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diff --git a/36953.txt b/36953.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7d7e8fc --- /dev/null +++ b/36953.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8957 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Heart of Canyon Pass, by Thomas K. Holmes + +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 Heart of Canyon Pass + +Author: Thomas K. Holmes + +Release Date: August 3, 2011 [EBook #36953] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HEART OF CANYON PASS *** + + + + +Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + +[Illustration: Hunt's arms were around the girl and he held her fast.] + + + + + THE HEART OF + CANYON PASS + + By THOMAS K. HOLMES + + Author of + _"The Man From Tall Timber" etc._ + + A. L. BURT COMPANY + Publishers New York + + Published by arrangement with George Sully & Company + Printed in U. S. A. + + + + + Copyrighted, 1921 (as a serial). + + Copyright, 1921, by + GEORGE SULLY & COMPANY + + _All rights reserved_ + _Printed in U. S. A._ + + + + + CONTENTS + + CHAPTER PAGE + I. Discontent at Canyon Pass 1 + II. Discontent at Ditson Corners 18 + III. A Shadow Thrown Before 30 + IV. Philosophy Bound in Homespun 38 + V. How the Passonians Took It 46 + VI. The Approach 58 + VII. The First Trick 69 + VIII. A Flower in the Mire 78 + IX. A Beginning 91 + X. Mutterings of a Storm 99 + XI. The Storm About To Burst 111 + XII. Tolley's Tale 122 + XIII. Plans Are Made 130 + XIV. The Great Day Arrives 141 + XV. Pep and a Little Pepper 152 + XVI. Love and Longing 161 + XVII. A Battle in a Girl's Heart 169 + XVIII. The Shadow on Betty's Path 177 + XIX. A Good Deal of a Man 189 + XX. Murder Will Out 197 + XXI. The Drama of a Lie 211 + XXII. A Face in the Storm 219 + XXIII. A Great Light Dawns 229 + XXIV. The Barrier Down--for a Moment 237 + XXV. Understanding 246 + XXVI. Threatening Weather 256 + XXVII. Several Conclusions 265 + XXVIII. Catastrophe 273 + XXIX. His Last Card 286 + XXX. Clearing Skies 297 + + + + +THE HEART OF CANYON PASS + + + + +CHAPTER I--DISCONTENT AT CANYON PASS + + +The bluebird was no harbinger of spring at Canyon Pass. Most of the +inhabitants had never seen that feathered songster and many had never +heard of it. Incidentally these same Passonians would not have known a +harbinger in any case, presuming possibly that it was one of those +new-fangled nipples for the hydraulic pipes at the Eureka Washings, or +something fancy that Bill Judson was selling in cans at the Three Star +Grocery. + +But spring had unmistakably arrived at Canyon Pass when those two +irrepressible pocket-hunters, Steve Siebert and Andy McCann, got +together their frayed and rusty outfits, exchanged the hard-earned money +each had toiled for during the winter over the counter of the Three Star +for supplies and loaded each his burro till the sad-eyed little brutes +almost buckled under the weight of flour, beans, salt pork, coffee, and +prospectors' tools. + +Each ancient then mounted his moth-eaten cayuse, jerked the towline of +his objecting burro, and proceeded out of town, Steve making the ford +through the East Fork, while Andy plodded through the shallows of the +West Fork, both bound down the canyon for the desert country which they +hated with an unbelievably bitter hatred, yet which dragged the old men +back to its grim barrens as soon as the spring freshets cleared the +canyon and gulches of winter's accumulation of snow. + +Canyon Pass was no beauty spot over which an artist might rave; nor was +the landscape surrounding it even passably attractive to the eye. Man, +in delving for nature's treasures in the rocky headlands and along the +benches of the East and West Forks, had marred past redemption what +little beauty of form and color the rugged wedge of land at the head of +the canyon once possessed. + +But on this morning there was a soft blur of blue haze padding the sharp +outlines of the canyon walls and brooding over the higher hills. The +streams flowing on either side of the town crooned instead of foaming +boisterously in their beds, and where they joined to make Runaway River, +which followed the bed of the canyon southerly, the thunder of their +waters seemed hushed. + +It was not yet sunrise, but a pearl-gray radiance flooded the town and +canyon as far south as one could see. Lights wavered drunkenly behind +the window-panes of the all-night saloons and dance halls. This enticing +spring morning followed the dregs of another riotous night in Canyon +Pass. + +The day before had been pay day at the Eureka Washings and the Oreode +Company's diggings and at most of the major mining prospects in the +vicinity. At noon the miners and other workmen had knocked off work, +drawn their pay, and, cleaned up and dressed in holiday attire, had +sought the amusement places of the town. From dark till dawn they had as +usual torn the town wide open like a paper sack, to quote Bill Judson, +as he stood in the doorway of his store and watched the two old desert +rats leaving the dulling merriment and drunkenness behind them as they +weaved their several ways out of sight on either bank of Runaway River. + +"They've been doing this for twenty years," added Judson, pointing with +his pipe stem to the disappearing prospectors. "An' to my knowledge and +belief ain't neither of 'em struck a smell of paying color in all that +time." + +"That so?" returned Smithy, his gangling clerk, coming outside to +stretch and yawn. Smithy had the look of a young man who was still in +growth and he needed, as Judson said, "all outdoors to stretch in." + +"Say! What's the matter with them two old sour doughs? All the time they +was buyin' that stuff they never spoke a word to each other, and if one +of 'em caught a look from t'other he snarled like a wild tagger! They'd +have showed their teeth--both of 'em--if they'd had any left but stubs." + +"Ain't spoke, to my knowledge," said the storekeeper, "Steve and Andy +ain't, in all of these twenty years. 'Fore that they was as thick as +hasty puddin' an' throwed in together ev'ry spring--even steven--when they +went prospecting; comin' back yere to Canyon Pass in the fall as happy +as a bride and groom returning from the honeymoon." + +"What happened? What made 'em so sore on each other?" asked Smithy. + +"Don't know. Never did know. Never could find out. 'Twas right after the +big slide. You've heard tell o' that, even if you ain't been here six +months?" + +"A thousand times," returned Smithy in a bored tone. + +"Well, Steve and Andy was perky as blackbirds in a strawyard that +spring. 'Twas twenty years back. They hid out their camp somewhere near +town that time. I always figgered they had a good prospect below there, +in the canyon. 'Twas even reported that they took a sample of the right +stuff to the assayer's office. But they was as close mouthed as twin +clams in the last stages of hydrophoby. + +"Then come the slide. Most of us that was yere then didn't think of much +for a week or two but whether Canyon Pass was goin' to be left on the +map or not. Our stake was yere, and the slide acted like a stopper in +Runaway River--like to plugged the old canyon for fair. + +"Howsumever, when the channel was more or less clear again and we could +come down off the roofs of our shacks, Steve and Andy showed up, but +from different directions, as sore at each other as two carbuncles, and +they ain't never been knowed to speak to one another since. Won't even +drink at the same bar. The only time they come into the Three Star +together is the morning they pull stakes for the desert." + +Smithy yawned again. Steve Siebert and Andy McCann had now disappeared +beyond outcropping warts of rock at the foot of the canyon walls. + +Down the street from the direction of the mining shafts sunk in the +heights behind the town strode a well-proportioned young man whose +bootsoles rang on the patches of earth out of which the frost had not +yet thawed. He was cleanly shaved and clean-looking, and stood more than +six feet tall, with an air of frank assertiveness even in his carriage. +He owned a high color under the wind-tan of his countenance, sandy hair, +and brown eyes with golden flecks in them when he was amused or when he +was angry. + +And Joe Hurley was usually swayed by one emotion or the other. Now he +appeared to be amused as he came abreast of the Three Star Grocery. + +"What's got you and Smithy up so early, Bill?" he asked. + +"Dad burn it, Joe! Don't you know spring has came?" + +"Pshaw! I thought I heard a tree-frog last night. So Steve Siebert and +Andy McCann have lit out same as usual? We shall miss Steve at the Great +Hope." + +"Surest thing you know, Joe. They're on their way. And just as sociable +as usual." Joe Hurley's eyes flashed with the gleam of fun that made him +beloved of all who did not hate him. But before he could utter a comment +the storekeeper added: "Wasn't you in to the Grub Stake to-night?" + +Hurley wheeled to frown suddenly at the flickering lamps of Boss +Tolley's gambling hall and cabaret almost directly across the street. +The quick change of emotion reflected in his face betrayed the character +of the man. Hurley was given to sudden impulses, usually spurred by the +primal passions. Yet he was a strong man, too, and kept the lid on those +passions if he desired. + +"Nell's got some new songs," went on Judson slyly. "Right cute they are. +She certainly is some songbird, Joe. Dad burn it! She's too good for +those roughnecks." + +Hurley nodded slowly but did not show Judson his face at once, still +watching the pale lights of the honkytonk fighting the advancing glow of +the dawn. The storekeeper had not lived sixty-five years--thirty years of +them right here in Canyon Pass--without gaining a pretty keen insight +into human nature. He did not have to see that scowl on Joe Hurley's +face. He knew what Joe was ruminating. + +"And 'tain't only roughnecks that our Nell's too good for," pursued +Judson finally. "The pizenest snakes, they tell me, is the prettiest. +An' kids are tickled to look at pretties. Nell's only a kid after all." + +"You're right, Bill!" ejaculated the mine owner with a snap of his jaws +and his eyes sparking from no good humor. + +He glanced balefully at the Grub Stake, his face set grimly, almost +threatening. + +There were fitful strains of music from within and still some clatter of +feet and voices. Boss Tolley made it his boast that his show continued +until the last reveler left. + +The Grub Stake was a sprawling, T-shaped structure with the long bar and +gaming tables in the shank of the T, the dance hall and stage at the +rear. Beside the main entrance was the sign: "Check Your Guns and Spurs +Here," and at the short counter presided a young woman in a sleeveless +silk jersey and kneelength satin skirt, who dealt out brass checks and +airy persiflage indiscriminately. + +The rosewood bar, behind which Boss Tolley and his three barmen sweated +at the height of the revelry, had cost a fortune to freight over the +trail to Canyon Pass. The gaudy oil painting which hung back of the bar, +to hear Boss Tolley tell it, had cost him a second fortune. + +Dick Beckworth, who was Tolley's chief dealer at the tables of chance, +was a privileged character. He was supposed to be a "killer" with the +ladies. He dressed his long curls and heavy black mustache as carefully +as he did his sleek and slender person. Cream-colored flannel shirt, a +flowing tie, velvet jacket and broadcloth trousers tucked into +patent-leather boots, and a Mexican sombrero heavy with silver cord to +top this ensemble, he made a picture to rival the squalid painting over +the bar. + +The night had been strenuous at the tables, but the gambling fever had +now abated. Dick lolled gracefully in the armchair at his empty table +with half-closed eyes, smoking a cigarette. Around a table near the +archway between the barroom and the hall was a noisy group of miners, +but they were no longer playing. Their glasses had just been refilled at +the bar. + +The rasping chords of a hard-working male quartette beyond the archway +repeated a syncopated rhythm for the entertainment of the patrons of the +tables. + +From beneath the arch into the barroom stepped suddenly an astonishingly +brilliant figure--a figure engraved as sharply as a cameo against the +blue mist of tobacco smoke that now drifted in a thin haze throughout +the barnlike place. The group of miners about the first table roared a +greeting. + +"Nell! Nell Blossom! The blossom of Canyon Pass!" + +"Give us a song of your own, Nellie!" added one burly miner, swaying +from his seat toward her, a maudlin smile on his face. + +The girl's smiling expression changed swiftly to one of flaring fury. +She swept past the miners and headed straight for Dick Beckworth, who +had watched the incident with a little smile flickering about his lips. +The girl's face was still ablaze. She needed no rouge or lipstick in any +case to lend it color. + +"Dick," she said tensely, "I hate this place!" + +"I've already told you I hate to see you in it," he rejoined with +apparent frankness. "Singing and dancing for these roughnecks is far +beneath you." + +The flame of her anger gradually waned as she gazed down into his face. +His usual calmness was somewhat ruffled by her near presence. Nell +Blossom held a certain influence over him that "Dick the Devil"--his +boasted cognomen among his admirers--was loath to acknowledge. + +But she was sweet enough and pretty enough as she stood there to stir +the most placid heart. Even the tawdry costume she wore could not +detract from her charm, the red silk blouse with the V-shaped cut at the +neck, belted velvet skirt to the tops of tiny riding-boots on tiny feet, +her clustering curls of a golden-brown color crowned by a "cowgirl" +hat--all worn as a costume in which to sing "Pony Boy," and "Cheyenne," +which popular hits had finally reached Canyon Pass. + +"I hate this place, Dick," she said again, now wearily dropping into a +chair at his elbow. + +Nell Blossom possessed one of those rare complexions that remind one of +nothing so much as a ripe Alberta peach. The crimson of her cheeks was +vivid, but tinted away into the creaminess of her satin skin. Her lips +were not too red. Her nose was a nose to be proud of without being +large. Her ears were visible and like the blossoms of the dogwood tree +in texture and coloring. + +"You know how I feel, Nell," said Dick, with a calm that belied his +heartbeats. "I'm sick of all this, too." He gestured gracefully with the +hand that held his cigarette. A jewel sparkled on that hand. "Canyon +Pass is a dirty hole. If you say the word we'll get out of it. I've made +a good stake. My rake-off has given me a full poke at last. We'll go +away from here, and I'll get into some paying business. I'll never turn +a card again--for Boss Tolley or any other man. I mean it!" + +The girl was looking straight into his eyes. He met that searching gaze +as inscrutably as he had learned to endure the scrutiny of his opponent +at the poker table. + +"Do you mean it, Dick?" + +"Just that." He nodded. "As I told you yesterday, say the word and we'll +light out--now--this morning. You don't know much about the world outside +of Canyon Pass, Nell, but I'll show it to you. And I love you--love you +like the devil!" + +There was a force in his final phrase, although he did not stir in his +chair, that made her tremble. A vivid flush slowly dyed her cheeks and +throat. It passed, to leave her blue eyes humid and her lips smiling. + +"If you don't believe me--" + +"I do," she interrupted. "I believed you yesterday. My saddlebags are +all packed, Dick, and I'm ready just whenever you are." + +A sudden electric tremor passed through the man's nerves. He veiled his +eyes for a moment that she might not see what flared into them. He rose +with her. + +"Get into your riding clothes and we'll start. I'll meet you with my +horse in half an hour," he said almost sternly. + +But his eyes now answered her look of gratefulness and adoration with +what she thought was a reflection of her own chaste desire. + +So it came about that two other riders left Canyon Pass on this spring +morning while the sun still lingered abed, and, crossing the West Fork +an hour behind Andy McCann, unlike him chose the wagon-track to the +summit of the canyon wall on that side of Runaway River. + +"Which way do we go, Dick? To Crescent City?" + +"South," he returned, without looking at her. + +"We-ell. Lamberton is further but there's a parson there, too. That's +another reason why I've come to hate Canyon Pass. It isn't decent like +other towns--or even up-to-date. It never had a church or a parson. It's +got everything else--saloons, gambling halls, honkytonks, stores, a bank, +a hotel, a stamp mill, an express office, even a school, such as it is. +But it's heathen--plumb heathen, Dick." + +He smiled at her then, rather a superior smile. "It's not the only +mining town that answers your description." + +"I know it," Nell rejoined. "But I want to see the other kind of towns. +Mother Tubbs says Canyon Pass ain't got no heart, and she's right. She +says she can't even tell when Sunday comes, only that Sam always comes +home drunk that day. This is Sunday, Dick. It's a good day on which to +begin a new life." + +"Oh, life's all right," the gambler said easily. "Take it as you find +it, Nell." + +They came up into the sunlight on the rim of the canyon wall. Once on +the level trail their horses broke into a canter. They could look down +at certain points into the sink of the canyon where Runaway River foamed +in its narrow channel. They spied Steve Siebert with his outfit +traveling on the river trail. McCann, of course, they could not see, for +the canyon wall on this side was almost sheer. + +Ahead, as they rode on, was the Overhang--that monstrous projection +capping the scarp of the cliff, left ages ago when the canyon was +roughed out by the glacial floods to threaten the pass below with utter +extinction if its bulk ever fell. Parts of it had fallen some twenty +years previous. This was the "big slide" which had for a time choked the +river channel with soil and rubble and threatened to flood out Canyon +Pass. + +The scar on the steep slope of the west wall down which that slide had +fallen was now masked by a hardy growth of scrubby trees and brush. But +the two old prospectors never passed the place, either going out of or +returning to Canyon Pass, without keenly studying the scar. + +Halfway up the height had been a shelf with a hollow behind it--an ideal +spot for a secret camp, for it could be observed neither from the trail +on the opposite side of the river nor from the rim of the west wall of +the canyon. Buried as this shelf had been by the slide, Steve Siebert +and Andy McCann now marked the spot--and what it hid--and then glanced +sardonically at each other across the foaming river. They snarled at +each other like a pair of toothless old wolves. The fruit of their joint +toil that lay behind that slide, one could not reach, and the other +could not compass. The secret had festered in their hearts and poisoned +the very souls of the two ancients for these twenty years. + +Above, the two in the plane of sunshine and freer air rode along the +brink of the Overhang. + +"Say!" Dick said jerkily. "Let's not go to Lamberton--not direct." + +"What?" + +There was a sharp note in her voice. She turned in her saddle to face +him. Her gaze narrowed. Was there after all a doubt in the very depths +of Nell's soul about the man? + +"I know a fine place--better hotel than at Lamberton--really a nice place +to stop. We can reach it before night. Hoskins. You know?" + +He still spoke nervously. Nell's gaze no more left his face. She said +evenly, as though her mind was quite placid again: + +"There's no parson at Hoskins, either." + +He darted her another side-glance. How was she taking it? Was she, after +all, going to be "sensible?" Nell was seventeen, but a woman grown. + +"Shucks, honey," Dick said, putting out a hand to touch her for the +first time. "We'll ride on and find a parson later. We're in no rush. +We're out for a grand, good time--" + +She pulled her horse across the path with a fierce jerk of the +bridle-rein, and so escaped the defilement of his touch. Her right hand +clutched the handle of her quirt, the knuckles bone-white. + +"Do you mean--you won't marry me?" + +Dick smiled his most disarming smile, his brown eyes even twinkled. That +frank and humorous look was what had first won his advantage with Nell +Blossom. + +"Shucks, honey," he drawled again. "Why so serious? Don't worry about +that. I'm free to confess I'm not a marrying man. Seen too much trouble +for both parties when they are tied to one another with any silly string +of the law. It's love that will hold us together." + +"That's heathen, Dick!" she exclaimed hotly. "Just as heathen as Canyon +Pass." + +"Nonsense!" He laughed. "You're just as safe with me, whether we're +married or not." + +Which might have been quite true, but Nell stared at him, her expression +as inscrutable as his own when he worked behind the green table. Dick +the Devil was a shrewd gambler, but Nell Blossom had played poker +herself ever since she could read the pips on the cards. And she had +been fighting her own battles in harsh environment and against men +almost from the same tender age. Her cold rage now sprang from the fact +that he should so mistake her character. + +"Come on, honey!" he said coaxingly. + +The quirt came up slowly; then it sang through the air. + +"You dog, you! Dick the Devil is your true name! And I thought--" + +The man, shouting an oath, dragged his mount backward. The lash +descended, missed his handsome face, but seared the horse across its +neck. + +Squealing, the animal leaped to one side--to the verge of the out-thrust +lip of the Overhang. The gambler wheeled him again, seeking to save +himself. + +"Do you want to murder me--you wildcat!" he cried angrily. + +There was a sudden crack, like the slapping of one board upon another. +Between the plunging horse and the girl a gap yawned in the earth. +Frost, the early rains, or perhaps time itself, had weakened this bit of +the Overhang. A patch no larger than a good-sized dining table broke +away and slid outward. + +The scrambling, wild-eyed horse and the shrieking, white-faced man +disappeared with it. The girl held in her own mount with a firm hand. +The flare of insane anger faded from her blue eyes. But her countenance +settled into a harsh and unlovely expression. + +Yet she slipped down from her saddle, quieted her horse with a word, and +stepped recklessly to the crumbling edge, trying to see down the face of +the cliff. + +She could mark no trace of horse or rider. She could no longer hear the +rumble of the falling debris. An icy horror gripped her. He was gone! + +Finally she drew back from the brink. She looked about at the landscape, +but there was not a human being to be seen. She slowly mounted her horse +again. + +Something besides a terrible disaster had happened here at the brink of +the Overhang. Something had happened to Nell Blossom so great, so +soul-racking, that she would never be altogether the same girl again. It +is a dreadful thing for one so young to find its love-idol shattered. + +After a little Nell started her mount, but she did not ride back toward +Canyon Pass. + + + + +CHAPTER II--DISCONTENT AT DITSON CORNERS + + +The Reverend Willett Ford Hunt read twice these closing words of the +long letter. + + ... and so, my dear Willie, to use your own way of expressing it, I + am steering straight for the devil--and enjoying the trip immensely. + + Wishing you were with me, Willie, I am, even after your rather + bitter castigation, + + Sincerely your friend, + Joe Hurley. + +He laid the missive on his desk with a full-bosomed sigh. Nor was that +sigh wholly because of the reprobate Joe. Joe's flowers of speech did +not much ruffle the parson's spirit. + +Joe Hurley might be gay, irresponsible, reckless, even downright wicked; +but he never could fail to be kind. Two years of close contact with the +blithe Westerner--those final two years at college before Hunt went to +the divinity school--had assured the latter that Joe Hurley owned a heart +of gold. The gold might be tarnished, but it was true metal +nevertheless. + +Hunt's mental picture of his college friend, and never had scholastic +friendship been more astounding, could not include any great blemish of +later-developed character. It was five years since they had seen each +other. Those five years could not have made of Joe Hurley the +"roughneck" that he intimated he had become. That was Joe's penchant for +painting with a wide brush. + +The reputation the Westerner had left behind him at college when he was +requested by a horrified governing board to depart for the sake of the +general welfare of the undergraduate body, revealed Joe's character +unequivocally. + +When Joe had been "bounced" by the faculty he had celebrated the +occasion by giving a farewell banquet at one of the shadiest hotels in +the college town, to the wildest crowd of students he could get +together. On his own part Joe had dressed in full cowboy regalia, and as +the apex of the evening's entertainment he had "shot up" the banquet +room, paying the bill for damages the next morning with a cheerful +smile. + +The Reverend Willett Ford Hunt remembered the occasion now with a little +shiver of apprehension. Suppose the people of Ditson Corners should ever +learn that he, their pastor, had been one of that company who had helped +Joe Hurley celebrate his dismissal from scholastic halls! + +Joe's father, a cattleman, had left him a considerable fortune. Joe had +invested much of it in a certain mining claim called the Great Hope, for +the young fellow had been keen enough to see that the day of the small +cattleman was gone. The mine was paying a comfortable income with the +promise of doing more than that in the future, so Joe wrote. But he +wrote more--much more that was exceedingly interesting to Hunt in his +present discontented state of mind. + +He picked up the letter again to re-read a part of the third page, this +broken sentence first meeting his envious eye: + + ... and if ever there was a peach, she surely is one, Willie. + Golden-brown hair, big blue eyes, and a voice--Say! No songbird ever + had anything on Nell. If you once saw her and heard her sing, you'd + go crazy about her, old sobersides. All Canyon Pass--I mean the + men-folks--are at her feet again, now she has returned to town and is + singing in Colorado Brown's cabaret. Sounds sort of devilish and + horrid, doesn't it, Willie? Believe me, Nell Blossom is some girl. + But wild--say! You can't get near her. She's got a laugh that plays + the deuce with a man's heart strings--accelerates the pit-a-pat of + the cardiac nerve to top-notch and then some! She's got us all on + her string, from gray-bearded sour doughs to the half-grown grocery + clerk at the Three Star, who would commit suicide to-morrow at her + behest--believe me! + + But no man, Willie, has seemed yet to put the come hither on Nell + Blossom. She just won't be led, coaxed, or driven. She's as hard as + molded glass. A man-hater, if ever you heard of one. With all your + famed powers of persuasion, reverend, I'd like to make a wager that + you couldn't mold our Nell into a pattern of the New England + virtues, such as your own prim little sister has become by this + time, I've no doubt. No insult to Miss Betty intended, Willie. But + our Nell--well, you'd have your hands full in trying to make her do a + thing that she did not want to do. + +The Reverend Willett Ford Hunt was stung here, not by the good-natured +raillery aimed at his own traits of character by his old college mate. +But why had Joe gone out of his way to drag Betty's name into it? It +seemed to be a mild slur upon his sister's character, and Hunt had an +uneasy feeling that he ought to resent it. + +Betty had met Joe Hurley but once--to Hunt's knowledge. It was an +occasion when she had stopped at the college town on her way home from +boarding school. Hunt had met her at the station, and Joe had shown up, +too. The three of them had sought a restaurant where they ate, and Betty +had chattered like--well, just as a girl of her age and fresh from the +excitement of boarding school would chatter. When her first fear of the +big Westerner had worn off she had usurped the conversation almost +completely. Hunt had often thought since that Joe Hurley was quite +attracted by his lively sister. + +But how did Joe know that Betty had changed so? + +That his sister was not the same cheerful, brisk, chatterbox of a girl +she had been when Joe met her, Hunt quite well knew. And the change +puzzled him. + +He visualized their Aunt Prudence Mason, who had lived all her long life +in the rut of New England spinsterhood, molding more or less the +characters of the orphaned brother and sister left at an early age to +her sole care. Was Betty, here in the straitened environment of Ditson +Corners, doomed to jog along the well-beaten track Aunt Prudence had +followed? The brother shuddered as he thought of it. + +He glanced at Joe's letter once more. A golden-haired, blue-eyed girl +who really sang--not shrieked as did Miss Pelter whose top notes in the +church choir rasped Hunt's nerves like a cross-cut saw dragged through a +pine knot. + +There was always a quarrel of some kind in that choir--the bickerings and +heart-burnings of his volunteer church choir were perennial. + +Then, there was the feud over the Ditson pew--which branch of the +influential Ditson family should hold the chief seats in the church. +Hunt could not satisfy everybody. There was still a clique, even after +his two years' pastorate, who let it be frankly known that they had +desired to call Bardell, instead of him, to the pulpit of the First +Church. + +These continued faultfindings and disputes were getting on Hunt's +nerves. And they must be affecting Betty--influencing her more than he +had heretofore considered. + +This letter from Joe Hurley had come at a moment when Hunt was +desperately and completely out of tune with his environment. He had +brought to his first pastorate a modicum of enthusiasm which, during the +first year, had expanded into an earnest and purposeful determination to +do his duty as he saw it and to carry his congregation in spirit to the +heights he would achieve. + +He--and they--had risen to a certain apex of spiritual experience through +the first months of his earnest endeavor, and then the cogs had begun to +slip. Suddenly Willett Ford Hunt's castles toppled and collapsed about +him. He found himself, half stunned, wholly mazed, wallowing in the +debris of his first church row, the renewed war over the Ditson pew. + +Hunt had extricated himself from this cataclysm with difficulty, almost +like a man lifting himself off the earth by his bootstraps. The Ditson +feud was by no means at an end even now, and it never would be ended as +long as two Ditsons of different branches of the family remained alive. +Hunt had sought to renew his own and his congregation's spiritual life. +It was then and not until then that he discovered the fire was out. + +Oh, for a church where one might preach as one pleased, so long as one +followed the spiritual instincts aroused by right living and a true +desire to help one's fellow men! That is what Hunt said he longed for. + +But actually what he longed for is what perhaps we all long for whether +we know it or not--appreciation. Not fulsome praise, not a mawkishly +sentimental fawning flattery. He desired to feel that the understanding +heart of the community apprehended what he wished to do and respected +his effort though he might fall short of the goal. + +There seemed to be no heart--understanding or otherwise--in Ditson +Corners. Why! A wild Western mining camp, such as Joe said Canyon Pass +was, could be no more ungrateful a soil to cultivate than this +case-hardened, hide-bound, self-centered and utterly uncharitable +Berkshire community. + +The thought--not even audibly expressed--nevertheless shocked Hunt. + +Hunt reached for the letter again. What had Joe said about there being a +field for religious endeavor in Canyon Pass? It was along in the first +part of the screed, and when he had found it he read: + + Joshing aside, Willie, I believe you might dig down to the very + heart of Canyon Pass--and I believe it has a heart. You were such a + devil of a fellow for getting at the tap-root of a subject. If + anybody can electrify the moral fiber of Canyon Pass--as some of them + say I have the business part--it will be a man like you. You could do + the "Lazarus, arise!" stunt if anybody could--make the composite + moral man of Canyon Pass get up, put on a boiled shirt, and go forth + a decent citizen. And believe me, the composite figure of the moral + man here sadly needs such an awakening. + +There was something that gripped Hunt in the rough and ready diction of +this letter--something that aroused his imagination. It brought to his +mind, too, a picture of Joe himself--a picture of both his physical and +his mental proportions. + +The Reverend Willett Ford Hunt was no pigmy himself, nor did he lack +courage and vigor. He was