+through the filmy snow. He knew it was a single track they were speeding
+over, and that the platform of the calaboose behind them overhung the
+frozen river far below.
+
+He set his lips and held his breath for what seemed a very long time, and
+then, with a sigh of relief, sank back into his seat as he felt by the
+lessening vibration, that there was frozen soil under them. But in spite
+of himself the hands he would have lighted a cigar with shook, and the
+engineer who looked round glanced at him curiously.
+
+"Feeling kind of sick?" he said. "Well, it's against the regulations, but
+there's something that might fix you as well as tea in that can."
+
+Breckenridge smiled feebly. "The fact is, I have never travelled on a
+locomotive before, and when I took on the contract I didn't quite know all
+I was letting myself in for," he said.
+
+"How far are we off the long down grade with the curve in it?" asked
+Grant.
+
+"We might get there in 'bout ten minutes," said the engineer.
+
+"Slacken up before you reach the grade and put your headlamp out," said
+Grant. "I want you to stop just this side of the curve, and wait for me
+five minutes."
+
+The engineer looked at him steadily. "Now, there's a good deal I don't
+understand about all this. What do you want me to stop there for?"
+
+"I don't see why you should worry. It does not concern you. Any way, I
+have hired this special, and I give you my word that nothing I am going to
+do will cause the least damage to any of the company's property. I want
+you to stop, lend me a lantern, and sit tight in the cab until I tell you
+to go on. We will make it two dollars a minute."
+
+The engineer nodded. "I don't know what you are after, but I guess I can
+take your word," he said. "You seem that kind of a man."
+
+Ten minutes later the fireman vanished into the darkness, and the blaze of
+the headlamp went out before he returned and the roar of the drivers sank.
+The rhythmic din grew slack, and became a jarring of detached sounds
+again, the snow no longer beat on the glasses as it had done, and, rocking
+less, the great locomotive rolled slowly down the incline until it
+stopped, and Grant, taking the lantern handed him, sprang down from the
+cab. Four other men were waiting on the calaboose platform, and when Grant
+hid the lantern under his fur coat they floundered down the side of the
+graded track which there crossed a hollow. A raw wind whirled the white
+flakes about them and Breckenridge could scarcely see the men behind him.
+He was thankful when, slipping, sliding, stumbling, they gained the
+level.
+
+From there he could just distinguish the road bed as something solid
+through the whirling haze, and he felt they were following a bend of it
+when Grant stopped and a clinking sound came out of the obscurity above
+them. It might have been made by somebody knocking out key wedges or
+spikes with a big hammer and in his haste striking the rail or chair.
+
+Then Grant said something Breckenridge could not catch, and they were
+crawling up the slope, with the clinking and ringing growing a trifle
+louder. Breckenridge's heart beat faster than usual, but he was tolerably
+collected now. He had a weapon he was not unskilled with in his pocket,
+and the chance of a fight with even desperate men was much less
+disconcerting than that of plunging down into a frozen river with a
+locomotive. He had also a reassuring conviction that if Larry could
+contrive it there would be no fight at all.
+
+He crawled on, with the man behind clutching at him, now and then, and the
+one in front sliding back on him, until his arms were wet to the elbows
+and his legs to the knees; but the top of the grade seemed strangely
+difficult to reach, and he could see nothing with the snow that blew over
+it in his eyes. Suddenly Larry rose up, there was a shout and a flounder,
+and, though he did not quite know how he got there, Breckenridge found
+himself standing close behind his comrade, and in the light of the lantern
+held up saw a man drop his hammer. There were other men close by, but they
+were apparently too astonished to think of flight.
+
+"It's Larry!" somebody exclaimed.
+
+"Stop where you are," said Grant sharply as one man made a move. "I don't
+want to shoot any of you, but I most certainly will if you make me. Are
+there any more of you?"
+
+"No," said one of the men disgustedly.
+
+Grant walked forward swinging his lantern until his eyes rested on one
+partly loosened rail. "And that is as far as you have got?" he said. "Take
+up your hammer and drive the wood key in. Get hold of their rifles,
+Charley. I guess they are under that coat."
+
+There was an angry murmur, and a man started to speak; but Grant stopped
+him.
+
+"Hammer the wedges in," he said. "It was pure foolishness made me come
+here to save you from the cavalry who had heard of what you meant to do,
+because we have no use for men of your kind in this country. You haven't
+even sense enough to keep your rifles handy, and there will be two or
+three less of you to worry decent folks if you keep us waiting."
+
+A man took up the hammer, and then waited a moment, looking at those who
+stood about Larry. He could see the faces of one or two in the lantern
+light, and recognized that he need expect no support from them. The men
+were resolute Americans, who had no desire for anything approaching
+anarchy.
+
+"We are with Larry, and don't feel like fooling. Hadn't you better start
+in?" one of them said.
+
+The rail was promptly fastened, and Grant, after examining it, came back.
+
+"Go on in front of us, and take your tools along! It will not be nice for
+the man who tries to get away," he said.
+
+The prisoners plodded dejectedly up the track until they reached the
+calaboose, into which the others drove them. Then Grant and Breckenridge
+went back to the locomotive, and the former nodded to the engineer:
+
+"Take us through to Boynton as fast as you can."
+
+"That is a big load off your mind," Breckenridge said as the panting
+engine got under way.
+
+But Grant, huddled in a corner, neither moved nor spoke until, half an
+hour later, they rolled into a little wooden town and the men in the
+calaboose got down. There was nobody about the depot to ask them any
+questions, and they crossed the track to the straggling street apparently
+on good terms with each other, though four of them knew that unpleasant
+results would follow any attempt at a dash for liberty. In answer to
+Grant's knock, a man let them into one of the stores.
+
+"I guess we'll lock them in the back store until morning," he said, after
+a short conference apart with Grant. "A little cooling down is not going
+to do them much harm, and I don't think anyone could get out without an
+axe."
+
+The building looked secure and, when food and hot coffee had been served
+them, Grant retired to rest. He slept soundly, and it was close on
+daylight when a pounding on the door awakened him.
+
+"I guess you had better get up at once," their host called.
+
+A few minutes later Grant and Breckenridge went downstairs with him, and
+the storekeeper, opening a door, lifted the lamp he held and pointed to an
+open window in the roof. A barrel, with a box or two laid upon it, stood
+suggestively beneath it.
+
+Breckenridge glanced at Larry, and saw a curious little smile on his face.
+"Yes," he said, "it's quite simple. Now, I never saw that window. Where
+would they be likely to head for?"
+
+"Pacific Slope," said the storekeeper. "Wages are high just now, and they
+seemed quite afraid of you. The west-bound fast freight stopped here for
+water about two hours ago, and it was snowing that thick nobody would see
+them getting into a box car. They heave a few dry goods out here
+occasionally."
+
+Breckenridge turned to Grant. "You seem relieved."
+
+"Yes," said Grant, with a little shake of his shoulders. "If they have lit
+out of the country it will content me. I have had quite enough hard things
+to do lately."
+
+A sudden thought struck Breckenridge. "You didn't mean--" he said with a
+shudder.
+
+"I didn't mean to let them go, but I'm glad they've gone," Grant answered.
+"We made a warning of one of the cattle-barons' men, and the man who takes
+the law into his own hands is doubly bound to do the square thing all
+round. If he does less, he is piling up a bigger reckoning than I would
+care to face."
+
+
+
+
+XXV
+
+CHEYNE RELIEVES HIS FEELINGS
+
+
+A blustering wind moaned outside the lonely building, and the stove
+snapped and crackled as the chilly draughts swept into the hall at Cedar
+Range. Jackson Cheyne had arrived on horseback in the creeping dusk an
+hour or two earlier, after spending most of four nights and days in the
+slushy snow, and was now resting contentedly in a big hide chair. Indeed,
+notwithstanding the fact that Hetty sat close by, he was feeling
+pleasantly drowsy when she turned to him.
+
+"You have only told us that you didn't find the train-wreckers, and you
+know we are just dying with curiosity," she said.
+
+Cheyne looked up languidly, wondering whether the half-indifferent
+inquisitiveness was assumed, as he remembered the anxiety he had seen in
+Hetty's face when he first came in. Instead of answering directly, he
+glanced round the little group sitting about the stove--for Miss Schuyler,
+and Christopher Allonby and his cousin were there, as well as Hetty.
+
+"One would scarcely fancy you were dying of anything," he said. "In fact,
+it would be difficult to imagine any of you looking better. I wonder if
+you know that with the way that the light falls that dusky panelling forms
+a most effective background, Miss Schuyler?"
+
+Flora Schuyler laughed. "We are not to be put off. Tell us what you
+found--and you needn't have any diffidence: we are quite accustomed to
+hearing the most astonishing things at Cedar."
+
+"The trouble is that I didn't find anything. I spent several most
+unpleasant hours watching a railroad-trestle in blinding snow, until the
+cattle-train went by in safety. Nobody seemed to have the slightest wish
+to meddle with it."
+
+Without exactly intending it he allowed his eyes to rest on Hetty a
+moment, and fancied he saw relief in her face. But it was Flora Schuyler
+who turned to him.
+
+"What did you do then?"
+
+"I and the boys then decided it would be advisable to look for a ranch
+where we could get food and shelter, and had some difficulty in finding
+one. In the morning, we made our way back to the depot, and discovered
+that a gentleman you know had hired a locomotive a little while after the
+cattle-train started."
+
+"Larry, of course!" ejaculated Chris Allonby. "I wanted to stake five
+dollars with Clavering that he would be too smart for him again."
+
+Cheyne looked at him inquiringly. "I don't quite understand."
+
+"No?" and Allonby's embarrassment was unmistakable. "Well, there is no
+great reason why you should. I have a habit of talking at random
+occasionally. There are quite enough sensible people in this country
+without me just now."
+
+"Then," said Cheyne, "I went on to an especially forlorn place called
+Boynton, and discovered with some difficulty that Mr. Grant, who hired the
+locomotive, had stopped it at a dangerous curve and picked several men up.
+He took them on to Boynton, and there they seem to have disappeared,
+though it was suggested that they had departed for a place unknown, either
+on the top of, or underneath a fast freight train."
+
+Chris Allonby chuckled. "Well," he said, "we haven't the least use for
+Larry here, but I am almost proud he was a friend of mine."
+
+Cheyne glancing round at the others fancied there was a little glow in
+Hetty's eyes and a trace of warmer colour in Flora Schuyler's face. It was
+only just perceptible to him, but he had less doubt when he saw that Miss
+Allonby was watching her companion covertly, for he was quite aware that
+the perceptions of the average young woman were likely to be much keener
+than his own in such affairs.
+
+"I can't help fancying you have a clue to what really happened, Miss
+Torrance," he said.
+
+"Yes," said Hetty quietly. "It is quite plain to me that Larry saved the
+train."
+
+Cheyne glanced at her sharply, and then turned to Allonby. "It strikes you
+that way, too?"
+
+"Of course," said Allonby unguardedly. "It is too bad of Larry. He has
+beaten us again, though Clavering fixed the thing quite nicely."
+
+Cheyne's face grew stern. "I am to understand that you did not warn the
+engineer or any of the railroad men?"
+
+"No," said Allonby, with evident embarrassment. "We didn't. It was
+necessary to make the thing as ugly for Larry's friends as we could, and
+we knew you would be at the bridge. If you had caught them in the act,
+with the train not far away, it would have looked ever so much better for
+us--and you."
+
+He stopped, with an unpleasant feeling that he had blundered. Cheyne's
+face had become grimmer. Miss Schuyler's lips were curled in a little
+scornful smile, and there was a curious sparkle in Hetty's eyes.
+
+"I wonder if you quite recognize the depth of Mr. Grant's iniquity yet?"
+Flora Schuyler asked.
+
+Cheyne smiled. "I confess I should very much like to meet the man. You
+see, my profession prevents my being a partisan, and the cleverness and
+daring of what he has evidently done appeals to me. He took the chances of
+his own men turning on him to save them from an affray with us, brought
+them off, and sent your cattle-train through; and what, it seems to me,
+was more than all, disregarded the probability of his enemies associating
+him with the contriving of the outrage."
+
+"Wouldn't you have done that?" asked Miss Allonby.
+
+"No," said the soldier quietly. "I don't think I should. A man who would
+do what this one has done would be very likely to take a hand in that kind
+of thing."
+
+Again there was an almost embarrassing silence broken by Miss Allonby. "I
+wonder who could have told him."
+
+Nobody spoke until Cheyne felt it advisable to break the silence.
+
+"You have no sympathy with Grant, Miss Allonby?"
+
+"No," said the girl plaintively. "I don't go quite as far as Mr. Clavering
+and my cousin do--though Chris generally talks too much--but Larry is a
+nuisance, and really ought to be crushed. You see, we had everything we
+wanted before he and the others made the trouble here."
+
+"That is quite convincing," Cheyne said, with somewhat suspicious gravity.
+He looked at the others, and fancied that Hetty would have answered but
+that Flora Schuyler flashed a warning glance at her.
+
+"One could almost fancy that most of us have too much now," she said. "Are
+we better, braver, stronger, or of choicer stuff than those others who
+have nothing, and only want the little the law would give them? Oh, yes,
+we are accomplished--very indifferently, some of us--and have been better
+taught, though one sometimes wonders at the use we make of it; but was
+that education given us for our virtues, or thrust upon us by the accident
+that our fathers happened to be rich?"
+
+"You will scarcely approve, Miss Allonby?" said Cheyne.
+
+The girl's lips curled scornfully. "I never argue with people who talk
+like that. It would not be any use--and they would never understand me;
+but everybody knows we were born different from the rabble. It is
+unfortunate you and Larry couldn't go up and down the country together,
+convincing people, Flo."
+
+Cheyne, seeing the gleam in Miss Schuyler's eyes, wondered whether there
+had been malice in the speech, and was not sorry that Torrance and
+Clavering came in just then.
+
+"I have just come from Newcombe's and heard that you had failed," said
+Torrance. "If you will come along to my room, I should like to hear about
+it."
+
+Cheyne smiled as he rose. "I don't know that failed was quite the correct
+word. My object was to protect the track, and so far as I could discover,
+no attempt was made to damage it."
+
+Torrance glanced at him sharply as they moved away. "Now, we were under
+the impression that it was the capture of the man responsible for the
+affair."
+
+"Then," said the soldier drily, "I am afraid you were under a
+misapprehension."
+
+He passed the next half-hour with Torrance amicably, and it was not until
+he was returning to the hall with Clavering that he found an opportunity
+of expressing himself freely. Torrance, he realized, was an old man, and
+quite incapable of regarding the question except from his own point of
+view.
+
+"I am just a little astonished you did not consider it advisable to follow
+the thing up further, when you must have seen what it pointed to," said
+Clavering.
+
+"That," said Cheyne, smiling, "is foolish of you. I would like to explain
+that I am not a detective or a police officer."
+
+"You were, at least, sent here to restore tranquillity."
+
+"Precisely!" said Cheyne. "By the State. To maintain peace, and not
+further the cattle-men's schemes. I am, for the present, your leader's
+guest; but I have no reason for thinking he believes that in any way
+constitutes me his ally. In his case I could not use the word
+accomplice."
+
+Clavering flashed an observant glance at him. "It should be evident which
+party is doing the most to bring about tranquillity."