good to look upon, dark without being sallow, +crowned with a thick brush of dull black hair--there were some brown +lights in it--possessing good features, keen gray eyes, broad shoulders, +a hundred and eighty pounds of gristle and flesh on a perfect bony +structure, and could look over a six-barred gate before he vaulted it. +He had not allowed his spiritual experiences, neither rising nor +falling, to interfere with his gymnastics or his daily walk. + +But Joe Hurley topped Hunt by two inches, was broader, hardier, a wholly +out-of-door man. Joe was typically of the West and the wilderness. He +knew the open places and the tall timber, the mountains and the canyons, +the boisterous waters of cascade and rock-hemmed river. He was such an +entirely different being from Hunt that the latter had often wondered +why the Westerner had made such a chum and confidant of him during those +two years at college. + +And now the pastor of Ditson Corners' First Church realized that Joe +Hurley had something that he wanted. He wished he was with Joe, out +there in that raw country. He felt that he could get nearer to mankind +out there and perhaps--he said it reverently--nearer to the God he humbly +desired to serve. He thought of Betty. + +"She needs a change as much as I do. How does Joe guess that she is +becoming exactly a prim, repressed, narrow-thinking woman, and a Martha +cumbered by many cares? She needs her chance as much as I need mine." + +He heard Betty's step on the porch, and in a moment she entered the +study, her hands full of those grateful mid-spring flowers, the lily of +the valley. + +Betty Hunt was not a fragile girl, but she did not possess much of that +embonpoint the Greeks considered so necessary to beauty of figure. Nor +was she angular. At least, her grace of carriage and credibly tailored +frock masked any lack of flesh. + +Slim hands she had, too,--beautiful hands, very white and with only a +faint tracery of blue veins upon them. Really, they were a musician's +hands--pliable, light of touch, but strong. The deftness with which they +arranged the flowers suggested that she did not need vision to aid in +the task. + +Therefore she kept her gaze on Hunt. He felt it, turned, and smiled up +at her. He shook the leaves of the letter in his hand. + +"Bet," he said, "I've got another letter from Joe Hurley." + +Betty's countenance changed in a flash. + +"Oh! That Westerner?" + +There was more than disapproval in her tone. She looked away from him +quickly. Her own gray eyes filmed. A shocked, almost terrified +expression seemed to stiffen all her face. But Hunt did not see this. + +"There is no use talking, Bet," her brother pursued in an argumentative +way, thoughtfully staring at the letter again. "There is no use talking. +Joe has it right. We are vegetating here. Most people in towns like +this, here in the East, might honestly be classified among the _flora_ +rather than the _fauna_. We're like rows of cabbages in a kitchen +garden." + +"Why, Ford!" + +He grinned up at her--a suddenly recalled grimace of his boyhood. + +"There speaks the cabbage, Bet! We're all alike--or most of us are. Here +in the old Commonwealth I mean. We're afraid to step aside from the +rutted path, to accept a new idea; really afraid to be and live out each +his own individuality. + +"Ah! Out in this place Joe writes about----" + +He fingered the sheets of the letter again. She watched with the slow +fading of all animation from her face--just as though a veil were drawn +across it by invisible fingers. Her expression was not so much one of +disapproval--her eyes held something entirely different in their depths. +Was it fear? + +"This Canyon Pass is a real field for a man's efforts," burst out Hunt +with sudden exasperation. "I tell you, Bet, I feel as though my +usefulness here had evaporated. I haven't a thing in common with these +people. Carping criticism and little else confronts me whichever way I +turn." + +"You--you are nervous, Ford." + +"Nerves! What right has a man like me with nerves?" he demanded hotly. + +"But, Ford--your work here?" + +"Is a failure. Oh, yes. I can see better than you do, Bet--more +clearly--that I have lost my grip on these people." + +"Surely there are other churches in the East that would welcome a man of +your talents." + +"Aye! Another little hard-baked community in which I shall find exactly +the elements that have made my pastorate here a failure." + +"You are not a failure!" she cried loyally. + +"That's nice of you, Bet. You are a mighty good sister. But I am letting +you in for a share of the very difficulties that would soon put gray in +my hair and a stone in my bosom instead of a heart." + +"Oh, Ford!" + +"Out there--in some place like this Joe writes about--would be a new and +unplowed field. A place where a man could develop--grow, not vegetate." + +"But--but must it necessarily be the West, Ford? I am not fond of the +West." + +"You've never seen it." + +"I'm not fond of Western people." + +He looked at her with a dawning smile. "You're afraid of them, Bet." + +"Yes. I am afraid of them," whispered his sister, turning her face away +from his gaze. "They are not our kind, Ford." + +"That's exactly it," he cried, smiting the desk with the flat of his +palm. "We need to get out into the world, among people who are just as +different from 'our kind,' as you term them, as possible. There we can +expand. Out in Canyon Pass. I believe I could be a real help to that +community. What is it Joe says?" He glanced again at the letter before +him. "Yes! I might dig down to the very heart of Canyon Pass. Ditson +Corners has merely a pumping station to circulate the blood of the +community, patterned after the one at the reservoir on Knob Hill." + +She did not speak again. When Hunt looked around she had stolen from the +room. + +"Poor Bet!" he muttered. "The idea of change alarms her as it might have +alarmed Aunt Prudence. Joe Hurley is right--he's right beyond a doubt!" + + + + +CHAPTER III--A SHADOW THROWN BEFORE + + +A rider had his choice in journeying to Canyon Pass from a southerly +direction--say from Lamberton, which lies between the railroad and the +desert--of following the river trail to be deafened by the boisterous +voice of the flood, or of climbing to the high lands and there jogging +along the wagon track which finally dipped down the steeps to the ford +of the West Fork and so into the mining town. + +Spring was drifting into the background of the year. The cottonwood +leaves were the size of squirrel ears. The new fronds of the pinon had +expanded to full size and now their needles quivered in the heat of the +almost summer-like day. Joe Hurley, sitting his heavy-haunched bay, +giving as easily to the animal's paces as a sack of meal, followed the +wagon track rather than the river trail and so came to that fork where +wheel-ruts from a westerly direction joined the road along the brink of +the canyon wall. + +A cream-colored pony came cantering along the trail from Hoskins, its +rider as gaily dressed as a Mexican vaquero--a splotch of color against +the background of the evergreens almost startling to his vision. But it +was the identity of this rider that invigorated the tone of the mining +man's reflections. + +"Nell Blossom! The only sure-enough cure for ophthalmia! Am I going to +have the pleasure of being your escort back to Canyon Pass? It will sure +do me proud. The Passonians are honing for you, Nell." + +"I'm going back to the Pass--yes, Mr. Hurley," she said, pulling down her +pony to the more sedate pace of his big bay. + +"Where you been since you left us all in the lurch? There was almost a +riot at the Grub Stake when Tolley found out you had gone." + +"Boss Tolley hasn't got anything on me," she said defensively. "I'd +never sing there again, anyway." + +"Somebody said you'd lit out for the desert with Steve Siebert and Andy +McCann," and he chuckled. "They started the same day you vamoosed." + +"I might just as well have gone with those old desert rats. Pocket +hunting couldn't be much worse than Hoskins." + +"Great saltpeter! What took you to Hoskins?" exclaimed Hurley. "Where's +your local pride? If you weren't born at Canyon Pass, you've lived there +most of your life. You shouldn't encourage a dump like Hoskins to +believe for a moment that it has greater attractions than the Pass." + +"If I thought it might be more attractive, I learned better," she said +shortly. + +"Mother Tubbs got a letter from you, but she wouldn't tell us where you +were." + +"No," Nell said. "I didn't want the boys riding over there and starting +a roughhouse at the Tin Can Saloon." + +"Great saltpeter!" exclaimed Hurley again. "You don't mean to say you +been caroling your roundelays in _that_ place?" + +"A girl has to work somewhere, and I was sick to death of the Grub +Stake." + +"Boss Tolley is no pleasant citizen and his joint is no sweet-scented +garden spot, I admit," Hurley agreed. "Personally I'd like to see Tolley +run out of town and the Grub Stake eliminated. But Colorado Brown has +opened a new place and is going to run it right--so he says." + +"That's what is bringing me back," Nell confessed. "He got word to me by +Mother Tubbs, and he made me a better offer than Tolley ever would. But +I expect one cabaret is about like another in these roughneck towns." + +"I don't know about that," the man said defensively. "We mean to try to +clean up Canyon Pass. The boys have got to have amusement. Colorado +Brown is a white man, and, if he gets the backing of the better element, +he can give a good show and sell better hootch and better grub than ever +Boss Tolley dared to." + +"Hootch is hootch," Nell interrupted. "It's all bad. There's nothing +good about a rotten egg, Mr. Hurley. And the men's money is wasted in +all those places--plumb wasted!" + +He had been watching her closely as they talked. He had been watching +Nell closely, off and on, for several years. Like many of the other +young and unattached men of Canyon Pass, Joe Hurley had at one time +attempted to storm the fortress of Nell Blossom's heart. Finally he had +become convinced that the girl was not for him. + +Joe Hurley neither wore his heart on his sleeve nor was he unwise enough +to anger Nell by forcing his attentions beyond that barrier she had +raised between them. His were merely the objections of any clean-minded +man when he had seen her yielding to the machinations of Dick the Devil. +Joe knew the gambler's kind. + +He had felt no little anxiety when, with the usual spring exodus of the +two old desert rats, Steve Siebert and Andy McCann, Nell and Dick +Beckworth had likewise disappeared from the Grub Stake. Dick, of course, +had settled with Boss Tolley; he intimated that he was starting north +for the railroad at Crescent City. The hour had been so early that +nobody else had chanced to see the gambler and the girl ride away. Nell +was missed later, and all the right thinking men of the town, although +they said little, feared the worst for Nell Blossom. + +Nell had displayed at the last some little interest in Dick the Devil. +The other girls at the Grub Stake gossiped about it. + +Then came Mother Tubbs with a bona-fide letter from the girl to dam the +flood of gossip. Nell was working as usual in a cabaret. She had left +Boss Tolley because she could not stand him any longer. She was bitter +about the Grub Stake and its proprietor. And not a word in the letter +about Dick Beckworth. It was plain, even to the most suspicious, that +Dick had not gone with her after all. + +These few facts colored Joe Hurley's thoughts as they rode along the +track. What colored Nell's? + +When the sprightly talk lapsed between them, the girl's face fell into +unhappy lines. She who had been as blithe as a field lark all her life +was showing to Joe Hurley for the first time a most unnatural soberness +of spirit. Her eyes, their gaze fixed straight ahead, were filmed with +remoteness that his friendly glance could not penetrate. + +Something had changed Nell Blossom. She was no longer the happy-go-lucky +girl she had been heretofore. He wondered if, after all, her affair with +Dick Beckworth was serious. + +They skirted the Overhang, their horses now at a canter. Nell suddenly +pulled in her mount at a place where a patch along the brink of the +treacherous cap had recently crumbled. + +"Looks as if there might have been a small slide," observed Hurley +cheerfully. + +"Was--was anybody hurt?" + +"Reckon not. Just about where the big slide was years ago. There are +always bits dropping down this cliff. I tell 'em there's bound to be +another landslip some time that will play hob with Runaway River and +maybe flood out the town again. It's like living over a volcano." + +Nell still looked back at the broken edge of the cliff. "Nobody missing, +then? Nobody--er--left town?" + +He laughed. "Nobody but you and old Steve and Andy McCann. Those old +desert rats lit out the same morning you left town. Hold on! I don't +know as you know it; but Dick Beckworth went about that time. He's gone +to Denver, so Tolley says, to deal faro at a big place there." + +He could not see the girl's face. As far as he knew the statement made +no impression upon her. They jogged on practically in silence until they +came to the point where the wagon-track plunged steeply to the ford of +the West Fork, and from which spot the squalid town was first visible. + +"Ugh!" Nell shuddered and glanced at Joe again. "It is such an ugly +place." + +"Where's your civic pride, Nell?" and the other chuckled. + +"What is there to be proud of?" was her sharp demand. + +"It's a money-making town." + +"Money!" + +"Quite a necessary evil, that same money," he rejoined. "Gold is a good +foundation to build a town upon. Canyon Pass has 'got a future in front +of it,' as the feller said. Business is booming. Bank deposits are +increasing. Three families have bought piano-players, and there are at +least a dozen talking machines in town--besides the female citizens," and +he laughed again. + +"All that?" in a sneering tone. "Still, the bulk of the wages from the +mines and washings are spent for drink and in gambling. The increase in +bank deposits I bet are made by the merchants and honkytonk keepers, Mr. +Hurley. Canyon Pass is prosperous--yes. But at the expense of everything +decent and everybody's decency. Mother Tubbs has got it right. Canyon +Pass hasn't got a heart." + +"Oh--heart!" + +"Yes, heart. There's neither law nor gospel, she says. Only such law as +is enforced at the muzzle of the sheriff's gun. And as far as religion +goes--when was there ever a parson in Canyon Pass?" + +"They're rare birds, I admit. But you needn't blame me, Nell." + +"I do blame you!" she exclaimed fiercely. "You're at fault--you, and +Slickpenny Norris who runs the bank, and Bill Judson of the Three Star, +and the manager of the Oreode Company, and the other more influential +men. It is your fault that there isn't a church and other civilized +things in Canyon Pass." + +"Great saltpeter, Nell! You're not wailing for a Sunday School and a sky +pilot?" + +"Me? I reckon not!" She almost spat out the scornful denial. "I'm just +telling you what your old Canyon Pass is. It's a back number. But I'm +free to confess if a parson and a crew of psalm-singing tenderfoots came +here, I'd like enough pull my freight again--and that time for keeps! +Even Hoskins would be more endurable." + +At this outburst Joe Hurley broke into laughter. Nell Blossom was +paradoxical--had always been. + +And yet, what Nell had said about the shortcomings of Canyon Pass stuck +in Joe Hurley's mind. Within a few days the thought, fermenting within +him, resulted in that letter which had so interested--not to say +excited--the Reverend Willett Ford Hunt in far-away Ditson Corners. + + + + +CHAPTER IV--PHILOSOPHY BOUND IN HOMESPUN + + +"No, there ain't no news--no news a-tall," declared Mrs. Sam Tubbs, +comfortably rocking. "Nothing ever happens in Canyon Pass. For a right +busy town on its main street, there's less happens in the back alleys +than in any camp I ever seen--and I seen a-plenty. + +"It's in the back alleys o' life, Nell, that the interesting things +happen. Folks buy and sell, and argue and scheme, and otherwise play the +fool out on the main streets. But in the alleys babies is born, and +people die, and boys and gals make love and marry. Them's the re'lly +interesting things in life." + +"Ugh! Love and marriage! They are the biggest fool things the world +knows anything about." + +Mother Tubbs chuckled. It was an unctuous chuckle. It shook her great +body like a violent explosion in a jelly-bag and made the wide-armed +rocking-chair she sat in creak. + +"Sho!" she said. "I've heard seventeen-year-old gals say as much 'fore +now, who dandled their second young-un on their knee 'fore they was +twenty. The things we're least sure of in this world is love and +marriage. Lightning ain't nothin' to 'em--nothin'! + +"Now, there's Mr. Joe Hurley----" + +Nell started, turned on the top step of the Tubbs' back porch, and +looked searchingly at the old woman with a frown on her brow. + +"Now, there's Mr. Joe Hurley," pursued Mother Tubbs placidly. "There +ain't a thing the matter with that man but that he needs a wife." + +"Why doesn't he take one, then?" demanded Nell wickedly. "There are +plenty of them around here whose husbands don't seem to care anything +about them." + +"Like me and my Sam, heh?" put forth Mother Tubbs, still amused. "But I +reckon if Mr. Joe Hurley, or any other man, should attempt to run away +with me, Sam would go gunning for him. What they call the 'first law of +Nater'--which is the sense of possession, not self-preservation--would +probably get to working in Sam's mind. + +"He'd get to thinking of my flapjacks and chicken-with-fixin's and his +bile would rise 'gainst the man--no matter who--who was enjoying them +victuals. + +"Oh, yes. Not only is the way to a man's heart through his stomach; but +believe me, Nell, most men are like those people the Bible speaks of +'whose god is their stomach.'" + +"Does the Bible say that, Mother Tubbs?" broke in the girl. + +"Somethin' near to it." + +"Then there is some sense in the Bible, isn't there?" + +"Hush-er-you, Nell Blossom!" ejaculated the old woman sternly. "Does +seem awful that you're such a heathen. The Bible's plumb full of good +advice, and lovely stories, and sweet truths. I used to read it a lot +before I broke my specs. But I remember lots that I read, thanks be." + +"I don't care for stories," said the girl crossly. "And I don't know +that I believe there is a heaven," she went on quickly. "Once you are +dead I reckon that's all there is to it. I won't learn any more songs +about heaven. I used to cry over them--and about folks dying. I remember +the first song Dad taught me to sing in the saloons. It used to make me +cry when I came to the verse: + + Last night as I lay on my pillow-- + Last night as I lay on my bed-- + Last night as I lay on my pillow, + I dreamt that my Bonnie was dead. + Bring back! Oh, bring back! + Bring back my Bonnie to me, to me---- + +It's all stuff and nonsense!" she broke off with confidence. + +"That ain't a hymn," said Mother Tubbs placidly. "Hymns is different, +Nell. A good, uplifting hymn like 'Am I a Soldier of the Cross,' or +'Beulah Land,' takes you right out of yourself--bears your heart up on +wings o' hope and helps you forget you're only a poor, miserable worm----" + +"I'm not a worm!" interrupted Nell with vigor. "I'm as good as +anybody--as good as anybody in Canyon Pass, anyway, even if some of these +women do look down on me." + +"Of course you are, Nell. 'Worm' is just a manner o' speaking." + +"Dad trained me to sing in these saloons, I know," went on the girl +quickly, angrily, "because he was too weakly to use a pick and shovel. +We had to eat, and he thought he had to have drink. So I had to earn it. +But I've been a good girl." + +"I never doubted it, Nell," Mother Tubbs hastened to say. "Nobody could +doubt it that knowed you as well as I do." She let her gaze wander over +the squalid back yards of the row of shacks of which the Tubbs' domicile +was no better than its neighbors. "They don't know you like I do, Nell. +You've lived with me for three years--all the time you was growing into a +woman, as ye might say. You hafter do what you do, and I don't 'low when +we are forced into a job, no matter what it is, that it's counted +against us as a sin." + +Nell flashed the placid old woman another glance. There was something +hidden behind that look--of late there was something secretive in all +Nell Blossom said or did. Did Mother Tubbs understand that this was so? +Was she, in her rude but kindly way, offering a sympathy that she feared +to put into audible speech for fear of offending the proud girl? + +The latter suddenly laughed, but it was not the songbird's note her +voice expressed. There was something harsh--something scornful--in it. + +"I reckon I could get away with murder, and you'd say I was all right, +Mother Tubbs," she declared. + +"Well, mebbe," the old woman admitted, her eyes twinkling. + +"Suppose--" said Nell slowly, her face turned away again, "suppose a +party was the cause of another's death--even if he deserved it--but didn't +mean just that--suppose, anyway, what you did caused a man's death, for +whatever reason, although unintended? Would it be a sin, Mother Tubbs?" + +She might have been reflecting upon a quite casual supposition for all +her tone and manner betrayed. Just how wise Mother Tubbs was--just how +far-seeing--no human soul could know. The old woman had seen much and +learned much during her long journey through a very rough and wicked +world. + +"I tell you, Nell," Mother Tubbs observed, "it's all according to what's +in our hearts, I reckon. If what we done caused a party to die, and we +had death in our heart when we done the thing that killed him, I reckon +it would be a sin. No getting around that. For we can't take God's +duties into our hands and punish even the wickedest man with death--like +we'd crunch a black beetle under our bootsole. 'Vengeance is Mine; I +will repay, saith the Lord.'" She repeated the phrase with reverence. +"No, sin is sin. And because a party deserves to be killed, in our +opinion, don't excuse our killing him." + +Nell was quite still for a minute. Then she shrugged her shoulders. + +"Humph!" she said briskly. "I don't think much of your religion, Mother +Tubbs. No, I don't." + +Mother Tubbs began to croon: + + It's the old-style religion, + The old-style religion, + The old-style religion, + That gets you on your way. + 'Twas good enough for Moses, + Good enough for Moses-- + The old-style religion, + That gets you on your way. + +"It ain't no new-fangled religion, Nell. But it's comforting----" + +"It wouldn't comfort me none," answered the girl. "I reckon it ain't +religion--and a sky pilot--that Canyon Pass needs after all. If we'd just +run about fifty of these tramps out of town--and Boss Tolley and his +gang--we could get along without psalm-singing and such flubdubbery." + +"You ain't talking like you used to, Nell," said the old woman, +observing her curiously. + +"I hadn't thought so much about it. Religion is too soft. These +roughnecks would ride right over a parson and--and that kind. Now, +wouldn't they?" + +"Not altogether. I expect they'd try--at first. But if a man had enough +grace in him, he'd stand up against 'em." + +"He'd better have backbone." + +"Same thing," chuckled Mother Tubbs. "Same thing. It takes the grace of +God to stiffen a man's backbone--I tell you true. I hope this parson Mr. +Joe Hurley talks about has got plenty of grace." + +"Who--what?" gasped the girl. "What parson?" + +"Well, now! That is a gob o' news. But I thought you must o' heard +it--over to Colorado Brown's, or somewhere--the way you was talkin'. This +parson is a friend of Mr. Joe Hurley, and he wants to get him out yere." + +"From the East?" + +"Yeppy. Mr. Joe says he went to school with him. And he's some +preacher." + +"What do you think o' that!" ejaculated Nell. "Mr. Hurley didn't say +anything to me about it the day we rode into the Pass together." + +"I reckon not. This has all been hatched up since then." + +"But, Mother Tubbs!" cried the girl. "You don't expect any tenderfoot +parson can come in here and make over Canyon Pass?" + +"I reckon not. We folks have got to make ourselves over. But we need a +leader--we need a Shower of the Way. We've lost our eyesight--the best of +us--when it comes to seeing God's ways. My soul! I couldn't even raise a +prayer in conference meeting no more. But I used to go reg'lar when I +was a gal--played the melodeon--led the singin'--and often got down on my +knees in public and raised a prayer." + +"Humph!" scoffed the girl. "If God answered prayer, I bet you prayed +over Sam enough to have cured him of getting drunk forty times over!" + +"I don't know--I don't know," returned Mother Tubbs thoughtfully. "I been +thinking lately that, mebbe when I was praying to God to save Sam from +his sins, I was cursing Sam for his meanness! I ain't got as sweet a +disposition as I might have, Nell." + +"Oh, yes you have, Mother Tubbs!" exclaimed Nell, and suddenly jumped up +to kiss the old woman warmly. "You're a dear, sweet old thing!" + +"Well, now," rejoined Mother Tubbs complacently, "I ought to purr like +any old tabby-cat for that." + + + + +CHAPTER V--HOW THE PASSONIANS TOOK IT + + +"Well," observed Bill Judson oracularly, "it's about time for something +new to break in Canyon Pass. About once in so often even a +dead-an'-alive camp like this yere has got to feel the bump of progress +from the train behind. Otherwise we'd stay stalled till Gabriel's +trump." + +He spoke to Smithy, his single clerk at the Three Star Grocery. He had +to speak to Smithy, or to the circumambient air, for nobody but the +gangling clerk was within hearing. They lounged on the store porch in +the middle of the afternoon, and the only other thing alive on the main +street of Canyon Pass was a wandering burro browsing on the tufts of +grass edging the shallow gutters. + +"I don't see as Canyon Pass has got to be bumped by a gospel sharp to +wake it up," complained Smithy, stretching his arms as though they were +elastic. "Yahhoo! Well, he'll have a sweet time here, Mr. Judson." + +"I dunno," said the storekeeper reflectively. "For my part I feel like I +favored it." + +"'Cause it's something new?" + +"'Cause it's something needed. I ain't one of those fellers that run +after every new thing just because it is new. But I'm for progress. I +want to see the Pass get ahead. Crescent City and Lamberton have both +got churches and parsons." + +"And they've got railroads," put in Smithy, making a good point. "Canyon +Pass needs the railroad more'n it does a parson." + +"Son," proclaimed Judson, "before Canyon Pass can get a railroad +connection, mountains have got to be moved and the meanest stretch of +desert that ever spawned lizards, sidewinders and cacti, and produce in +their places about five hundred square mile of irrigated farmland to pay +for spiking the rails to the sleepers. See?" + +"Well, the farms might come," declared Smithy defensively. + +"Sure. So might Christmas come at Fourth o' July. But we ain't never +celebrated the two holidays together yet. No, sir. To irrigate the edge +of that desert even, a dam would have to be built across the southern +outlet of the canyon, and that would back the water up yere in freshet +season till the roof of my shack would be so deep under the surface that +about all I could properly keep in stock would be perch and rainbow +trout. + +"They ain't building branch railroads no more to mining camps like +Canyon Pass. That's why we all chipped in for the stamp mill and the +cyanide plant. Nope. We'll freight in our supplies with mules and +communicate with the more effete centers of civilization by stagecoach +for some time to come I reckon. + +"That being the case we got to uplift ourselves without the help of the +iron horse, as the feller said. And having a church and a parson is +uplifting." + +"Nobody ain't talked very brash about a church." + +"Parson comes first. Naturally. Of course this friend of Joe Hurley is +only coming on a visit at first." + +"He'll have a sweet visit here," repeated Smithy. + +"That's according," said Judson. "We got to be hospitable. If a judge, +or a senator, or a school teacher, or even a drummer sellin' fishin' +tackle, came yere we'd feel like we wanted to show him the town's best +side. Why not this parson?" + +"Huh! A drummer don't try to convert us and innovate psalm-singing and +such," grumbled Smithy. + +"Son," drawled Judson, his eyes twinkling under his bushy brows, "you're +convicted of sin right now. You're scare't of this parson--and that's the +trouble with most of you fellers who are raising a yawp against progress +as represented by this Reverend Hunt." + +"'Taint only us fellers," grumbled Smithy. "Some of the womenfolk ain't +pleased. Say! Nell says she don't want no black-coated parson in this +camp. Says it would give her the willies, so she couldn't sing." + +It was an indisputable fact--Joe Hurley himself had discovered it--that +the Passonians were divided upon the matter of the expected coming of +the Reverend Willett Ford Hunt. The sheep and the goats that had +heretofore milled together in a general herd, were dividing upon +strictly religious lines. Joe was somewhat surprised. Some of the very +people he had presumed would welcome the innovation, were suspicious of +it. + +Mr. Robertson Norris, "Slickpenny" Norris was his undignified +appellation, became quite red of face and beat rather a futile fist upon +the banking counter as he gave his opinion to Joe Hurley. Norris was a +puny-looking, string-bean sort of man. The height of rage could not have +made his appearance impressive. + +"Joe Hurley, you are a director of this bank, and your last statement of +the Great Hope shows that you are a good mining man. I find on most +subjects you display good sense. But on this question you're all +wrong--all wrong!" + +"I don't get you--I don't get you at all," drawled Hurley. "A moral man +like you, Norris, I reckoned would welcome the idea of having a parson +in the town." + +"I have no quarrel with parsons--none at all, Joe," declared the banker. +"But Canyon Pass is in no present shape--financially, I mean--to +contemplate the building of a church edifice. A church is something you +can't tax, and it brings in absolutely no revenue to the town. It's not +an asset, but a liability, and the Pass can't afford any such luxuries +at this time." + +"Great saltpeter!" + +"Listen to me, Joe Hurley! I've advocated proper town improvements, even +when they take the skin off my own nose, and always will. I am strong +for Main Street being paved and sidewalks laid, though 'twould cost me a +pretty penny. We ought to set out trees. Them oil lamps on wooden posts +are a disgrace. I'd make every merchant paint the front of his buildings +on Main Street once a year, by law." + +"Well! What's the matter with a church?" demanded Hurley. "That is, if +we get that far." + +"It's absolutely no use. If one is built it won't be nothing but a +shack. It won't add anything to the importance of the town. No, I don't +approve. I'm disappointed in you, Joe." + +"All right--all right!" cried Joe in some heat. "But I'm not disappointed +in you, old-timer. Great saltpeter! I wonder what you did before you +drifted into Canyon Pass that a parson and religion are likely to bring +fresh into your memory." + +With this backhand slap at the banker, the young man went out. It was +rather odd that Joe Hurley, like Bill Judson, should suspect the +Passonians of the same secret reason for not desiring a spiritual +refreshment of the town. But then, both the storekeeper and the owner of +the Great Hope were observant of human nature and knew Canyon Pass and +its inhabitants very well. + +Joe Hurley's proposal was rattling the dry bones. If he saw two men +conversing on the street, with both their arms and whiskers waving in +the breeze, he might be sure the topic under discussion was the coming +of "that gospel-sharp Joe Hurley's sicked on to us." + +If two housewives met in midflight between store and store in the course +of a forenoon's shopping, the principal subject of gossip was bound to +be the possibility of a parson settling in Canyon Pass. Nor did the +feminine opinion always march with that of Mother Tubbs. + +In spite of the emancipation of the sex and its introduction to the high +office of the ballot, the women of the mining town were--like women +everywhere--considerably influenced by the expressed opinions of their +husbands, brothers, and sons. If Charlie Raidlaw, who dealt faro for +Boss Tolley, or Phin Shattuck, one of Colorado Brown's "gentlemanly +mixers," gave it as his opinion that a white-liveried, lily-handed +parson was going to be a pest in the town and sure to hurt business, +Mrs. Charlie and Sue Shattuck, Phin's sister, were pretty sure to scout +the idea that a parson in the Pass would be any improvement. + +"It's needed," Rosabell Pickett announced with conviction. Rosabell +played the piano in the Grub Stake, painted her face like a Piute +Indian, dressed as gaudily as a circus poster, and was the only employee +Boss