+
+"It is not," said Cheyne. "I don't know that it is my business to go into
+that question; but one or two of the efforts you have made lately would
+scarcely impress the fact on me."
+
+"You are frank, any way," with a disagreeable laugh.
+
+"No," said Cheyne, with a twinkle in his eyes, "I'm not sure that I am. We
+occasionally talk a good deal more plainly in the United States cavalry."
+
+He passed on to the hall and Clavering went back to Torrance's room. "We
+have got to get rid of that man, sir," he said. "If we don't, Larry will
+have him. Allonby had better go and worry the Bureau into sending for
+another two or three squadrons under a superior officer."
+
+Torrance sighed heavily. "I'm 'most afraid they are not going to take
+kindly to any more worrying," he said. "In fact, now it's evident how the
+feeling of the State is going, I have an idea they'd sooner stand in with
+the homestead boys. Still, we can try it, any way."
+
+It was about the same time that Grant flung himself wearily into a chair
+in the great bare room at Fremont ranch. His face was haggard, his eyes
+heavy, for he had spent the greater part of several anxious days and
+nights endeavouring to curb the headstrong passions of his followers, and
+riding through leagues of slushy snow.
+
+"Will you hurry Tom up with the supper, while I look through my letters?"
+he said.
+
+Breckenridge went out, and, when he came back a little while later, found
+Grant with a strip of paper on his knee.
+
+"More bad news?" he asked.
+
+Grant made no answer, but passed the strip of paper across to him, and
+Breckenridge's pulses throbbed fast with anger as he read: "It is quite
+difficult to sit on both sides of the fence, and the boys have no more use
+for you. Still, there was a time when you did what you could for us, and
+that is why I am giving you good advice. Sit tight at Fremont, and don't
+go out at nights."
+
+"The consumed asses!" he said. "You see what he means? They have gone
+after the herring Clavering drew across the trail."
+
+The bronze grew darker in Larry's face, and his voice was hoarse.
+"Yes--they figure the cattle-men have bought me over. Well, there were
+points that would have drawn any man's suspicions--the packet I would not
+give up to Chilton--and, as you mention, Miss Torrance's wallet. Still, it
+hurts."
+
+Breckenridge saw the veins swell up on his comrade's forehead and the
+trembling of his hands. "Don't worry about them. They are beasts, old
+man," he said.
+
+Grant said nothing for at least a minute, and then clenched one lean brown
+hand. "I felt it would come, and yet it has shaken most of the grit out of
+me. I did what I could for them--it was not easy--and they have thrown me
+over. That is hard to bear, but there's more. No man can tell, now there
+is no one to hold them in, how far they will go."
+
+Breckenridge's answer was to fling a cloth upon the table and lay out the
+plates. Grant sat very still; his voice had been curiously even, but his
+set face betrayed what he was feeling, and there was something in his eyes
+that Breckenridge did not care to see. He also felt that there were
+troubles too deep for any blundering attempt at sympathy, but the silence
+grew oppressive, and by and by he turned to his companion again.
+
+"We'll presume the fellow who wrote that means well," he said. "What does
+his warning point to?"
+
+Grant smiled bitterly. "An attempt upon my homestead or my life, and I
+have given them already rather more than either is worth to me," he said.
+
+Breckenridge was perfectly sensible that he was not shining in the role of
+comforter; but he felt it would be something accomplished if he could keep
+his comrade talking. He had discovered that verbal expression is
+occasionally almost a necessity to the burdened mind, though Larry was not
+greatly addicted to relief of that description.
+
+"Of course, this campaign has cost you a good deal," he said.
+
+"Probably five thousand dollars--all that seemed good in life--and every
+friend I had."
+
+"After all, Larry, the thing may be no more than a joke or an attempt at
+bluff. Even admitting that it is not, it probably only expresses the views
+of a few of the boys."
+
+Grant shook his head. "No. I believe it is quite genuine. I saw how
+affairs were going even before I wouldn't give Chilton the packet; most of
+the boys were ready to break away then. Well, one could scarcely blame
+them for not trusting me, and I felt I was laying down my authority when I
+sent the stock train through."
+
+"Not blame them!" said Breckenridge, clenching his fist, his eyes blazing.
+"Where in the wide world would the crazy fools get another man like you?
+But if you can take it quietly, I ought to, and the question is, what are
+you going to do?"
+
+"What I can," said Grant. "Hold the boys clear of trouble where it is
+possible. There are still one or two who will stand behind me, and what we
+can't do may be done for us. When a man is badly wanted in this country he
+usually comes to the front, and I will be glad to drop out when I see
+him."
+
+"Larry," Breckenridge said slowly, "I am younger than you are, and I
+haven't seen as much, but it would be better for me if I had half your
+optimism. Still, that was not quite what I was asking. If the beasts
+actually mean to burn your place or attempt your life you are surely not
+going to give them the opportunity. Can't we fix up a guard among the few
+sensible men or send for the cavalry?"
+
+Grant smiled wearily as he shook his head. "No," he said. "The one thing I
+can't do is to lift my hand against the men I brought here in a private
+quarrel."
+
+Just then the cook came in with the supper, and, though the pair had eaten
+nothing since sunrise and ridden through soft snow most of that day, it
+cost Breckenridge an effort to clear the plate set before him. Grant
+scarcely touched the food, and it was a relief to both when the meal was
+over, and Grant's plate, still half-filled, was taken away. After he had
+several times lighted a cigar and let it go out again, Breckenridge
+glanced at him deprecatingly.
+
+"I can't keep it up any longer, and I know how it is with you, because I
+feel the thing myself," he said. "Now, if you want me here, I'll stay, but
+I have a notion the poor attempts at talk I'm making are only worrying
+you."
+
+Grant smiled, but Breckenridge saw the answer in his face, and went out
+hastily, which was, under the circumstances, the wisest thing he could do.
+Then, Grant stretched his arms wearily above his head, and a faint groan
+escaped him.
+
+"It had to come--but it hurts," he said.
+
+
+
+
+XXVI
+
+LARRY'S REWARD
+
+
+Late one night Larry came home to Fremont, wet with rain and splashed with
+mire, for it was thawing fast and he had ridden far. He sloughed off his
+outer garments, and turned to Breckenridge, who had been waiting him, with
+a little, weary smile.
+
+"The dollars are safe, any way, and that is a big load off my mind," he
+said. "Gillot has them in his safe, and nobody can touch them without a
+countersigned order from the executive."
+
+Breckenridge heaved a sigh of relief, for he knew that Gillot, who had a
+store in the railroad town, was a determined man, and quite capable of
+taking care of what had been entrusted him. The dollars in question, which
+had been raised by levy and sent by sympathizers, had been placed in
+Larry's hands to further the homesteaders' objects in that district as he
+deemed advisable. He had, however, for reasons Breckenridge was acquainted
+with, just relinquished the responsibility.
+
+"I think you were wise," said the lad. "It roused a good deal of feeling
+when you wouldn't let Harper and his friends have what they asked for, and
+the boys were very bitter at the meeting while you were away!"
+
+"Well," said Grant drily, "I knew what they wanted those dollars for, and
+if I'd had twice as many I would not have given them one."
+
+"They could not have done much harm with the few they wanted, and it would
+have saved you a good deal of unpleasantness. I didn't like the way the
+boys were talking, and it was quite plain the men who kept their heads
+were anxious. In fact, two or three of them offered to come over and sleep
+here until the dissatisfaction had simmered down."
+
+"You did not accept their offer?"
+
+"No, but I wish you would."
+
+Grant shook his head. "It wouldn't suit me to own up that I was afraid of
+my friends--and I don't want to believe there are any of them who would
+injure me. If there were, I could not draw trigger on them in defence of
+my own property."
+
+"Then we will hope for the best," said Breckenridge, somewhat doubtfully.
+
+Grant, who had had supper somewhere else, presently retired, and
+Breckenridge, who found the big room dreary without him, followed a little
+later. It was long before he slept, for he had seen the temper of the more
+reckless spirits at the meeting he had attended, and he could not shake
+off the memory of his comrade's face. Larry had made no protest, but
+Breckenridge could understand what he was feeling. The ranch was very
+quiet, but he did not think his comrade slept; in this, however, he was
+wrong, for, worn out by physical effort and mental strain, Larry had sunk
+into heavy slumber.
+
+Two or three hours later Breckenridge awakened suddenly. He sat up
+listening, still a little dazed with sleep, but nothing disturbed the
+silence of the wooden building, and it was a moment or two before the moan
+of the wind forced itself on his perceptions. Then, he thought he heard
+the trampling of a horse and stealthy footsteps in the mire below, and,
+springing from his bed, ran to the window. The night was dark, but he
+could dimly see a few shadowy figures moving towards the house. In another
+minute he slipped into part of his clothing and hastening into Grant's
+room shook him roughly.
+
+"Get up! There are men outside."
+
+Larry was on his feet in a few seconds and struggling into his garments.
+"Light the lamps downstairs," he ordered.
+
+Breckenridge stood still, astonished. "That would give them an advantage.
+They might be the Sheriff's boys."
+
+"No," said Larry, with a laugh that sounded very bitter, "I don't think
+they are! Go down, and do what I tell you."
+
+Breckenridge went, but his fingers shook so that he broke several sulphur
+matches in his haste before he had lighted one big lamp in the log-built
+hall. Then, as he turned towards the living room, there was a pounding on
+the door, and while he stood irresolute Grant, partly dressed, came
+running down the stairway. Two other men showed dimly behind him, but
+Breckenridge scarcely saw them, for he sprang through the doorway into the
+unlighted room, and the next moment fell over a table. Picking himself up
+with an objurgation, he groped along the wall for the rack where the
+rifles stood, and was making his way back towards the blink of light with
+two of them in his hands, when a hoarse voice demanded admission and the
+door rattled under the blows showered upon it. Then, as he came out into
+the hall, Grant turned to him.
+
+"Put those rifles down," he said quietly.
+
+Breckenridge stared at him. "But----"
+
+"Put them down!" said Grant, with a little impatient gesture; Breckenridge
+let the weapons fall but he was pleased to see the cook, who now stood at
+the foot of the stairway, slip softly forward and pick up one of them.
+Grant was looking at the door and did not see the man move back half-way
+up the stairs as silently as he came.
+
+Once more a hoarse shout rose from outside: "Open that door before we
+break it in!"
+
+For a moment or two, as if to give point to the warning, the door creaked
+and rattled as the axe-heads beat upon it, and then the din ceased
+suddenly, for Grant, who recognized the voice, raised his hand.
+
+"Open it for them," he said, so loudly that he could be heard outside.
+
+Breckenridge was almost glad to obey. It would have pleased him better to
+have taken his place, rifle in hand, with the cook on the stairway, but
+since Grant had evidently determined not to oppose the assailants'
+entrance by violence, it was a relief to do anything that would terminate
+the suspense. Still, his heart throbbed painfully as he seized the bolt,
+and he glanced round once more in what he felt was futile protest. Grant,
+who evidently saw what he was thinking in his face, only smiled a little
+and signed with his hand.
+
+Breckenridge drew the bolt, and sprang backwards as the door swung open.
+Men with axes and rifles showed up in the light; but while here and there
+an axe flashed back a twinkling gleam, or a face shone white, the rest was
+blurred and shadowy, and he could only see hazy figures moving against the
+blackness of the night. His companion was standing alone in the middle of
+the hall, motionless and impassive, with nothing in his hands.
+
+"Now," he said, in a voice that jarred on Breckenridge's ears, "the door
+is open. What do you want?"
+
+"We want you," said one of the men outside.
+
+"Then, I'll come out and talk to you," said Grant.
+
+Breckenridge laid a restraining hand upon his arm, but he shook it off,
+and moving forward stopped just outside the threshold. The lad could not
+see his face, but he noticed that he stood very straight, with his head
+thrown back a trifle, and that one or two of those without edged farther
+into the shadowy crowd. Glancing behind him, he also saw the cook leaning
+forward on the stairway with the rifle glinting in his hands.
+
+"Well?" said Grant, and his voice rang commandingly.
+
+"We have come for the dollars," said a man. "We want them, and they're
+ours."
+
+"Then, you must ask your committee for them. They are not in my house."
+
+"Bluff!" said somebody; and an angry clamour broke out.
+
+"Hand them out," cried one voice, "before we burn the place for you."
+
+Larry swung up one hand commandingly, and Breckenridge felt a thrill of
+pride when, as if in tribute to his comrade's fearlessness, a sudden
+silence followed. Larry stood alone, statuesque in poise, with arm
+stretched out in the face of the hostile crowd, and once more the respect
+the men had borne him asserted itself.
+
+"You will listen to me, boys, and it may be the last time I shall speak to
+you," he said. "You know that right back from the beginning I have done
+the best I could for you, and now I feel it in me that if you will wait
+just a little longer the State will do more than I could ever do. Can't
+you understand that if you go round destroying railroad-trestles, shooting
+cattle, and burning ranches, you are only playing into the hand of your
+enemies, and the very men in the legislature who would, if you kept your
+patience, make your rights sure to you, will be forced to turn the cavalry
+loose on you? Can't you sit tight another month or two, instead of
+throwing all we have fought for away?"
+
+The silence that followed the speech lasted for a space of seconds, and
+then, when Breckenridge hoped Grant might still impose prudence upon the
+crowd, there were murmurs of doubt and suspicion. They grew rapidly
+louder, and a man stepped out from the rest.
+
+"The trouble is that we don't believe in you, Larry," he said. "You were
+with us solid one time, but that was before the cattle-barons bought
+you."
+
+A derisive laugh followed, and when Grant turned a little Breckenridge saw
+his face. The bronze in it had faded, and left paler patches, that seemed
+almost grey, while the lad, who knew his comrade's pride and uprightness,
+fancied he could guess how that taunt, made openly, had wounded him.
+
+"Well," he said, very slowly, "I can only hope you will have more
+confidence in your next leader; but I am on the list of the executive
+still, and if the house was full of dollars I wouldn't give you one of
+them with which to make trouble that you'll most surely be sorry for. Any
+way, those I had are safe in a place where, while your committee keep
+their heads, you will not lay hands on them."
+
+A shout of disbelief was followed by uproar, through which there broke
+detached cries: "Pull him down! He has them all the time! Pound them out
+of him! Burn the place down for a warning to the cattle-men!"
+
+They died away when one of the men, with emphatic gestures, demanded
+attention. Moving out from the rest, he turned to Grant. "You have rifles
+and cartridges here, and after all, those are what we want the most.
+Now--and it's your last chance--hand them out."
+
+"No," said Grant.
+
+The man made a little gesture of resignation. "Boys," he said, "you will
+have to go in and take them."
+
+Grant still stood motionless and unyielding on his threshold, but he had
+only a moment's grace, for the men outside surged on again, and one swung
+a rifle-butt over him. Breckenridge saw his comrade seize it, and had
+sprung to his side when a rifle flashed on the stairway behind him and a
+man cried out and fell. The next instant another rifle-butt whirled, and
+Grant, reeling sideways, went down and was trampled on.
+
+Breckenridge ran towards the rifle still lying in the hall, but before he
+could reach it there was a roar of voices and a rush of feet, and the men
+who poured in headlong were upon him. Something hard and heavy smote him
+in the face, and as he reeled back gasping there was another flash on the
+stairway. His head struck something, and he was never sure of what
+happened during the next half-hour.
+
+When, feeling very dizzy, Breckenridge raised himself in the corner where
+he had been lying, the hall was empty save for two huddled figures in the
+doorway, and while he blinked at them in a half-dazed fashion, it seemed
+to him that a red glare, which rose and fell, shone in. He could also
+smell burning wood, and saw dim wreaths of smoke drive by outside. His
+hearing was not especially acute just then, but he fancied that men were
+trampling, and apparently dragging furniture about, all over the building.
+Then, as his scattered senses came back to him, he rose feebly to his
+feet, and finding to his astonishment that he still possessed the power of
+locomotion, walked unevenly towards the motionless objects in the doorway.
+One of them, as he expected, was Grant, who was lying very white and
+still, just as he had fallen.
+
+"Larry," Breckenridge said, and shivered at the sound of his own voice.
+"Larry!"
+
+But there was no answer, and Breckenridge sat down by Grant's side with a
+little groan, for his head swam once more and he felt a horrible coldness
+creeping over him. How long he sat there, while the smoke that rolled in
+from outside grew denser, he did not know; but by and by he was dimly
+conscious that the men were coming down the stairway. They clustered about
+him, and one of them, stooping over the injured homesteader, signed to his
+comrades.
+
+"Put him into the wagon, and start off at once," he said.
+
+Three or four men came out from the rest, and when they shuffled away with
+their burden, the one who seemed to be leader pointed to Grant as he
+turned to Breckenridge.
+
+"He would have it, and the thump on the head he got would have put an end
+to most men," he said. "Still, I don't figure you need worry about burying
+him just yet, and I want a straight answer. Are those dollars in the
+house?"
+
+Breckenridge sat blinking at him a moment, and then very shakily dragged
+himself to his feet, and stood before the man, with one hand clenched. His
+face was white and drawn and there was a red smear on his forehead.
+
+"If you would not believe the man who lies there, will you take my word?"
+he said unevenly. "He told you they were not."
+
+"I guess he spoke the truth," said somebody. "Any way, we can't find them.
+Well, what is to be done with him?"
+
+Breckenridge, who was not quite himself, laughed bitterly. "Leave him
+where he is, and go away. You have done enough," he said. "He gave you all
+he had--and I know, as no other man ever will, what it cost him--and this
+is how you have repaid him."
+
+Some of the men looked confused, and the leader made a deprecatory
+gesture. "Any way, we'll give you a hand to put him where you want."
+
+Breckenridge waved him back fiercely. "I am alone; but none of you shall
+lay a hand on him while I can keep you off. If you have left any life in
+him, the touch of your fingers would hurt him more than anything."
+
+The other man seemed to have a difficulty in finding an answer, and while
+he stared at Breckenridge there was a trample of hoofs in the mire
+outside, and a shout. Breckenridge could not catch its meaning, but the
+men about him streamed out of the hall and he could hear them mounting in
+haste. As the rapid beat of hoofs gradually died away, looking up at a
+sound, he saw the cook bending over his comrade. The man, seeing in his
+eyes the question he dared not ask, shook his head.
+
+"No, I guess they haven't killed him," he said. "Kind of knocked all the
+senses out of him; and now I've let the rest out, we'll get him to bed."
+
+"The rest?" Breckenridge asked bewildered.
+
+The man nodded. "Yes," he said, "I guess I got one or two of the
+homestead-boys, and then Charley and I lit out through a back window, and
+slipped round to see why the stockboys weren't coming. It was quite
+simple. The blame firebugs had put a man with a rifle at the door of their
+sleeping shed."
+
+Three or four other men trooped in somewhat sheepishly, though, as the
+cook had explained, it was not their fault they had arrived after the
+fight was over; and while they carried their master upstairs Breckenridge
+thought he heard another beat of hoofs. He paid no great attention to it,
+but when Larry had been laid on the bed glanced towards the window at the
+streaks of flame breaking through the smoke that rolled about a birch-log
+building.
+
+"What can be done?" he said.
+
+"I don't know that we can do anything," answered the cook. "The fire has
+got too good a holt, but it's not likely to light anything else the way
+the wind is. It was one of them blame Chicago rustlers put the firestick
+in."
+
+"Pshaw!" said Breckenridge. "Let it burn. I mean, what can be done for
+Larry?"
+
+"We might give him some whiskey--only we haven't any. Still, I've seen
+this kind of thing happen in the Michigan lumber-camps, and I guess he's
+most as well without it. You want to give a man's brains time to settle
+down after they've had a big shake-up."
+
+Breckenridge sat down limply on the foot of the bed, faint and dizzy, and
+wondering if he really heard a regular, rhythmic drumming through the
+snapping of the flame. It grew louder while he listened, and a faint
+musical jingling became audible with it.
+
+"That sounds like cavalry," the cook said. "They have been riding round
+and seen the blaze."
+
+And a few minutes later a voice rose sharply outside, and some, at least,
+of the riders pulled up. The cook, at a sign from Breckenridge, went down,
+and came back by and by with a man in bespattered blue uniform.
+
+"Captain Cheyne, United States cavalry--at your service," he said. "I am
+afraid I have come a trifle late to be of much use; but a few of my men
+are trying to pick up the rustlers' trail. Now, how did that man get hurt,
+and what is the trouble about?"
+
+Breckenridge told him as concisely as he could, and Cheynes bent over the
+silent figure on the bed.
+
+"Quietness is often good in these cases; but there is such a thing as
+collapse following the shock, and I guess by your friend's face it might
+be well to try to rouse him," he said. "Have you any brandy?"
+
+"No," said Breckenridge. "It has been quite a time since we had that or
+any other luxuries in this house. Its owner stripped himself for the
+benefit of the men who did their best to kill him."
+
+Cheyne brought out a flask. "This should do as well," he said. "You can
+tell that man to boil some water, and in the meanwhile help me to get the
+flask top into your partner's mouth."
+
+It was done with some difficulty, and Breckenridge waited anxiously until
+a quiver ran through the motionless body. Then Cheyne repeated the dose,
+and Larry gasped and slowly opened his eyes. He said something the others
+could not catch, and closed them again; but Breckenridge fancied a little
+warmth crept into his pallid skin.
+
+"I guess that will do," said Cheyne. "In one or two of my stations we had
+to be our own field hospital; but I don't know enough of surgery to take
+the responsibility of stirring up his circulation any further. Still, when
+you can get them ready, we will have hot bottles at his feet."
+
+"My boys have got the fire under," Cheyne said, coming in an hour later.
+"Now, I have been in the saddle most of the day, and while your cook has
+promised to billet the boys, I'll have to ask you for shelter. If you told
+me a little about what led up to this trouble, it might pass the time."
+
+"I don't see why I should," Breckenridge informed him.
+
+"It could not hurt you, any way," suggested Cheyne, "and it might do you
+good."
+
+Breckenridge looked at him steadily, and felt a curious confidence in the
+discretion of the quiet, bronze-faced man. As the result of it, he told
+him a good deal more than he had meant to do when he commenced the story.
+
+"I think you have done right," Cheyne said. "A little rough on him! I had
+already figured he was that kind of a man. Well, I hear the rest of the
+boys coming back, and I'll send up a sergeant who knows a good deal about
+these accidents to look after him."
+
+The sergeant came up by and by and kept watch with Breckenridge for a
+while; but, after an hour or so Breckenridge's head grew very heavy, and
+the sergeant, taking his arm, silenced his protests by nipping it and
+quietly put him out of the room. When he awoke next morning he found that
+Grant was capable at least of speech, for Cheyne was asking him questions,
+and receiving very unsatisfactory answers.
+
+"In fact," said the cavalry officer, "you don't feel disposed to tell me
+who the men that tried to burn your place were, or anything about them?"
+
+"No," Larry said feebly. "It would be pleasanter if you concluded I was
+not quite fit to talk just now."
+
+Cheyne glanced at Breckenridge, who was watching him anxiously. "In that
+case I could not think of worrying you, and have no doubt I can find out.
+In the meanwhile I guess the best thing you can do is to go to sleep
+again."
+
+He drew Breckenridge out of the room, and shook hands with him. "If you
+are wanted I'll send for you," he said. "Keep your comrade quiet, and I
+should be astonished if he is not about again in a day or two."
+
+Then, he went down the stairway and swung himself into the saddle, and
+with a rattle and jingle he and the men behind him rode away.
+
+
+
+
+XXVII
+
+CLAVERING'S LAST CARD
+
+
+There was an impressive silence in Hetty's little drawing-room at Cedar
+Range when Cheyne, who had ridden there the day after he left Fremont,
+told his story. He had expected attention, but the effect his narrative
+produced astonished him. Hetty had softly pushed her chair back into the
+shadow where the light of the shaded lamp did not fall upon her, but her
+stillness was significant. He could, however, see Miss Schuyler, and
+wondered what accounted for the impassiveness of her face, now the colour
+that had flushed her cheek had faded. The silence was becoming
+embarrassing when Miss Schuyler broke it.
+
+"Mr. Grant is recovering?" she asked.
+
+"Yes," said Cheyne. "He was coming round when I left him. The blow might
+have been a dangerous one; but I had a suspicion he had more than that to
+contend with."
+
+"Yes?" said Hetty, a little breathlessly.
+
+"Of course, his affairs were not my business," Cheyne went on, "but it
+seemed to me the man had been living under a heavy strain; and though we
+were strangers, I could not help feeling a sympathy that almost amounted
+to a liking for him. He must have found it trying when the men he had done
+his best for came round to burn his place; but I understand he went out to
+speak to them with empty hands when they struck him down."
+
+"What made them attack him?" asked Miss Schuyler.
+
+"I'm not quite sure, but I have an idea they were displeased because he
+did not countenance their attempt to wreck the cattle-train. Then, I
+believe he held some dollars in trust for them, and, as they presumably
+wanted them for some fresh outrage, would not give them up. Mr. Grant is
+evidently a man with a sense of responsibility."
+
+Hetty looked up suddenly. "Yes," she said. "He would have let them tear
+him to pieces before he gave them one."
+
+Cheyne noticed the faint ring in her voice, and fancied it would have been
+plainer had she not laid a restraint upon herself. A vague suspicion he
+had brushed away once more crept into his mind.
+
+"Well," he said, slowly, watching Hetty the while, "I fancy the efforts he
+made to save your friends' stock will cost him a good deal. The point is
+that a man of his abilities must have recognized it at the time."
+
+Hetty met his glance, and Cheyne saw the little glow in her eyes. "Do you
+think that would have counted for anything with such a man?"
+
+Cheyne made a little gesture of negation that in a curious fashion became
+him. "No. That is, I do not believe he would have let it influence him."
+
+"That," said Miss Schuyler, "is a very comprehensive admission."
+
+Cheyne smiled. "I don't know that I could desire a higher tribute paid to
+me. Might one compliment you both on your evident desire to be fair to
+your enemies?"
+
+He saw the faint flush in Hetty's face, and was waiting with a curious
+expectancy for her answer, when Torrance came in. He appeared grimly
+pleased at something as he signed to Cheyne.
+
+"His friends have burned the rascal out," he said. "Well, I don't know
+that we could have hoped for anything better; but I want to hear what you
+can tell me about it. You will have to spare me Captain Cheyne for a
+little, Hetty."
+
+Cheyne rose and went away with him, while, when the door closed behind
+them, Hetty--who had seen the vindictive satisfaction in her father's
+face--turned to her companion with a flash of imperious anger in her
+eyes.
+
+"Flo," she said, "how can he? It's wicked of him."
+
+Miss Schuyler checked her with a gesture. "Any way, he is your father."
+
+Hetty flushed, but the colour faded and left her face white again. "Well,"
+she said, "Clavering isn't, and it is he who has made him so bitter
+against Larry. Flo, it's horrible. They would have been glad if the boys
+had killed him, and when he's ill and wounded they will not let me go to
+him."
+
+Her voice broke and trembled, and Flora Schuyler laid a hand restrainingly
+upon her arm. "Of course. But why should you, Hetty?"
+
+Hetty, who shook off her grasp, rose and stood quivering a little, but
+very straight, looking down on her with pride, and a curious hardness in
+her eyes.
+
+"You don't know?" she said. "Then I'll tell you. Because there is nobody
+like Larry, and never will be. Because I love him better than I ever
+fancied I could love anybody, and--though it's 'most wonderful--he has
+loved me and waited ever so patiently. Now they are all against him, I'm
+going to him. Flo, they have 'most made me hate them, the people I belong
+to, and I think if I was a man I could kill Clavering."
+
+Flora Schuyler sat very still a moment, but it was fortunate she retained
+her composure whatever she may have felt, for Hetty was in a mood for any
+rashness. Stretching out her hand, she drew the girl down beside her with
+a forceful gentleness.
+
+"Hetty," she said, "I think I know how such a man as Larry is would feel,
+and you want him to be proud of you. Well, there are things that neither
+he nor you could do, and you must listen to me quietly."
+
+She reasoned with the girl for a while until Hetty shook the passion from
+her.
+
+"Of course you are right, Flo," she said, and her voice was even. "If he
+could bear all that, I can be patient too. Larry has had ever so many hard
+things to do, but it is only because it would not be fair to him I'm not
+going to him now. Flo, you will not leave me until the trouble's
+through?"
+
+Miss Schuyler turned and kissed her, and then, rising quietly, went out of
+the room. She had shown Hetty her duty to Larry, which she felt would be
+more convincing just then than an exposition of what she owed her father,
+and had reasons for desiring solitude to grapple with affairs of her own.
+What she had done had cost her an effort, but Flora Schuyler was fond of
+Hetty and recognized the obligation of the bond she was contracting when
+she made a friend.
+
+Some minutes had passed when Hetty rose and took down her writing-case
+from a shelf. She could at least communicate with Larry, for the maid, who
+had more than one admirer among the cow-boys, had found a means by which
+letters could be conveyed; but the girl could not command her thoughts,
+and written sympathy seemed so poor and cold a thing. Two letters were
+written and flung into the stove, for Flora Schuyler's counsel was bearing
+fruit; and she had commenced two more when there was a tapping at the
+door. Hetty looked up with a little flash in her eyes, and swept the
+papers into the writing-case as Clavering came in. Then she rose, and
+stood looking at him very coldly.
+
+It was an especially unfortunate moment for the man to approach her in,
+and, though he did not know why it should be so, he recognized it; but
+there were reasons that made any further procrastination distinctly
+unadvisable.
+
+"There is something I have been wanting to tell you for a long time,
+Hetty," he said.
+
+"It would be better for you to wait a little longer," the girl said
+chillingly. "I don't feel inclined to listen to anything to-night."
+
+"The trouble," said Clavering, who spoke the truth, "is that I can't. It
+has hurt me to keep silent as long as I have done already."
+
+He saw the hardening of Hetty's lips, and knew that he had blundered; but
+he was committed now, and could only obey when she said, with a gesture of
+weariness "Then go on."
+
+The abrupt command would probably have disconcerted most men and
+effectually spoiled the appeal they meant to make, and Clavering's face
+flushed as he recognized its ludicrous aspect. Still, he could not
+withdraw then, and he made the best of a difficult position with a certain
+gracefulness which might, under different circumstances, have secured him
+a modicum of consideration. As it was, however, Hetty's anger left her
+almost white, and there was a light he did not care to see in her eyes
+when she turned towards him.