Tolley had who really was not afraid of him. In fact, Rosabell was +not afraid of any man and had small respect for most; she was frank in +saying so. A girl can be a piano player in a honkytonk and be long on +self-respect. Rosabell approved of herself--quite. + +"It's needed," repeated Rosabell. "I wish he'd preach in the street out +there, just stir up the people till they was with him, every one, and +then march in here with an ax and smash every hootch bottle behind your +bar, Tolley--that's what I wish." + +"You're crazy, Rosie!" cried the proprietor of the Grub Stake. "I'd +hafter go a-gunnin' for any man that tried to smash up my business +thataway, and that wouldn't make the Grub Stake friends. You oughtn't to +bite the hand that feeds you, Rosie. If it wasn't for the Grub Stake--and +me--you wouldn't be wearin' rhinestone shoebuckles." + +"Is that so?" countered the young woman. "You needn't worry none about +my biting your hand 'nless you keep it washed oftener than is your +present habit. And I want you to know that I don't sell my opinions when +I take the Grub Stake's pay-envelope--not much!" + +"Well, I wanter see that dratted parson come in yere!" said Tolley +blusteringly. + +"He won't come alone," put in Hurley, who had been listening at the bar +to the argument. + +"Huh?" + +"I say he won't come in here alone. I might as well serve notice here +and now that this Parson Hunt is a friend of mine. I don't never aim to +throw a friend down or fail him when he gets into a jam. If he comes in +here--for any purpose, Tolley--I'll likely be with him." + +"You keep him out o' yere! You keep him out!" blustered the other. "We +don't want no sky pilots here in the Pass. Anyway, I won't have 'em in +the Grub Stake." + +A burly fellow in overalls and riding boots broke in. He had already +sampled Tolley's red-eye more deeply than was wise. + +"You say the word, boss," he growled, "and we'll run the preacher out o' +town." + +Joe Hurley looked at the ruffian coldly. "You won't run anybody out of +town, Hicks--not any," the mine owner said. "But I'll tell you something +that may be worth your attention. If Canyon Pass ever gets up on its +hind legs and reares and starts to run certain tramps and ne'er-do-wells +out of town, I'm ready to lay a bet with any man that you'll be right up +in the forefront of them that are chased out. Get me?" + +Hicks, scowling, dropped his hand to the gunbutt peeping above the +waistband of his overalls. Joe Hurley did not flicker an eyelash nor +move a finger. Finally Hicks lurched away with an oath and went out +through the swinging doors. + +"And that's that," said Rosabell briskly, cutting the tense chord of +silence. "I always did say the more of a boozer a man is, the quicker +he'll take water. I hope your friend Mr. Hunt, Joe, has got backbone +same as you have. Is he an old gentleman?" + +"Not so you'd notice it," replied Hurley with a sudden grin. + +He remained awhile to bandy repartee with Rosabell and some of the other +idlers. But Boss Tolley slipped out of the honkytonk, although he did +not follow Hicks. + +Mulligan Lane ran at the rear of the stores, saloons, and other +amusement places facing this side of Main Street. Colorado Brown's +cabaret was not far from Tolley's rear door. It was dusk of rather a +sultry day--a day that had forecast the heat of the approaching summer. + +Tolley lounged under the withered cottonwood behind Brown's +dance-pavilion. The sign of the flood's highwater mark--that flood of +twenty years before--had been cut by some idle knifeblade deep into the +bole of the tree high over Tolley's head, and he was a tall man. A +sallow-faced, bony giant of a man was Tolley, hairy and brawny, without +a redeeming feature in his cruel countenance. Had he not possessed, in +the memorable words of Bill Judson, "a wishbone where his backbone +should have been," Boss Tolley would have been a very dangerous man. +Lacking personal courage he depended upon the backing of men like Hicks +and his bouncer, Macpherson. + +He slouched now under the tree and waited--a sullen lump of a figure +whose dark garments blended with the shadowy trunk as the night fell. +The small figure coming up the slope of the lane approached the back +door of Colorado Brown's place without seeing the man until almost +within arm's length. + +"Hey, Nell!" She started, looked up, stepped back a pace. "Don't be +scare't of me." + +"Don't flatter yourself, Tolley," replied the girl curtly. + +"I want to speak with you." + +"I don't want to speak to you." + +"Say--listen! You ain't treating me right. You walked out and left me +flat. You didn't even ask me for a raise. How'd you know I wouldn't give +you as much as Brown does?" + +"I didn't want to know. I got through. You didn't have any hold on me, +Tolley." + +"Mebbe not. Mebbe I have. You better listen," for the girl was turning +scornfully away. "You and Dick played it low down on me." + +Now she gave him her full attention. It was so dark under the tree that +he could not see her face clearly, but he knew some sudden emotion shook +her. To himself he grinned. + +"I got to admit my losing you and Dick has put a crimp in the Grub +Stake's business. You was my best performer, and Dick Beckworth was the +best card-sharp I had. Looker here! You come back to the Grub Stake +and--and I won't say nothing more." + +"What do you mean?" She had almost instantly gained control of herself. +"You can say all you like. I am never going to sing in your joint +again." + +"You ain't?" + +"No." + +"You better think again." His voice was grim, menacing. "I can say +something you won't like to hear." + +"Say it." She spat the command out as boldly as was her usual speech; +but in her heart sudden fear fluttered like a netted bird. + +"I been tellin' them Dick Beckworth lit out for Crescent City, and that +I heard later he was dealing 'em in Denver." + +"Dick Beckworth?" gasped the girl. + +"Yeppy. I told 'em that. But I know derned well he didn't ride north +that day----" + +"Why do you speak to me of Dick Beckworth?" + +She tried to say it boldly, calmly. She stared at him in the dusk, her +figure tense. He could see her blue eyes gleam like twin sapphires. + +"I'm telling you. Listen," whispered Tolley hoarsely. "I could show 'em +the bones of Dick's hoss in the gravel below the Overhang--right at the +edge of Runaway River. I got his saddle right now in my big safe. What +do you say to that?" + +"Dick----" + +"I reckon you know how the hoss and the saddle went over the cliff. And +Dick was with 'em. He wasn't with 'em when I raked out the saddle. Dick +had gone to some place a dern sight more distant than Crescent City--nor +yet Denver." + +She was silent. He could hear her quick, labored breathing. Satisfaction +fired all the mean soul of the man. + +"You think it over, Nell." + +He turned and lurched heavily away. The girl stood rooted to the place, +more shaken, more terrified, than even Boss Tolley suspected. He was out +of sight before she gained strength to move. + + + + +CHAPTER VI--THE APPROACH + + +In fairylike traceries the tiny drops of a mist-like rain embroidered +the broad pane of the Pullman. Betty Hunt gazed through this at the +flying fields and woods, the panorama of the railroad fences, and the +still nearer blur of telegraph poles with that hopeless feeling a +sentenced prisoner must have as he journeys toward the prison pen. + +Everything she cared for save her brother, everything she knew and that +was familiar to her daily life, every object of her thought and +interest, was being left behind by the onrush of the train. Time, with a +big besom, was sweeping her quiet past into the discard--she felt it, she +knew it! They would never go back to Ditson Corners again, or to Amberly +where they had lived as children with Aunt Prudence or to any similar +sanctuary. + +That was what Betty had most longed for since her last term at boarding +school, which had ended for her so abruptly with the death of her Aunt +Prudence Mason. Her last previous journey by train had been that somber +one to the funeral. When Betty and her brother had later moved to the +Ditson Corners' parsonage they had done so by motor. + +The drumming of the wheels over the rail-joints kept time with the +swiftly flying thoughts of the girl. She lay in the corner of the broad, +tan plush seat like a crumpled flower that had been carelessly flung +there. Thoughts of that last train journey seared her mind in hot +flashes, as summer lightnings play about the horizon at dusk. + +First one thing, then another, she glimpsed--mere jottings of the +happenings that had gone before the hurried good-byes at school and the +anxious trip homeward. These remembrances now were like the projection +of a broken film upon the moving picture screen. + +And those trying, anxious weeks which followed the funeral while Ford +was completing his divinity course and received his ordination and which +came to an end with his selection as pastor of the First Church at +Ditson Corners! All through these weeks was the dull, miserable pain of +disillusion and horror that Betty must keep to herself. She could not +tell Ford. She could tell nobody. What had happened during the last few +weeks at school was a secret that must be buried--buried in her mind and +heart as deeply as Aunt Prudence was buried under the flowering New +England sod. + +Betty, with her secret, was like a hurt animal that hides away to die or +recover of its wound as nature may provide. She could not die. She knew +that, of course, from the first. Time, she felt, would never erase the +scar upon her soul; but the wound itself must heal. + +All that--that which was now such a horror in her thought--she had hoped +to bury deeper as time passed. She had devoted herself to her brother's +needs. She had made his comfort her constant care. Busy mind and busy +hands were her salvation from the gnawing regret for that secret +happening that she believed must wither all her life. + +Now this sudden and unlooked for change had come to shake up all her +fragile plans like the shifting of a kaleidoscope. They were going West, +toward the land she hated, toward people whom, she told herself, she had +every reason to suspect and fear. Why had Ford kept up his +correspondence with that Joe Hurley? Betty did not blame her brother for +wishing to get away from Ditson Corners. But why need it have been that +Westerner who offered the soul-sore minister the refuge that he so +gladly accepted? + +Betty, without a clear explanation, had no reason to oppose to Hunt's +desire for a change that would satisfy him. And such explanation she +would have died rather than have given him! She was swept on toward the +West, toward whatever fate had in store for her, like a chip upon a +current that could not be stemmed. + +Aunt Prudence had left her money--conservatively invested--to Betty; but +she was not to touch the principal until she was thirty. "If the girl +marries before that age, no shiftless man can get it away from her," had +been the spinster's frank statement in her will. "If she is foolish +enough to marry after that age, it is to be hoped she will then have +sense at least regarding money matters." The brother had a small nest +egg left from his father's estate after paying his college and divinity +school expenses. + +So they were not wholly dependent upon Hunt's salary. He could afford to +take a vacation, and it was on this ground--the need of rest--that he had +resigned from the pulpit of Ditson Corners' First Church. They had left +some really good friends behind them in the little Berkshire town--some +who truly appreciated the young minister. But the clique against him had +shown its activity much too promptly to salve Hunt's pride. His +resignation had been accepted without question, and he had remained only +to see Bardell established in his place. + +Betty condemned herself that she could not enter whole-heartedly into +Hunt's high expectations of the new field that lay before him. It was +adventure--high adventure--to his mind. And why should a parson not long +for a bigger life and broader development as well as another healthy +man? + +He was going to Canyon Pass without a penny being guaranteed him. Joe +Hurley urged him to come; but he told him frankly that there would be +opposition. Certain Passonians would not welcome a parson or the +establishment of religious worship. + +But this opposition was that of the enemy. The Reverend Willett Ford +Hunt was not afraid of the devil in an open fight. Opposition in the +church itself was what had conquered him at Ditson Corners. Let the +phalanxes of wickedness confront him at Canyon Pass, he would stand +against them! + +Betty saw him coming back down the aisle of the car, smiling broadly, a +handsome, muscular figure of a man. He did not look the cleric. She had +been so used to seeing him in the black frock-coat and immaculate white +collar that she was at first rather shocked when he had donned another +suit to travel in. + +He was almost boyish looking. He was a big man, and she believed him +capable of big things. She could almost wish he had selected some other +road in life--although that thought was shocking to her, too. Ford might +well have been a business man, an engineer, a banker, a promoter. +Betty's ideas were somewhat vague about business life; but she felt sure +Ford would have shone in any line. She was a loyal sister. + +She shook herself out of the fog of her own thoughts and smiled up at +him. + +"Met a man in the smoking room who knows that country about Canyon Pass +like a book, Bet," Hunt said, dropping down beside her. "It really is a +part of the last frontier. We shall always be a pioneer people, we +Americans. There is something in the raw places of the earth that +intrigues us all--save the saps. And sap, even, hardens in such an +environment as this we are bound for." + +"I hope you will not be disappointed, Ford." + +"Disappointed? Of course I shall be disappointed and heart-sick and +soul-weary. But I believe my efforts will not be narrowed and +circumscribed and bound down by formalism and caste. As Joe says, I +won't be 'throwed and hog-tied.' The old-time revivalists used to urge +their converts to 'get liberty.' I'll get liberty out there, I feel +sure, in Canyon Pass." + +She could say nothing to dash his enthusiasm. It was too late for that +now, in any case. Betty even tried to smile. But her face felt as stiff +as though it were like to crack in the process. + +"All that territory of which Canyon Pass is the heart," pursued Hunt, +"has been phenomenally rich in ore in past time. They have to comb the +mines and sweep the hydraulic-washed benches very scientifically now to +make the game pay. Yet Canyon Pass is distinctly a mining town and +always must be. + +"My new acquaintance says it is really 'wild and woolly.'" He smiled +more broadly. "I fancy it is all Joe said it is. Crude, rude, +roughneck--but honest. If I can dig down to the honest heart of Canyon +Pass, Bet, I shall succeed. We'll not worry about first impressions, or +the lack of super-civilized conveniences, or the fact that men don't +often shave, and the women wear their hair untidily. Of course, I'll +make you as comfortable as possible----" + +"I can stand whatever you can, Ford," she interrupted with brisk +conviction. + +"Well," with a sigh of relief, "that's fine. Oh, Bet! This is the life +we're going to. I am sure you will be happier when you once get a taste +of it." + +But she made no reply. + + * * * * * + +When the two mountain-hogs, drawing and pushing the trans-continental +train up the grade, ground to a brief stop at Crescent City, Betty Hunt +was surprised to see brick office buildings, street cars, several +taxi-cabs at the station, paved streets, and the business bustle of a +Western city which always impresses the stranger with the idea that the +place is commercially much more important than it actually is. + +"This--this cannot be Canyon Pass?" she stammered to Hunt. + +"No." He laughed. "But here's Joe Hurley--bless him! Joe!" + +He shouted it heartily before dropping off the car step and turning to +help Betty. But Joe Hurley strode across the platform and playfully +shouldered the minister aside. + +"Your servant, Miss Betty!" the Westerner cried, sweeping off his +broad-brimmed hat in a not ungraceful bow. + +The girl from the East floated off the step into his arms. Joe set her +as lightly as a thistle-down upon the platform and somehow found her +free hand. + +"When Willie, here, told me you would come with him, Miss Betty, I +promised the boys at the Great Hope a holiday when you arrived. Great +saltpeter!" he added, stepping off to admire her from her rippling, +bistered hair to her silk stockinged ankles. "You sure will make the +boys sit up and take notice!" + +Here Hunt, having relieved himself of the hand-bags, got hold of +Hurley's hand and began pumping. The two young men looked into each +other's eyes over that handclasp. They had little to say, but much to +feel. Betty sighed as she looked on. Her last hope of quick escape from +the West went with that sigh. The handclasp and the look were like an +oath between the two young men to stand by each other. + +"Well, old sobersides!" said Joe. + +"Same old Joe, aren't you?" rejoined the minister. + +"Come on. We'll get your bags into a taxi and go up to the hotel," +Hurley said briskly. "I got rooms for you. We can't go on to the Pass +till eight o'clock to-morrow morning." + +"Is there but one train a day, Mr. Hurley?" Betty asked as he helped her +into the cab. + +"To Canyon Pass? Ain't ever been one yet," and he chuckled. "We go over +with Lizard Dan and the mail. Some day, when the roads are fixed up, we +may get motor service. Until then, a six-mule stagecoach has to serve." + +"Oh!" + +Hunt's eyes twinkled. "Break it to her gently, Joe," he advised. "Bet is +prepared to be very much shocked, I know. This frontier life is going to +be an eye-opener for her." + +"'Frontier life!'" snorted Hurley. "Why, we're plumb civilized. Bill +Judson has laid in a stock of near-silk hosiery and shirts with pleated +bosoms. Wait till you see some of the boys in holiday rig. Knock your +eye out, when it comes to style." + +Betty smiled. She did not mind being laughed at. Besides, the modern +appearance of Crescent City had somewhat relieved her apprehension. Even +the hotel was not bad. Their rooms were cheerful and clean, so she could +excuse the brand-new, shiny oak furniture and the garish brass beds. + +She did not dislike Joe Hurley--not really. It was only his influence +over Ford that she observed with a somewhat jealous eye. Although the +mining man seldom addressed her brother seriously, she realized that he +was fond of Ford. The latter was much the stronger character of the +two--she was sure of that. He would never be overborne in any essential +thing by the lighter-minded Hurley. But Ford admired the latter so much +that Betty felt her brother was likely to give heed to Hurley's advice +in most matters connected with this new and strange environment to which +they had come. + +"Bet is scared of the West and of you Westerners," Hunt said lightly. "I +don't know but what she expected you to have sprouted horns since she +saw you before, Joe." + +"Shucks!" chuckled the other. "We're mostly born with 'em out here, Miss +Betty. But they de-horn us before they let us run loose out o' the +branding pens. And remember, I spent two years in the effete East." + +"It never touched you," and Hunt laughed. "You're just as wild and +woolly as ever." + +The girl noted that Hurley was thoughtful of their every comfort. He +showed them the best of the town that day; but in the evening they +rested at the hotel and talked. The two men conversed while they smoked +in Hunt's room, with the door opened into Betty's. She heard the murmur +of their voices as she sat by her darkened window and looked out into +the electrically lighted main street of Crescent City. + +She was not at all thrilled by the novelty of the situation. She was +only troubled. + + * * * * * + + +Those strangers passing by! She saw a face in the throng but seldom as +the street lights flickered upon it. And always she was fearfully +expectant of seeing--What? Whom? She shuddered. + + + + +CHAPTER VII--THE FIRST TRICK + + +The high-springed stagecoach lurched drunkenly over the trail that wound +through a valley Betty thought gnomes might have hewn out when the world +was young. Barren, riven rock, gaunt, stunted trees, painted cliffs +hazed by distance, all added to a prospect that fell far short in the +Eastern girl's opinion of being picturesque. + +Rather, it was just what her brother had termed this Western +country--raw. Betty did not like any rude thing. She shrank instinctively +from anything crude and unfinished. + +The three--herself, her brother, and Joe Hurley--occupied the seat on the +roof of the plunging coach just behind the driver. "Lizard Dan" was an +uncouth individual both in speech and appearance. He was bewhiskered, +overalled, wore broken boots and an enormous slouched hat, and his hands +were so grimy that Betty shuddered at them, although they so skillfully +handled the reins over the backs of six frisky driving-mules. + +Lizard Dan, Hurley told the Easterners, had gained his nickname when he +was a pocket-hunter in a now far-distant day. He had been lost in the +desert at one time and swore when he came out that he had existed by +eating _Crotaphytus Wislizeni_ roasted over a fire of dry cacti--the +succulence of which saurian is much doubted by the Western white man, +although it is a small brother of the South American iguana, there +considered a delicacy. + +However, Dan acquired a nickname and such a fear of the desert thereby +that he became the one known specimen of the completely cured desert +rat. He never went prospecting again, but instead drove the stage +between Crescent City and Canyon Pass. + +"The boys expecting us at the Pass to-day, Dan?" Joe Hurley had asked +early in the journey. + +"Youbetcha!" + +"Got your gun loaded?" + +Dan kicked the heavy double-barreled shotgun at his feet and replied +again: + +"Youbetcha!" + +"Do--do wild animals infest the road?" Betty had asked stammeringly. + +"Not much," said Hurley. "But Dan carries a heap of registered mail in +which wild men, rather than wild animals, might be interested." + +"Youbetcha!" agreed Dan. + +Hurley glanced sideways at Betty's face, caught its expression, and +exploded into laughter. + +"You've come to 'Youbetcha Land,' Miss Betty," he said, when he could +speak again. + +"He is a character," chuckled Hunt on her other side. + +The suggestion of highwaymen stuck in the girl's mind. She looked from +Lizard Dan's weapon to the ivory butt of the heavy revolver pouched at +Joe Hurley's waist. These weapons could not be worn exactly for show--an +exhibition of the vanity of rather uncouth minds. It fretted her though +without frightening her, this phase of Western life. It was not the +possibility of gun-fights and brawls and the offices of Judge Lynch that +made Betty Hunt shrink from contact with this country and its people. + +The stagecoach mounted out of the valley--which might, Hunt said, have +been fittingly described by Ezekiel--and followed a winding trail through +the minor range of hills that divided Crescent City and its purlieus +from the Canyon Pass country. The coach pitched and rocked as though it +was a sea-going hack. + +In time they crossed the small divide and came down the watershed into +the valley of the East Fork. + +Borne to their ears on the breeze at last, through the sound of the +rumbling coach-wheels and the rattling trace-chains, was another noise. +A throbbing rhythm of sound with the dull swish of intermittent streams +of water. + +"The hydraulic pumps at the Eureka Washings," explained Hurley. "We'll +be in sight of them--and of Canyon Pass--before very long." + +The stagecoach lurched around a corner, and the raw, red bench of the +riverbank came into view. Steam pumps were noisily at work and men were +busy at the sluices into which the gold-bearing earth and gravel were +washed down from the high bank. + +Three great, brass-nozzled hydraulic "guns" were at work--each machine +straddled by a man in oil-skins and hip boots, who manipulated the heavy +stream of water that ate into the bank and crumbled it in sections. + +At the moment of their sighting the hydraulic washings across the river, +there was raised a wild, concerted shout from a point ahead. Out of a +hidden cove galloped a cavalcade of a dozen or more mounted men, who +swept up the road to meet the coach. + +For an instant Betty thought of the shotgun at Dan's feet and of +highwaymen. These coming riders waved guns and yelled like wild Indians. +But she saw a broad grin on Joe Hurley's face. + +"Here come some of the Great Hope boys," he explained. "Their idea of +'welcome to our city' may be a little noisy, but they mean you well, +Hunt." + +They came "a-shootin'," and Lizard Dan threw the long lash of his whip +over the backs of his six mules to force them through the cavalcade on +the gallop. + +Firing their guns and yelling, the riders on their wiry ponies +surrounding the coach as its escort, pounded down to the ford. Their +hullabaloo announced far in advance the approach of the coach to Canyon +Pass. + +In all its ugliness the mining camp was revealed. The gaze of the +Easterners was focused on its unpainted shacks and rutted streets. They +saw men, women, children, and a multitude of dogs running from all +points toward the main thoroughfare of the town. + +It was like a picture--not like anything real. Betty's dazed mind could +not accept this nightmare of a place as actually being the town to which +fate--and her brother's obstinacy--had brought them. Given an opportunity +right then, the girl would have failed her brother! She was in a mood to +desert him and return East as fast as she could travel. + +Joe Hurley grinned at her. She had begun almost to hate those twinkling +brown eyes of his with the golden sparks in them. He seemed to know just +what her feelings were and to enjoy her horror of the crudity which +assailed her on every hand. To her mind, Hurley was worse than his +associates, for he had enjoyed the advantages of some culture. + +The mules dashed into the shallows. Spray flew as high as the roof of +the coach. The mules settled into a heavier pace as they dragged the +vehicle up the farther bank and into the foot of Main Street. + +The crowd--a couple of hundred people of all ages--had gathered before the +Wild Rose Hotel. This stood opposite the bank and farther along the +street than the Three Star Grocery and Boss Tolley's Grub Stake. The +mules picked up their heels again under the cracking of Lizard Dan's +whiplash, and cantered up to the chief hostelry of Canyon Pass. The +yelling crew of horsemen--a bizarre committee of welcome indeed--rode +ahead, punctuating their vociferous clamor by an occasional pistol-shot. + +Betty caught sight of her brother's face. It was as broadly smiling as +was that of Joe Hurley! Actually Ford was enjoying this awful +experience. + +The moment Dan drew the mules to a halt, Hurley was half way to the +ground and turned on the step to help Betty down. She glanced timidly at +Hunt again. He was preparing to descend on the other side of the coach, +leaving her entirely to Hurley's care. + +Then occurred that incident which would ever be engraved upon Betty's +memory, and which marked indeed the coming of the Reverend Willett Ford +Hunt to Canyon Pass on the archives of the town's history in letters +that never would be effaced. + +As Hunt started to descend from the roof of the coach there sounded a +single pistol-shot and the hat he wore--a low-crowned affair, the single +mark of the cleric in his dress--sailed into the air with a ragged hole +through brim and crown. + +As the hat flew upward a fusillade of five more shots followed the +first, and the hat was torn to rags as it sailed over the roof of the +coach. The crowd roared--some in anger, but most in derision. The man +standing by the door of the Grub Stake reloaded his gun before putting +it away, grinning broadly. + +Hunt was startled; but his own smile did not fade. What was it Joe had +impressed so emphatically upon his mind? + +"It's the first impression that counts with Canyon Pass folks. Give 'em +the chance, and they'll laugh you out of town. And remember, they are +bound to judge you, Hunt, by their own standards." + +The young minister felt that the occasion was momentous. His usefulness +here in Canyon Pass might depend upon his action or comment in this +emergency. + +His nerves were perfectly steady. How was his _nerve_? He knew the man +who had shot the hat from his head was such a good shot that he had been +in no danger at all. + +But Hunt felt that something more was expected of him than the mere +ignoring of a rude and offensive act. He started across the road toward +the gunman. Those who stood in the way opened a lane for him with some +alacrity. The smiles upon the faces of those who moved stiffened. +Something extraordinary, something they had not at all expected, was +about to happen. + +Hicks, slouching against the front of the Grub Stake, came to sudden +attention. His fingers crooked, creeping toward the butt of his gun +again. Every atom of the ruffian's courage--such as it was--lay in that +weapon. Without it--and its leaden death--he was a sheep for bravery! + +Smiling still Hunt reached him. The parson's steady gaze held that of +Hicks as the human eye is said to hypnotize the gaze of all wild beasts. +Hicks, however, was not wild. Not now. Not so you could notice it! + +"Brother," Hunt said cheerfully, "you've spoiled my hat. It's the only +hat I've got with me until my trunks come in by freight. You've had your +fun, and it's only fair you should pay for it." + +The expression of Hicks' face sunk into a sneer. He thought the +white-livered parson was trying to get money from him for the hat. He +must indeed be a "softie." + +Then Hunt's hands moved suddenly, swiftly. In a flash he had snatched +the broad-brimmed hat from Hicks' head and placed it on his own, + +"Turn about is fair play, don't you think?" said the parson, and without +waiting for a reply he turned on his heel and went back across the +street! + +The silence that had fallen on the crowd had been of that tense, +strained quality that portended tragedy. Had Hunt showed offense at the +trick played upon him and struck Hicks, the latter would have used his +gun without mercy. And scarcely could a jury have been impaneled in +Canyon Pass that would have convicted the ruffian. + +But of a sudden, a roar of laughter rose from the crowd. They rocked +with it, beating their knees, holding their sides, laughing with +wide-open mouths and streaming eyes. Nor was the comical appearance of +Hicks' dilapidated hat crowning the parson's otherwise impeccable outfit +all that spurred Canyon Pass to such wild cachinnation. + +The strident laughter was aimed at the chagrined gunman. Hicks knew it. +The broad back of the parson offered a sure target; but he knew better +than to draw his gun a second time. Instead he turned away, hatless, and +sought sanctuary in the Grub Stake. + +Hunt had taken the first trick in this game he had "set into." And +Canyon Pass to a man admired a shrewd gambler. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII--A FLOWER IN THE MIRE + + +Had Betty Hunt not had Joe Hurley to steady her as she came down from +the roof of the stagecoach to the ground in the midst of the crowd, she +never could have stood upright through that scene! The sight of her +brother's hat flying overhead, the target of Hicks' six-gun, led her to +believe that Hunt was in peril--deadly peril. + +She wanted to beg Hurley to run to her brother's rescue, but her tongue +clove to the roof of her mouth. What followed utterly appalled her. She +verily believed that Hunt took his life in his hands when he approached +and browbeat the bad man! + +But as she heard the boisterous laughter of the crowd and saw the +strange hat flapping about the Reverend Willett Ford Hunt's ears, Betty +became suddenly angry. + +"Take off that horrid hat, Ford!" she cried when the parson joined them. +"I beg of you, take it off at once." + +"Don't do it, Willie," interposed Hurley. "Let it be. No crown of glory +you may earn will ever so become you. Continue to wear it, Reverend, and +not a soul in Canyon Pass will ever laugh at _you_, if they do at the +hat. It will remind 'em that you're an honest-to-goodness he-man." + +Hunt smiled deprecatingly. "You make too much of it, Joe. Don't worry, +Betty, about the hat. I might as well keep the joke up a little while." + +"'Joke!'" she groaned. + +Hurley slapped Hunt resoundingly on the shoulder. "You're all right, +Willie!" + +This turned Betty against him all the more. It was so uncouth she +thought on Hurley's part and so undignified on her brother's. With all +these people looking on, grinning and gaping, was that the way to gain +respect for a clergyman and for his work? + +"Well, let's go into the Wild Rose and get you settled," Hurley said +with that cordiality that did much, after all, to disarm Betty's +criticism. "I told 'Cholo' Sam and Maria to clean up some rooms for you +and try and make things halfway decent. But I don't know. This isn't +like the hotel at Crescent City." + +The statement was not conducive to Betty's peace of mind. The sordidness +and squalor of Canyon Pass was being from moment to moment etched more +deeply on her brain. They mounted the steps of unplaned boards and +crossed the porch that shook even under Betty's light tread. Unpainted +walls, uncarpeted stairs, and not altogether clean floors met her gaze +as they entered the hostelry. + +If Hunt was appalled by the rudeness of their surroundings he very +successfully hid his real feelings. He had spent vacations in the +hunting and fishing camps of Maine and Quebec. The lack of even the +ordinary conveniences of civilized life could not in any case trouble +him as it did his gently nurtured sister. + +He did, however, on this first evening arrange to have their supper +served in Betty's room, rather than forcing her to eat in the general +dining-room of the hotel. But he explained that they could not thus +segregate themselves in the future. + +"It wouldn't do, Betty. I must mix with these people--show myself willing +to be one of them in ordinary ways. Respect for the cloth cannot be won +among these open-hearted folk by finnicky manners. I must be one of +them. I must show them that I am a man as well as a preacher." + +She could not agree; but at least she was wise enough not to oppose--at +this time--his evident acceptance of Joe Hurley's advice. She saw in the +latter more clearly than ever a dangerous ally for her brother. + +Hunt's abundant cheerfulness--even over the coarse supper-fare and the +absence of napkins--closed his sister's lips even more firmly. The two +had come to Canyon Pass with diametrically opposed mental attitudes. +Hunt was prepared to accept things as they should find them, but nothing +in Canyon Pass, or about it or its inhabitants, could please Betty. + +As darkness fell the town grew noisier, for it was a Saturday night. +Betty, looking from her window, saw only flaring oil lamps and gasoline +torches illuminating the street. The men who passed up and down were +much rougher in appearance and of tongue than those she had watched +under similar circumstances in Crescent City. There were almost no women +in sight. + +Men spoke harshly, or shouted ribaldries to one another. Indeed, the +girl from the East scarcely understood the language they used. Miserably +she crept to bed. She had locked her door after her brother left her, +and she even dragged the pine washstand against it as a barricade. + +The Wild Rose Hotel itself was no quiet abode on this night. There was a +bar, and although it was at the other end of the house, the noise of the +shouting, the rude songs, the stamping and quarreling therein made Betty +shake in her bed until long after midnight. She had no idea that her +brother went to bed, fell asleep in a minute, and slept as peacefully as +a baby until almost sunrise. + +A Sabbath dawn could be as calm at Canyon Pass as at Ditson Corners. The +pearl-gray light of the new day washed the sleep from the Reverend +Willett Ford Hunt's eyes. He arose to lean on his elbow and gaze through +a window that, curtainless, looked out on Mulligan Lane. There were some +frowsy buildings within sight--evidently dwellings of a kind--but the +parson lifted his eyes to the hills feeling with the psalmist that +"whence cometh my strength." + +They stood--those hills--in serrated ranks from the far east to the point +where the sudden uplift of the canyon wall on that side of the river +closed the outlook. Even Old Graylock of his familiar Berkshires had not +the magnificence of these peaks. He was impressed again as he already +had been with the difference merely in size between these western hills +and the Berkshires, let alone the vast dissimilarity in their contour. + +The eminences of western Massachusetts for the most part slope away into +wooded and pastured ridges, which themselves melt into the lush +lowlands. Their crowns do not seem so imposing as these western peaks +because of their configuration. + +His window was open. Suddenly he became aware of voices below it at the +back of the hotel. + +Something was going on there--something that revealed the dregs of life +to be as mean and offensive here in Canyon Pass as they could be in any +place in the whole world. He heard the maundering tones of an +intoxicated man and--sharply contrasted--the voice of a woman. + +"Get up, Sam, and come home." + +"Hic! Won't go home till mawnin'--till mawnin'--hic--doth 'pear." + +"Well, morning's appearing all right, and it'll catch you here, +wallerin' like a hog in the lane. Come home with me." + +"No. I'm a man. I'm--hic!--independent, I am. I'll go hu-hu-home jest +whenever I please." + +"Now's the time to please me, Sam. Get up and come along." + +"Couldn't do it, gal. Couldn't think--hic!--of it. 'Twould be givin' up my +indepen--dic!--dence. I'm--I'm my own master. Leastways, I am on Sunday +when the mine's shut down. Here I stand----" + +"But you don't stand!" ejaculated the woman's voice sharply. "And I +don't believe you can." + +The inebriated man gave no heed to this challenge. "Here I stand," he +repeated. "'On Jordan's bank I take my stand, and cast a--hic!--cast a +wishtful eye'----" + +"More'n likely you'll cast a shoe and won't get home at all, if I can't +start you," complained the woman's voice. + +Hunt had risen and was scrambling into the more necessary articles of +his apparel. He went to the window and looked down into the lane. + +There was an overturned box just below the window and slouched down upon +it was a withered, baldheaded man whose frayed whiskers and untrimmed +hair made him look a deal like an inebriated monkey. There was nothing +humorous looking in this specimen of fallen humanity to the mind of the +parson. He could only pity his case. + +But it must be confessed the other person engaged in the colloquy gained +Hunt's interest and held it at once. + +She was small, lissome, of a vigorous figure and vastly more attractive +to his eye than any girl he had ever looked at. Indeed, he was amazed to +see such a really beautiful creature in such squalid surroundings. + +"Get up and come home with me," said the girl again. "What will Mother +Tubbs say when she sees you?" + +"Heh? I reckon I better stay yere," was the reply. "Man can't keep +his--hic!--dignity when a great walrus of a woman throws him 'round like +he was a sack of spuds. I tell you, gal, I made a great mistake in +marryin' that woman." + +"It was a great mistake for her--that's a fact," was the sharp rejoinder. +"You got so many failings I don't see how Mother Tubbs remembers 'em all +when she prays for you. Ugh! You men! There ain't a one of you I'd give +a hoot in a rain-water barrel for. Get up!" + +The girl again tried to drag him to his feet. Sam Tubbs merely fell over +sideways and sprawled helpless upon the ground. + +Hunt, without his coat or vest, but grabbing up the flap-brimmed hat he +had secured from the gunman the evening before, opened his door, ran +down the back stairway of the hotel, and made his way quickly into the +lane. As he appeared before Nell Blossom, standing over the now +slumbering drunkard, he looked anything but the cleric. + +"Can I be of help?" he asked. + +"You can't help me none, mister," replied Nell brusquely. + +"I scarcely think you need help," said Hunt, smiling. "But this +unfortunate----" + +"'Unfortunate' is right!" repeated the girl. "Sam Tubbs is so +unfortunate that it would be money right now in his pocket if he'd never +been born. If I leave him here some of those cheap hangers-on of the +Grub Stake or Colorado's place will roll him for all he has in his +jeans. And Mother Tubbs needs what he's got left of his pay--believe me!" + +"Where does he live?" + +"Where I do. Down the lane a ways." + +"I think we can get him there," said Hunt, and without further ado he +stooped, got a grip on Sam Tubbs, and proceeded to throw him over his +shoulder like a sack of meal. + +The girl's eyes grew round. For the first time she expressed some +appreciation--perhaps a little admiration--for his friendliness. + +"You wasn't behind the door when they were passing out muscle," she +remarked. "Well, come on. I'll show you the way." + +The now slumbering Sam Tubbs was scarcely a heavy burden, and to Hunt +the task of carrying him was slight. He was considerably amused as well +as interested in the girl. It was quite apparent that she did not know +he was the new parson. Evidently she had not been in the crowd the day +before that had welcomed the coming of the tenderfoot preacher and his +sister to Canyon Pass. + +Hunt was studying her face now with more than amusement, although her +bluff manner of speech and utterly independent air made Nell Blossom a +revelation of a new phase of femininity to him. Her speech, in the first +place, did not accord with her beauty, nor, indeed, with the natural +refinement expressed in her countenance. + +She certainly was a lovely girl! In the early morning light her light +brown hair seemed threaded all through the mass of it with strands of +gold. Her eyes were the blue of a mountain lake--but with ice in their +depths. Their gaze, as it was turned on Hunt, was utterly impersonal. + +Her peachy complexion as well, offset by dark brows and red lips, +aroused Hunt's admiration for its sheer beauty. Brown-gold hair, blue +eyes, petite and lissome figure--when had such description of a girl +caught in the cogs of his memory? Somewhere lately he had seen, or heard +described, such a sprite of a girl as this. + +She was dressed plainly enough in serviceable corduroy--short skirt, +blouse, broad-brimmed hat, high laced boots. A crimson scarf was knotted +under the collar of her blouse. She wore no ornament. + +Nell did not say much during that brief walk. Not that she was at all +timid or bashful; but she seemed to feel no particular interest in this +young man who had put himself out to help Sam Tubbs. + +For her own part she considered Sam a nuisance. She had no use for the +old reprobate. It was solely for Mother Tubbs' sake that she had +bothered herself with regard to Sam. Finding him drunk--as usual--on her +way home from Colorado Brown's place early on this Sunday morning, she +had tried to get him home without realizing at first that Sam was quite +so far gone in liquor as he was. + +As for this man who walked by her side, carrying so easily the +insensible Sam, Nell did not question who he was. That he was a +stranger--possibly a traveling salesman, or "drummer"--perhaps a mining +man, she believed, if she thought of him at all. As Hunt suspected, she +did not for a moment identify him as the parson Joe Hurley had brought +to Canyon Pass. In any event she could not have imagined the Reverend +Willett Ford Hunt as this sort of person. + +They turned abruptly into another narrow alley and came to the front of +the Tubbs' shack. The yard, fenced by pickets of barrel-staves, was +neatly kept and there was an attempt at a flower bed on either side of +the walk. Mother Tubbs usually punished Sam for his sin of drunkenness, +after he had slept off his potations, by making him weed the tiny +gardens and rake the path. These penitential activities kept the Tubbs +premises spick and span. + +Nell led the way imperturbably around to the back door of the shack. +This door was open and a thin blue haze--odorous and appetizing--floated +out of the kitchen. + +"Just getting a nice breakfast for you, honey," said Mother Tubbs, +filling the doorway and seeing Nell first of all. "Now, if only Sam +would come along--Is _that_ Sam? He ain't dead, is he?" + +"Only dead drunk," said Nell in scorn. + +"Where shall I put him?" asked Hunt quietly. + +"Well, I reckon it don't much matter. You can drop him down anywhere, +mister. I'll fetch a dish-pan o' water and sluice him down when I get a +chance. But I can't let them cakes sp'ile." Then she saw and recognized +the parson's face, for Mother Tubbs had been at the Wild Rose Hotel the +day before when the stagecoach had arrived. "Goodness me! I declared, +Mister--er--Brother Hunt, this _is_ good of ye." + +Nell stared. The note of respect in Mother Tubbs' voice revealed in a +flash Hunt's identity to the cabaret singer. + +"I am sartain sure obliged to you," went on the old woman. "Nell Blossom +never could have got him home alone." Hunt had lowered her husband to a +seat on the porch floor and propped his back against a post. "Sleeping +like a baby, ain't he? Well, he can stay thataway till after Nell has +her breakfast." + +Hunt was not giving her his attention. The name "Nell Blossom" had +revealed to him instantly the familiarity of the girl's description. +This was the golden-haired, blue-eyed, high-spirited beauty Joe Hurley +had written about--the girl who could really sing. + +They stared at each other while the old woman went back to her cakes. +Nell was obviously shifting the gears of her opinion about this +stranger. He, a parson? No lunger, this husky six-footer! + +"Mebbe you ain't acquainted," Mother Tubbs said, bustling back from the +stove. "Nell Blossom is a-living with me and has been doing so--off and +on--for more than three years. Ever since her pa, old Henry Blossom, up +and died. She's a singer, Nell is--the sweetest you ever heard, Brother +Hunt. I'm hoping, when you get to holding meetings, that we can get her +to sing in the choir." + +Hunt bowed, smiling, to the girl. Her expression of countenance was no +less forbidding than before. She offered him no encouragement. + +"Won't you stop for breakfast with me and Nell, Brother Hunt?" went on +the hospitable old woman. "I always try to have something hot and tasty +for Nell when she comes home after her night's work." + +Nell started--was it angrily? She opened her lips to speak, then shut +them in a straight, red line. In any case, Hunt caught the significance +of her attitude of objection, had he been tempted to accept the old +woman's hearty invitation. + +"Not this morning, Mrs.--er--Tubbs, is it? Sister Tubbs? I am glad to have +met you." He met her huge hand with a warm clasp of his own. "When we +get started here, I am sure I can depend on your aid and good wishes?" + +"Youbetcha!" exclaimed the old woman. "And you'll see me in one of the +front seats--mebbe in two of 'em if they ain't bigger than usual," she +added with twinkling eyes. + +He laughed boyishly, lifting the dilapidated old hat to both Mother +Tubbs and the girl as he turned the corner of the shack. The old woman +looked down admonishingly at Nell Blossom. + +"You weren't a mite perlite to the minister, Nell," she complained. + + + + +CHAPTER IX--A BEGINNING + + +That eastern mountain range was all etched with rose color now as Hunt +went back to the hotel. But the town had scarcely quieted after its +night's revelry. Inebriates were still dribbling along the streets from +the all-night places. + +He thought of Nell Blossom. She certainly was a flower in the mire of +Canyon Pass. Joe Hurley had written none too enthusiastically about the +girl, as far as concerned her beauty. And although Hunt was by no means +given to impulsive judgments, he knew there was a refined atmosphere +about the girl despite her gruff independence of manner and speech. + +His return to the hotel was unheralded save by the cheerful grin of +Cholo Sam, the Mexican proprietor of the hostelry, who was sluicing out +the barroom. + +"Some morning, thees, Senor Hunt." He flashed a tentative, toothful +smile toward the array of bottles behind his bar. "Weel you have one +leetle drink, Senor? A 'pick-my-up,' you call eet, eh?" + +"Coffee, Sam," replied Hunt briskly, acknowledging the offer in the +spirit it was meant. "Coffee only--and perhaps a bit of bread with it. +Service for two, please. My sister will want some. Will you bring it +up?" + +"But surely, senor." He hesitated. "Ees eet the truth that the senor ees +a meenister--the padre? Si?" + +"Quite true, Sam. That is my business--my trade. And I have come here to +Canyon Pass hoping to exercise it." + +Hunt mounted to his room to find that Betty was already astir. She had +been into his room during his absence. One of the bags he had brought +upon the stagecoach had been opened and across the foot of the bed was +carefully laid his ordinary Sunday garments--frock-coat, high-cut +waistcoat, and narrow trousers of dead black sheen. + +With the outer garments was the stiff-bosomed white shirt--"boiled" Joe +Hurley would have designated its variety--the silk socks, with a pair of +low, gun-metal kid shoes set primly on the floor under the edge of the +bed. + +Ford Hunt looked at all these once--then again. He thought of what he had +been doing already on this Sunday morning. Then he burst into loud +laughter. + +Sunday afternoon when the weather was propitious was the time for social +intercourse in Canyon Pass. Those who had worked or played or had been +intoxicated the night before had slept off the effects of their +super-exertions for the most part. They came forth now shaved and in +clean garments and strolled to Main Street. + +It was still too early for the cabarets and gambling places to be open, +and even the saloon bars were somnolent save for the flies buzzing about +them or drunkenly crawling in the spilled beer. The pivotal point of the +town's rendezvous and gossip on Sunday afternoon was the Three Star +Grocery. In front of that old Bill Judson held forth between his +exertions of waiting on such customers as might claim his attention. + +"Dad burn it!" ejaculated Judson. "I bet Tom Hicks has crawled into his +hole and pulled the hole in after him. I should want to if I was him. +And you take it from me, boys, a parson that can do that to a bad actor +like Tom Hicks will make Canyon Pass sit up and take notice before he's +through." + +"It showed sand, I allow," agreed one of his hearers judiciously. "But +it's r'iled Boss Tolley all up and he swears the parson sha'n't stay." + +"You don't say!" drawled Judson sarcastically. "And who ever elected +Tolley to be boss of the Pass? If for no other reason, I'm strong for +this yere Reverend Hunt." + +"As a man--a reg'lar he-man--I'm for him, too," agreed another. "But I'm +thinkin' we can get along yere at Canyon Pass without much psalm-singing +and preaching." + +"Yeppy. You're right," declared a third of Judson's hearers. + +"Let alone that you're all wrong," put in Judson again with energy, +"let's look at the thing in a practical way, as the feller said. If a +man come in yere and opened a shoe shop or a candy pop or wanted to sell +shoestrings, we'd give him the glad hand, wouldn't we? 'Live and let +live,' has always been the motto of Canyon Pass, ain't it?" + +"What's that got to do with it, Bill?" + +"Why, you big gump! Ain't this parson got something to peddle? His stock +in trade is religion, and he's got just as much right to show goods and +try to drum up trade as the next one, ain't he? He's entitled to a fair +deal. And Boss Tolley, Tom Hicks, and them other highbinders can sulk in +their dens and suck their paws. I ain't never gone ironed since I opened +this shack, nigh thirty years ago. But I'll sling a gun on my hip and +act as bodyguard if it's necessary for any feller that ain't getting a +fair deal in this town. That's gospel!" + +"I never knowed ye was so all-fired religious, Bill," complained one of +his surprised hearers. + +"Religious!" retorted the storekeeper. "It ain't that I'm religious--not +so's you'd notice it. But I got a sense of fair play,--dad burn it! Here +comes the parson now, boys." + +Hunt and Joe Hurley came out of the Wild Rose Hotel. The minister had +not donned his clerical garments. He was dressed as he had been the day +before when he arrived on the stagecoach, except for the hat he wore. +That flopping-brimmed headgear which he had taken from Tom Hicks crowned +the parson's brush of crisp, dark hair. + +"Boys," said Hurley, when they came near, "meet Willie Hunt. He's one of +the best old scouts I met when I was East, that time I stood that +college on its head, like I told you. I reckon you know Willie is a real +man, if he _is_ a parson. Mr. Hunt, meet Jib Collins, Cale Mack, Jim +Tierney, and--last but not least--Bill Judson, who is the honored mentor +of this camp." + +"Whatever that is," and the storekeeper grinned, shaking hands in turn +with Hunt. "This yere Joe Hurley slings language at times that sartainly +stops traffic. He can't seem to get over it. It was wished on him when +he lived East that time he is always telling us about." + +Hunt knew how to meet these men--he was by nature a "good mixer." There +is much in the grasp of a hand, a steady look, an unafraid smile, that +recommends the stranger to such bold spirits. The timid, even the +hesitant, make no progress with them. + +"Parson," pursued Judson, "we was just discussin' your business as you +and Joe come along. In my opinion we need you yere at Canyon Pass. I'm +speakin' for myself alone," and he glared at the other men in the group +accusingly; "but I can't put it too strong. We need ye. To my mind +religion is a mighty good thing. We're loose livin', we're loose +talkin', and we need to be jacked up right smart. + +"You can count on me, parson, to back any play you make, clean across +the board. I'm for you, strong. We need meetin's started. We ought to +have a Sunday school for the young 'uns. We need to be preached at and +prayed with. I come of right strict Presbyterian stock, and when I was a +lad I was used to all the means of grace, I was." + +"You are interested, then, Mr. Judson, in any attempt we may make to +inaugurate services here on Sunday?" Hunt asked cheerfully. + +"Youbetcha!" was the hearty rejoinder. + +"Of course, Mr. Judson," Hunt pursued, "you understand that, to have +successful and helpful services, some of us at least must have the +spirit of service?" + +"Sure. That's what I tell 'em." + +"I take it from brief observation that this day--the Sabbath--is observed +very little at present in Canyon Pass?" + +"True as true," said the storekeeper. + +"To get people really interested in divine services on this day, don't +you think we should begin by making some difference--a real +difference--between the First Day and the other six?" Hunt continued, +eyeing Judson reflectively. "If we who are interested in the betterment +of the community are not willing to lead in this matter, those we wish +to help can scarcely follow. + +"Sunday should not be like the other six days of the week. Your mines +and gold washings shut down on this day. How about other secular +activities ceasing--as far as it may be possible?" + +"I--I reckon you're right, parson," Judson said, though with some +hesitation. "Of course, the boys have been used to having their freedom +on Sundays, and their fun. I don't believe you could go far in shutting +down the saloons and gambling tables--not right at first." + +"But would you go as far as you could personally to establish a better +standard of Sunday observance?" pursued Hunt. + +"Heh?" ejaculated the puzzled Judson. + +Hunt, still smiling, mounted the steps of the store, closed the door, +and turned the great key which had been left in the outside of the lock. +He removed the key and handed it to Bill Judson as he came down the +steps again. + +"Mr. Judson," he said in a perfectly unmoved voice, "if you will begin +by keeping that door locked on Sundays you will be leading the way in +this community toward a proper observance of the Lord's Day." + +Joe Hurley was on the point of bursting out laughing. But he thought +better of joining Collins, Mack, and Tierney in wild expressions of joy +at the old man's discomfiture. + +Judson's face turned from its usual weather-beaten tan to a purple-red. +His rheumy eyes sparked. Then slowly, reflectively, a grin wreathed his +tobacco-stained lips and crinkled the outer corners of his eyelids. + +"Parson," he said, thrusting out his hand again, "you're on! I'll show +these fellers I'm a good sport. Nobody was ever able to say honestly +that Bill Judson took water; and I won't give 'em the chance't to say it +now." + + + + +CHAPTER X--MUTTERINGS OF A STORM + + +It was Joe Hurley who saw Betty appear on the porch of the hotel. +Perhaps his gaze had been fixed in that direction for that very purpose. +It was a vision to draw the eyes of any man hungry for a picture of a +well-dressed and modest young woman. Betty Hunt was like nothing that +had ever before stepped out upon the Main Street of Canyon Pass. + +"Come on, Willie," urged Hurley, seizing the minister's sleeve. "You've +jarred Judson clean to bedrock. Spare him any more for now. Come on. +Your sister is waiting for us to take her to the Great Hope." + +Betty was not gaily appareled. Her frock was black and white, and so was +her hat. She still remembered Aunt Prudence's death--and that she was a +parson's sister! But it was the way the frock was made, and how it and +the hat became her that marked Betty as an object of approval, to the +male Passonians at least. + +"Such a beautiful day, Mr. Hurley," Betty ventured. "One might think it +a respectable country town if only one could forget last night." + +She stared at Hurley with accusation. He dropped his head sheepishly. +Somehow Betty Hunt put the matter as though it were his fault! + +"We're going to change all that in time," said Hunt cheerfully. "These +people are not so bad, Betty----" + +"That they couldn't be worse? Yes, I know," retorted his sister. + +"Why, Betty!" murmured Hunt, "isn't that a bit uncharitable?" + +"I have no thought for charity in a place like this," declared the girl. +"Such dirt, vileness and disorder I never dreamed of! These people are +not even human! I cannot excuse them. No branch of the human family +could possibly be ignorant enough for us to excuse what I have already +seen about me in Canyon Pass." + +"Great saltpeter!" murmured Hurley. + +"You did not tell my brother the half of it!" she cried, flaring at the +mining man. "You hid the worst. You only said things in your letters +that you knew would attract him here." + +Joe Hurley started back a step. If a kitten he had stooped to pet had +suddenly turned and gouged him with its claws he could have been no more +startled. + +But Betty Hunt proved herself no kitten. She was usually a very +self-contained and quite unexcited young woman. It was only for a minute +that she allowed her anger to flame out. + +"Now, that's enough about that," she pursued, still with a frown. "The +thing is done. We are here. I do not believe that Ford will ever be +happy in Canyon Pass; and I know I shall not." + +"Better not speak so positively, Bet," said Hunt coolly. A brother +seldom is much impressed by his sister's little ruffles of temper. "You +may have to change your opinion. My belief is that none of us can find +happiness in a new environment. We must take the happiness with us to +any new abode." + +Hurley was much subdued during their walk through the town. His +knowledge of girls like Betty was very slight. He had never had a sister +and he could not remember his mother. + +Even girls like Nell Blossom had not been frequent events in the mining +man's life. His two years spent in the East had been almost as barren of +feminine society as his years in the West. + +Now, it must be confessed, Betty Hunt had "got him going," to quote his +own thought in the matter. Not that Hurley was of a fickle temperament. +But he was not a man to eat his heart out in an utterly impossible +cause. + +Nell had shown him plainly that she had no use for him save as an +acquaintance. He could not even count himself her friend now, for since +her return from Hoskins she had seemed more remote from the men of +Canyon Pass than ever before. + +So, Joe Hurley had already put Nell out of his mind in that way before +Betty Hunt had appeared on the scene. And, it seemed, he was fated to be +attracted by a distant star. The minister's sister was distinctly of +another world--and a world far, far above that of Canyon Pass, Hurley +told himself. + +It was not Betty's finnicky ways, as her brother bluntly called them, +that held the girl from the East so dear in Joe's eyes. It was in spite +of her disapproval of Canyon Pass and all that lay therein. The mining +man was deeply interested in the development of the camp. He had done +much in a business way to improve conditions here. He hoped to do more. + +He had quite realized that the place needed something besides modern +business methods to raise it out of the slough in which it wallowed as a +community. This realization, shared with such people as Bill Judson and +old Mother Tubbs, had led Hurley to interest the Reverend Willett Ford +Hunt in Canyon Pass. He foresaw the camp in time as well governed a +place as Crescent City. + +Betty's scorn and vituperation regarding the shortcomings of the Pass +actually pained Hurley. Was it so bad as she seemed to think it was? +This girl from the East was very positive in her dislike for the place +and its people. + +Then he looked over her head at the quietly smiling face of Hunt. He did +not seem to share his sister's opinion that the Pass was beyond +redemption. There was, after all, a quality of sanity and stability +about Hunt that bolstered Hurley's hope. + +"That boy is all right," thought Hurley finally. "He sees things with a +clear eye. And our crudeness doesn't scare him. His sister----Well! what +could you expect of a pretty, fluffy little thing like her? This place +is bound to look rotten to her at the first. But at that, she may change +her opinion." + +In fact, Joe Hurley had determination enough to believe that he was just +the chap who could change these opinions of Betty Hunt! His non-success +with Nell Blossom had not convinced him that he would never be able to +attract other girls. + +Right at the start Joe had been enamored of the fragile beauty of the +parson's sister. Hers was not the robust, if petite, prettiness of Nell +Blossom. It was a beauty of spirit and character that looked out of +Betty's gray eyes. Her very calmness and primness intrigued the mining +man. + +Opposite is attracted by opposite. Because he was so open and hearty +himself, Hurley admired the daintiness and delicacy of Betty. Her +primness, even her shrinking from the things to which he was so used in +and about Canyon Pass, pleased the young man in a way. + +Here was just the sort of girl he desired to establish in his home--a +real home--when he got one. Joe Hurley did not propose to live in a +bachelor shack in the purlieus of Canyon Pass all his life--by no means! +He was getting on. The Great Hope was panning out well. It had every +promise of being a big thing in time. He was going to be rich. Betty +Hunt would grace the head of the table of a millionaire--wear the clothes +a prince might buy for his wife--hold the respect and admiration that the +highest lady in the land might claim. + +"I've got to have that girl," thought Hurley. "And I'm going after her!" + +They climbed the steep road of rolled rock to the highland overlooking +the town and giving them a view to the first turn of the canyon bed of +Runaway River. When the squalid sight of Canyon Pass could be shut out +of the mind, even Betty admitted that the dimming light in the canyon +lent a fairylike charm to all its ruggedness. It was a slot made by +giants in the hills without doubt. She expressed a desire to see more of +it. + +"I'll get you a good cayuse," said Hurley eagerly. "Got any riding duds +with you?" + +"I have my habit in one of my trunks." + +The Westerner looked at her doubtfully. "Don't know about long skirts +flapping around the legs of these Western critters----" + +"Habits are not made with skirts nowadays, Mr. Hurley," Betty +interrupted coldly. "Fashion--even in the Fenway--demands that the +feminine riding suit shall be mannish." + +"Oh! If you ride astraddle," replied Hurley, without realizing that his +phrase shocked her, "we can find you a horse that will fill the bill. +I've got one that I ride myself, and I can pick up one for Willie." + +"Most agreeable to me, I'm sure," agreed the parson. "I can ride after a +fashion. Bet got her training at boarding school. If Aunt Prudence knew +all her niece got at that institution the dear old lady would have been +shocked." + +Betty did not smile. There were things that had happened to her at +boarding school that Ford knew nothing about. His words aroused in her +mind the carking memory of the secret that had changed Betty Hunt's life +completely--the secret that had killed all the sparkle and winsome +lightness in the girl's nature. She became silent and after that only +listened to the talk of the two young men. + +Not that she was not interested as they went on and Hurley pointed out +the several claims being worked with the most modern methods of the +Oreode Company, and the Nufall Syndicate, and by himself and his +associates at the Great Hope. This mining business was all new to the +girl, and she had an inquiring mind. She did not shrink at all, when +Hurley suggested a descent into the shaft and produced slickers and +rubber boots and tarpaulins to put on over their clothes. + +The man in charge let them down in the bucket, and a gasoline torch +showed them all that there was to see under the