+
+"I am glad you have told me this," she said. "Since nothing else would
+convince you, it will enable me to talk plainly; I don't consider it an
+honour--not in the least. Can't you see that it is wholly and altogether
+out of the question that I should ever think in that way of you?"
+
+Clavering gasped, and the darker colour that was in his cheek showed in
+his forehead too. Hetty reminded him very much of her father, then--and he
+had witnessed one or two displays of the cattle-baron's temper.
+
+"I admit that I have a good many shortcomings, but, since you ask, I must
+confess that I don't quite understand why my respectful offer should rouse
+your indignation."
+
+"No?" said Hetty coldly, with the vindictive sparkle still in her eyes.
+"Then aren't you very foolish?"
+
+Clavering smiled, though it was not easy. "Well," he said, "I was
+evidently too audacious; but you have not told me yet why the proposal I
+ventured to make should appear quite preposterous."
+
+"I think," said Hetty, "it would be considerably nicer for you if I
+didn't. I can, however, tell you this--I would never, under any
+circumstances, marry you."
+
+Clavering bent his head, and took himself away with the best grace he
+could, while Hetty, who, perhaps because she had been under a heavy
+strain, became suddenly sensible of a most illogical desire to laugh,
+afterwards admitted that he really accomplished it becomingly. But the
+laughter that would have been a relief to her did not come, and after
+toying in a purposeless fashion with her writing-case, she rose and
+slipped out of the room, unfortunately leaving it open.
+
+A few minutes later Clavering met the maid in the corridor that led to
+Torrance's room, and the girl, who saw his face, and may have guessed what
+had brought the anger into his eyes, stopped a moment. It is also probable
+that, being a young woman with quick perceptions, she had guessed with
+some correctness how far his regard for Hetty went.
+
+"You don't seem pleased to-night," she said.
+
+"No?" said Clavering, with a little laugh which rang hollow. "Well, I
+should be. It is quite a while since I had a talk with you."
+
+"Pshaw!" said the girl, who failed to blush, though she wished to,
+watching him covertly. "Now, I wonder if what I'm going to tell you will
+make you more angry still. Suppose you heard Miss Torrance had been
+sending letters to Larry Grant?"
+
+"I don't know that I should believe it," said Clavering, as unconcernedly
+as he could.
+
+"Well, she has," the girl said. "What is more, she has been going out to
+meet him in the Cedar Bluff."
+
+Clavering's face betrayed him, and for a moment the girl, who saw his lips
+set, was almost afraid. He contrived, however, to make a light answer, and
+was about to ask a question when a door creaked. The next moment Torrance
+came out into the corridor, and Clavering's opportunity vanished with the
+maid. Torrance, who had evidently not seen her, kept him talking for a
+while.
+
+In the meanwhile, the girl contrived an excuse for entering the room where
+she was quite aware Hetty and Clavering had met. She did not find her
+mistress, but, as it happened, noticed the writing-case, and, having a
+stake in affairs, opened it. Inside she found two sheets of paper, and
+after considering the probabilities of detection appropriated one of them
+on which was written, "Larry dear."
+
+She had, however, no intention of showing it to Clavering just then, but,
+deciding that such a paper might be worth a good many dollars to the
+person who knew how to make use of it, she slipped it into her pocket, and
+went out into the hall, where she saw him talking to Torrance. As she
+watched they shook hands, and Clavering swung himself on to the back of a
+horse somebody led up to the door. It was two or three weeks before he
+came back again, and was led straight to the room where Torrance and some
+of his neighbours were sitting. Clavering took his place among the rest,
+and watched the faces that showed amidst the blue cigar-smoke. Some were
+intent and eager, a few very grim, but the stamp of care was on all of
+them save that of Torrance, who sat immobile and expressionless at the
+head of the table. Allonby was speaking somewhat dejectedly.
+
+"It seems to me that we have only gone round," he said. "It has cost us
+more dollars than any of us care to reckon, and I for one am tolerably
+near the end of my tether."
+
+"So are the homestead-boys. We can last them out, and we have got to,"
+said somebody.
+
+Allonby raised his hand with a little hopeless gesture. "I'm not quite
+sure; but what I want to show you is that we have come back to the place
+we started from. When we first met here we decided that it was advisable
+to put down Larry Grant, and though we have not accomplished it yet, it
+seems to me more necessary than ever just now."
+
+"I don't understand you," said one of the younger men. "Larry's boys have
+broken loose from him, and he can't worry anybody much alone."
+
+Torrance glanced at Allonby with a sardonic twinkle in his eyes. "That
+sounds very like sense," he said.
+
+"Well," said Allonby drily, "it isn't, and I think you know it at least as
+well as I do. It is because the boys have broken out we want to get our
+thumb on Larry."
+
+There was a little murmur of bewilderment, for men were present that night
+who had not attended many meetings of the district committee.
+
+"You will have to make it plainer," somebody said.
+
+Allonby glanced at Torrance, who nodded, and then went on. "Now, I know
+that what I am going to tell you does not sound nice, and a year ago I
+would have had unpleasant thoughts of the man who suggested any course of
+that kind to me; but we have got to go under or pull down the enemy. The
+legislature are beginning to look at things with the homesteaders' eyes,
+and what we want is popular sympathy. We lost a good chance of getting it
+over the stock-train. Larry was too clever for us again, and that brings
+me to the point which should be quite plain. The homestead-boys have lost
+their heads and will cut their own throats if they are let alone. They are
+ripe for ranch-burning and firing on the cavalry, and once they start the
+State will have to step in and whip them out for us."
+
+"But where does Larry come in?" asked somebody.
+
+"That," said Clavering, "is quite easy. So long as Larry is loose he will
+have a following, and somehow he will hear of and stop their wildest
+moves. As most of you know, I don't like him; but Larry is not a fool."
+
+"To be quite plain, we are to cut out the restraining influence, and give
+the rabble a free hand to let loose anarchy," said one man. "Then, you can
+strike me off the roll. That is a kind of meanness that wouldn't suit
+me!"
+
+There were murmurs of approval from one or two of the company, but
+Torrance checked them. "Gentlemen," he said, "we must win or be beaten and
+get no mercy. You can't draw back, and the first step is to put Larry
+down. If the State had backed us we would have made an end of the trouble,
+and it is most square and fitting they should have the whipping of the
+rabble forced upon them now. Are we cavalry troopers or a Sheriff's posse,
+to do their work for them, and be kicked by way of thanks? They would not
+nip the trouble when they could, and we'll sit tight and watch them try to
+crush it when it's 'most too big for them."
+
+Again there was a murmur, of grim approval this time; but one of the
+objectors rose with an ironical smile.
+
+"You have made a very poor show at catching Larry so far," he said. "Are
+you quite sure the thing is within your ability?"
+
+"I guess it is," said Torrance sharply. "He is living at his homestead,
+and we need not be afraid of a hundred men with rifles coming to take him
+from us now."
+
+"He has a few neighbours who believe in him," one of the men said. "They
+are not rabble, but level-headed Americans, with the hardest kind of grit
+in them. It wouldn't suit us to be whipped again."
+
+Clavering stood up, with his eyes fixed on Torrance. "I agree with our
+leader--it can be done. In fact, I quite believe we can lay our hands on
+Larry alone," he said. "Can I have a word with you, Mr. Torrance?"
+
+Torrance nodded, and, leaving Allonby speaking, led Clavering into an
+adjoining room. "Sit down, and get through as quick as you can," he said.
+
+For five minutes Clavering spoke rapidly, in a slightly strained voice,
+and a dark flush spread across the old man's face and grew deeper on his
+forehead, from which the veins swelled. It had faded before he finished,
+and there were paler patches in the cattle-baron's cheeks when he struck
+the table with his fist.
+
+"Clavering," he said hoarsely, "if you are deceiving me you are not going
+to find a hole in this country that would hide you."
+
+Clavering contrived to meet his gaze, though it was difficult. "I was very
+unwilling to mention it," he said. "Still, if you will call Miss
+Torrance's maid, and the man who grooms her horses, you can convince
+yourself. It would be better if I was not present when you talk to them."
+
+Torrance said nothing, but pointed to the door, and when the maid and man
+he sent for had gone, sat for five long minutes rigidly still with a set
+white face and his hands clenched on the table.
+
+"My daughter--playing the traitress--and worse! It is too hard to bear,"
+he said.
+
+Then he stood up, shaking the passion from him, when Clavering came in,
+and, holding himself very stiff and square, turned to him.
+
+"I don't know why you have told me--now--and do not want to hear," he
+said. "Still, by the Lord who made us both, if you try to make use of this
+knowledge for any purpose, or let a whisper get about, I'll crush you
+utterly."
+
+"Have I deserved these threats, sir?"
+
+Torrance looked at him steadily. "Did you expect thanks? The man who
+grooms her horses would tell me nothing--he lied like a gentleman. But
+they are not threats. You found buying up mortgages--with our dollars--an
+easy game."
+
+"But--" said Clavering.
+
+Torrance stopped him with a little scornful gesture. "I knew when I took
+this thing up I would have to let my scruples go, and now--while I wonder
+whether my hands will ever feel clean again--I'm going through. You are
+useful to the committee, and I'll have to tolerate you."
+
+Clavering turned away, with pulses throbbing furiously and rage in his
+heart, though he had known what the cost would be when he staked
+everything he hoped for on Larry's destruction; while his neighbours
+noticed a change in Torrance when he once more sat down at the head of the
+table. He seemed several years older, and his face was very grim.
+
+"I believe I can promise you that Larry will make us no more trouble," he
+said. "Mr. Clavering has a workable scheme, and it will only need the
+Sheriff and a few men whom I will choose when I am ready."
+
+Nobody seemed to consider it advisable to ask questions, and the men
+dispersed; but as they went down the stairway, Allonby turned to
+Torrance.
+
+"This thing is getting too big for you and me," he said. "You have not
+complained, but to-night one could fancy that it's breaking you. Now, I'm
+not made like you, and when I think of what it has cost me I have got to
+talk."
+
+Torrance turned, and Allonby shivered as he met his eyes.
+
+"It has cost me what every dollar I ever made could not buy me back," he
+said, and the damp showed on his forehead as he checked a groan.
+
+
+
+
+XXVIII
+
+LARRY RIDES TO CEDAR
+
+
+A soft wind swept the prairie, which was now bare of snow. Larry rode down
+the trail that led through the Cedar Bluff. He was freely sprinkled with
+mire, for spring had come suddenly, and the frost-bleached sod was soft
+with the thaw; and when he pulled up on the wooden bridge to wait until
+Breckenridge, who appeared among the trees, should join him, the river
+swirled and frothed beneath. It had lately burst its icy chains, and came
+roaring down, seamed by lines of foam and strewn with great fragments of
+half-melted snow-cake that burst against the quivering piles.
+
+"Running strong!" said Breckenridge. "Still, the water has not risen much
+yet, and as I crossed the big rise I saw two of Torrance's cow-boys
+apparently screwing up their courage to try the ford."
+
+"It might be done," said Larry. "We have one horse at Fremont that would
+take me across. The snow on the ranges is not melting yet, and the ice
+will be tolerably firm on the deep reaches; but it's scarcely likely that
+we will want to swim the Cedar now."
+
+"No," said Breckenridge, with a laugh, "the bridge is good enough for me.
+By the way, I have a note for you."
+
+"A note!" said Larry, with a slight hardening of his face, for of late
+each communication that reached him had brought him fresh anxieties.
+
+"Well," said Breckenridge drily, "I scarcely think this one should worry
+you. From the fashion in which it reached me I have a notion it's from a
+lady."
+
+There was a little gleam in Larry's eyes when he took the note, and
+Breckenridge noticed that he was very silent as they rode on. When they
+reached Fremont he remained a while in the stable, and when at last he
+entered the house Breckenridge glanced at him questioningly.
+
+"You have something on your mind," he said. "What have you been doing,
+Larry?"
+
+Grant smiled curiously. "Giving the big bay a rub down. I'm riding to
+Cedar Range to-night."
+
+"Have you lost your head?" Breckenridge stared at him. "Muller saw the
+Sheriff riding in this morning, and it's more than likely he is at the
+Range. You are wanted rather more badly than ever just now, Larry."
+
+Grant's face was quietly resolute as he took out the note and passed it to
+his companion. "I have tried to do my duty by the boys; but I am going to
+Cedar to-night."
+
+Breckenridge opened the note, which had been written the previous day, and
+read, "In haste. Come to the bluff beneath the Range--alone--nine
+to-morrow night."
+
+Then, he stared at the paper in silence until Grant, who watched him
+almost jealously, took it from him. "Yes," he said, though his face was
+thoughtful, "of course, you must go. You are quite sure of the writing?"
+
+Grant smiled, as it were, compassionately. "I would recognize it
+anywhere!"
+
+"Well," said Breckenridge significantly, "that is perhaps not very
+astonishing, though I fancy some folks would find it difficult. The 'In
+haste' no doubt explains the thing, but it seems to me the last of it does
+not quite match the heading."
+
+"It is smeared--thrust into the envelope wet," Larry said.
+
+Breckenridge rose, and walked, with no apparent purpose, across the room.
+"Larry," he said, "Tom and I will come with you. No--you wait a minute. Of
+course, I know there are occasions on which one's friends' company is
+superfluous--distinctly so; but we could pull up and wait behind the
+bluff--quite a long way off, you know."
+
+"I was told to come alone." Larry turned upon him sharply.
+
+Breckenridge made a gesture of resignation. "Then I'm not going to stay
+here most of the night by myself. It's doleful. I'll ride over to Muller's
+now."
+
+"Will it be any livelier there?"
+
+Breckenridge wondered whether Larry had noticed anything unusual in his
+voice, and managed to laugh. "A little," he said. "The fraeulein is pretty
+enough in the lamplight to warrant one listening to a good deal about
+Menotti and the franc tireurs. She makes really excellent coffee, too,"
+and he slipped out before Grant could ask any more questions.
+
+Darkness was just closing down when the latter rode away. There was very
+little of the prairie broncho in the big horse beneath him, whose sire had
+brought the best blood that could be imported into that country, and he
+had examined every buckle of girth and headstall as he fastened them. He
+also rode, for lightness, in a thin deerskin jacket which fitted him
+closely, with a rifle across his saddle, gazing with keen eyes across the
+shadowy waste when now and then a half-moon came out. Once he also drew
+bridle and sat still a minute listening, for he fancied he heard the
+distant beat of hoofs, and then went on with a little laugh at his
+credulity. The Cedar was roaring in its hollow and the birches moaning in
+a bluff, but as the damp wind that brought the blood to his cheeks sank,
+there was stillness save for the sound of the river, and Grant decided
+that his ears had deceived him.
+
+It behooved him to be cautious, for he knew the bitterness of the
+cattle-men against him, and the Sheriff's writ still held good; but Hetty
+had sent for him, and if his enemies had lain in wait in every bluff and
+hollow he would have gone.