surface. Hurley +explained with pride how he had found and developed the first paying +lead in the Great Hope, but that the name of the mine foreshadowed a +much richer vein that he was confident was soon to be opened. Science +and that "sixth sense" of the miner assured him that the big thing was +coming. + +"We're always looking toward El Dorado, we miners," he said with a +laugh. "It's hope that keeps us up." + +"'El Dorado'--the hoped-for land," repeated Betty softly. And then, +standing there in the flickering radiance of the torch, she repeated, +while the men were silent, that concluding paragraph of Robert Louis +Stevenson's essay: + + "'O toiling hands of mortals! O unwearied feet, traveling ye know + not whither! Soon, soon it seems to you, you must come forth on some + conspicuous hilltop and, but a little way further, against the + setting sun, descry the spires of El Dorado. Little do ye know your + own blessedness, for to travel hopefully is a better thing than to + arrive, and the true success is to labor.'" + +"Amen," Hunt commented seriously. + +"You said it," agreed the mining man with that bluff emphasis that did +not shock Betty so much now as it might at the beginning. "That's what +keeps me going. Stevenson knew what he was writing about. But, we would +have considered him a weakling out here, I am afraid. We are inclined to +judge everything here in terms of muscle and brawn." + +"But it has been your brains, Joe, not your brawn, that has carried you +so far in this work," Hunt declared warmly. + +Hurley sighed as they went back to the shaft. "Let me tell you I have +had to use considerable brawn, Willie, in handling these roughnecks that +work for me." + +He laughed again. Joe Hurley could not be sober for long. And his temper +exploded when he had to shout at the top of his lungs to attract the +attention of the watchmen when they wanted to get up to the surface. + +"This feller isn't worth the powder to blow him from here to Jericho," +grumbled Hurley. "I always miss old Steve Siebert when he slopes for the +desert, as he's bound to do every spring. That old desert rat is always +here over Sunday to see that everything is all right, when he's on the +job. But he just has to go off prospecting once in so often." + +He told them more about Siebert and Andy McCann as they went away from +the claim. Betty listened as before with quiet interest, but she made no +comment. Hurley was not at all sure that she had enjoyed, or even +approved of their visit to the mine when she and Hunt parted from him at +his own shack, although she thanked him politely. + +The walk did not end for Hunt and his sister without a more adventurous +incident. The sun had disappeared and the dusk had begun to thicken in +corners and by-streets as they approached the hotel. There, at the mouth +of a narrow lane, two figures stood, a man and a girl, and their voices +were sharp and angry. + +"That's what I'm telling you," the man's voice drawled, a note in it +that at once raised in Hunt that feeling that any decent man experiences +who hears one of his own sex so address a woman. "You got to come to it, +and you might as well come now as later. I got you on the hip--that I +have. Understand?" + +"I understand nothing of the kind, Tolley. You're a bluffer and a beast! +And if you don't let me alone----" + +"Don't fool yourself," interrupted the man. "I won't let you alone till +you come back to the Grub Stake. But I won't talk to you about it again. +I'll talk to others." + +Then the girl told him angrily to do his worst. Betty attempted to pass +on swiftly; but the young man hesitated. + +"Do for goodness' sake come along, Ford!" whispered his sister, looking +back at him. + +Back in Ditson Corners--or in almost any other Eastern town--the Reverend +Willett Ford Hunt would scarcely have shown his interest in such a scene +on the street, save perhaps to speak to a constable or policeman about +it. + +But there was something here he could not ignore. Nor was it entirely +because he recognized the angry voice of the girl, although he had not +as yet seen her face in the dusk. + +"You'll do what I tell you," muttered the bully with an oath, as Hunt +stepped nearer. "If you don't come back to the Grub Stake to sing +to-morrow night, I'll let the whole o' Canyon Pass know----" + +It was just then that Hunt's hand dropped upon Boss Tolley's shoulder. +Nor did it drop lightly. The parson twisted the big man around by one +muscular exertion and looked into his flushed face. + +"Don't you think you've said enough to the young lady?" Hunt asked +quietly. "You have evidently forgotten yourself." + +"What--why, you fool tenderfoot!" + +"Suppose you go, Miss Blossom," suggested Hunt with unruffled voice. +"Let me speak to this man." + +But the minister had quite mistaken Nell Blossom's temper. She turned on +him like a shot. + +"What are you butting in for, I'd like to know? I can take care of +myself--always have and always expect to." Then she laughed harshly, +turning to Tolley again. "Better beat it, Tolley, or the parson will do +something to you besides grabbing your hat." + +The dance-hall keeper, swearing still, jerked away from Hunt's grasp. He +did not seek to continue the quarrel, however. He abruptly turned up the +alley and disappeared. + +"For goodness' sake, Ford!" ejaculated Miss Betty. + +Nell Blossom, thus attracted to the other girl, stepped nearer and +stared at her. Her own face was unsmiling. If it had not been so really +pretty one might have said it was a black look that she gave Betty. But +it was an impish look, too. + +"There are some things you'd better learn if you are going to stay in +this camp, parson," said the singer. "The principal thing is to mind +your own business. If I ever need your help in any little thing, I'll +call on you." + +She passed them both, still staring--now with curiosity--at Betty and went +on along the street. Betty seized her brother's arm. + +"What a horrid little creature!" she said. + + + + +CHAPTER XI--THE STORM ABOUT TO BURST + + +There was a strangely paradoxical feeling in the Reverend Willett Ford +Hunt's mind. Nell Blossom was a subject of thought he could not escape. +He could not wholly overlook her manners and speech; yet he did not feel +that she was blameworthy for either. + +What chance had this wild blossom of a girl ever had, out in this +wilderness, the daughter of a drunken ne'er-do-well, as he had been +told, taught from her childhood to sing for her own living and for her +father's in the saloons of mining camps? Why, almost any other girl +would have gone bad--as bad as could be. And he knew Nell Blossom was not +bad. + +He really wished he might make Joe Hurley his confidant about the girl, +but, harking back to that letter of Joe's in which the latter had spoken +so enthusiastically of Nell, the parson felt that his friend was too +strongly prejudiced in Nell's favor to risk his criticizing her in any +way. + +One question recurred again and again to him: What did that man Tolley, +who he knew was the proprietor of the Grub Stake saloon and dance hall, +mean by commanding Nell to return to his employment? + +Betty saw her brother's more serious mien, and it must be confessed, +wickedly hoped that the situation as it opened before him here at Canyon +Pass was beginning to appall him. How could it do otherwise? Let alone +the crudeness and lack of conveniences in their dwelling place, the +nature of the people with whom they must associate, and the utter +forlornness of life here in the mining town, that last incident as they +walked back from the Great Hope Mine should impress Ford with the utter +impracticability of his trying to begin a pastorate here. + +The awful ruffian who had sworn at the girl--horrid as she seemed to +be--shocked Betty beyond expression. And what a look that Nell Blossom, +she had asked her brother the singer's name, had given her, Betty Hunt! +As unfriendly, as hateful, as though the Eastern girl had done the +singer some grievous wrong. + +The strange girl had insulted and flouted Ford, too. Betty's loyalty to +her brother was up in arms at that, if the truth were told. She could +not but admire after all Ford's cool assumption of authority with the +ruffian and with the cabaret singer as well. Why, Ford did not seem to +be afraid of these people at all. Even Joe Hurley could have been no +more sure of himself in such a situation than her brother had proved to +be. + +For in spite of her disapproval of the mining man she realized that Joe +was perfectly able to handle such situations and such rude people with +equanimity. But then, he was of this soil. He was of the West. To tell +the truth, Betty was inclined to think of Hurley as being quite as bad +in manners, speech, and outlook on life as the other people of Canyon +Pass. + +She would say nothing about all this to her brother. Betty Hunt was +quite capable of thinking things out for herself. Prejudiced she had +been--and was--against the town and their visit to it; but she did not +utterly lack logic. She went to bed that second night in the Wild Rose +Hotel with somewhat different thoughts in her mind after all. At least, +she did not drag the washstand in front of her locked door as a barrier. + +In the morning the mining man appeared at the door of the hotel riding +his big bay and leading two other saddled horses. The freight wagons had +come in the evening before, and Betty had got her trunks. Out of one she +had resurrected the riding habit which she had not worn of late, but +which still fitted her perfectly and was chic. + +But Betty was daunted by the look of the mount Hurley had selected for +her. + +"Mr. Hurley!" exclaimed Betty emphatically, "on your honor, is that +horse safe?" + +"As safe as a church. You hitch him on a railroad track, and he'd only +step just far enough aside for the lightning express to go by without +shaving him." + +She looked at him, both puzzled and disapproving. "I never know when you +are serious," she finally said. + +"You can bet your last blue chip on the fact that I am taking no chances +of a hoss throwing you or cutting up rusty while you're on his back," +the man returned earnestly. "Hardscrabble is all right, Miss Betty." + +He offered his hand to Betty for her to step into with all the grace of +a courtier. He looked up into her eyes, too, as she mounted past his +shoulder into the saddle, and his smile was so friendly that she could +not help smiling in return. + +Hunt swung himself on to his own mount--a rather rangy cayuse that +promised speed as well as endurance. Hurley bounded into his own saddle +from the step without touching the stirrups until he was seated. Bouncer +stood up on his hind legs, snorted, came down stiff-legged, and bucked +once just to show that he was in fine fettle. The other horses cantered +away from the hotel more sedately. + +They spattered through the West Fork and went into the canyon along the +river trail. There was not a soul in sight but themselves when they +turned the first out-thrust of the cliff. Runaway River brawled in its +bed. The huge, threatening cap of the Overhang cast its shadow almost to +the opposite wall. The mighty rocks, the deep cracks in which the brush +clung with tenuous roots, the wind-wrung, anguished, stunted trees, all +held the visitors spellbound. Such a devil's slot in the hills they +could never have imagined without actually seeing it. + +"Suppose that should fall?" Betty broke out pointing up at the frowning +cap of the cliff. + +"That's what we are supposing all the time, Miss Betty," replied Hurley +quietly. "Part of it did fall about twenty years ago. That was long +before my time, of course. But Bill Judson and some of the other +old-timers can tell you about it. It came pretty near ringing the +death-knell for Canyon Pass." + +"Backed up the river into the town, did it?" asked the logical Hunt. + +"I'll say it did! And over the town. Judson says it was so deep over his +store that he went out from the headlands in a flatboat and grappled +through the skylight of his joint for tobacco out of the showcase. Takes +that old-timer to spread it on thick," and he chuckled. + +"But is it likely to happen again?" cried Betty. + +"Any day--any hour--any minute," repeated Hurley quietly. "There are +thousands of tons of stuff up there that may fall. Choke the canyon +half-wall high. If it does, there'll be a lake here that'll furnish +water enough to irrigate blame near all of the Topaz Desert--believe me. +Canyon Pass will have to go into raising frogs or such," and he laughed. + +"Oh! I felt that it was a dangerous place to live in," murmured Betty. + +"Great saltpeter!" exclaimed Hurley again. "No worse than folks who live +on the sides of volcanoes in Italy, for instance. Or in the earthquake +belt along the Pacific coast. Pshaw!" + +"But--but there is so much room out here, Mr. Hurley," cried Betty. "Why +not choose a safer place in which to establish a town?" + +"The mines and washings. Gold established Canyon Pass. It isn't a +beautiful spot, but it's handy. We got to just keep on hoping that the +Overhang doesn't fall." + +"There is a place where some of it has fallen--and recently," Hunt broke +in, with some gravity. + +Half blocking the trail, and bulking along the river's edge for perhaps +ten yards, was a heap of gravel and soil on which no grass or other +verdure grew. Looking up the sloping canyon wall they could trace the +downfall of this small slide for more than half the distance to the +summit. + +"What is that sticking out of it?" asked Betty. "A stick?" + +Hurley sniffed like a bird-dog that has just raised a covey. He was to +windward of the heap. Hunt had forced his mount nearer from the other +side. + +"That is not a stick," he said quietly. "It looks to me like----" + +Hurley ejaculated something that was very near an oath. He flung himself +out of his saddle and strode over the rubble. He stopped and examined +the thing Betty had seen, even touching it with his gauntleted hand. + +"Never heard of this," he muttered. "Odd, I must say!" + +"What is it?" asked Hunt. + +"A horse's leg. Been pecked clean by the vultures--not by coyotes, or the +bones would be torn apart. Well!" + +"Oh, there has been a dreadful accident here! Is somebody buried under +that pile of gravel?" demanded Betty. + +"Not likely. Just a cayuse. Maybe a wandering critter. Happened to be +right here--taking a drink at the riverside, maybe--when the slide fell. +Or it might have been the cause of the slip. Came down with it," Hurley +explained in jerky sentences. "The weight of the hoss might have broke +off a piece of the Overhang and--here he is!" + +This seemed to satisfy him. He went back to his own horse and mounted +again. + +They rode several miles farther, but Joe Hurley did not seem quite so +volatile as usual. Was he "studying" on the buried horse by the +riverside? At least, when they rode back toward noon, he fell behind at +the point where the small landslip had landed, halting his horse beside +it for a moment. He overtook his friends in a short time, however, but +did not say anything. + +As they sighted the ford again, down from the upland on this side came a +dashing and brilliant-hued figure--a girl on a cream-colored pony. Hunt +recognized Nell Blossom at first glance. + +"Hi, Nell!" shouted Hurley, raising his hand and arm, palm out, in the +Indian peace sign. + +She scarcely nodded to him, but she grinned elfishly as she rode down +into the shallows and her pony's flying feet spattered them all at the +river's edge. She scarcely seemed to give Hunt and his sister a glance. +She plied the quirt that hung from her wrist, and the cream-colored pony +recklessly forded the stream and climbed the further bank. + +"How impolite," murmured the Eastern girl, brushing the drops from her +sleeve. + +"She's a little devil," agreed Hurley frankly. "That's the lady I was +telling you of, Willie. She's as wild as a jack rabbit." + +Hunt nodded soberly. He made no other comment. As they rode up into Main +Street they heard wild yells and hootings from the far end, then the +pattering of a pony's rapid hoofbeats. Back toward the ford tore the +cream-colored pony bearing the bizarre figure of the cabaret singer. + +Now Nell rode without touching the bridle reins. She swung the whip and +cracked it sharply. In the other hand she gripped a six-shooter of +practical size and weight. + +"What is the matter with that crazy creature?" asked Betty. + +Hurley merely laughed. Nell Blossom approached at a wild gallop. Men +appeared at the doors of various stores and saloons along the street and +yelled their delight. + +"Ye-yip! Yip-py-yip!" shrieked the appreciative audience. "Oh, you Nell! +Ye-_yow_! Git out o' town!" + +The girl, her face glowing, her hair flying from under her hat, her +whole figure electric with life and abundance of spirit, rode faster and +faster. As she approached the front of the Grub Stake she saw the +slouching figure of its proprietor backed against the wall by the door, +smoking. He grinned evilly at the rider. + +Nell pressed the trigger. Five staccato shots whistled skyward. The +sixth ruffled the lank hair on Boss Tolley's head and splintered the +door frame just above it! + +The divekeeper dodged and crouched, as though expecting another bullet. +He almost slunk into his barroom. Then he realized that the girl had +made a show of him and was riding on, applauded by the laughter and +shrieks of the onlookers. + +He whirled, and, lifting both hands, shook the clenched fists after the +flying Nell. He was almost apoplectic with rage. He burst forth: + +"You crazy, derned hoptoad of a gal! Somebody ought to grab you off that +animal. Shootin' at folks thataway! Is that what you done when you drove +poor Dick Beckworth over the edge of the Overhang?" + +The incoming trio of riders--Hurley, Hunt and Betty--were almost opposite +the Grub Stake as Tolley emitted these words. In a flash the mining man +was out of the saddle and standing in front of the startled Tolley. + +"What do you mean, you miserable scoundrel?" demanded Joe in so +threatening a tone that Tolley fell back against the side of the +building again. "What do you mean about Dick Beckworth?" + +Hunt had spurred his own horse nearer. He feared Joe would do something +rash. The rolling, bloodshot eye of the divekeeper expressed fear of the +other; but he was too much enraged to call caution to his aid at that +moment. + +"I mean what I say," he rumbled. "You don't know it, and nobody else in +Canyon Pass, I reckon, knows it but me. But I know that derned crazy gal +was the cause of Dick Beckworth's end. And a mean end it was." + +"Dick the Devil, _dead_?" + +"That's what he is," said Tolley with less vehemence. He sensed that it +would not be wise to be so vociferous with Joe Hurley's eyes glaring +into his own. "Dick come to a mighty mean end. I seen it; but I didn't +know what it meant." + +"It's more likely you killed him, Tolley--if he's dead. Or did you have +him gunned by Tom Hicks or some other of your friends?" demanded Hurley +sharply. + +"I never! Poor Dick wasn't expectin' nawthin', I allow. That crazy +gal----" + +"Be blamed easy how you bring Nell's name into this," muttered Hurley, +his hand upon the butt of his own gun. + +Hunt leaned from his saddle and laid his hand upon his friend's +shoulder. Hurley did not look back--he knew better, for there was +likewise a gun at Boss Tolley's belt. + +"All right, Willie," the mining man said. "Let's listen to what this rat +has to say. But be blame careful, Tolley, that you don't raise your +voice too high. If you do, I'll certainly maul you a pile." + + + + +CHAPTER XII--TOLLEY'S TALE + + +Hunt had a feeling that he was present at one of those tense scenes of a +Western cinema drama, where the heroic gunman holds the villain under +the muzzle of his lethal weapon. + +He might have leaned from his horse again and plucked both Joe Hurley's +gun and that of the divekeeper from their holsters. But he thought twice +about that. Neither of the men was in the mood to brook interference. +Besides, the parson was keenly alive to the mystery manifested in +Tolley's words regarding Nell Blossom and the man called Dick the Devil. + +Nobody else was near enough to have overheard what passed between Tolley +and Joe Hurley. None of the other Passonians, amused by Nell's wild +escapade, drew nearer, and Betty had ridden on to the hotel, refusing to +betray the least interest in such a rude scene. + +"Speak up, Tolley!" commanded Hurley again. "You've been telling us Dick +Beckworth went to Denver to deal faro at a gambling house there. Now you +come out with such a thing as this--mixing Nell's name up in some blamed +lie about Dick's being killed." + +"He was killed. It was murder--or mighty close to it. And that gal----" + +He halted again. There was something in Joe Hurley's eyes that stopped +him. + +"Suppose you start this thing right," said the mine owner more quietly. +"I understand Dick Beckworth left town the morning old Steve and Andy +McCann broke out, the same as usual, this spring?" + +"And the same morning that gal left me and the Grub Stake flat, and went +kitin' off," retorted Tolley. + +"Well, let's hear the particulars." + +"I didn't know Nell had gone at first." He winced, having spoken the +girl's name again, because of the darting threat from Hurley's brown +eyes. "When Dick told me he was off I didn't scarce believe him. But +then I seen him and that--er--gal riding down to the ford. I thought they +was up to some game. Anyway, I thought I could talk Dick into coming +back. He was the best dealer I ever had." + +"Well?" snapped Hurley. + +"I saddled a hoss and went after them. They'd followed the wagon track +to the top of the cliff. But I thought they'd took the river trail. When +I got a piece along the road, I heard something go _bam_--a fall of rock, +or something, down the cliff. I hurried my nag and come around a turn +where I could see. I looked up--never thought to look ahead along the +edge of Runaway River, I see her--Nell--looking over the edge of the +cliff. + +"I see then I was follering the wrong lead," pursued Tolley. "I didn't +think much about the slip I'd heard--not then. I wanted to get at Dick. +So I turned back, got to the foot of the wagon track up the cliff +yonder," he pointed, "and hurried after them. + +"When I got up there neither of 'em was in sight. I hustled along the +road and went clean past the fork of the Hoskins' trail. Never thought +of either of 'em going to that dump," grumbled Tolley. + +"Well, I give it up after a while. I thought I'd lost too much time, +starting out wrong at first as I had. They was too fast for me. So I +rode back. It wasn't till then, when I come to that place I'd seen Nell +looking over from, that I saw how big a lump had broke off the edge of +the Overhang." + +Hurley sucked in his breath sharply. "Go on!" was all he said. + +"I looked down there. I seen how big the slide was. And I seen something +more. There was something sticking out of that heap of stuff on the +river bank. I couldn't be sure, but I thought it was the hind parts of a +hoss, only upside down. + +"I pushed my hoss along the river trail again and come to the heap of +stuff that had come down the cliff. It hadn't come down alone." + +Hunt, listening as closely as Hurley, had no idea how his friend felt; +but for his own part his flesh crawled at the inference he drew from +Tolley's tale. The man let his last words sink into their minds for +fully a minute before he went on. + +"It hit me right where I lived. Something bad had happened. It hadn't +happened to the gal. So I figgered it must be Dick. + +"And I wasn't mistook," continued Tolley with a certain satisfaction in +his tone. "I'd been right when I thought there was a hoss in that pile +of gravel. There was--but not much of it stickin' out. However, I clawed +down to the saddle, undid it, and hauled it out. It was Dick's all +right. I got it now stuck into the bottom of my big safe." + +"But where was Dick?" demanded Hurley. + +"How should _I_ know?" retorted the other. "Maybe under the heap--but I +didn't think so. I reckon he was throwed clean into the river. And you +know what the current of Runaway River is!" + +Hurley groaned. + +"Wait!" said Hunt suddenly. "The man you call Dick might not have gone +over the cliff with the horse. You did not see the accident." + +"He didn't come back to town. And he wouldn't have gone on afoot to +Hoskins or any place else," Tolley said surlily. "Nobody ain't seen him +around yere from that day to this." + +"And you lied about Dick and kept it under your hat all this time?" was +Hurley's comment. + +"Well, I had a right, didn't I?" blustered Tolley. + +"Every right in the world." The mining man spoke evenly now, coldly. +"And you've got a better right to keep the story to yourself right +along." + +"What d'ye mean?" + +"What I say. Keep your mouth shut about it. Don't let me hear of you +opening your yawp the way you did just now. I don't half believe this +yarn, anyway. You couldn't tell _all_ the truth about anything, Tolley. +The truth isn't in you. But sometimes a half-truth does more harm than a +whole lie. You stick to your first story about Dick the Devil going to +Denver. Understand?" + +"I don't understand why I should do what you say, Hurley." + +The latter patted the butt of his own gun. "Notice that?" he said with a +deadly fierceness that shocked Hunt. "If you repeat this yarn, I'll come +after you. And if I come after you, Tolley, I'll get you!" + +He went back to the waiting Bouncer and mounted into the saddle without +another word or a glance at Tolley. But Hunt, his nerves strained to a +tension he had never before experienced, watched the owner of the Grub +Stake sharply. Hurley's disregard of the fellow amazed the man from the +East. He did not realize that Tolley was so unstrung that he could not +have hit the broad side of a barn if he had drawn his gun. But Joe +Hurley knew it. + +The two young men rode on to the door of the hotel, both silent. Cholo +Sam was watching Betty's pony. The girl had dismounted and gone up to +her room. + +"Joe, what is going to be the end of this?" asked Hunt in a low voice. + +"I don't know, Willie." + +"Will you speak----" + +"To Nell? Not on your life!" + +"But the truth will come out some time. Who was that Dick?" + +Hurley told him. He went further and told of the interest the cabaret +singer had shown in the gambler for some time previous to Dick's +disappearance--before Nell had gone to Hoskins to sing in the Tin Can +Saloon. + +"It--it looks bad," faltered Hunt. + +"Bad is no name for it." + +"The girl should be questioned." + +"Not by me!" cried Hurley. "I don't think Tolley will run the risk of +speaking to her about it," he added. + +"He has already," said Hunt. + +He explained about what he and Betty had overheard pass between Nell +Blossom and the owner of the Grub Stake the evening previous. + +"Great saltpeter!" gasped Hurley. "Then that's why Nell cut that caper +just now. She didn't do it just for deviltry. She was warning Tolley on +her own hook." + +"Joe, there must be no bloodshed over this. If one man has died, that is +enough," Hunt said sternly. "We must get at the truth." + +"Not me!" cried Hurley again. "I wouldn't tackle Nell for a farm." + +"And--and you are so close to her--know her so well?" murmured Hunt. + +"That ain't no never-mind," the mining man said earnestly. "That girl's +got teeth, I tell you." + +"But she is in danger. She must be questioned." + +"Great saltpeter! You wouldn't get nothing out of Nell Blossom--nothing +that she didn't want to tell." + +"She should be convinced that her greater danger lies in silence." + +"Convince Nell? What did I tell you, Willie? You couldn't make her do a +thing, or even see a thing, that she did not want to do or see." + +"There is one thing I can do," said Hunt finally. + +"What's that, Willie?" and his friend sighed. + +"Find me a pickax and shovel." + +"What's that?" + +"A pickax and a shovel. At once." + +"Great----Say, that's a new one. I never thought of getting an idea into +Nell Blossom's stubborn head with those tools. But it might work at +that," and Hurley rode off to get the instruments of labor, but without +a smile. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII--PLANS ARE MADE + + +Hurley brought back with him two shovels instead of one, and the pick. +The two young men took a roundabout way to the ford so that Boss Tolley +might not spy them and suspect where they were going. + +They did not talk much. Both were thinking too deeply--were much too +disturbed by the uprearing of this tragic thing--for idle chatter. Hunt +wondered how his friend really thought of Nell Blossom. For his own part +he was heavily depressed by this thing that had come to light. + +The situation threatened serious consequences for the cabaret singer. In +a more law-abiding community the coroner's office would have summoned +Nell Blossom for examination if the district attorney did not. And in +any case, Hunt believed, the whole miserable business must come at last +to the light of day. + +It was past noon when Hunt and his friend arrived at that heap of dirt +and debris that had before attracted their attention. But neither of +them thought of the hour or of the midday meal. + +Hunt, dismounting, allowed the reins to trail upon the ground before his +horse's nose as he saw Hurley did with Bouncer. Both animals were well +trained. He removed coat, vest, and Tom Hicks' broad-brimmed hat which +he still affected. Rolling up his sleeves he seized the pick and went at +the task with the skill as well as the strength of a trained +ditch-digger. Hurley admired the parson's ability thus displayed. + +"Some boy, you, Willie. I'll tell the world you know something besides +pounding the pulpit. Where's that shovel?" + +They uncovered the dead animal and threw it into the swift, deep current +of the Runaway. + +They did not cease digging, however, until every square yard of the +fallen soil and rubble from the top of the cliff had been combed over. +They covered one section with the upturned windrow of another. Nothing +which had fallen with that fatal landslide remained unseen. But what +they had feared to find was not in evidence. + +"Either Tolley's guess was right, or Dick Beckworth never came down that +wall with his horse," Hurley said with finality. + +Hunt nodded, finally leaning on his spade. "At least, we have satisfied +our own minds," he said. "That is something." + +"And mighty little. Dick isn't here. I bet a thousand he didn't go to +Hoskins with Nell. He wouldn't have walked in any case. Then, where the +devil is he?" + +"That is not the main question," rejoined the parson thoughtfully. "The +principal thing is to get at the truth about this accident. What +happened up there at the top of the cliff? Did the man come down with +the horse and these several tons of gravel and soil? And if he came +down, what became of his body?" + +"Great saltpeter!" Hurley brought out his uncouth ejaculation with a new +emphasis. "Do you suppose Tolley, after all, knows more about that than +Nell does?" + +"What?" Then Hunt understood. "It might be," he said slowly. "Evidently +Tolley was not pleased by that gambler's leaving him, any more than he +was pleased by Miss Blossom's leaving him. It might be----" + +"It might be," finished Hurley with vigor, "that Boss Tolley is dragging +a skunk after him to fool the hounds." + +Hunt admitted the truth of this rather homely expression. "All the more +reason why the girl must be questioned," he said. + +"You're crazy, Willie!" cried Hurley. "You will get nothing out of +Nell--if she doesn't want to talk. And if she knows anything at all about +this, and is at all connected with the matter of Dick's disappearance, +you can just bet she's got good reason for keeping her lips closed." + +"For her own sake, she should confide in us--in you, at least. She will +need our help and our support if this comes out." + +"She's got mine, whether or no," Hurley said, slinging on his belt and +gun again. + +Perhaps Hunt thought he spoke significantly as he hitched the weapon +into place. He wagged a disagreeing head. + +"That sort of support will not save Nell Blossom's soul," he observed +thoughtfully. "To blow off Tolley's head will not help her one iota in +cleansing her mind and heart of anguish if she has guilty knowledge of +that man's death--if he is dead." + +"I tell you that Dick the Devil was well named," cried Hurley furiously. +"Why some man before this had not beaten him to death is a mystery. If +Nell shot him off the edge of that cliff, he got what was coming to him, +and no more." + +"Oh!" murmured Hunt, with a shudder. "It might not be that she has such +a terrible sin as that on her conscience!" + +"I don't give a hang," returned his friend. "If she had, there ain't +twelve men in Canyon County that would convict her of it. Don't tell +me!" + +"Oh, Joe! You don't see. You don't understand," urged his friend sadly. +"What matters man's conviction of her crime? It is of what her own heart +may convict her." + +"'Twouldn't bother me none if I'd sent Dick the Devil over that cliff," +declared Hurley. "But I leave it to you, parson. You maybe know more +about such things than I do. To tell