+
+While he rode, troubled by vague apprehensions, which now and then gave
+place to exultation that set his heart throbbing, Hetty sat with Miss
+Schuyler in her room at Cedar Range. An occasional murmur of voices
+reached them faintly from the big hall below where Torrance and some of
+his neighbours sat with the Sheriff over their cigars and wine, and the
+girls knew that a few of the most daring horsemen among the cow-boys had
+their horses saddled ready. Hetty lay in a low chair with a book she was
+not reading on her knee, and Miss Schuyler, glancing at her now and then
+over the embroidery she paid almost as little attention to, noticed the
+weariness in her face and the anxiety in her eyes. She laid down her
+needle when Torrance's voice came up from below.
+
+"What can they be plotting, Hetty?" she said. "Horses ready, that most
+unpleasant Sheriff smiling cunningly as he did when I passed him talking
+to Clavering, and the sense of expectancy. It's there. One could hear it
+in their voices, even if one had not seen their faces, and when I met your
+father at the head of the stairs he almost frightened me. Of course, he
+was not theatrical--he never is--but I know that set of his lips and look
+in his eyes, and have more than a fancy it means trouble for somebody. I
+suppose he has not told you anything--in fact, he seems to have kept
+curiously aloof from both of us lately."
+
+Hetty turned towards her with a little spot of colour in her cheek and
+apprehension in her eyes.
+
+"So you have noticed it, too!" she said very slowly. "Of course, he has
+been busy and often away, while I know how anxious he must be; but when he
+is at home he scarcely speaks to me--and then, there is something in his
+voice that hurts me. I'm 'most afraid he has found out that I have been
+talking to Larry."
+
+Miss Schuyler smiled. "Well," she said, "that--alone--would not be such a
+very serious offence."
+
+The crimson showed plainer in Hetty's cheek and there was a faint ring in
+her voice. "Flo," she said, "don't make me angry--I can't bear it
+to-night. Something is going to happen--I can feel it is--and you don't
+know my father even yet. He is so horribly quiet, and I'm afraid of as
+well as sorry for him. It is a long while ago, but he looked just as he
+does now--only not quite so grim--during my mother's last illness. Oh, I
+know there is something worrying him, and he will not tell me--though he
+was always kind before, even when he was angry. Flo, this horrible trouble
+can't go on for ever!"
+
+Hetty had commenced bravely, but she faltered as she proceeded, and Miss
+Schuyler, who saw her distress, had risen and was standing with one hand
+on her shoulder when the maid came in. She cast a hasty glance at her
+mistress, and appeared, Flora Schuyler fancied, embarrassed, and desirous
+of concealing it.
+
+"Mr. Torrance will excuse you coming down again," she said. "He may have
+some of the Sheriff's men and one or two of the cow-boys in, and would
+sooner you kept your room. Are you likely to want me in the next
+half-hour?"
+
+"No," said Hetty. "No doubt you are anxious to find out what is going
+on."
+
+The maid went out, and Miss Schuyler fixed anxious eyes on her companion.
+"What is the matter with the girl, Hetty?" she asked.
+
+"I don't know. Did you notice anything?"
+
+"Yes. I think she had something on her mind. Any way, she was
+unexplainably anxious to get away from you."
+
+Hetty smiled somewhat bitterly. "Then she is only like the rest. Everybody
+at Cedar is anxious about something now."
+
+Flora Schuyler rose, and, flinging the curtains behind her, looked out at
+the night. The moon was just showing through a rift in the driving cloud,
+and she could see the bluff roll blackly down to the white frothing of the
+river. She also saw a shadowy object slipping through the gloom of the
+trees, and fancied it was a woman; but when another figure appeared for a
+moment in the moonlight the first one came flitting back again.
+
+"I believe the girl has gone out to meet somebody in the bluff," she
+said.
+
+Hetty made a little impatient gesture. "It doesn't concern us, any way."
+
+Miss Schuyler sat down again and made no answer, though she had
+misgivings, and five or ten minutes passed silently, until there was a
+tapping at the door, and the maid came in, very white in the face. She
+clutched at the nearest chair-back, and stood still, apparently incapable
+of speech, until, with a visible effort, she said: "Somebody must go and
+send him away. He is waiting in the bluff."
+
+Hetty rose with a little scream, but Flora Schuyler was before her, and
+laid her hand upon the maid's arm.
+
+"Now, try to be sensible," she said sternly. "Who is in the bluff?"
+
+The girl shivered. "It is not my fault--I didn't know what they wanted
+until the Sheriff came. I tried to tell him, but Joe saw me. Go right now,
+and send him away."
+
+Hetty was very white and trembling, but Flora Schuyler nipped the maid's
+arm.
+
+"Keep quiet, and answer just what we ask you!" she said. "Who is in the
+bluff?"
+
+"Mr. Grant," said the girl, with a gasp. "But don't ask me anything. Send
+him away. They'll kill him. Oh, you are hurting me!"
+
+Flora Schuyler shook her. "How did he come there?"
+
+"I took Miss Torrance's letter, and wrote the rest of it. I didn't know
+they meant to do him any harm, but they made me write. I had to--he said
+he would marry me."
+
+The maid writhed in an agony of fear, but she stood still shivering when
+Hetty turned towards her with a blanched face that emphasized the ominous
+glow in her dark eyes.
+
+"You wicked woman!" she said. "How dare you tell me that?"
+
+"I mean Mr. Clavering. Oh----!"
+
+The maid stopped abruptly, for Flora Schuyler drove her towards the door.
+"Go and undo your work," she said. "Slip down at the back of the bluff."
+
+"I daren't--I tried," and the girl quivered in Miss Schuyler's grasp. "If
+I could have warned him I would not have told you; but Joe saw me, and I
+was afraid. I told him to come at nine."
+
+It was evident that she was capable of doing very little just then, and
+Flora Schuyler drew her out into the corridor.
+
+"Go straight to your room and stay there," she said, and closing the door,
+glanced at Hetty. "It is quite simple. This woman has taken your
+note-paper and written Larry. He is in the bluff now, and I think she is
+right. Your friends mean to make him prisoner or shoot him."
+
+"Stop, and go away," said Hetty hoarsely. "I am going to him."
+
+Flora Schuyler placed her back to the door, and raised her hand. "No," she
+said, very quietly. "It would be better if I went in place of you. Sit
+down, and don't lose your head, Hetty!"
+
+Hetty seized her arm. "You can't--how could I let you? Larry belongs to
+me. Let me go. Every minute is worth ever so much."
+
+"There are twenty of them yet. He has come too early," said Flora
+Schuyler, with a glance at the clock. "Any way, you must understand what
+you are going to do. It was Clavering arranged this, but your father knew
+what he was doing and I think he knows everything. If you leave this house
+to-night, Hetty, everybody will know you warned Larry, and it will make a
+great difference to you. It will gain you the dislike of all your friends
+and place a barrier between you and your father which, I think, will never
+be taken away again!"
+
+Hetty laughed a very bitter laugh, and then grew suddenly quiet.
+
+"Stand aside, Flo," she said. "Nobody but Larry wants me now."
+
+Miss Schuyler saw that she was determined, and drew aside. "Then," she
+said, with a little quiver in her voice, "because I think he is in peril
+you must go, my dear. But we must be very careful, and I am coming with
+you as far as I dare."
+
+She closed the door, and then her composure seemed to fail her as they
+went out into the corridor; and it was Hetty who, treading very softly,
+took the lead. Flitting like shadows, they reached the head of the
+stairway, and stopped a moment there, Hetty's heart beating furiously. The
+passage beneath them was shadowy, but a blaze of light and a jingle of
+glasses came out of the half-opened door of the hall, where Torrance sat
+with his guests; and while they waited, they heard his voice and
+recognized the vindictive ring in it. Hetty trembled as she grasped the
+bannister.
+
+"Flo," she said, "they may come out in a minute. We have got to slip by
+somehow."
+
+They went down the stairway with skirts drawn close about them, in swift
+silence, and Hetty held her breath as she flitted past the door. There was
+a faint swish of draperies as Flora Schuyler followed her, but the murmur
+of voices drowned it; and in another minute Hetty had opened a door at the
+back of the building. Then, she gasped with relief as she felt the cold
+wind on her face, and, with Miss Schuyler close behind her, crept through
+the shadow of the house towards the bluff. When the gloom of the trees
+closed about them, she clutched her companion's shoulder.
+
+"No," she said hoarsely, "not that way. Joe is watching there. We must go
+right through the bluff and down the opposite side of it."
+
+They floundered forward, sinking ankle-deep in withered leaves and clammy
+mould, tripping over rotting branches that ripped their dresses, and
+stumbling into dripping undergrowth. There was no moon now, and it was
+very dark, and more than once Flora Schuyler valiantly suppressed the
+scream that would have been a vast relief to her, and struggled on as
+silently as she could behind her companion; but it seemed to her that
+anybody a mile away could have heard them. Then, a little trail led them
+out of the bluff on the opposite side to the house, and the roar of the
+river grew louder as they hastened on, still in the gloom of the trees,
+until something a little blacker than the shadows behind it grew into
+visibility; and when it moved a little, Flora Schuyler touched Hetty's
+arm.
+
+"Yes," she said. "It is Larry. If I didn't know the kind of man he is, I
+would not let you go. Kiss me, Hetty."
+
+Hetty stood still a second, for she understood, and then very quietly put
+both hands on Flora Schuyler's shoulders and kissed her.
+
+"It can't be very wrong; and you have been a good friend, Flo," she said.
+
+She turned, and Flora Schuyler, standing still, saw her slim figure flit
+across a strip of frost-bleached sod as the moon shone through.
+
+
+
+
+XXIX
+
+HETTY DECIDES
+
+
+It was in a pale flash of silvery light that Larry saw the girl against
+the gloom of the trees. The moaning of the birches and roar of the river
+drowned the faint sound her footsteps made, and she came upon him so
+suddenly, statuesque and slender in her trailing evening dress and
+etherealized by the moonlight, that as he looked down on the blanched
+whiteness of her upturned face, emphasized by the dusky hair, he almost
+fancied she had materialized out of the harmonies of the night. For a
+moment he sat motionless, with the rifle glinting across his saddle, and a
+tightening grip of the bridle as the big horse flung up its head, and
+then, with a sudden stirring of his blood, moved his foot in the stirrup
+and would have swung himself down if Hetty had not checked him.
+
+"No!" she said. "Back into the shadow of the trees!"
+
+Larry, seeing the fear in her face, touched the horse with his heel, and
+wheeled it with its head towards the house. He could see the warm gleam
+from the windows between the birches. Then, he turned to the girl, who
+stood gasping at his stirrup.
+
+"You sent for me, dear, and I have come. Can't you give me just a minute
+now?" he said.
+
+"No," said Hetty breathlessly, "you must go. The Sheriff is here waiting
+for you!"
+
+Larry laughed a little scornful laugh, and slackening the bridle, sat
+still, looking down on her very quietly.
+
+"I don't understand," he said. "You sent for me!"
+
+"No," the girl again gasped. "Oh, Larry, go away! Clavering and the others
+who are most bitter against you are in the house."
+
+Instinctively Larry moved his hand on the rifle and glanced towards the
+building. He could see it dimly, but no sound from it reached him, and
+Hetty, looking up, saw his face grow stern.
+
+"Still," he persisted, with a curious quietness, "somebody sent a note to
+me!"
+
+"Yes," said Hetty, turning away from him, "it was my wicked maid.
+Clavering laid the trap for you."
+
+The man sat very still a moment, and then bent with a swift resoluteness
+towards his companion.
+
+"And you came to warn me?" he said. "Hetty, dear, look up."
+
+Hetty glanced at him and saw the glow in his eyes, but she clenched her
+hand, and would have struck the horse in an agony of fear if Larry had not
+touched him with his heel and swung a pace away from her.
+
+"Oh," she gasped, "why will you waste time! Larry, they will kill you if
+they find you."
+
+Once more the little scornful smile showed upon Grant's lips, but it
+vanished and Hetty saw only the light in his eyes.
+
+"Listen a moment, dear," he said. "I have tried to do the square thing,
+but I think to-night's work relieves me of the obligation. Hetty, can't
+you see that your father would never give you to me, and you must choose
+between us sooner or later? I have waited a long while, and would try to
+wait longer if it would relieve you of the difficulty, but you will have
+to make the decision, and it can't be harder now than it would be in the
+future. Promise me you will go back to New York with Miss Schuyler, and
+stay with her until I come for you."
+
+Hetty trembled visibly, and the moonlight showed the crimson in her
+cheeks; but she looked up at him bravely. "Larry," she said, "you are
+sure--quite sure--you want me, and will be kind to me?"
+
+The man bent his head solemnly. "My dear, I have longed for you for eight
+weary years--and I think you could trust me."
+
+"Then," and Hetty's voice was very uneven, though she still met his eyes.
+"Larry, you can take me now."
+
+Larry set his lips for a moment and his face showed curiously white.
+"Think, my dear!" he said hoarsely. "It would not be fair to you. Miss
+Schuyler will take you away in a week or two, and I will come for you. I
+dare not do anything you may be sorry for; and they may find you are not
+in the house. You must go home before my strength gives way."
+
+The emotion she had struggled with swept Hetty away. "Go home!" she said
+passionately. "They wanted to kill you--and I can never go back now. If I
+did, they would know I had warned you--and believe--Can't you understand,
+Larry?"
+
+Then, the situation flashed upon Grant, and he recognized, as Hetty had
+done, that she had cast herself adrift when she left the house to warn
+him. He knew the cattle-baron's vindictiveness, and that his daughter had
+committed an offence he could not forgive. That left but one escape from
+the difficulty, and it was the one his own passions, which he had striven
+to crush down, urged him to.
+
+"Then," he said in a strained voice, "you must come with me. We can be
+married to-morrow."
+
+Hetty held up her hands to him. "I am ready. Oh, be quick. They may come
+any minute!"
+
+Larry swept his glance towards the house, and saw a shaft of radiance
+stream out as the great door opened. Then, he heard Flora Schuyler's
+voice, and, leaning downwards from the saddle, grasped both the girl's
+hands.
+
+"Yes," he said, very quietly, "they are coming now. Spring when I lift
+you. Your foot on my foot--I have you!"
+
+It was done. Hetty was active and slender, the man muscular, and both had
+been taught, not only to ride, but master the half-wild broncho by a
+superior daring and an equal agility, in a land where the horse is not
+infrequently roped and thrown before it is mounted. But Larry breathed
+hard as, with his arm about her waist, he held the girl in front of him,
+and felt her cheek hot against his lips. The next moment he pressed his
+heels home and the big horse swung forward under its double burden.
+
+A shout rang out behind them, and there was a crackling in the bluff.
+Then, a rifle flashed, and just as a cloud drove across the moon, another
+cry rose up:
+
+"Quit firing. He has the girl with him!"
+
+Larry fancied he could hear men floundering behind him amidst the trees,
+and a trampling of hoofs about the house, but as he listened another rifle
+flashed away to the right of them on the prairie, and a beat of hoofs
+followed it that for a moment puzzled him. He laughed huskily.
+
+"Breckenridge! He'll draw them off," he said. "Hold fast! We have got to
+face the river."
+
+It was very evident that he had not a second to lose. Mounted men were
+crashing recklessly through the bluff and more of them riding at a gallop
+across the grassy slope; but the darkness hid them as it hid the
+fugitives, and the big horse held on, until there was a plunge and a
+splashing, and they were in the river. Larry slipped from the saddle, and
+Hetty saw him floundering by the horse's head as she thrust her foot into
+the stirrup.
+
+"Slack your bridle," he said sharply. "The beast will bring us through."
+
+The command came when it was needed, for Hetty was almost dismayed, and
+its curtness was bracing. There was no moon now, but she could dimly see
+the white swirling of the flood, and the gurgling roar of it throbbed
+about her hoarse and threatening, suggesting the perils the darkness hid.
+Her light skirt trailed in the water, and a shock of icy cold ran through
+her as one shoe dipped under. Larry was on his feet yet, but there was a
+fierce white frothing about him, and when in another pace or two he
+slipped down she broke into a stifled scream. The next moment she saw his
+face again faintly white beneath her amidst the sliding foam, and fancied
+that he was swimming or being dragged along. The horse, she felt, had lost
+its footing, and had its head up stream. How long this lasted she did not
+know, but it seemed an interminable time, and the dull roar of the water
+grew louder and deafened her, while the blackness that closed in became
+insupportable.
+
+"Larry!" she gasped. "Larry, are you there!"
+
+A faintly heard voice made answer, and Grant appeared again, shoulder-deep
+in the flood, while the dipping and floundering of the beast beneath her
+showed that the hoofs had found uncertain hold; but that relief only
+lasted a moment, and they were once more sliding down-stream, until, when
+they swung round in an eddy, the head that showed now and then dimly
+beside her stirrup was lost altogether, and in an agony of terror the girl
+cried aloud.
+
+There was no answer, but after a horrible moment or two had passed a
+half-seen arm and shoulder rose out of the flood, and the sudden drag on
+the bridle that slipped from her fingers was very reassuring. The horse
+plunged and floundered, and once more Hetty felt her dragging skirt was
+clear of the water.
+
+"Through the worst!" a voice that reached her faintly said, and they were
+splashing on again, the water growing shallower all the time until they
+scrambled out upon the opposite bank. Then, the man checking the horse,
+stood by her stirrup, pressing the water from the hem of her skirt,
+rubbing the little open shoe with his handkerchief, which was saturated.
+Even in that hour of horror Hetty laughed.
+
+"Larry," she said, "don't be ridiculous. You couldn't dry it that way in a
+week. Lift me down instead."
+
+Larry held up his hands to her, for on that side of the river the slope to
+the level was steep, and when he swung her down the girl kissed him
+lightly on either cheek.
+
+"That was because of what we have been through, dear," she said. "There
+was a horrible moment, when I could not see you anywhere."
+
+She stopped and held up her hand as though listening, and Larry laughed
+softly as a faint drumming of hoofs came back to them through the roar of
+the flood.
+
+"Breckenridge! He must have Muller or somebody with him, and they are
+chasing him," he said. "I didn't know he was following me, but he is
+gaining us valuable time, and we will push on again. Your friends will
+find out they are following the wrong man very soon, but we should get
+another horse at Muller's before they can ride round by the bridge."
+
+They scrambled up the slope, and after Hetty mounted Larry ran with his
+hand on the stirrup for a while, until once more he made the staunch beast
+carry a double load. He was running again when they came clattering up to
+Muller's homestead and the fraeulein, who was apparently alone, stared at
+them in astonishment when she opened the door. The water still dripped
+from Larry, and Hetty's light, bedraggled dress clung about her, while the
+moisture trickled from her little open-fronted shoes. She was hatless, and
+loosened wisps of dusky hair hung low about her face, which turned faintly
+crimson under the fraeulein's gaze.
+
+"Miss Torrance!" exclaimed the girl.
+
+"Well," said Larry quietly, "she will be Mrs. Grant to-morrow if you will
+lend me a horse and not mention the fact that you have seen us when
+Torrance's boys come round. Where is your father?"
+
+Miss Muller nodded with comprehending sympathy. "He two hours since with
+Mr. Breckenridge go," she said. "There is new horse in the stable, and you
+on the rack a saddle for lady find."
+
+Larry was outside in a moment, and a smile crept into the fraeulein's blue
+eyes. "He is of the one thing at the time alone enabled to think," she
+said. "It is so with the man, but a dress with the water soaked is not
+convenient to ride at night in."
+
+She led Hetty into her own room, and when Larry, who had spent some time
+changing one of the saddles, came back, he stared in astonishment at
+Hetty, who sat at the table. She now wore, among other garments that were
+too big for her, a fur cap and coarse, serge skirt. There was a steaming
+cup of coffee in front of her.
+
+"Now, that shows how foolish one can be," he said. "I was clean forgetting
+about the clothes; but we must start again."
+
+Hetty rose up, and with a little blush held out the cup. "You are wet to
+the neck, Larry, and it will do you good," she said. "If you don't
+mind--we needn't wait until Miss Muller gets another cup."
+
+Larry's eyes gleamed. "I have run over most of Europe, but they grow no
+wine there that was half as nice as the tea we made in the black can back
+there in the bluff. Quite often in those days we hadn't a cup at all."
+
+He drank, and forthwith turned his head away, while a quiver seemed to run
+through him; but when Hetty moved towards him the fraeulein laughed.
+
+"It nothing is," she said. "It is, perhaps, the effect tobacco have, but
+the mouth is soft in a man."
+
+Then, as Larry turned towards them she laid her hands on Hetty's
+shoulders, and kissed her gravely. "You have trust in him," she said. "It
+is of no use afraid to be. I quick take a man like Mr. Grant when he ask
+me."
+
+The next moment they were outside, and when he helped her to the saddle,
+Hetty glanced shyly at her companion. "The fraeulein is right," she said.
+"But, Larry, will you tell me--where we are going?"
+
+"To Windsor. I have still good friends there. That is the prosaic fact,
+but there is ever so much behind it. We can't see the trail just now,
+dear, but we are riding out into the future that has all kinds of
+brightness in store."
+
+A silvery gleam fell on the girl as a billow of cloud rolled slowly from a
+rift of blue, and she laughed almost exultantly.
+
+"Larry," she said, "it is coming true. Of course, it's a portent. There's
+the darkness going and the moon shining through. Oh, I have done with
+misgiving now!"
+
+She shook the bridle, and swept from him at a gallop, and the
+thaw-softened sod was whirling in clods behind them when Larry drew level
+with her. He knew it was not prudent, but the fever in his blood mastered
+his reason, and he sent the stockrider's cry ringing across the levels as
+they sped on through the night. The damp wind screamed by them, lashing
+their hot cheeks, the beat of hoofs swelled into a roar as they swept
+through a shadowy bluff, and driving cloud and rift of indigo flitted past
+above. Beneath, the long, frost-bleached levels, gleaming silvery grey now
+under the moon, flitted back to the drumming hoofs, while willow clump and
+straggling birches rose up, and rushed by, blurred and shadowy.
+
+They were young, and the cares that must be faced again on the morrow had,
+for a brief space, fallen from them. They had bent to the strain to the
+breaking point, and now it had gone, everything was forgotten but the love
+each bore the other. All senses were merged in it, and while the
+exaltation lasted there was no room for thought or fear. It was, however,
+the man who remembered first, for a few dark patches caught his eye when
+they went at a headlong gallop down the slope.
+
+"Pull him!" he cried hoarsely. "'Ware badger holes! Swing to the
+right-wide!"
+
+The girl swerved, but she still held on with loose bridle, until Larry,
+swaying in his saddle, clutched at it. Then, as he swung upright, half a
+length ahead, with empty hands, she flung herself a trifle backwards and
+there was a brief struggle; but it was at a trot they climbed the opposite
+slope.
+
+"Now," she said, with a happy little laugh, "we are sensible once more;
+but, while I knew it couldn't last, I wanted to gallop on for ever. Larry,
+I wonder if we will ever feel just the same again? There are enjoyments
+that can't come to anyone more than once."
+
+"There are others one can have all the time, and we'll think of them
+to-night," said the man. "There are bright days before us, and we can wait
+until they come."
+
+Hetty smiled, almost sadly. "Of course!" she said, "but no bright day can
+be quite the same as this moonlight to me. It shone down on us when I rode
+out into the night and darkness without knowing where I was going, and
+only that you were beside me. You will stay there always now."
+
+They held on across the empty waste while the hours of darkness slipped
+by, and the sun was rising red above the great levels' rim when the roofs
+of a wooden town rose in front of them. As the frame houses slowly grew
+into form, Hetty painfully straightened herself. Her face was white and
+weary and it was by a strenuous effort she held herself upright, the big
+horse limped a little, and the mire was spattered thick upon her; but she
+met the man's eyes, and, though her lips trembled, smiled bravely.
+
+Larry saw and understood, and his face grew grave. "I have a good deal to
+make up to you, Hetty, and I will try to do it faithfully," he said.
+"Still, we will look forward with hope and courage now--it is our wedding
+day."
+
+Hetty glanced away from him across the prairie, and the man fancied he saw
+her fingers tremble on the bridle.
+
+"It is hard to ask you, Larry--though I know it shouldn't be--but have you
+a few dollars that you could give me?"
+
+The man smiled happily. "All that is mine is yours, and, as it happens, I
+have two or three bills in my wallet. Is there anything you wish to buy?"
+
+Hetty glanced down, flushing, at the bedraggled dress. "Larry," she said
+softly. "I couldn't marry you like this. I haven't one dollar in my
+pocket--and I am coming to you with nothing, dear."
+
+The smile faded out of Larry's eyes. "I scarcely dare remember all that
+you have given up for me! And if you had taken Clavering or one of the
+others you would have ridden to your wedding with a hundred men behind
+you, as rich as a princess."
+
+Hetty, sitting, jaded and bespattered, on the limping horse, flashed a
+swift glance at him, and smiled out of slightly misty eyes.
+
+"It happened," she said, "that I was particular, or fanciful, and there
+was only one man--the one that would take me without a dollar, in borrowed
+clothes--who seemed good enough for me."
+
+They rode on past a stockyard, and into a rutted street of bare frame
+houses, and Hetty was glad they scarcely met anybody. Then, Larry helped
+her down, and, thrusting a wallet into her hands, knocked at the door of a
+house beside a store. The man who opened it stared at them, and when Larry
+had drawn him aside called his wife. She took Hetty's chilled hand in both
+her own, and the storekeeper smiled at Larry.
+
+"You come right along and put some of my things on," he said. "Then, you
+are going with me to have breakfast at the hotel, and talk to the judge. I
+guess the women aren't going to have any use for us."
+
+It was some time later when they came back to the store, and for just a
+minute Grant saw Hetty alone. She was dressed very plainly in new
+garments, and blushed when he looked gravely down on her.
+
+"That dress is not good enough for you," he said. "It is very different
+from what you have been accustomed to."
+
+Hetty glanced at him shyly. "You will have very few dollars to spare,
+Larry, until the trouble's through," she said, "and you will be my husband
+in an hour or two."
+
+
+
+
+XXX
+
+LARRY'S WEDDING DAY
+
+
+Hetty was married in haste, without benefit of clergy, while several men,
+with resolute faces, kept watch outside the judge's door, and two who were
+mounted sat gazing across the prairie on a rise outside the town. After
+the declarations were made and signed, the judge turned to Hetty, who
+stood smiling bravely, though her eyes were a trifle misty, by Larry's
+side.
+
+"Now I have something to tell your husband, Mrs. Grant," he said. "You
+will have to spare him for about five minutes."
+
+Hetty's lips quivered, for she recognized the gravity of his tone, and it
+was not astonishing that for a moment or two she turned her face aside.
+She had endeavoured to look forward hopefully and banish regrets; but the
+prosaic sordidness of the little dusty office, and the absence of anything
+that might have imparted significance or dignity to the hurried ceremony,
+had not been without their effect. She had seen other weddings in New York
+as well as in the cattle country, and knew what pomp and festivities would
+have attended hers had she married with her father's goodwill. After all,
+it was the greatest day in most women's lives, and she felt the
+unseemliness of the rite that had made her and Larry man and wife. Still,
+the fact remained, and, brushing her misgivings away, she glanced up at
+her husband.
+
+"It must concern us both now," she said. "May I hear?"
+
+"Well," said the judge, who looked a trifle embarrassed, "I guess you are
+right, and Larry would have to tell you; but it's not a pleasant task to
+me. It is just this--we can't keep you and your husband any longer in this
+town."
+
+"Are you against us, too?" Hetty asked, with a flash in her eyes. "I am
+not afraid."
+
+The judge made her a little respectful inclination. "You are Torrance of
+Cedar's daughter, and everyone knows the kind of grit there is in that
+family. While I knew the cattle-men would raise a good deal of
+unpleasantness when I married you, I did it out of friendliness for Larry;
+but it is my duty to uphold the law, and I can't have your husband's
+friends and your father's cow-boys making trouble here."
+
+"Larry," said the girl tremulously, "we must go on again."
+
+Grant's face grew stern. "No," he said. "You shall stay here in spite of
+them until you feel fit to ride for the railroad."
+
+Just then a man came in. "Battersly saw Torrance with the Sheriff and
+Clavering and quite a band of cow-boys ride by the trail forks an hour
+ago," he said. "They were heading for Hamlin's, but they'd make this place
+in two hours when they didn't find Larry there."
+
+There was an impressive silence. Hetty shuddered, and the fear in her eyes
+was unmistakable when she laid her hand on her husband's arm.
+
+"We must go," she said. "It would be too horrible if you should meet
+him."
+
+"Mrs. Grant is right," said the storekeeper. "We know Torrance of Cedar,
+and if you stayed here, Larry, you and she might be sorry all your lives.
+Now, you could, by riding hard, make Canada to-morrow."
+
+Grant stifled a groan, and though his face was grim his voice was
+compassionate as he turned to Hetty.
+
+"Are you very tired?" he said gently. "It must be the saddle again."
+
+Hetty said nothing, but she pressed his arm, and her eyes shone mistily
+when they went out together. Half an hour later they rode out of the town,
+and Grant turned to her when the clustering houses dipped behind a billowy
+rise, and they were once more alone in the empty prairie, with their faces
+towards Canada.
+
+"I am 'most ashamed to look at you, but you will forgive me, little girl,"
+he said. "There are brighter days before us than your wedding one, and by
+and by I hope you will not be sorry you have borne so much for me."
+
+Hetty's lips quivered a little, but the pride of the cattle-barons shone
+in her eyes. "I have nothing to forgive and am only very tired," she said.
+"I shall never be sorry while you are kind to me, and I would have ridden
+to Canada if I had known that it would have killed me. The one thing I am
+afraid of is that you and he should meet."
+
+They rode on, speaking but seldom as the leagues went by, for Grant had
+much to think of and Hetty was very weary. Indeed, she swayed unevenly in
+her saddle, while the long, billowy levels shining in the sunlight rolled
+back, as it were, interminably to them, and now and then only saved
+herself from a fall by a clutch at the bridle. There were times when a
+drowsiness that would scarcely be shaken off crept upon her, and she
+roused herself with a strenuous effort and a horrible fear at her heart,
+knowing that if her strength failed her the blood of husband or father
+might be upon her head.
+
+The sky was blue above them, the white sod warm below, and already
+chequered here and there with green; and, advancing in long battalion,
+crane and goose and mallard came up from the south to follow the sun
+towards the Pole. The iron winter had fled before it, and all nature
+smiled; but Hetty, who had often swept the prairie at a wild gallop, with
+her blood responding to the thrill of reawakening life that was in
+everything, rode with a set white face and drooping head, and Larry
+groaned as he glanced at her.
+
+Late in the afternoon they dismounted, and Hetty lay with her head upon
+his shoulder while they rested amidst the grass. The provisions the
+storekeeper had given them were scattered about, but Hetty had tasted
+nothing, and Grant had only forced himself to swallow a few mouthfuls with
+difficulty. He had thrown an arm about her, and she lay with eyes closed,
+motionless.
+
+Suddenly he raised his head and looked about him. Save for the sighing of
+the warm wind, the prairie was very still, and a low, white rise cut off
+from sight the leagues they had left behind, but, though a man from the
+cities would have heard nothing at all, Larry, straining his ears to
+listen, heard a sound just audible creep out of the silence. For a moment
+he sat rigid and intent, wondering if it was made by a flight of cranes;
+but he could see no dusky stain on the blue beyond the rise, and his
+fingers closed upon the rifle as the sound grew plainer. It rose and fell
+with a staccato rhythm in it, and he recognized the beat of hoofs.
+Turning, he gently touched the girl.
+
+"Hetty, you must rouse yourself," he said, with a pitiful quiver in his
+voice.
+
+The girl slowly lifted her head, and glanced about her in a half-dazed
+fashion. Then, with an effort, she drew one foot under her, and again the
+fear shadowed her face.
+
+"Oh," she said, "they're coming! Lift me, dear."
+
+Larry gently raised her to her feet, but it was a minute or two before she
+could stand upright, and the man's face was haggard when he lifted her to
+the saddle.
+
+"I think the end has come," he said. "You can ride no farther."
+
+Hetty swayed a little; but she clutched the bridle, and a faint sparkle
+showed in her half-closed eyes.
+
+"They want to take you from me. We will go on until we drop," she said.
+
+Larry got into the saddle, though he did not know how he accomplished it,
+and looked ahead anxiously as he shook the bridle. Away on the rim of the
+prairie there was a dusky smear, and he knew it was a birch-bluff, which
+would, if they could reach it, afford them shelter. In the open he would
+be at the cow-boys' mercy; but a desperate man might at least check some
+of the pursuers among the trees, and he was not sure that Torrance, whose
+years must tell, would be among them. There was a very faint hope yet.
+
+They went on at a gallop, though the horses obtained at Windsor were
+already jaded, and very slowly the bluff grew higher. Glancing over his
+shoulder, Grant saw a few moving objects straggle across the crest of the
+rise. They seemed to grow plainer while he watched them, and more appeared
+behind.
+
+"We will make the bluff before them," he said hoarsely. "Ride!"
+
+He drove his heels home; but the beast he rode was flagging fast when,
+knowing how Torrance's cow-boys were mounted, he glanced behind again. He
+could see them distinctly now, straggling, with wide hats bent by the wind
+and jackets fluttering, across the prairie. Here and there a rifle-barrel
+glinted, and the beat of their horses' hoofs reached him plainly. One,
+riding furiously a few lengths ahead of the foremost, he guessed was
+Clavering, and he fancied he recognized the Sheriff in another; but he
+could not discern Torrance anywhere. He turned his eyes ahead and watched
+the bluff rise higher, though the white levels seemed to flit back to him
+with an exasperating slowness. Beyond it a faint grey smear rose towards
+the blue; but the jaded horse demanded most of his attention, for the sod
+was slippery here and there where the snow had lain in a hollow, and the
+beast stumbled now and then.
+
+Still, the birches were drawing nearer, and Hetty holding ahead of him,
+though the roar of hoofs behind him told that the pursuers were coming up
+fast. He was not certain yet that he could reach the trees before they
+came upon him, and was clawing with one hand at his rifle when Hetty cried
+out faintly:
+
+"There are more of them in front."
+
+Grant set his lips as a band of horsemen swung out of the shadows of the
+bluff. His eyes caught and recognized the glint of sunlight on metal; but
+in another moment his heart leaped, for through the drumming of their
+hoofs there came the musical jingle of steel, and he saw the men were
+dressed in blue uniform. He swung up his hat exultantly, and his voice
+reached the girl, hoarse and strained with relief.
+
+"We are through. They are United States cavalry!"
+
+The horsemen came on at a trot, until Grant and the girl rode up to them.
+Then, they pulled up, and when Grant had helped Hetty down their officer,
+who wheeled his horse, sat gazing at them curiously. Grant did not at once
+recognize him, but Hetty gasped.
+
+"Larry," she said faintly, "it's Jack Cheyne."
+
+Grant drew her hand within his arm, and walked slowly forward past the
+wondering troopers. Then he raised his broad hat.
+
+"I claim your protection for my wife, Captain Cheyne," he said.
+
+Cheyne sat very still a moment, looking down on him with a strained
+expression in his face; and Grant, who saw it, glanced at Hetty. She was
+leaning heavily upon him, her garments spattered with mire, but he could
+not see her eyes. Then Cheyne nodded gravely.
+
+"Mrs. Grant can count upon it," he said. "Those men were chasing you?"
+
+"Yes," said Grant. "One of them is the Sheriff. I believe he intends to
+arrest me."
+
+"Sheriff Slocane?"
+
+"Yes. I shall resist capture by him; but I heard that the civil law would
+be suspended in this district, and if that has been done, I will give
+myself up to you."
+
+Cheyne nodded again. "Give one of the boys your rifle, and step back with
+Mrs. Grant in the meanwhile. You are on parole."
+
+He said something sharply, and there was a trample of hoofs and jingle of
+steel as the troopers swung into changed formation. They sat still as the
+cattle-men rode up, and when Clavering reined his horse in a few lengths
+away from them Cheyne acknowledged his salute.
+
+"We have come after a notorious disturber of this district who has, I
+notice, taken refuge with you," he said. "I must ask you to give him up."
+
+"I'm sorry," said Cheyne firmly. "It can't be done just yet."
+
+Clavering glanced at the men behind him--and there were a good many of
+them, all without fear, and irresponsible; then he looked at the little
+handful of troopers, and Cheyne's face hardened as he saw the insolent
+significance of his glance.
+
+"Hadn't you better think it over? The boys are a little difficult to hold
+in hand, and we can't go back without our man," he said.
+
+Cheyne eyed him steadily. "Mr. Grant has given himself up to me. If there
+is any charge against him it shall be gone into. In the meanwhile, draw
+your men off and dismount if you wish to talk to me."
+
+Clavering sat perfectly still, with an ironical smile on his lips. "Be
+wise, and don't thrust yourself into this affair, which does not concern
+you, or you may regret it," he said. "Here is a gentleman who will
+convince you."
+
+He backed his horse as another man rode forward and with an assumption of
+importance addressed Cheyne. "Now," he said, "we don't want any
+unpleasantness, but I have come for the person of Larry Grant, and I mean
+to take him."
+
+"Will you tell me who I have the honour of addressing?" said Cheyne.
+
+"Sheriff Slocane. I have a warrant for Larry Grant, and you will put me to
+any inconvenience in carrying it out at your peril."
+
+Cheyne smiled drily. "Then, as it is evidently some days since you left
+home, I am afraid I have bad news for you. You are superseded, Mr.
+Slocane."
+
+The Sheriff's face flushed darkly, Clavering's grew set, and there was an
+angry murmur from the men behind them.
+
+"Boys," said Clavering, "are you going to be beaten by Larry again?"
+
+There was a trampling of hoofs as some of the cow-boys edged their horses
+closer, and the murmurs grew louder; but Cheyne flung up one hand.
+
+"Another word, and I'll arrest you, Mr. Clavering," he said. "Sling those
+rifles, all of you! I have another troop with horses picketed behind the
+bluff."
+
+There was sudden silence until the Sheriff spoke. "Boys," he said, "don't
+be blamed fools when it isn't any use. Larry has come out on top again.
+But I don't know that I am sorry I have done with him and the
+cattle-men."
+
+The men made no further sign of hostility, and Cheyne turned to the
+Sheriff. "Thank you," he said. "Now, I have to inform you that this
+district is under martial law, and I have been entrusted, within limits,
+with jurisdiction. If you and Mr. Clavering have any offences to urge
+against Grant, I shall be pleased to hear you. In that case you can tell
+your men to picket their horses, and follow me to our bivouac."
+
+The two men dismounted, and while Hetty sat trembling amidst the birches
+talked for half an hour in Cheyne's tent. Then, Clavering, who saw that
+they were gaining little, lost his head, and stood up white with anger.
+
+"We are wasting time," he said. "Still, I warn you that the State will
+hold you responsible if you turn that man loose again. Our wishes can
+still command a certain attention in high places."
+
+Cheyne smiled coldly. "I shall be quite prepared to account for whatever I
+do. The State, I fancy, is not to be dictated to by the cattle-men's
+committees. It is, of course, no affair of mine, but I can't help thinking
+that it will prove a trifle unfortunate for one or two of you that, when
+you asked for more cavalry, you were listened to."
+
+"Well," said the Sheriff dejectedly, "I quite fancy it will be; but I'm
+not going to worry. The cattle-men made it blamed unpleasant for me. What
+was I superseded for, any way?"
+
+"Incapacity and corruption, I believe," Cheyne said drily.
+
+Clavering stood still a moment, with an unpleasant look in his eyes, but
+the Sheriff, who seemed the least disconcerted, touched his arm.
+
+"You come along before you do something you will be sorry for," he said.
+"I'm not anxious for any unnecessary trouble, and it would have been
+considerably more sensible if I had stood in with the homestead-boys."
+
+They went away, and Cheyne led Larry, who had been confronted with them,
+back to where Hetty was sitting.
+
+"I understand the men left your father behind, some distance back," he
+said. "He was more fatigued than the rest and his horse went lame. Your
+husband's case will have consideration, but I scarcely fancy he need have
+any great apprehension, and I must try to make you comfortable in the
+meanwhile."
+
+Hetty glanced up at him with her eyes shining and quivering lips. "Thank
+you," she said quietly. "Larry, I am so tired."
+
+Cheyne called an orderly, and ten minutes later led her to a tent. "Your
+husband placed you in my charge, and I must ask for obedience," he said.
+"You will eat and drink what you see there, and then go to sleep. I will
+take good care of Mr. Grant."
+
+He drew Larry away and sat talking with him for a while, then bade an
+orderly find him a waterproof sheet and rug. Larry was asleep within ten
+minutes, and the moon was shining above the bluff when he awakened and
+moved to the tent where Hetty lay. Drawing back the canvas, he crept in
+softly and dropped almost reverently on one knee beside her. He could hear
+her faint, restful breathing, and the little hand he felt for was
+pleasantly cool. As he stooped and touched her forehead with his lips, the
+fingers closed a trifle on his own, and the girl moved in her sleep.
+"Larry," she said drowsily, "Larry, dear!"
+
+Grant drew his hand away very softly, and went out with his heart
+throbbing furiously, to find Cheyne waiting in the vicinity. His face
+showed plain in the moonlight, and it was quietly grave; but Grant once
+more saw the expression in it that had astonished him. Now, however, he
+understood it, and Cheyne knew that he did so. They stood quite still a
+moment, looking into each other's eyes.
+
+"Mrs. Grant is resting well?" Cheyne asked.
+
+"Yes," said Larry. "I owe a good deal to you."
+
+It did not express what they felt, but they understood each other, and
+Cheyne smiled a little. "You need not thank me yet. Your case will require
+consideration, and if the new Sheriff urges his predecessor's charge, I
+shall pass it on. In the meantime I have sent to Windsor for a buggy, in
+which you can take Mrs. Grant away to-morrow."
+
+It was early next morning when the buggy arrived, and Cheyne, who ordered
+two troopers to lead the hired horses, had a hasty breakfast served. When
+the plates had been removed he turned to Hetty with a smile.
+
+"I have decided to release your husband--on condition that he drives
+straight back to his homestead and stays there with you," he said. "The
+State has undertaken to keep order and give every man what he is entitled
+to now; and if we find Mr. Grant has a finger in any further trouble, I
+shall blame you."
+
+He handed Hetty into the buggy, passed the reins to Larry, and stood alone
+looking after them as they drove away. Hetty turned to her husband, with a
+blush in her cheek.
+
+"Larry," she said softly, "I have something to tell you."
+
+Grant checked her with a smile. "I have guessed it already; and it means a
+new responsibility."
+
+"I don't understand," said Hetty.
+
+Again the little twinkle showed in Larry's eyes. "Well," he said quietly,
+"that you should have taken me when you had men of his kind to choose from
+means a good deal. I wouldn't like you to find out that you had been
+mistaken, Hetty."
+
+
+
+
+XXXI
+
+TORRANCE RIDES AWAY
+
+
+It was late at night, and Miss Schuyler, sitting alone in Hetty's room,
+found the time pass very heavily. She had raised her voice in warning when
+the cow-boys mounted the night Grant had ridden away with Hetty, and had
+seen the fugitives vanish into the darkness, but since then she had had no
+news of them, for while Breckenridge had arrived at Cedar the next day, in
+custody of two mounted men, nobody would tell him what had really
+happened. Her first impulse had been to ask for an escort to the depot and
+take the cars for New York, but she was intensely anxious to discover
+whether Hetty had evaded pursuit, and her pride forbade her slipping away
+without announcing her intention to Torrance, who had not yet come back to
+the Range. She felt that something was due to him, especially as she had
+not regained the house unnoticed when the pursuit commenced.
+
+Rising, she moved restlessly up and down the room; but that in no way
+lessened the suspense, and sitting down again she resolutely took up a
+book, but she listened instead of reading it. There was, however, no sound
+from the prairie, and the house seemed exasperatingly still.
+
+"You will have to shake this nervousness off or you will make a fool of
+yourself before that man," she muttered.
+
+She felt that she had sat there a very long while, though the clock showed
+that scarcely an hour had passed, when at last there was a rattle of
+wheels and a trampling of hoofs outside. The great door opened, and after
+that there was an apparently interminable silence, until Hetty's maid came
+in.
+
+"If it is convenient, Mr. Torrance would like to speak to you," she said.
+
+Flora Schuyler rose and followed the girl down the corridor; but her heart
+beat faster than usual when the door of Torrance's room closed behind her.
+The stove was no longer lighted, and Torrance stood beside the hearth,
+which was littered with half-consumed papers, and Miss Schuyler, who knew
+his precision in dress, noticed that he still wore the bespattered
+garments he had ridden in. But it was the grimness of his face, and the
+weariness in his pose, which seized her attention and aroused a curious
+sympathy for him. He glanced at her sharply, with stern, dark eyes.
+
+"I have to thank you for coming, but I am going to talk plainly," he said.
+"You connived at the meetings between my daughter and the rascally
+adventurer who has married her?"
+
+"They are married?" exclaimed Miss Schuyler in her eagerness, and the next
+moment felt the blood rise to her face as she realized that she had
+blundered in admitting any doubt upon the subject. "I mean, of course,
+that I wondered whether Mr. Grant could have arranged it so soon."
+
+"You seem to attach a good deal of importance to the ceremony," Torrance
+said, with a bitter smile. "Marriage is quite easy in this country."
+
+Miss Schuyler was not deficient in courage of one kind, and she looked at
+him steadily. "I came down to speak to you because it seemed your due,"
+she said, "but I have no intention of listening to any jibes at my
+friends."
+
+Torrance made her a little half-respectful and half-ironical inclination.
+"Then will you be good enough to answer my question?"
+
+"Though most of the few meetings were accidental, I went with Hetty
+intentionally on two occasions because it seemed fitting."
+
+"It seemed fitting that a girl should betray her father to the man who
+wanted to ruin him, supply him with the dollars that helped him in his
+scheme, and, more than all, warn him of each move we made! Well, my
+standard is not very high, but the most cruel blow I have had to bear was
+the discovery that my daughter had fallen so far."
+
+The hoarseness of his voice, and the sight of the damp upon his forehead,
+had a calming effect upon Miss Schuyler. Her anger against the old man had
+given place to pity, for she decided that what had passed would have
+excited most men's suspicions, and it was not in Hetty's defence alone she
+made an effort to undeceive him.
+
+"I am going to answer you plainly, and I think an examination of Hetty's
+cheque-book and the money she left behind will bear me out," she said.
+"Once only did Hetty give Mr. Grant any dollars--fifty of them, I think,
+to feed some hungry children. He would not take them until she assured him
+that they were a part of a small annuity left her by her mother, and that
+not one of them came from you. I also know that Mr. Grant allowed his
+friends to suspect him of being bribed by you sooner than tell them where
+he obtained the dollars in question. The adventurer dealt most honourably
+with you. Your daughter twice disclosed your plans, once when Clavering
+had plotted Grant's arrest, and again when had she not done so it would
+most assuredly have led to the destruction of the cattle-train. Mr.
+Clavering came near making a horrible blunder on that occasion, and but
+for Hetty's warning not a head of your stock would have reached Omaha."
+
+Her tone carried conviction with it, as did the flash in her eyes, but
+Torrance's smile was sardonic. "You would try to persuade me Larry saved
+the train out of goodwill to us?"
+
+"He did it, knowing what it was going to cost him, to prevent the men he
+led starting on a course of outrage and lawlessness."
+
+"And they have paid him for it!"
+
+"I fancy that is outside the question," said Miss Schuyler. "Twice, when
+every good impulse that is in our kind laid her under compulsion, Hetty
+warned the man she loved, but at no other time did a word to your
+prejudice pass her lips; and if she had spoken it Grant would not have
+listened. Hetty was loyal, and he treated you with a fairness that none of
+you merited. You sent the Sheriff a bribe and an order for his arrest, and
+by inadvertence it fell into his hands. He brought it back here unopened
+at his peril."
+
+Torrance looked at her in astonishment. "He brought back my letter to the
+Sheriff?"
+
+"Yes. There was nothing else a man of that kind could have done."
+
+Torrance stood silent for a space, and then, stooping, picked up a
+half-burnt paper from the hearth, glanced at it with a curious expression,
+and flung it into the embers. When it had charred away he turned to Miss
+Schuyler.
+
+"You have shown yourself a good friend," he said gravely. "Still, you may
+understand the other side of the question if you listen to me."
+
+He turned and pointed to an empty tin case, and the charred papers in the
+hearth. "That is the end of the plans of half a lifetime--and they were
+all for Hetty. I had no one else after her mother was taken from me, and I
+scraped the dollars together for her, that she should have what her heart
+could wish for, and the enjoyments her parents had never known; and while
+I did so I and the others built up the prosperity of the cattle country.
+We fed the railroads and built the towns, and when we would have rested,
+Larry and his friends took hold. You see what they have made of it--a
+great industry ruined, the country under martial law, its commerce
+crippled, and the proclamation that can only mean disaster to us hung out
+everywhere. My daughter turned against me--and nothing left me but to go
+out, a wanderer! Larry has done his work thoroughly, and you would have me
+make friends with him?"
+
+Miss Schuyler made a little sympathetic gesture, for he seemed very jaded
+and weary. "No," she said. "One could not expect too much, but Hetty is
+your daughter, the only one you have, and for her mother's sake you will
+at least do nothing that would embitter her life."
+
+Torrance looked at her with a curious smile. "There is nothing I could do.
+Larry and the rabble are our masters now; but I will see her once before I
+go away. Is there any other thing--that would be a little easier--I could
+do to please you?"
+
+"Yes. You could release Mr. Breckenridge."
+
+Torrance turned and struck a bell. "I had almost forgotten him. Will you
+wait and see me do what you have asked me?"
+
+In a few minutes more Breckenridge was ushered in. He smiled at Miss
+Schuyler, and made Torrance a slight, dignified salutation. Torrance
+acknowledged it courteously.
+
+"You have yourself to blame for any inconvenience you have been put to,
+Mr. Breckenridge," he said. "You conspired to assist your partner in an
+undertaking you could not expect me to forgive."
+
+"No," said Breckenridge. "I offered to ride with Larry, and he would not
+have me. I went without him knowing it and made my plans myself?"
+
+"This is the truth?"
+
+Breckenridge straightened himself and looked at Torrance with a little
+flash in his eye. "You must take my word--I shall not substantiate it. If
+you had had an army corps of cut-throats ready to do what you told them
+that night, Larry would have gone alone."
+
+Torrance nodded gravely. "It is taken. At least, you bluffed us into
+following you."
+
+"Yes," and Breckenridge smiled, "I did. I also prevented my companion
+shooting one of your friends, as he seemed quite anxious to do. I don't
+wish to hurt your feelings, sir, but I have not the least regret for
+anything I did that night."
+
+"Then, you are still very bitter against me?"
+
+Breckenridge considered. "No, sir. The one man I am bitter against is
+Clavering. Now, it may sound presumptuous, and not come very well from me,
+but I believe that Clavering, for his own purposes, forced your hand, and
+I had a certain respect for you, if only because of your thoroughness. You
+see, one can't help realizing that you can look at every question quite
+differently."
+
+Torrance smiled drily. "Then if you are not too proud to be my guest
+to-night, I should be glad of your company and will find you a horse to
+take you back to Fremont when it suits you."
+
+Breckenridge, for some reason that was not very apparent, seemed pleased
+to agree, but a faint smile just showed in Torrance's eyes when he went
+out again. Then, he turned to Miss Schuyler.
+
+"I wonder what Mr. Clavering has done to win everybody's dislike," he
+said. "You do not seem anxious to plead for him."
+
+Flora Schuyler's face grew almost vindictive. "No," she said, "I don't. I
+can, however, mention one thing I find it difficult to forgive him. When
+you promised him Hetty he had found favour with her maid, and made the
+most of the fact. It was not flattering to your daughter or my friend. He
+may not have told you that he promised to marry her."
+
+Torrance stared at her a moment, a dark flush rising to his forehead. "You
+are quite sure?"
+
+"Ask the girl," said Flora Schuyler.
+
+Torrance struck the bell again, and waited until the maid came in. "I
+understand Mr. Clavering promised to marry you," he said very quietly.
+"You would be willing to take him?"
+
+The girl's face grew a trifle pale, and she glanced at Miss Schuyler who
+nodded encouragingly.
+
+"Yes," she said.
+
+Torrance smiled, but Miss Schuyler did not like the glint in his eyes.
+"Then," he said with incisive distinctness, "if you are in the same mind
+in another week, he shall."
+
+The girl went out, and Torrance, who had watched her face, turned to Miss
+Schuyler. "I guess that young woman will be quite equal to him," he said.
+"Well, I am putting my house in order, and I will ride over once and see
+Hetty before I leave Cedar. You will stay here until she comes back to
+Fremont, any way."
+
+Miss Schuyler promised to do so, and stayed two days, as did Breckenridge,
+who eventually rode to Fremont with her. He was very quiet during the
+journey, and somewhat astonished his companion by gravely swinging off his
+broad hat when they pulled upon the crest of a rise.
+
+"I wonder if you would listen to something I wish to tell you," he said.
+"The trouble is that it requires an explanation."
+
+Flora Schuyler glanced at him thoughtfully, for she recognized the
+symptoms now. Breckenridge appeared unusually grave, and there was a
+little flush on his forehead, and a diffidence she had not hitherto seen
+there, in his eyes.
+
+"I can decide about the rest when I have heard the explanation," she
+answered.
+
+"Well," said Breckenridge slowly, "I came out West, so to speak, because I
+was under a cloud. Now, I had never done anything distinctly bad, but my
+one ability seemed to consist in spending money, and when I had got
+through a good deal of it my friends sent me here, which was perhaps a
+little rough on your country. Well, as it happened, I fell in with men and
+women of the right kind--Larry, and somebody else who did more for me.
+That made a difference; and while I was realizing how very little I had
+got for the time and dollars I had wasted, affairs began to happen in the
+old country, and I should have the responsibility of handling a good many
+of them if I went back there now. It sounds abominably egotistical, but
+you see what it is leading to?"
+
+Miss Schuyler, who had no difficulty on that point, regarded him
+thoughtfully. Breckenridge was a handsome young Englishman and she had
+liked him from the first. Larry had fallen to another, and that perhaps
+counted for more than a little to Breckenridge; but she had seen more than
+one friend of hers contented with the second best. Still, she sighed
+before she met his gaze.
+
+"I think you must make it a little plainer," she said.
+
+"Well," said Breckenridge quietly, "it is just this. You have done a good
+deal for me already, and I almost dare to fancy I could be a credit to you
+if you would do a little more, while it would carry conviction to my most
+doubting relatives if you went back to the old country with me. They would
+only have to see you."
+
+Flora Schuyler smiled. "This is serious, Mr. Breckenridge?"
+
+Breckenridge made her a little inclination, and while in a curious fashion
+it increased Flora Schuyler's liking for him she recognized that he was no
+longer the light-hearted and irresponsible young Englishman she had met a
+few months ago. He, too, had borne the burden, and there was a gravity in
+his eyes and a slight hardening of his lips that had its meaning.
+
+"I never was more serious in my life, madam," he said. "I know that I
+might have spoken--not more respectfully, but differently--but when I am
+too solemn everybody laughs at me."
+
+"Does it not strike you that you have only regarded the affair from one
+point of view so far?"
+
+Breckenridge nodded. "I understand. But one feels very diffident when he
+knows the slight value of what he has to offer. I should always love you,
+whether you say yes or no. For the rest, there is a little land in the old
+country, and an income which I believe should be enough for two. It seems
+more becoming to throw myself on your charity."
+
+"And what would Larry do without you?" asked Miss Schuyler.
+
+The quick enthusiasm in Breckenridge's face pleased her. "Larry's work is
+splendidly done already," he said. "He asked nothing for himself--and got
+no more; but now the State is offering every man the rights he fought for.
+The proclamations are out, and any citizen who wants it can take up his
+homestead grant. It will be something to remember that I carried his
+shield; but Larry has no more need of an armour-bearer."
+
+"I am older than you are."
+
+"Ten years in wisdom, and fifty in goodness, but I scarcely fancy that
+more than six months separate our birthdays. Now, I know I am not
+expressing myself very nicely, but, you see, we can't all be eloquent, and
+perhaps it should count for a little when I tell you that I never made an
+attempt of the kind before. I am, however, most painfully anxious to
+convince you."
+
+Miss Schuyler recognized it, and liked him the more for the diffidence
+which he wrapped in hasty speech. "Then," she said softly, "if in six
+months from now----"
+
+Breckenridge swayed in his saddle; but the girl's heel was quicker, and as
+her horse plunged the hand he would have laid on her bridle fell to his
+side.
+
+"No!" she said. "If in six months you are still in the same mind, you can
+come to Hastings-on-the-Hudson, and speak to me again. Then, you may find
+me disposed to listen; but we will go on to Fremont in the meanwhile."
+
+Breckenridge's response was unpremeditated, but the half-broken horse,
+provoked by his sudden movement, rose with fore hoofs in the air, and then
+whirled round in a circle. Its rider laughed exultantly, swaying lithely,
+with the big hat still in one hand that disdained the bridle; but his face
+grew grave when there was quietness again, and he turned towards the
+girl.
+
+"I shall be in the same mind," he said, "for ever and ever."
+
+They rode on to Fremont, and the next day Breckenridge drove Miss
+Schuyler, who was going back to New York, the first stage of her journey
+to the depot. A month had passed when one evening Torrance rode that way.
+The prairie, lying still and silent with a flush of saffron upon its
+western rim, was tinged with softest green, but broad across the
+foreground stretched the broken, chocolate-tinted clods of the ploughing,
+and the man's face grew grimmer as he glanced at them. He turned and
+watched the long lines of crawling cattle that stretched half-way across
+the vast sweep of green; and Larry and his wife, who stood waiting him
+outside the homestead, understood his feelings. Raw soil, rent by the
+harrows and seamed by the seeder, and creeping bands of stock, were tokens
+of the downfall of the old regime. Then Torrance, drawing bridle, sat
+still in his saddle while Hetty and her husband stood by his stirrup.
+
+"I promised your friend, Hetty, that I would see you before I went away,"
+he said. "I left Cedar for the last time a few hours ago, and I am riding
+in to the railroad now. The stock you see there are mine and Allonby's,
+and the cars are waiting to take them to Omaha. I shall spend the years
+that may be left me on the Pacific slope."
+
+Hetty's lips quivered, and it was Larry who spoke.
+
+"Was it necessary, sir?"
+
+Torrance smiled grimly. "Yes. The State offered me a few paltry
+concessions, and a little of what was all mine by right. It didn't seem a
+fit thing to accept their charity. Well, you have beaten us, Larry."
+
+Grant's face flushed a little. "Only that the rest will gain more than the
+few will lose I could almost be sorry, sir."
+
+Torrance swung himself down from the saddle and laid his hand on Hetty's
+shoulder.
+
+"You have chosen your husband among the men who pulled us down, and
+nothing can be quite the same between you and me," he said. "But I am
+getting an old man, and may never see you again."
+
+Hetty looked up at him with a faint trace of pride in her misty eyes.
+"There was nobody among our friends fit to stand beside him," she said.
+"If you kiss me you will shake hands with Larry."
+
+"I can do both," and Torrance held out his hand when he turned to Grant.
+"Larry, I believe now you tried to do the square thing, and there might
+have been less trouble between us but for Clavering. I hope you will bear
+me no ill will, and while we can't quite wipe out the bitterness yet, by
+and by we may be friends again."
+
+"I hope so, sir," said Larry.
+
+Torrance said nothing further, but, moving stiffly, swung himself into the
+saddle and slowly rode away. Hetty watched him with a curious wistfulness
+in her eyes until he wheeled his horse on the crest of the rise, and sat
+still a moment looking back on them, a lonely, dusky object silhouetted
+against the paling sky. Then he turned again, and sank into the shadowy
+prairie. Hetty clung a little more tightly to her husband's arm, and for a
+time they stood watching the crawling cattle and dim shapes of the
+stockriders slowly fade, until the last pale flicker of saffron died out
+and man and beast sank into the night. A little cold wind came sighing out
+of the emptiness and emphasized its silence.
+
+Hetty shivered. "Larry," she said, "they will never come back."
+
+Grant drew her closer to him. "It had to be, my dear," he said. "They
+blocked the way, and nothing can stop the people you and I--and
+they--belong to, moving on. Well, we will look forward and do what we can,
+for we must be ready to step out when our turn comes and watch the rest go
+by."
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CATTLE-BARON'S DAUGHTER***
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