the truth, you do. Otherwise I +wouldn't have had any hopes of your doing any good in Canyon Pass. Maybe +you know more about womankind than I do, as well," he added, a bitter +smile wreathing his lips once more. "I wish you all the luck in the +world when you tackle Nell Blossom on this topic. But I wouldn't be in +your shoes for half my stock in the Great Hope." + +Anxious as he was made by the outbreak of this affair the Reverend +Willett Ford Hunt did not forget the work that he earnestly hoped to +begin in Canyon Pass. Nor did he delay in laying plans for the efforts +he hoped would aid in changing the moral tone of the town. + +It was that evening in the Three Star Grocery where he went with Joe +Hurley that the first tentative plan was discussed. Jib Collins, who +seemed to have been much impressed by the young minister on Sunday +afternoon, was there, as well as the old storekeeper himself. With them +several of the more sober citizens joined in conversation. + +Hunt struck while the iron was hot. The first thing, he thought, was to +find some place in which services could be held on Sunday. He had seen +at least one empty store, or warehouse, he told them, which might be +cleaned out and put into fairly decent shape. He had looked into the +windows. There was a dingy sign on the front which said it was for sale. + +"Dad burn it, parson!" exclaimed Judson, "you must mean that old place +of Tolley's." + +"Tolley?" repeated Hunt with disappointment. "Does it belong to that +man?" + +"Sure does," said Jib Collins. + +"It used to be where Tolley had his honkytonk before he built his bigger +place. He owns it, of course," Hurley remarked. + +"Then I presume we could scarcely count on getting it," said Hunt with +reflection. "Tolley is vigorously opposed, I understand, to this thing +we wish to do." + +"Hold on," put in the storekeeper. "Let's study on it. In the first +place, you all keep it under your hats, and maybe I can do something +with Tolley." + +"You'll do a fat lot with him," prophesied Collins. + +"Mebbe so. We'll see. How 'bout that 'wisdom of sarpints' the Good Book +speaks of, parson?" said the storekeeper. "You lemme try to fix it with +Tolley. That's all." + +"Oh, we'll leave it to you, old-timer," Hurley said laughingly. "Nobody +will begrudge you that job." + +"If we get that place--or some other--we must have seats," Hunt went on. +"There are many things to think of--and many things to get together +before next Sunday. A week is none too long to prepare for such a work." + +"And a pulpit," Collins proposed. "Me and Cale could knock up a +pulpit--of a kind. We are some carpenters--me and Cale. If I can get him +to help." + +Hunt was perfectly willing to put such burdens as he might upon the +friendly citizens of Canyon Pass. In fact, that is just what he wanted +them to do--take hold of the new idea as though they really supported it. +The discussion, although of generalities, brought forth some concrete +results. + +Judson knew that Tolley was anxious to do something with the old shack. +Judson intimated that he expected to need more room for goods. He did +not say exactly when he would need it; but he got Tolley down to an +agreement, and they made a bargain. The storekeeper paid a nominal rent +for the shack six months in advance, agreeing to make such repairs as +the place might need himself. + +The business was kept secret, although Collins and Cale Mack went to +work on their part of the job the very next day. Others collected seats +and a few other furnishings. Everything was of the plainest; even the +pulpit was built of unpainted boards. But Hunt saw that the place was +clean. + +Judson furnished lamps from his stock. "We'll want evening meetings, +too," he said. "After we get to going, I mean. It won't be a bad idea to +commence running a show that will compete with the Grub Stake and +Colorado Brown's and those other joints. The boys drop into the saloons +because there ain't another derned place in the town to go to after +dark." + +On Wednesday Hunt, walking toward the mines, confronted unexpectedly the +withered, baldheaded man he had carried home over his shoulder on Sunday +morning. Sam Tubbs stopped him. + +"I reckon you're the parson, ain't you?" he asked, cocking his head in a +birdlike way to look up at Hunt. "My old woman is right smart anxious to +see you again. That woman's all for this here religion they say you are +going to deal out to the boys. Says she's got something for you." + +"Thank you, Mr. Tubbs. I will go around and call on her." + +"Well, you can if you like. Miz Tubbs is pretty nigh big enough to be +her own boss, and what I say don't affect her no more than as though I +shot my mouth off in the middle of Topaz Desert. That's a fact. I hear +you are a pretty decent feller, as parsons go; but I might as well tell +you right now that I ain't--and don't ever mean to be--a convert." + +"I shall like you none the less for that, Mr. Tubbs," said Hunt, smiling +and offering his hand. "A man must always decide for himself, you know. +I shall be glad to have you come to hear me preach; but you need not +believe a word I say unless your own mind tells you I am right." + +"Huh!" grunted Sam, rather staggered. "That sounds fair. Mebbe I will +come to hear you--sometime. If you last long enough." + +This opinion--that the parson would not last in his attempt to uplift +Canyon Pass--seemed to be the view of the general run of Passonians. + +He had a few very enthusiastic coworkers, however. He found one when he +went to call upon Mother Tubbs. + +"It's been in my heart for many a long day, Brother Hunt," the old woman +said. "This here holding meetings, and the like. I said a long time back +I'd give a pretty if a man of God would come in here and shake this camp +like a snowslide in the mountains. We need to get a mighty bump. +Youbetcha! + +"Now the time's come, I'm just as excited as a gal going to her first +dance. I can't make Sam enthuse none; and I'm disappointed in Nell, I do +say. But I am going to do all I can myself to boost your job for you." + +"Thank you, Sister Tubbs," said the young parson. "Is Miss Blossom +here?" + +"She's upstairs a-dressin'. But I don't reckon she'll give you much but +the rough side of her tongue. Lately, Nell seems to be bewitched. Think +of her ridin' her pony up and down the street the other day, shootin' +and cavortin' like a drunken cow-puncher! She puts on these didoes jest +for devilment. And she ain't got a good word for you and your plans, +Brother Hunt." + +"Well," said the parson calmly, "perhaps things will change with her in +time. We won't worry." + +"I'm glad you can take it so calm," said Mother Tubbs, sniffing. "Now, +come in yere. This is what I got for you." + +She led the way into the inner room, half bedroom and half sitting room, +the principal room in the shack. There was a small center table. On it +was a huge tome with tarnished brass clasps--a bulky volume that had +evidently seen much rough usage. Mother Tubbs put her hand upon it +proudly. + +"See that, Brother Hunt?" she said. "It's the old Bible out of the Blue +Lick Chapel down in Arkansas. The chapel burned down when I was a gal; +but the Bible was saved. When my folks moved out thisaway we brung it +with us, and it's been in the bottom of an old trunk of mine for forty +year. Now it comes to light." She opened it with care. "I reckon you got +all the Bibles you need to work with. But I do like to see a big one +like this on the pulpit for show." + +"This is most thoughtful and kind of you, Sister Tubbs," declared Hunt, +understanding the spirit of pride and reverence in which the old woman +had offered the book. "I shall see that it rests on our pulpit." + +At that moment Nell Blossom came into the room from the stairway. She +nodded to him bruskly, but offered him no welcoming hand. + +"I declare, Nell," complained the old woman, "you ain't going out +without a word to the parson, are you?" + +"I've no particular word for the parson," returned the girl, a glint of +ice in her blue eyes. + +"If you will allow me to say so, Miss Blossom," said Hunt quietly, "I +have a particular word for you." + +She stared at him angrily. He picked up his hat from the chair. + +"If you are going out," he said, "I will walk along with you and say +what I have to say." + +"Humph! I can't stop you from walking up Mulligan Lane. It's free," +returned the girl most ungraciously and walked ahead of him out of the +house. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV--THE GREAT DAY ARRIVES + + +Hunt caught up with Nell Blossom when she had passed through the gap in +the barrelstave picket-fence, and his length of stride easily kept him +beside the girl. Unless Nell broke into a run she could scarcely leave +the parson out of earshot. + +"Miss Blossom," he began, "my interference in your affairs calls for no +excuse. I have no vulgar curiosity. You tell me to mind my own business. +But when I see another in trouble it is my business to offer aid." + +"I am not in trouble," she answered sharply. Then, with scorn: "And if I +was, I wouldn't want a parson's help." + +"No. But a friend's help? I assure you I am your friend." + +She now looked at him rather curiously, but her expression did not +soften in the least. Doubt, scorn, a real dislike of the man who sought +to gain her confidence struggled to gain the mastery of her pretty +features. + +"I don't know you, I've only seen you a few times. I don't make friends +so easy----" + +"We don't make friends in this world, Miss Blossom. We win them whether +we would or not. You have won my friendly feeling because I know that +you are troubled. I know what your trouble is, and I believe I can help +you." + +His downrightness startled Nell, and she stopped and stared at him. + +"You can't help me if I don't want your help," she cried in secret +panic. + +"I cannot help you so much if you deny me your confidence," he admitted. +"But I stand ready to help you." + +"You'd better sit down," she shot at him. "You'll have a long wait +standing for me to get confidential with you, Mr. Parson." + +"Consider," said Hunt seriously, unshaken. "We cannot any of us afford +to refuse an honest offer of sympathy and assistance." + +"What are you trying to do?" she asked with suspicion. "Trying to +squeeze something out of me? You parsons!" + +She muttered the phrase disdainfully. He put her rudeness aside without +change of countenance. His placidity, his assurance, began to shake +Nell's confidence in herself more than any other thing. + +"I have heard something. I have seen something. I know that if you will +listen to me--perhaps accept and follow some advice I may give you--you +will be benefited," he said. + +"In what way, I should like to know?" she asked jeeringly. + +"In your heart. In your mind and conscience." + +"Well!" She was silent again for a moment, but her face did not change +in its expression, "Well, you can talk, I reckon," and she moved on +slowly again. "There ain't any law against talking in Canyon Pass--yet." + +"From the few words I heard that man, Tolley, say to you on Sunday +evening, I know that he threatened you," Hunt said directly. + +"That beast!" + +"He thinks he has knowledge that will make you trouble if spread +broadcast in the town." + +"Let him dare!" + +Her face was suddenly that of a young and beautiful fury. Hunt shook his +head, saying softly: + +"Killing him would not remove the cause of your trouble, Nell Blossom." + +She turned on him again, her little fists clenched. + +"How much do you know? Out with it!" she commanded. + +"I will tell you what Tolley says." + +"So you've been snooping and prying, have you?" she queried, her rage +almost suffocating her. + +"I will tell you what Tolley says," repeated Hunt. And he did so calmly, +dispassionately, as though he were relating a series of common facts. +"That man's horse was under the fall from the cliff. The man's body is +not there--if he fell with the horse." Nell did not even wince, still +staring into his eyes, her own as hard as flint. "Those are all the +facts in my possession, Miss Blossom." + +She remained silent. She had recovered both her regular breathing and +her composed manner. He could only read in her features a determination +that was adamant. + +"Will you answer a few questions?" he ventured. + +"Out with them!" + +"What caused the horse to fall?" + +"You gump! He fell because the bank gave way," she replied rudely. + +"What became of his rider?" + +"I don't know." + +"Did you leave him at that spot?" + +She waited a moment. Then, as harshly as before: + +"Yes." + +"You have not seen him since? Or communicated with him?" + +"Dick Beckworth? I should say not!" + +"Do you know what became of him?" + +A bitter, sneering smile marred her lips. "I know what Tolley says--that +he's in Denver." + +"Tolley proposes to deny that now," Hunt said softly. + +"Let him. One lie is as good as another, and Boss Tolley's full of +them." + +"Will you help me discover if Beckworth is alive?" + +"I tell you once for all, I don't want anything more to do with Dick the +Devil. I don't want to even hear about him." + +"Then you and he quarreled?" + +The mistake was fatal, and the parson knew it the instant he had said +the unwise words. But he could not recall them. + +"See here, Parson Hunt! you're making a nuisance of yourself. I want to +tell you that no tenderfoot will get far in Canyon Pass if he begins as +you have. I've got nothing to tell you. I won't talk to you. I don't +want a thing to do with you. Now! Am I plain enough?" + +She walked on stoutly, her head up, her cheeks aflame. For a few yards +he walked quietly beside her. Then he lifted his hat and turned aside. +When Nell had disappeared, Hunt sadly shook his head. + +"I fear," he told himself, "that I have made a bad beginning." + +Circumstances that followed proved that his suspicion was correct. In +less than twenty-four hours he heard that without a doubt he had made +another enemy. + +"I don't know how it is, parson," said Bill Judson shaking a mournful +head, "but that little devil, Nell Blossom, is on the warpath. And she's +after your scalp." + +"It is stuck on pretty tightly, Mr. Judson," Hunt replied with a smile. + +"'Tain't no laughing matter. Nell has a terrible drag with the boys. If +she don't have you run out of town, she may try to bust up your show. +She says you're a mischief-maker, and all that. She's plumb down on +parsons." + +"We will have to convince her that the tribe is harmless." + +"Not much chance," said Judson, who evidently shared Hurley's opinion of +Nell's obstinacy. + +"Time will cure all that," said the parson, with more apparent +confidence than he really felt. + +While preparations were going forward for the first meeting with +satisfactory speed, Hunt heard on every hand of the gathering forces of +opposition. + +Nell Blossom had resurrected the old song, "This Is No Place for a +Minister's Son," and in a ridiculous clerical make-up sang it each night +in Colorado Brown's place. Passing along the street to his hotel Hunt +heard the chorus roared by the men who applauded the cabaret singer. He +was met with more jeering laughter wherever he went than before; and he +realized that ridicule would do the good cause more harm than any other +form of opposition. + +Joe Hurley was very busy at the mine that week, and he had not much to +say to his friend from the East when they met. But he showed curiosity +as to what had befallen Hunt when he talked with Nell Blossom. + +"I fear I began wrong," admitted the parson. + +"I reckon however you began you wouldn't get far with Nell," observed +Hurley. "I'll keep my eye on Tolley. He's just boiling inside. But +unless he has a gang behind him he hasn't any more spunk than a rabbit. +Nell's too popular--just now, especially--for him to dare spring anything +against her. And she certainly is making herself well-beloved with the +boys from the Eureka Washings and the other mines," and he grinned +ruefully. + +"I can keep most of my own roughnecks in line. I reckon they kind of +cotton to me, and they know I am set on this church business. But Nell +certainly holds the camp in the hollow of her hand." + +"She is wrong; but she does not realize it, perhaps," considered Hunt. +"And yet, maybe she does know." + +The Reverend Willett Ford Hunt might have considered, as his sister +believed at that moment, that the outlook for successful religious work +in Canyon Pass was quite as foggy as it had been at any time at Ditson +Corners. Yet the opposition that had developed here was nothing more +than Hunt had expected. And it was open hostility. There was nothing +hypocritical about it. + +He had met Slickpenny Norris at the bank, Hunt had opened an account +there, and had invited the old curmudgeon to take some interest in the +church proposal. He had got one large grunt from the banker, and that +was all. Norris could be as close-mouthed as a clam when it might be to +his disadvantage to speak his mind. But he offered no encouragement to +the parson by that grunt. + +Saturday evening came and those who were most interested in the uplift +of Canyon Pass gathered at the old Tolley place to view with +satisfaction and no little pride the improvements and changes brought +about. + +"Jib," remarked Judson to Collins, having deserted the Three Star +Grocery and left it in the care of the gangling Smithy at a very busy +hour to "take a squint" at the interior of the meeting room, "Jib, you +and Cale Mack have certainly done yourselves proud on that pulpit." + +"Don't praise me! Don't praise me!" exclaimed Collins. "I never could +stand flattery. It puffs me all up. But it's a pretty nifty bit of work, +I do agree." + +"Yeppy," pursued the storekeeper. "It has a slant to one side that maybe +is more the fault of the floor than your spirit-level, Jib. And it looks +sort o' wabbly. But barrin' them defects, it's what I'd call a sightly +pulpit." + +"It's strong enough," grunted Collins gruffly, now not so much pleased. +"I don't reckon the parson is going to take a maul to it, is he?" + +Mother Tubbs just then entered the door. Behind her staggered Sam, his +reeling motion for once having no connection with an alcoholic cause. +Sam Tubbs was dead sober--and quite as positively provoked. + +"I snun to man!" he croaked. "Makin' a pack-hoss of a man thisaway! If +that danged parson wanted this yere Bible he ought've come and toted it +himself." + +"It's very good of you to bring it, Mr. Tubbs," said Hunt, smiling and +coming forward to relieve the old man of his burden. + +Hunt placed the big Bible on the pulpit. One of the interested +housewives had sent a rather handsome linen table-scarf for a pulpit +cloth, and although it was somewhat yellowed from disuse, it made the +unpainted desk seem less bare. + +They drifted in, one by one and in couples, during the evening, these +people deprived so long of the inspiration of worship in a public sense, +some bringing hymn-books of various sorts and a few Bibles. But Hunt had +not come to Canyon Pass unprepared on that score for church work. He had +brought with him from the East fifty hymn-books of the more popular kind +and a dozen Bibles for the use of the congregation in general. When +these had been distributed about the benches they made, Mother Tubbs +declared, "a mighty tasty show." + +Betty was present to be introduced to the women of the camp. Whatever +her private feelings were, the parson's sister could be, and was on this +occasion, a very helpful assistant to her brother. If the Passonians +felt a little awkward, Betty put them quickly at their ease. She made a +most fortunate impression on them all, and the general opinion was "that +that Eastern gal was a perfect lady." + +Joe Hurley appeared with some of the younger men. They were all scrubbed +till their faces shone, shaved to a nicety, and their hair "slicked" and +anointed with everything Jose, the Mexican barber, had on his shelves. + +"Umph!" murmured Mother Tubbs, wrinkling her nose appreciatively. +"Certainly smells proper good since them fellers come in yere. I never +did see why bay rum smells so much better than drinkin' rum. And bay +rum's the only kind of liquor I approve of. The other I only get at +second-hand--on Sam's breath!" + +It was late in the evening, and the town was getting lively, though it +seemed not so noisy as on most pay-nights, when they scattered from the +door of the meeting room. + +Hunt and Betty were the last to go. He latched the door behind them, but +there was no thought in his mind of locking it. That anybody would enter +the place before morning did not cross his thought. + +But later in the night, when this end of Main Street was deserted and +the frolicking in the various amusement places was continued only by a +few irrepressibles, a figure stole out of the alley beside the old +Tolley building and slipped into the room prepared for the first Sunday +service in Canyon Pass. + +Without a light in the place the intruder had some difficulty in +reaching the desk; once there, some few moments elapsed while the +uninvited visitor climbed into the pulpit and opened carefully the big +Bible. When the book was as carefully closed again, without the white +book-marks the parson had placed in it having been disturbed, the +obtrusive one departed. + +Outside, there seemed an air of satisfaction about the very way this +unknown individual walked away. In addition, a very determined--almost +viciously resolved-voice observed: + +"There! If that impudent pulpit-pounder don't get his, I miss my guess!" + + + + +CHAPTER XV--PEP AND A LITTLE PEPPER + + +All Sabbaths were not fine at Canyon Pass, as Hunt realized on opening +his eyes on that important morning. From the same open window through +which he had viewed the chaste glories of the Topaz Range a week before, +he now saw heavy, thunderous-looking clouds wrapping the peaks and +surging down into the lower reaches of the landscape, blotting out, as +they moved on, each monument that he had learned in this brief time of +his sojourn to know. It promised no fair day for the parson's first +service. + +This, however, was not the basis of the heaviness that oppressed him. +Hunt admitted the cause of his heart-sick feeling without dodging the +issue. It was Nell Blossom and her attitude toward him personally that +so troubled the parson of Canyon Pass. That she opposed the good work he +was trying to inaugurate was only a side issue in Hunt's mind. +Opposition in general merely spurred a spirit like his to greater +effort. That is, a frank opposition. + +But the minister's personal interest in Nell Blossom had become +something that controlled him. He could not control it. + +It was not right, he told himself, to do any poaching on what he +considered Joe's preserves. Whether or not Nell cared for the mine +owner, Hunt believed he would be disloyal to his friend if he showed +anything but the interest of a minister and religious adviser in the +young woman. + +Hunt was honest enough to admit that such feeling was not what inspired +him in the matter. Nell Blossom was not at all the kind of girl he would +have deliberately chosen as the object of a serious affection. But who +of us may choose when love enters the lists? + +The winsomeness of Nell shone through the rough and prickly husk of her. +He realized that no man could see in all its clarity the girl's soul. He +believed that the untaught mining-camp child, used as she was to the +rude life about her and only that life, was really out of her natural +element. Whatever Henry Blossom, Nell's dissolute father, may have been, +the girl's mother had perhaps given her child as a legacy a natural +refinement scarcely to be looked for in any person brought up in so +unpolished a community. + +In short, Nell Blossom's intrinsic worth was no more hidden from the +parson than her physical beauty. Her hatred of and disdain for all men +had its root in no fault she had committed. Some man, had it been that +gambler Hunt had heard called "Dick the Devil?" had disillusioned the +child-heart of Nell Blossom and, perhaps, the sweets of love had turned +to ashes in her mouth. + +What had become of that gambler? What was the truth about that tragedy +at the brink of the canyon wall? Did Tolley know the facts and misstate +them? Or was Dick Beckworth really dead and his body swept away by the +torrent of Runaway River? + +It was plain, Hunt decided, that Dick's disappearance weighed heavily +for some cause on Nell Blossom's mind. Something had happened on that +spring morning weeks before which had changed Nell from the +happy-go-lucky girl the parson knew she must have been to this bitter, +disdainful, and apparently wicked woman who scoffed at religion in any +form, and especially had "no use for a pulpit-pounder." + +In a week he had become imbued with such an interest in Nell that she +was the subject most in his thoughts at all hours. He could not +eradicate her from his mind, though he tried hard to do so. + +In his heart he scarcely supposed that the time would ever come when he +might be a suitor for Nell's hand. Joe Hurley stood between them. But +the Reverend Willett Ford Hunt was old enough and wise enough to know +that whatever came to him in the future, as long as he retained his +faculties, Nell Blossom would occupy a niche in his secret heart that no +other interest could fill. + +Twice at night, when Betty was in bed, Hunt had descended into the lane +and, standing at the back of Colorado Brown's place near an open window, +listened to Nell sing her songs, even to the caustic one with which she +closed her act and in response to which the crowd wildly roared its +applause. The verses about the minister's son "went big." But there was +a sweetness and power in her singing voice that seemed to reveal the +better qualities of the girl in the more tender ballads she sang; for +all her numbers were not of a humorous nature. She could bring tears as +well as smiles to the faces of her audience with that voice. + +Betty came tapping at his door while Hunt was still in his robe. When +she saw the dark business suit laid out on the bed she frowned. + +"Ford! I did hope you would dress properly on this day," she said. + +"I am dressing properly--for Canyon Pass," he returned, smiling. "I am +not inclined to attract the hearty laughter and scorn of such members of +the community as Boss Tolley, Tom Hicks, and their ilk. Clerical garb +might be considered by them as a gratuitous insult. And the last thing I +wish to do here is to antagonize the rougher element." + +Although Betty failed to see much distinction in the roughness of the +community, she did not open that avenue of discussion. She did say +decisively: + +"Why bother about those awful men, Ford? Tolley and his crowd will +never, never be members of your congregation. Maria, Sam's wife, has +been giving me the history of those wicked men. She is afraid of her +life because of the gang that hangs about the Grub Stake. That is a +terrible institution, and everybody in Tolley's employ is bad." + +"And yet, Miss Rosabell Pickett, who plays the piano for Tolley, is +going to have her own piano trucked over to the meeting room this +morning and will play the hymns herself for us. So some good must be +found at the Grub Stake," Hunt rejoined, still smiling. "Besides, if +they are bad men, I hope to help them." + +Cholo Sam was closing the door of his bar and locking it when, later, +Hunt and his sister came down from their rooms. Maria, with a jetted +jacket, yellow petticoat and reboza, was waiting for her husband. + +"Senor Hunt," said the innkeeper, flashing his white teeth as usual, "we +honor ourselfs to attend your service, if we may? Si?" + +"I'll be glad to see you and Maria there, Sam." + +Hunt then followed Betty out of the hotel. It had rained since sunrise, +but had stopped now. They were early for the service. The street was +almost deserted. It had been arranged by Hurley that the whistle of the +hoisting engine at the Great Hope should be blown at a quarter to eleven +and again at five minutes of the hour. There was no other means of +summoning the Passonians to worship. + +There was a roar of voices from the barroom of the Grub Stake as the +parson and his sister passed. They crossed the street to avoid a +quagmire, but the sound of revelry followed them. It seemed that all the +other saloons and stores in sight, including the Three Star Grocery, +were somnolent. + +Bill Judson joined them as they passed the grocery store. The old man +was as solemn as a bishop and as uncomfortable as new shoes, tight light +trousers of an ancient fashion, and a stiff-brimmed straw hat could make +him. + +"Hello! What's the matter with Tolley now?" the storekeeper exclaimed in +surprise. + +The owner of the Grub Stake had come tearing out of the place, seemingly +blinded by rage, and dashed along the street. The group that boiled out +of the Grub Stake after him did not follow, but urged him on with +jeering laughter. + +"What is it?" asked Betty, startled. + +"Dunno," said Judson, quickening his stride. "But the feller's up to +something." + +They were in sight of the meeting room now. The door stood open. When +Tolley reached it he plunged in. + +Hunt would not leave Betty, but he hurried her on, while Judson almost +ran and was over the threshold before them. There was a sudden explosion +of voices inside, Tolley's tones high over all. + +"Here's that derned cheater now!" the owner of the place was heard to +shout as the storekeeper entered. "Bill Judson! you think you're mighty +smart, but you can't put nothing like this over on me." + +"What's eatin' on you, Tolley?" was Judson's cool response. + +"The boys just told me what you folks was aimin' to use this dump for. I +didn't hire it to you for no church. I won't have it, I tell you! This +is my shack." + +"And I've paid rent for it for six months. What you goin' to do about +it?" drawled Judson. + +"I'll show you! I won't let no ham-faced old-timer like you make a fool +of me." + +Hunt reached the door. Betty was almost afraid to enter. There were +several men inside and two or three women. Tolley was striding toward +the pulpit, swinging his arms and shouting himself hoarse. + +"I'll show you!" he shouted. "I own this dump. I'll throw this litter +into the street. A church in my shack? Well, I reckon not!" + +The distant whistle at the Great Hope pealed its first signal for the +service. Several groups of Passonians were visible now, converging +toward the place of worship. + +"Better cool down, Tolley," advised Judson again. "We don't aim to have +any riot yere. This used to be your honkytonk, and a dirty place it was. +But we reckon on running another sort of business in it, and you can't +stop us. You're trying to throw sand in the gears o' progress, as the +feller said." + +"I'll show you what I can do!" shouted Tolley, mounting upon the pulpit +platform. He whirled about, and saw Hunt entering the room. "Here's that +danged preacher now." + +"Mr. Tolley," said the parson clearly, "the wicked have been known to +come to the house of God to scoff and have remained to pray. We are +going to hold a service here in a quarter of an hour. You are invited to +join us. But if you remain, I must ask you to be quiet." + +"Why, you derned, white-livered tenderfoot! I'll show you----" + +He seized upon Mother Tubbs' big Bible and raised it as though he would +fling it upon the ground. Betty gasped. Judson started forward. But +Hunt's voice rang loudest through the room. + +"Tolley! Put that Book down!" + +The compelling tone made the divekeeper pause. He still glared, his face +distorted by wrath; but, as Joe Hurley had once said, the fellow after +all had not the courage of a rabbit. He really expected Hunt to follow +the command with the only show of authority that went in Canyon Pass--the +display of a gun! + +But the parson had made no threatening gesture. He did not even advance +down the room. + +"Dang you!" yelled Tolley, and brought the Bible down upon the pulpit +with such emphasis that the desk rocked. + +The following instant his head was surrounded by a halo of fine +particles, the pungency of which was apparent to the surprised +spectators almost at once. Tolley received the blast of powdered cayenne +full in the face and eyes! + +He gasped--choked--sneezed. He sneezed again, a most vociferous roar of +sound, quite involuntary and spasmodic. The pepper that had been +sprinkled between the leaves of the big book had in one burst pelted +Tolley with its fine grains, filling eyes, nose, and his mouth, for that +had been open to emit another angry shout. + +But now he only shouted for help between sneezes. Tears poured down his +face. He staggered blindly down from the pulpit and begged for the open +air. + +Hunt was first to reach the tortured man and led him forth. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI--LOVE AND LONGING + + +Even Hunt could not express sympathy for the unhappy Tolley. But he did +not join in Judson's laughter or the chatter of the others in the +meeting room. Tolley staggered off toward the Grub Stake, swearing +between the huge sneezes which racked him like successive earthquake +shocks. Hunt returned inside the building. + +The others were grouped near the door, and there were weeping eyes among +them. For the moment the atmosphere in the vicinity of the pulpit was +unbearable. + +Hunt drew forth a handkerchief, tied it across his nose and mouth, and +advanced to the desk. The Bible had not been injured by Tolley's rough +action. But the red pepper was scattered thickly upon the linen pulpit +cloth. He wrapped the book in this cloth and carried it to a window +which looked upon the narrow lane beside the building. Hunt opened this +window; and, leaning over the low sill, dropped the book to the ground. + +He closed that window quickly; but he opened others to ventilate the +room. The damp air quickly relieved the place of the pungent pepper. The +parson did all this quietly. He made no comment on the incident. + +But the gathering company whispered and chattered--the women angrily, the +men more than a little inclined to be amused. + +"Parson," said Bill Judson, his eyes twinkling, "I promised Jib Collins +last night that I'd warn you to go easy on pounding the pulpit because +it was sort o' wabbly. I reckon 'twas Tolley I ought t've warned." + +Betty explained to the woman who furnished the pulpit cloth why it was +not in evidence, and Mother Tubbs when she arrived had to be told why +the pulpit Bible was in retirement. But there was time for little more +than that, as the second whistle blew, and the room began to fill. + +At least an audience was not lacking to hear Hunt preach his first +sermon at Canyon Pass. The seats were comfortably filled. Most of the +congregation were cleanly and neatly dressed; the women in such finery +as they owned. But some of the men, the rougher sort and evidently +present out of curiosity only, looked just as they did on week days. +Smoking, however, was taboo. + +Rosabell Pickett and her piano, a small upright instrument of a rather +uncertain tone, was of great assistance. Without her help the strangely +awkward congregation could scarcely have raised a hymn. + +Hunt made no comment upon the inauguration of the new regime in the +town. He conducted the service just as he might have conducted a mission +meeting at Ditson Corners. And he preached as carefully thought-out a +discourse as was his wont, although his theme was simple. He held their +respectful attention and, he believed, won their undivided interest. + +After the close of the service the Bible was rescued by two of the women +and cleansed of the pepper which had been so plentifully shaken into it. +Mother Tubbs took Hunt aside. + +"I'm plumb ashamed, parson!" she said indignantly. "To think that Nell +Blossom done such a trick on you!" + +"Nell Blossom?" + +"She done it," said the old woman with conviction. "I missed my box o' +red pepper last evening; but I had no idee what that flighty gal took it +for. And then she said when I tried to get her to come to meetin' this +mornin' that she reckoned it would be too hot up yere for her, and said +for me to keep out o' the front seats." + +"Ah!" + +"She reckoned you'd get to thumping the Book in the middle of the +sermon, maybe. When Boss Tolley hears tell how it come, he won't love +Nell none the better, I reckon." + +The peppering of the pulpit Bible might have made the whole of Canyon +Pass roar with laughter and have brought nothing but ridicule on the +parson had Hunt been the actual victim of Nell Blossom's impish trick. +That Boss Tolley chanced to suffer yielded a number of the townspeople +much amusement. But it afforded others an opportunity to show stronger +approval of what Hunt and his coworkers were trying to do. + +Then, there was a third party. It was chiefly made up of Boss Tolley's +friends. Tolley raved against both Hunt and Nell Blossom, and his +satellites listened and agreed with him. There began to be whispered +about Canyon Pass a story to the effect that the absent Dick Beckworth +would never be seen by mortal eye again, that he had left town in Nell +Blossom's company, and that the cabaret singer, if anybody, could +explain how Dick's horse had come to be found under a heap of fallen +gravel at the edge of Runaway River. + +Joe Hurley did not chance to hear these whispers for some time. In +truth, during the weeks immediately following that first service in +Tolley's old shack, the owner of the Great Hope had found his time fully +occupied by two interests. The mine itself was one, for he believed he +was close upon the unveiling of that rich vein which he had always +believed was the "mother lode" of his claim. The second interest was in +Betty Hunt. + +Hurley sought the society of the Eastern girl whenever he could do so. +Hunt, who was busy himself in several ways--especially in getting +personally acquainted with the people in their homes or where they +worked--was glad Joe could devote himself to Betty. Otherwise his sister +might have found it very lonely here at Canyon Pass. + +The girl from the East allowed Hurley's better qualities to impress her +mind more and more. In her company, too, the young man tried to +eradicate from his speech the vernacular that he knew she despised. Yet +when he grew interested in a subject of conversation, or was excited, it +was the most natural thing in the world for Hurley to revert to the +vivid expressions of the cattle trail and the camp. + +Of course, no man could have prepared himself for college without +obtaining a foundation of book education which Betty must fully approve. +Occasionally Hurley revealed a flash of wit or a literary appreciation +that delighted the girl. + +These weeks of association bred in both young people a confidence and +admiration for each other which under ordinary conditions might have +foretold the growth of a much warmer regard. Hurley began to hope. Yet +Betty gave him no such encouragement as young women are wont to offer a +man in whom they begin to feel a tender interest. + +Midsummer was approaching, and the dry, rarified air of Canyon Pass +sometimes seemed a blast from an open furnace. But when they rode, as +they often did, out upon the heights--above the canyon, for +instance--there was always a cooler and more pleasantly odorous breeze. + +In one of their earlier rides the two had jogged the entire length of +the canyon on the east bank of Runaway River, and even a little way into +the desert, far enough to mark the shallow basin where the last trickle +of what was at Canyon Pass a boisterous torrent disappeared in the +alkali. + +But Betty did not admire even the look of the desert country. There was +something horrible to her mind in the appearance of the dreary waste. +She had never seen the Topaz at sunrise! + +When they mounted to the highlands west of the camp, as they did on this +present day, there were half a dozen trails they might strike into a +country which would reveal beautiful as well as rugged prospects, and to +these Betty could grant admiration. She had begun very soon to feel the +splendors of nature which were so different here from those of her +native Berkshires. + +There was a forest that always intrigued her. The trail led them down +cathedral aisles to the bank of a murmurous stream. To this they +journeyed to-day; and, when within sound of the river, Betty drew her +mount to a stand. + +"It is beautiful, Mr. Hurley," she sighed. "I do not wonder that you so +love this out-of-door life and this wilderness. And then you have always +been used to it. It does make a difference where one is born." + +"You said it!" returned Hurley emphatically. "I pretty near stifle when +I get into a city and have to stay a spell. When I get back to this I +feel like a boy again." He smiled reflectively. "The bard of 'Cactus +Center' hits off my feelings to a fare-ye-well," and he proceeded to +repeat from "The Forester's Return:" + + "'I'm back on the job by the singing river, + Far from the town with its money-mad, + Back where the quaking aspens quiver-- + And I'm glad. + + There's work to do and there's work in plenty, + And it's sleep in the open if fate so wills; + But no man is more than one-and-twenty + In the hills.'" + +"That is fine!" Betty cried with enthusiasm, her eyes sparkling as they +seldom did. "Why, I can almost feel that way myself, sometimes." + +There was a drop in her tone at the end. She looked away and, had he +been able to see into her eyes then, he would have beheld a much +different expression in their dimmed depths. + +"You'd feel like it always if you'd just let yourself, Miss Betty," +Hurley said, with sudden warmth. + +She smiled a little doubtfully, but turned toward him again, having +recovered her composure. Joe's eyes glowed and a strange pallor rose +under his tan. + +"Just think of living out here all your days and enjoying every moment +of them! It's rough, I know, and sort of untamed. But it's a good life, +Miss Betty--a wonderful life!" + +"You--you almost convince me," she stammered, laughing a little +uncertainly, yet gazing at him with a dawning light in her eyes that Joe +had not seen there before. + +It emboldened him; it inspired him to speak the words that were boiling +under the surface of his calm. He was a forthright fellow at best, was +Joe Hurley, and he was very, very much in love with Betty Hunt. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII--A BATTLE IN A GIRL'S HEART + + +"Betty, I want to tell you something," he said, unconsciously urging +Bouncer nearer to the girl's mount. "These weeks you have been here at +Canyon Pass have been the greatest in my life." + +The girl looked at him in a startled way. + +"This is a big country, it is true. Big things are done out here--great +accomplishments achieved--fortunes won. And I have always meant to do my +part in it--both as to making money and winning the better things of life +for myself. I want to see things that are already started, developed, to +watch Canyon Pass grow--in a spiritual as well as a material sense. + +"But something else has got hold of me, Betty. I was living a pretty +wild life before you and Willie came out here. I wrote him I was. I kind +of gloried in being a roughneck, I reckon," he added with a wry smile. +"But all that's changed with me now, Betty--since you came." + +"Mr. Hurley--Joe!" gasped the girl. + +But he raised his hand gently in protest. The gesture asked her to +wait--to hear him through. + +"I've got another object in life--another reason for working and +striving. I reckon a man never does know quite what he's aimin' to do +until he sets a mark before him that isn't altogether selfish. I want to +get ahead just as much as ever--more so. But I want to accomplish what +I'm aimin' at for something higher than just the satisfaction of seeing +the Great Hope pay big and know that folks say Joe Hurley has made a +ten-strike!" + +"You--you will be successful, Joe," she murmured. + +"That's up to you, I reckon," the man said abruptly. "I'm aimin' to +accomplish all this--winning a fortune, helping to put Canyon Pass on the +map, and all--for you, Betty. Just for you." + +"Mr. Hurley! Joe! Don't!" the girl suddenly exclaimed. + +Her face had grown rosy when she began to understand fully what he was +coming to, and then it paled. As she listened to his final outburst the +grieved expression that contracted her lips and dimmed her eyes shocked +him. Before she could speak he knew what answer he was to receive. + +"Don't say anything more--please!" she begged. "It's all wrong. I never +thought this--this would happen. Why, I thought we were just friends." + +"Betty!" ejaculated the man in a tone that wrung the girl's heart. +"Betty, haven't I got a chance with you? I know I'm not worthy----" + +"Oh! Oh! Don't put it that way, Joe," she pleaded. "It really isn't +that!" + +"What's the matter with me then?" he demanded. "Do you want time to +think it over? Or--wait! Betty, is--is it because you left some one back +East?" + +The girl was silent. She turned her head so that he might not see her +face. But Hurley waited. She had to answer--and the halting word was +uttered as though it were wrenched from her. + +"Yes." + +Hurley drew in his breath sharply, and then he was likewise silent. A +minute dragged by. She stole a glance at him at last. He was staring +steadily at her left hand. She had removed her glove, and the hand +rested bare upon her pony's neck. Suddenly her face flamed again. + +"Oh! I do not wear his--his ring," she said hoarsely. "There--there is a +reason. I----" + +"I am not prying into your private affairs, Miss Betty," Hurley said +quickly. "Only--I am sorry I did not know before. Willie never said a +word to warn me." + +"He does not know!" ejaculated the girl. "I--I do not want him to know." + +"He won't learn it from me. Don't fear," said Hurley rather roughly. + +"Oh, Mr. Hurley! I am so--so sorry," whispered the girl. + +The man, with drooping shoulders and hanging head, sat his horse, a +statue of disappointment. He did not move or look at her, as she wheeled +her own mount. + +"I--I think I would like to ride back alone, Mr. Hurley. You--you won't +mind? Afterward I hope we may be quite as good friends as heretofore. I +do appreciate your friendship--Joe." + +Betty could not easily miss the way back. The trail was perfectly plain. +She rode fast at first, for with all her sorrow for Joe Hurley's +disappointment, she could not bear him near her now. + +Because she had no thought of ever considering him other than a friend, +the girl, who was after all quite inexperienced, had not dreamed Hurley +would come to regard her warmly. She could not understand how it had +happened. It seemed unbelievable! + +Love--romance; a lover--happiness; these things were not for Betty Hunt. +She had long ago told herself this. She was devoted to one man only, her +brother. And when he would no longer need her, if that time ever came, +she expected to follow a lonely trail. + +It was not merely Joe Hurley that she could not marry. She could not +marry any man. + +She came out of the majestic forest and reached the open stretch of the +trail from Hoskins. This she followed toward the wagon track which edged +the brink of the Overhang. She had brought her pony to a quieter pace +and jogged along, deep in her unhappy thoughts. Suddenly, turning a +clump of brush, she quite involuntarily drew in her pony and halted. +There was a rider on the trail ahead of her, a stranger. + +It was for only a moment that Betty saw him. Horse and rider were +plunging down a steep declivity beside the trail into a thick copse. Had +he heard her pony and was he seeking to escape observation? The girl was +impressed with this possibility. + +She rode on again, but very cautiously. She held a firm grip upon her +pony's rein. Suppose the stranger should suddenly spur his horse into +the trail again and halt her? From the moment her brother had decided to +come West, and she knew she must attend him, Betty had been fearful of +just such a meeting as she visualized now. + +She half turned her mount, tempted to fly back toward the river and Joe. +There was something very comforting in the thought of Joe's nearness. +Perhaps, if she waited here, he would overtake her. At least, he might +come into sight. + +Then the thought entered her disturbed mind that possibly Hurley had +gone home another way. He knew the country well. He might not follow the +only trail she knew by which to reach Canyon Pass. + +With this to spur her, the girl urged her mount forward. No use in +waiting. The place must be passed. She could see no movement of the +brush where the stranger and his horse had disappeared. But she felt +that he was there! + +Again she gathered up the pony's reins and held them firmly. She gripped +her whip, too, and prepared for a dash. But she continued to walk her +horse. + +She was on the _qui vive_ for a quick start. Her eyes searched the brush +in the little ravine. Suddenly she saw something that was not +vegetation. + +She rode on, but she was more and more disturbed by this object at the +edge of the brush. Then, of a sudden, she realized what it was. It was +the upper part of a man's face. The hatbrim covered all his hair and cut +off much of his forehead; a branch hid all below the point of his nose. + +And yet this patch of face shocked Betty. It seemed that she recognized +it! Was it--could it be---- + +The blood pounded in her temples; her eyes were suffused. At that moment +she could not have spurred her pony had the lurker in the brush sprung +forth into her path! + +Then he moved. She gained a clear glimpse of his entire face before he +dodged again out of sight. His hair rolled upon the collar of his shirt +and he wore a mustache, but no beard. Betty felt sudden relief. + +"It is never Wilkenson--never!" she murmured. "Never him!" + +She knew that her terror had been born in her own mind rather than of +any external danger. The man was nothing to her--no one she had ever +seen. She rode on finally with a sudden access of courage--a feeling that +often comes to one when a peril has been successfully surmounted. + +Indeed when, a little later and in sight of the broader wagon-track, she +heard the pattering hoofs behind her she was not startled. At first she +thought it was Joe Hurley. Then she recognized the fact that there was +more than one horse coming. Even at that she felt confidence. + +She turned to look, and saw three roughly dressed fellows pounding along +the trail on tired and sweating steeds. One of the men had an +authoritative air. It was he who addressed her, sweeping off his hat in +the same way that Joe Hurley was wont to offer greeting. + +"I say, miss," said the man, "have you seen a feller riding this yere +way--couldn't be long ago? Mebbe an hour?" + +"What--what man?" she hesitated. "I rode along here some time ago with +Mr. Joe Hurley----" + +"Shucks, ma'am! I ain't after him," replied the man. "I know Joe mighty +well. And if you are a friend of his, you pass. I'm the sheriff of +Cactus County, and me and my deputies are after a yaller hound that +bamfoozled some honest men out of their hard earnings. He's got the +gold, and we want both him and it! We been trailing him two days." + +Betty trembled so inwardly that she could say nothing; but luckily the +sheriff did not consider there was anything she could say. + +"If you and Joe Hurley come along from Canyon Pass, you'd have seen this +feller, if he'd gone that way. And I'm mighty sure he wouldn't aim for +the Pass. I reckon, boys, Lamberton is our best bet. Good-day to ye, +ma'am." + +He removed his hat again, and the other two did the same. But they did +not ride south at the fork of the trail without casting back more than +one admiring glance at the trim figure and quietly beautiful face of +Betty Hunt. + +She cantered away on the Canyon Pass trail. She had something else to +think of now. By keeping silent had she aided a thief to escape the +hands of justice? But, then, perhaps she had saved a man's life as well! + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII--THE SHADOW ON BETTY'S PATH + + +It was still a beautiful summer morning, but its charm was quite lost +for Betty Hunt. Her appreciation of the beautiful in nature was +submerged by what had so overwhelmed her heart and her thought. + +The thing which had been so long hidden in her mind--that secret which +had changed Betty so desperately at the end of her schooldays--had risen +to the surface again. + +But she had not gone far when something arose that made Betty wish she +had not left Joe Hurley beside the singing river. Her staid old pony +began to limp. + +She was a good rider, but she had not the first idea what to do when a +horse went lame, except to get down and relieve the poor creature of her +weight. But she was much too far from Canyon Pass to walk and lead the +hobbling pony. + +The wise old cow pony made much of the affliction, and when Betty tried +to urge it on the limping horse was a pitiful sight indeed. Betty had +never been taught the proper way to pick up a horse's foot to examine it +for a stone in the frog; but the pony lifted the crippled member in such +a way that the girl managed to get at it. The stone was there, a +sharp-edged flint wedged into the frog, but the girl had no instrument +with which to get it out. + +Fortuitous circumstances do happen elsewhere besides in bald romance. +Unlooked-for help appeared in this moment of Betty's need. She looked up +to see Nell Blossom on her cream-colored pony galloping along the wagon +track, coming from the direction of Canyon Pass. The cabaret singer +glanced at the dismounted girl, nodded, and would have gone right by, +but she chanced to see the pony limp on a yard or two. + +"What's the matter with that hoss?" demanded Nell, reining in her own +pony with both skill and promptness. + +"Oh, Miss Blossom," cried Betty, "there's a stone in his foot, and I +can't get it out." + +"Where's your side partner?" asked Nell, getting slowly down. "That Joe +Hurley oughtn't to let you tenderfoots out of his sight. Not on the open +trail." + +Betty recognized the measure of scorn in this remark, but she was in no +position to resent it. She said as casually as she could: + +"Mr. Hurley stayed behind for something. He may not even come back this +way. I really do not know what to do for the poor creature." + +"Meanin' Joe, or the hoss?" and the blue eyes danced suddenly with +mischief. + +"The poor pony." + +"Get the stone out," Nell said, picking up the pony's foot. + +"It is wedged in tightly--that stone." + +Nell drew from the pocket of her abbreviated skirt a jackknife that +would have delighted the heart of any boy. With an implement in this she +removed the stone in a twinkling. + +"There!" Nell said. "Let him rest here a minute, and he'll be all right. +The old four-flusher! He isn't hurt a mite, but he'd like to have you +think so," and she slapped the pony resoundingly. + +"I'm awfully much obliged to you, Miss Blossom." + +"No need to be. And no need to call me 'Miss.'" + +"Oh--well--Nell, if you like it better," Betty rejoined with a most +disarming smile. "I thank you." + +"That's all right," said Nell in her brusque, but not altogether +unfriendly, way. "I say, Miss Hunt!" + +Betty interrupted with: "Betty, if you please, Nell." + +"Oh! All right," the singer said, the more friendly light sparkling in +her eyes again. "What I wanted to ask you is, is that suit you got on +really what they all wear in the East?" + +"Yes. Since nearly every one rides astride now, the habit is made +mannish." + +"Well, I've straddled a hoss ever since I can remember, but I never seen +anything but a skirt and bloomers or a divided skirt like this on women +before. But I must say them things you wear are plumb fetching." + +Betty was amused. But she had reason for feeling kindly toward Nell +Blossom. + +"You could easily cut over that corduroy skirt you wear into a pair of +breeches like these," she suggested. + +"You reckon so?" asked Nell with eagerness. "I'd like that a pile. But I +don't know----" + +"I could show you. We could cut a pattern. Has anybody in town a sewing +machine?" + +"Sure thing. Mother Tubbs has got one. And I can run up a seam as good +as she can." + +"I'll tell you," proposed Betty with real interest. "You ride back to +the hotel with me, and we'll cut the pattern out of a newspaper." + +Through such seemingly unimportant incidents as this the trend of great +affairs are sometimes changed. Had Nell ridden on she might have seen +the same fugitive Betty had noticed hiding in the chaparral. But Nell +was easily persuaded to attend the parson's sister to the Wild Rose. + +The two girls, who seemed to have so little in common, after all found +much, besides the dressmaking plans, in each other to afford them +interest. + +It was Nell's strangely sweet voice that pleased Betty most. Even when +the Western girl said the rudest things, her voice caressed one's ear. +And Betty began to realize that Nell's "rudeness" was born of frankness +and a certain bashfulness. Most bashful people are abrupt, at times +quite startling, in speech. In another place, among other people, Nell +Blossom would have betrayed timidity and hesitation. But, as she would +have said, she would not have "got far" in Canyon Pass by yielding to +any secret shrinking from her associates. + +"A girl's got to keep her own end up in a place like this. They all root +for me and clap me on and off the stage. But I've got to fight my own +battles," pursued the singer. "Men are like wolves, Betty. The pack will +foller a leader so long as that leader keeps ahead. When the leader goes +plumb lame and falls behind, they eat him." + +"Oh!" + +"I'm popular with the boys. They're strong for me just now. But +'twouldn't take much to make 'em turn on me. I know 'em!" she concluded +grimly. + +She knew a great many things, it was evident, of which Betty Hunt was +ignorant. When the cabaret singer went away with her pattern she left +Betty much to ponder about, which did not fundamentally deal with Nell +Blossom's problems. + +When Nell had gone a grimmer shadow overcame Betty's mind--a shadow that +had lain athwart her path since that bitter season just preceding the +death of her Aunt Prudence Mason and Betty's withdrawal from boarding +school. + +The events of those last weeks at Grandhampton Hall were etched so +deeply upon Betty's memory that they could not be effaced. She believed +that they never would be. + +And on this day all had been rubbed raw again by Joe Hurley's outbreak. +If he had only not spoken as he had! If things had only gone on between +Betty and him as they had been going--calmly, quietly; yes, she confessed +it now, really pleasantly. + +She had come to think of the mining man's attention as an undoubted aid +to her placid life. Her rides with him, and their association in other +ways, their conversations on various subjects had been of greater moment +in establishing her peace of mind than Betty had realized. + +She faced that fact--alone in her own room now--with fuller appreciation +of what Joe Hurley had come to mean to her. + +She was an utterly honest girl. She had faced a terrible and +soul-racking situation before and come to a decision which she had held +to through all the months since she had left school. + +Just what did Joe Hurley mean to Betty Hunt? + +Her first half-fear of Joe, a real dislike of his presumed character, +had melted before a broader understanding of the man and his aims. Joe +was her brother's friend and the chief supporter of Hunt's earnest work +among these people. First of all Betty had begun to like Joe because he +so generously aided the parson. + +Her appreciation of the underlying strata of Joe's character had grown +from day to day of personal association with him. He was a man who would +ultimately achieve big things. She felt this to be his dominant trait. +Yet he had tenderness, generosity, wit, and a measure of "book learning" +of which last she eagerly approved. + +Under ordinary conditions--Betty Hunt admitted this frankly now--she would +have been as strongly attracted by Joe Hurley, once she had got over her +first doubt of his surface qualities, as by any young man she had ever +associated with. + +She did not question her own judgment in Joe's case, no matter how far +wrong the unsophisticated school girl had been to give her heart into +the keeping of another who had seemed a much more charming man! + +Andy Wilkenson--sophisticated, smiling, tender, with all the graces of +person and intellect that any young girl could wish--had set himself to +win Betty Hunt. His intentions had been perfectly honorable, in the +sense thus used. + +Andy had urged marriage--an immediate, if secret, marriage--from the very +first. And there was reason for secrecy. Betty wished to finish her +course at Grandhampton Hall. Aunt Prudence must not know of this great, +new thing that had come into Betty's life. Even Ford must not be told. + +For, after all, the girl realized that she was very young--much younger, +even, it seemed, than Andy Wilkenson. Andy was so much more sensible +than she! + +Betty feared she could not keep her mind sufficiently on her studies to +stand well at the end of the semester if she was not utterly sure of +Andy. Once married to him, of course, Andy would be hers entirely! No +other woman could ever mean anything to him if the unsuspicious, +broken-down old minister in a neighboring town joined them in holy +bonds. + +Aunt Prudence would forgive her when it was all over and she went home +with her diploma and her marriage certificate in her trunk. It would be +absolutely wicked to disturb poor Aunt Prudence by a letter either +announcing the engagement, which was for a very brief term, or her +marriage. For Betty's elderly relative was ill--worse than either Betty +or her brother dreamed of at the time. + +The opportunities Betty had to be with Andy were not many. The rules of +the Hall were very strict. Even her introduction to the young man from +the West had been clandestine. Unknown to Betty, Wilkenson, learning all +he could about certain girls in her set at the school, had selected +Betty Hunt deliberately as his mark. + +Betty's school fees were paid by an old aunt who was reputed very rich. +The aunt was known to be devoted to her. All that she had was sure to be +Betty's when Aunt Prudence died. Wilkenson had even gone so far as to +learn much more particularly about the state of Aunt Prudence Mason's +health than Betty herself knew. + +One item only escaped Andy Wilkenson's cunning mind. It was not until +they had been married and Wilkenson was driving Betty back to the Hall +by unfrequented roads late in the afternoon that the small but appalling +oversight on his part broke upon his understanding. + +"You know, girlie, I haven't got much money. I came East yere"--how Betty +had loved that drawl then--"to get me a stake. I did a fool thing and +threw away--just threw away--my bank roll out in Crescent City." + +"Oh, _money_!" replied Betty with fine scorn. "You can go to work at +something, Andy, and earn more." + +"Ye-as," he agreed in a tone that might have revealed a good deal to a +more sophisticated person than the girl who had so recently been Betty +Hunt, "so I can. But I may not make any good connection before you get +out of that school. And then I'd like us to go back West. I'm known out +there. A man can always do better in his own stamping-grounds." + +"Oh, the West must be wonderful," murmured Betty, with clasped hands. + +"Yep. But no place is wonderful unless you've got a good stake. Now, how +about it, Betty? This old aunt of yours is pretty well fixed, eh?" + +The girl was startled. "Wealthy? I think so. Aunt Prudence has been very +kind to me." + +"She'll keep on being kind to you, I reckon?" + +"Of course! The dear soul. You'll just love her, Andy." + +"Maybe. But I don't think I'll risk trying her out. Not just yet. She's +pretty sick, anyway, isn't she?" + +Betty told him that Aunt Prudence was feeble. The girl did not know at +that time how serious the woman's malady was. Only on the day following +did the telegram come recalling her to Amberly! + +"Anyway," Wilkenson observed, after some thought, "you're her heir, +Betty." For a second time the girl was startled by his speech. She began +to peer at him now in the dusk in a puzzled fashion. + +"What I'm aimin' at," said Wilkenson quite calmly, "is that we'd better +keep all this quiet until Auntie goes over the divide. No use stirring +up possible objections. She'll leave you her money, you say. We'll take +that money and go back West. I know a place I can buy in Crescent City +that will pay big returns. I will let the pasteboards alone, myself. I +always get foolish if I deal 'em wild instead of for the house. We'll +cut a swath out there, Betty, that'll make 'em sit up and take notice. +Sure thing!" + +"Andy! What are you talking about?" asked the incredulous girl. +"Auntie's money---- It's all invested. I know it is. It's tied up." + +"Shucks! we can untie it," and Wilkenson laughed. "No banker's knots +mean much to me. And four or five per cent. interest ain't a patch on +what I'll make for you when we get to going." + +"But, Andy," she said weakly, "I know all about Auntie's will. I have +even read it. She made it years ago when Ford and I were little. And she +is a woman who never changes her mind. Ford has papa's little fortune. +Aunt Prudence gives me her property; but I can spend only the income +from it until I am thirty." + +"What's that?" His tone made her jump. "Thirty?" Then he thought. "Well, +shucks, honey," he drawled, "you're a married woman now. That makes you +practically of age in this State, and the courts----" + +"It makes no difference, Andy. The will is made that way for that very +purpose," the girl said frankly. + +"For what purpose?" + +"So that--that my husband cannot touch the principal. Until I am thirty I +cannot touch it myself." + +An oath--a foul, blistering expression--parted the man's lips. In the +deepening gloom of the evening she could see his face change to a mask +of indignant disappointment. She did not shrink from him. She did not +plead with him. In that dragging minute, Andy had stopped the car with a +jerk, Betty understood everything about this Westerner. And from that +instant had germinated and grown all the hatred and fear of the West and +its people that Betty Hunt had betrayed when first her brother had +suggested the journey to Canyon Pass. + +She had stepped out of the car. She had torn in small pieces the paper +the old minister had given her. She had drawn from her finger the plain +band Wilkenson had placed upon it, which she must have hidden in any +case, and thrown it from her into the bushes beside the way. + +Then Betty Hunt had commanded Andrew Wilkenson never to speak to her +again--never to try to see, write, or otherwise communicate with her. She +walked away from him. She heard the roar of the engine after a moment +and knew he turned the car and drove away. + +And that had been the end of Betty's romance. She had not seen the +Westerner again. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX--A GOOD DEAL OF A MAN + + +During the ensuing weeks the cabaret singer went often to see Betty at +the hotel. They even rode together, for Joe Hurley suddenly became so +busy at the Great Hope Mine that he was forced to excuse himself, so he +said, from accompanying the Eastern girl on those pleasant jaunts which +both had so enjoyed. + +The two girls actually enjoyed each other's society and found more than +a riding habit in which to feel a mutual interest. The friendship grew +out of a hunger in the hearts of both Nell and Betty. + +The parson did not make a third in their rambles, nor was he often in +sight when Nell called on Betty. The latter would not have encouraged +any intimacy between the mining-camp girl and Hunt under any +circumstances. She did not dream that her brother felt more than passing +interest in the half-wild Nell. + +The latter never attended the services held in Tolley's old dance hall. +But the Passonians in general came to accept the religious exercises as +an institution and supported them fairly in point of contributions and +attendance. There was yet, however, strong opposition to the parson and +his work. Nor did it all center around Boss Tolley. + +Nell, soon after the beginning of her acquaintance with Betty, stopped +singing "This Is No Place for a Minister's Son" and took up no other +ditty aimed in any particular at the Reverend Willett Ford Hunt and his +work. + +As for Hunt himself, he went forward, accepting both praise and blame +with equal equanimity. But he began to be worried secretly about Joe +Hurley. + +Hunt supplemented the morning preaching with a Sunday school in the +afternoon and a general service in the evening, at which he usually gave +a helpful talk on more secular lines than his morning sermon. + +Hunt would have been glad to have had more and better singing; but +although Rosabell Pickett did her best, the song service was far from +satisfactory. The parson never passed Colorado Brown's place in the +evening and heard Nell's sweet voice that he was not covetous. He would +never be satisfied--but he whispered this not even to Betty--until he +heard that voice leading his congregation in the meeting room. + +The rougher element that had at first attended the meetings mainly out +of curiosity soon drifted away. + +Hunt was not, however, above carrying his work out into the highways and +byways of the town. If the men would not come to his services, he +carried a measure of his helpful efforts to them. He did more than visit +the homes of Canyon Pass. He went, especially at the noon hour, to where +the men were at work. + +Hunt never made himself offensive. He did not join the workmen at the +mines or washings as a parson, but as another man, interested in their +labor and in themselves. + +Once a mule-drawn ore wagon broke down on the road to the ore-crushers. +It blocked the way of other teams. The parson took off his coat, helped +raise the wagon-body so the axle could be blocked, and aided in getting +on another wheel in place of the broken one. + +A man working alone in a ditch some distance from the Oreode was so +unfortunate as to bring a rock down and get caught by the leg. His +shouts for help were first heard by Hunt, who was striding along the +wagon track. Without other aid the parson pried up the rock and drew the +man out from under it. Then he carried the fellow, with his lacerated +leg, to his shack, where he lived with his partner; and between the +partner and Hunt the injured man was nursed as long as he needed +attention at all. + +This incident was the spark that started the idea of the hospital for +Canyon Pass in Hunt's mind. He began to talk hospital to everybody, even +to Slickpenny Norris. The banker threw up his hands and began to squeal +at last. + +"That's just it! That's just it!" he cried. "I knew one thing would lead +to another if a parson come into this town. I told that crazy Joe Hurley +so. He had no business ever to have brought you here." + +"What has my coming to Canyon Pass got to do with it?" Hunt asked +mildly. "The need of a hospital--there are always accidents happening at +the mines--was here long before I came. If a man is hurt badly he dies +before help can get here. Doctor Peterby is no surgeon--and you know, Mr. +Norris, he is not always to be trusted. This towns needs a place where +an injured man can get surgical treatment and proper nursing." + +"I don't see why," muttered Norris. "We were getting along quite well +enough before you butted in." + +Hurley, however, agreed with his friend. In spite of the fact that he +seemed to have "fallen from grace" a good bit, the owner of the Great +Hope was strong for all secular improvement of the town, whatever may +have been his private emotions regarding the religion that Hunt +represented. The movement for a hospital took form and grew. + +It was not these things, however, that endeared Hunt to the hearts of +the rougher element of Canyon Pass. And in time--and that before +fall--some of the toughest hard-rock men and muckers working in the mines +and at the Eureka Washings openly praised the Reverend Willett Ford +Hunt. + +Hunt one noon had given the men who gathered in a quiet place to eat +their lunches a little talk on first aid to the injured. He had sent to +Denver for several first-aid kits and was now going about from mine to +mine explaining the more important uses of the articles in the box. + +The men understood the helpfulness of this. Neglected wounds meant +blood-poisoning, one of the most painful scourges a prospector or miner +working far beyond the reach of surgeon and hospital, can have. It was +well to know, too, how to make a proper tourniquet, and how to lay a +bandage so that it would hold well. + +The whistle blew and the great engine was started. The men drifted away +to their several jobs. There were three pipes at work tearing down the +bank on the upper bench at the Eureka Washings, and others below. The +force of the water thrown from the nozzles of these pipes rocked the +mighty hydraulic "guns" and caused the men astride of them to hold on +with both hands. It took a husky fellow to guide that stream spouting +from between his knees. + +Hunt had returned the kit to the superintendent's office and climbed to +the upper bench, intending to go over the highland to the Great Hope +Mine, which was nearer the West Fork River. Hi Brownell, who straddled +the middle gun up here, risked waving a cordial hand at the parson when +he saw the latter departing. The noise of the hurtling streams drowned +Hi's voice, of course. + +Just as Hunt returned a smiling salute to the young fellow--one in whom +the parson was deeply interested, for Hi was really a worth-while +boy--the accident happened that was fated to mark this day as one long to +be remembered at Canyon Pass. Incidentally the occasion, more than any +other one thing, brought about the establishment of the new hospital. + +The whine and splash of the streams of water drowned most other sounds. +But of a sudden, as Hunt was turning his back on the scene, he heard a +sharp crack--a sound that would have penetrated the thunderous rumble of +a railroad train. + +Hunt wheeled. He saw Hi Brownell thrown high into the air as though from +a viciously bucking broncho, come down sprawling, and the savage stream +from his pipe strike the man and carry him, as though he were a leaf on +a torrent, into the cavity in the bank, against which the nozzle of the +pipe was aimed. + +The flapping limbs and struggling torso of Brownell were visible for a +moment only; then down upon the spot roared soil, gravel, and larger +stones, of which the bank's strata were built. + +Unguided, the shooting stream from the gun swept first one way along the +bench, then the other. It corrugated the face of the bank deeply for +yards in either direction. For a moment Hunt saw again the struggling +body of the injured man at the edge of the fallen rubble. Then came +another slide to cover it completely! + +The broken hydraulic gun fell over on its side. The parting of some +section of it was what had thrown Brownell into the air and into the +path of its stream. + +But before the other gunners on the bench who saw Brownell's accident +could shut off their streams, Hunt had acted. Some muckers tried to run +in to seize Brownell or dig him out from under the gravel that had +fallen, but the stream from the writhing pipe swept them aside like +chips. Half a dozen were rolling in the mud of the bench. + +Hunt sprang directly for the seat of the trouble. That hose-pipe had to +be controlled before a thing could be done to help the buried Brownell. +Precious moments were lost signaling to the engineer below to shut off +power. + +Hunt had not played football on his college team for nothing. He made an +extremely low "tackle," for he went down on his knees and then slid +along through the mud to grapple with the writhing pipe that had broken +away from its fastenings. He got hold of it and wrestled with it for a +few seconds as two men might wrestle on the mat. When the other men came +running from below Hunt had conquered the formidable thing, and the +stream was shooting into the air, where all the harm it did was to +shower some of the men as it fell back to earth. + +For thirty seconds or more he held it so, until the stream was shut off +below. The others ran for the pile that had overwhelmed Brownell. They +dug into it with their bare hands, got hold of one leg, and dragged him +forth like a wet rag out of a pan of dishwater! + +He was alive; nor were there many bones broken. But he was a terrible +sight, and they had to work over him for some minutes before he breathed +again. Hunt went at this task, too, as coolly as did the superintendent. +That first-aid kit came in very handily at this juncture. + +The men stood around for a little while and watched and talked. The +accident had come near being a tragedy. + +"Believe me," said one rough fellow, "that parson is a good deal of a +man. I'm for him, strong!" + +"You'd even go to church for him, would you, Jack?" chuckled his mate. + +"Church? I'd go to a hotter place than that for him!" was the prompt and +emphatic reply. + + + + +CHAPTER XX--MURDER WILL OUT + + +Joe Hurley had lost none of his admiration for his college friend whom +he had encouraged to come West. He still believed the Reverend Willett +Ford Hunt was the very man to find the heart of Canyon Pass. Nor did +events as they developed disprove his pre-judgment of the result of +Hunt's coming. + +But it must be confessed a sour note had come into the life of the owner +of the Great Hope. He was a worker; he was energetic; he never under any +circumstances neglected business--not even when he had been most +attentive to Betty Hunt. But he now had little joy in his work and +looked for recreation to a means he had eschewed for the most part since +the Easterners had arrived. + +Like most men of his class and upbringing, the ex-cow-puncher found +satisfaction for a certain daring trait in his character at the gambling +table. The coarser forms of pleasure in the honkytonks did not attract +Joe Hurley. He danced occasionally with the better class of girls; he +never drank more than he thought was good for him--and he carried his +drink well; but when he "sat in" at a game of stud poker or went up +against the wheel--roulette was popular with the Passonians--he admitted +in his saner moments that he "didn't know when he had enough." The wild +streak in the fellow showed through the veneer of repression as it had +when he was in college. + +Hunt could not feel as lenient now toward these escapades as he once +had. Not alone had the Easterner's outlook on life become more serious; +but after five years Joe Hurley, he thought, should have "grown up." He +was, however, too wise to utter a single word in opposition to Joe's +renewed course in moral retrogression. He took Sam Tubbs to task when he +met that old reprobate staggering home from the saloons and gave him a +tongue-lashing that Sam admitted afterward made his wife's nagging seem +like a cradle lullaby. Hunt faced down Slickpenny Norris on the open +street, to the delight of the bystanders, over the banker's +niggardliness in opposing the building and equipment of the hospital. +The parson had been known to seize upon two well-grown young fellows +fighting in a vacant lot to the delight of their fellows, knock their +heads together resoundingly and send each home "with a flea in his ear." +But he had not a word of admonition it seemed for Joe Hurley. + +Yet Hunt was troubled about his friend. He feared Betty knew something +about the reason for the change in the mine owner. But here again he was +silent. He knew his sister well--too well to try to gain her confidence +on any matter which she would not give gratuitously. + +Hunt had been much too busy at the time when Hurley began to withdraw +from Betty's companionship to notice the gradual drifting apart of the +two. When the brother awoke to the fact that his friend and his sister +seemed to be mere acquaintances again, Betty had found a close companion +in Nell Blossom. + +Under certain circumstances this latter fact might have encouraged Hunt +to consider his own influence with Nell as increasing; but by this time +he had gained more than a casual acquaintance with the cabaret singer's +character. Joe Hurley had not written too strongly about Nell's +stubbornness. Hunt had undertaken in several ways to break down the wall +the girl had raised between them. She fought him off with all the vigor +of a wildcat and without much more politeness than one of those felines +would have shown. + +He met her at Mother Tubbs'--not by intention; but he was rather +frequently there to confer with the uncultured but very sensible old +woman. Nell snubbed him, or scorned him, or was downright impudent to +him, just as her mood chanced to be. He had to warn the old woman to pay +no attention to the girl's attitude or there would have been a flare-up +between the two. And Hunt very well knew that while Nell lived with +Mother Tubbs she was pretty safe. + +He heartily approved, too, of her intimacy with Betty. He could not +gauge the influence Betty was having on the self-willed girl; but he had +confidence in his sister, and he knew Nell would only be helped by the +association and that Betty would not be injured. + +The opposition of Boss Tolley and his gang was the last thing to trouble +the placidity of Parson Hunt's soul. They snapped and barked, but had as +yet come to no close-quarters since Tolley's adventure with the +pepper-besprinkled Bible. That tale had convulsed the Passonians with +mirth, and even when weeks later it was retold, it brought ready laughs +from the citizens. + +It was now fall, a golden-and-red autumn that enthralled the visitors +from the East when they looked abroad to the hills of a morning. Even +Betty confessed that the glories of the Berkshires at the same season +were surpassed by this sight. She had come now to appreciate the rude +and bold lines of the mountains and the gaudy color schemes of +frost-bitten shrubbery intermixed with the emerald of the _Coniferae_. + +The early brightening of the face of nature by these autumnal tints +foretold for the natives of Canyon Pass an early winter. To make this +assurance doubly sure, old Steve Siebert and Andy McCann came wandering +back to the Pass weeks ahead of their scheduled time. + +It was a fair enough day when the two old prospectors came in--McCann in +the morning and Siebert along toward night. In all the time they had +been absent, after getting out of the canyon itself, they had not been +in sight of each other. One had prospected east of the Runaway, and the +other west. Their activities in fact had been at least a hundred miles +apart. But both had seen signs--unmistakable signs--of approaching winter. + +They met as usual the amused inquiries of the Passonians regarding the +"ten-strike" they had been expected to make. Was there due to be a +stampede for the scene of the claims they had staked out? Had they +brought in samples of the "real stuff" that would start a regular +Cripple Creek boom somewhere out in the Topaz? + +The two old men grinned, their watery eyes blinking, and "stood the +gaff" as patiently as they always did. Why did they spend half the year +in the ungodly loneliness of the desert places, and in the end bring +nothing back with them? Not even an additional coating of tan, for their +leathery faces and hands were already so darkened that the sun and wind +had no effect upon them. + +"You old duffers ain't right in your minds," said Judson to Andy McCann. +"Just as loco as you can be. Ye never did make a strike and ye never +will----" + +"Lots you know about it, Bill," grumbled McCann, his jaws moving +stiffly. + +"Well, you never did, did you?" demanded the storekeeper, with twinkling +eyes. + +"If you were yere twenty years ago----" + +"You know derned well I was, Andy," put in Judson. "Reckon I was. And +before." + +"You recommember the flood then?" + +"I ain't lost my mem'ry," muttered Judson. + +"All right. Keep _that_ in yer mind," said Andy, shaking his head in +senile fashion. "There was a discovery made that year that you--nor +nobody else in Canyon Pass--knowed anything about. Talk about the mother +lode! Well!" + +"Is that so?" cried the storekeeper eagerly. "Then why wasn't it worked? +I knowed you and Steve brought in samples of the right stuff; but----" + +"Steve," snarled McCann, his whole manner changing. "That derned rat? +Him? He didn't have no more to do with findin' that vein----Huh! Huh!" He +coughed, fell silent, went out of the store, deaf to any further +questions. + +It was Joe Hurley, standing with Hunt on Main Street, who was first to +welcome Steve Siebert as he came along, riding his lean mare and towing +the burro that looked as though it might have been carved rudely out of +desert rock. + +"Well, old-timer, I certainly am glad to see you," the mining man said. +"What luck?" + +"Oh, so-so," croaked the prospector. + +"Ain't going to tell us you worked all summer just to get free air?" and +Joe chuckled. + +"Sumpin' like it," replied Siebert, and grinned toothlessly. + +"You do beat my time! Goin' to come over to the Great Hope? There's a +job for you." + +"Mighty nice of you, Joe. I'll come," said the old man, nodding. + +"And not a darn thing to show for all your pickin' and smellin' about +the Topaz since spring?" + +"Not what you'd call a bonanza." + +"Youbetcha!" ejaculated Hurley. He turned with a grin to Hunt. "Meet +Parson Hunt, Steve. We've done more in the Pass this summer than you +have on the desert. We've got us a real parson, and we're aimin' to have +a sure-enough church." + +"That's a good word," agreed Steve solemnly, leaning to shake Hunt's +hand. The old man's palm was as dry and scaly as a lizard's back. +"There's a heap o' folks yere that need religion. I understand that +derned Andy McCann's got back." + +The gibe was obvious. Joe grinned with appreciation. + +"Yep," he said. "And he hasn't got any more to show for his summer's +work than you have." + +"Him!" snarled Steve. "Of course he ain't. That dumb-head wouldn't find +gold in the mint. No, sir! Never did find any----" + +"I thought he did make a ten-strike once, but that the slide twenty +years ago knocked his claim into a cocked-hat?" + +"What? Him? Does he say so?" ejaculated Siebert, his wrinkled, tanned +countenance flaming angrily. + +"I heard tell," and Joe chuckled. + +"He's a plumb liar. He didn't find any such thing. If there was any such +discovery made in them days, it was me that done it. Youbetcha! But +_him_! Huh! Anyway, it's all buried deeper 'n the Pit--take it from me," +and, grumbling, Steve Siebert rode on. + +"Believe me, Willie," said Hurley, "there's a case for you. Try to get +those two together." + +"These two old men are enemies?" asked Hunt quietly. + +"That's no name for it. They hate each other as only two fellers can who +once were the closest friends. Old Steve and Andy were once as close as +twins. But they tell me for twenty years they have been snarling at and +back-biting each other something scandalous. If you want to introduce +love and kindness into the hearts of Canyon Pass folks, Willie, just +give those two old ruffians a whirl." + +He laughed--not the kind of laugh he would have uttered some weeks +before. There was a sneering note in Joe Hurley's voice now when he +spoke of Hunt's work and the better things of life. The parson noted it +now as he had often noticed it of late, but he said nothing in comment +at this time. He merely observed, before separating from Joe to return +to the hotel for supper: + +"Drop into the meeting room to-night, Joe. You haven't shown much +interest in the Men's Club lately, and the work should have your +approval. Besides, there are certain business matters that must be +discussed at once." + +"Well," said Joe gruffly. + +He did not promise to attend. He did not attend. + +"I wonder what kept Joe away?" Hunt ventured to Judson, as they, the +last of the company, left the meeting room and the parson locked the +door. That was never left unlocked since Nell Blossom's trick with +Mother Tubbs' Bible. "I expected him to-night to give us his views on +that matter." + +The old storekeeper turned to him and grinned. "Joe's mighty busy, I +reckon," he said. + +"In the evening?" + +"This evening, youbetcha!" + +"In just what way, Judson? What's up your sleeve?" + +"My funnybone," chuckled the storekeeper. "And I have to laugh. Just +about once in so often Joe seems to lose ev'ry mite of sense he was born +with. He thinks he can beat the man that got the first patent out on +stud poker." + +"Ah! I know Joe used to like cards. When he was East. But now----Is it as +bad as you intimate, Judson?" + +"Some worse, I'm free to say," declared the old man. "Joe's gone up +against Colorado Brown's dealer, Miguel, several times lately. They get +up a round game of a few fellers--all friends. But Miguel is always +playin' for the house. He's a wonder. 'Last Card Mike' they sometimes +call him. He seems to be able to read clean through the backs of any +pack o' cards you put up to him. He's a wizard--no mistake." + +"You mean that Joe is losing money in this game?" asked Hunt, with some +apprehension. + +"Me, I'd just as soon bet on flies with their shoes stuck in molasses as +to play stud. Youbetcha!" returned Judson, with a chuckle. + +Hunt separated from the storekeeper and walked slowly toward the Wild +Rose. He passed Colorado's place; then he turned back. It is a matter of +much moment for one man to interfere in another's private affairs, and +no one realized this fact better than the Reverend Willett Ford Hunt. +His office could not excuse any unasked advice or intervention in +Hurley's chosen course, no matter how much Hunt desired to restrain his +friend. + +He hesitated again when he faced the swinging doors. There was not much +noise inside. This was not a Saturday night and the amusement places +along Main Street were not crowded. Most of the Passonians who wasted +their money in the several places of this character spent it all and +spent it quick. The mid-week nights were lean for the dive keepers. + +It was not lack of courage that restrained Mr. Hunt from preaching a +general revival and a bitter war against the cohorts of the devil in +this town. Merely, the time was not yet ripe. Sometimes he feared that +it never would be ripe. Certainly he had not yet reached the heart of +Canyon Pass. Since the first shack had been built here at the junction +of the two forks, the enemy had been in power; and it was now well +entrenched. + +But to-night Hunt was impressed by the feeling that his friend needed +him. Joe was slipping away from him. For some unexplained reason the +very man who had brought him here to the Pass and coaxed the idea of a +spiritual uplift of the place into germination, was backsliding. + +The parson began to feel that he could not stand by and see this thing +go on. He pushed through the flaps of the door. He had seldom entered +this, or any of the other saloons, in the evening. + +His entrance now, however, did not serve to startle any of the habitues. +Brown himself came forward to shake hands with the parson. Some of the +players at the green-covered tables nodded to Hunt. The three-piece +orchestra in the dance hall at the back was droning out a fox-trot. Nell +was not singing. The principal interest seemed to be about a corner +table at which the parson saw Joe Hurley sitting. + +After a word to Brown in greeting, the parson walked over to this corner +table and joined the group standing about it. Hurley looked up, grinned, +and said: + +"Hullo, Willie! Want me?" + +"I've something to ask you--by and by, when you are done." + +"Looks like an all-night session," returned Hurley, immediately giving +his attention to the cards again. "Mike, here, is trying to skin me +alive and the sheep is bleatin'. Deal 'em, Mike." + +Hunt said nothing more; but he remained. By the grim set of Joe's lips +and the silence of the company about the table, he knew that the moment +was unpropitious for any insistence on his part that his friend give him +his attention. Yet he had the feeling that something was going to +happen, that his place was here at this gambling table rather than at +the hotel with Betty. + +The event that he subconsciously expected, however, came from outside. +There was a sudden clamor at the door, the flaps swung in sharply, and +several men entered. Smithy, Judson's gangling young clerk, was the most +noticeable member of the new group. He had a cut over his right eye, a +puff on his cheek-bone that could have been made by nothing but a heavy +fist, and when he spoke a crimson gap in his upper jaw betrayed the +absence of two teeth. + +"What's happened to you, Smithy?" demanded Colorado Brown, coming +forward quickly. It would not be to the benefit of the house to have the +gamblers disturbed at this moment. "Somebody punch you?" + +"I'll thay they did!" lisped Smithy. He was half sobbing, but he was mad +clear through. + +"They didn't improve your looks none," said Colorado. + +"Never mind muh lookth," said Smithy. "I want to know what you fellers +think of this?" + +"I just told you. Whoever done it didn't make you any handsomer," +interposed the proprietor of the hall. "Now, if you've had a fight +outside, don't bring it in here. We're plumb peaceable here to-night, we +are." + +"Wait till you hear what the kid's got to say, Colorado," put in one of +those that had entered with Smithy. + +"Spit it out!" advised the proprietor. + +"I want to know what Mr. Joe Hurley thinks of this?" Smithy managed to +make plain. "What do you think they are saying about Nell Blossom?" + +"Nell Blossom?" + +Hurley's voice did not join the general chorus which repeated the +cabaret singer's name. But he looked up, his gaze met that of the +parson, and a lightning glance of understanding passed between them. + +"What's eatin' on you, Smithy?" demanded Colorado Brown. + +"Up in Tolley's. I was just in there. I heard Tolley and Tom Hicks and +some others of his gang talkin'. I couldn't help hearin' what was said, +and when I went for 'em this--this is what I got." + +He almost choked on the words. Joe Hurley rose up as though a slow +spring uncoiled beneath him. + +"What did they say, Smithy?" he asked, and the tone of his voice seemed +to quell all other sounds. + +"Why, the skunks!" cried Smithy, "they said Nell Blossom shot Dick the +Devil last spring and flung him over the wall of the canyon into Runaway +River." + + + + +CHAPTER XXI--THE DRAMA OF A LIE + + +The tense silence that followed Smithy's half-sobbing speech marked the +poignancy of the moment and the utter stupefaction of his hearers. To +all but Joe Hurley and Hunt such an accusation as this aimed at Nell +Blossom was entirely unlooked for. If the crowd understood anything at +all, they understood that Boss Tolley, if he had started the scandal, +courted annihilation! + +Indeed the first question fired at Smithy following his statement was: + +"Why didn't you fill 'em with lead, Smithy?" + +"I didn't have no gun," replied the grocery clerk. "And Tom Hicks downed +me before I could get at Tolley." + +"Did he say it, Smithy?" demanded Colorado Brown. + +"'Twas him says he knows all about it. Says that Nell killed Dick +Beckworth." + +They talked. But it was Joe Hurley who acted. He threw down the hand of +cards he held. + +"Mike," he said to the Mexican, Miguel Santos, "you know I ain't in the +habit of betraying cold feet. But I got some business to tend to. +Colorado," he added to the proprietor, "I'll settle when I come in +again. I'm in a hurry." + +With the quickness of a cat he slipped through the crowd about the table +and Smithy and shot for the door. But the parson was at his elbow before +he could get through the portal. + +"You'd better keep out of this, Willie," Hurley said between his teeth. +"There's goin' to be the devil to pay in a minute." + +"It is as much my business as it is yours, Joe," said Hunt, in step with +his long stride on the side-walk where they headed toward the Grub +Stake. "And we must do something before those fellows back there wake +up." + +"What?" was Joe's startled ejaculation. + +"That stupid Smithy has started something. Some of those fellows will be +out after us in a minute, and if they get to the Grub Stake before we +straighten things out, there will be trouble." + +"Trouble? Youbetcha there'll be trouble! And you'd better keep out of +it, Willie." + +"I mean to stop it," said Hunt softly. + +But Joe Hurley did not hear him. He turned abruptly and burst into the +main entrance of the Grub Stake. It did not take Joe Hurley's trained +glance to see that something had happened here. Hunt sensed, too, that +if there had already been trouble, more of the same kind was expected. + +The girl who usually presided at the door--the girl who parked your gun +if you wanted to play, or your spurs if you wanted to dance and gave you +checks in return for them--had got out of the way. Several of the gaming +tables were empty. There was not a man standing in front of the bar, and +Boss Tolley's assistants behind the "rosewood" had "stepped out." + +Hunt knew at first glance that some of the toughest men in the camp were +gathered here--either about the remaining tables or with Boss Tolley at +the far end of the bar by the door of his tiny office where the safes +stood. That office, Joe had told the parson, was an arsenal. There was a +bodyguard around the dive keeper of at least six men. + +Joe Hurley saw that all this group was armed. A flash of the several men +at the gaming tables assured the mining man that they might be neutral, +save perhaps the dealers for the house. But he realized that Tolley's +gang was primed for mischief. It was a wonder that Smithy, the poor +fool, had got out of the place alive! + +Hunt had pushed ahead of Joe the moment they stepped inside the door. +They were both big men, and Joe's advantage of height could not hide the +parson's bulk. In a flash, before a word was spoken, Joe took two long +strides sideways and got behind the first table, which was empty. And +he, by this act, left Hunt out of the line of any bullet aimed by the +gang standing at the end of the bar at himself. + +A gun had not yet been drawn, however, on either side. Nor had a word +been spoken by either Tolley and his gang or by the two men who had +entered so suddenly. Still, not a man in the barroom missed the +significance of Joe Hurley's strategic move. + +Sam Tubbs, withered old scarecrow that he was, had been facing the door +at a near-by table. It was evident that Steve Siebert, the returned +desert rat, had been treating Tubbs to more liquor than was good for +him. But Sam had some wit left. + +Joe's action forecast the popping of guns--instantly! Sam had seen too +many such brawls to play the part of "innocent bystander" if he could +help it. He let his feet slide out from under him, shot down in the +chair on the small of his back, and passed out of sight under the table +with all the celerity of an imp in a pantomime. + +Steve Siebert, however, did not even remove his pipe from his lips, but +wheeled in his chair and glared from Joe to Tolley and his bodyguard. +The old man swung a heavy, old-style six-gun low on his hip. But he did +not touch it--then. + +Joe's attitude was as wary as that of a puma about to spring. He +crouched. By one quick motion he could overturn the table, drop behind +it, and use it as a bulwark. But he must move quickly enough to escape, +perhaps, seven bullets from as many guns. + +It was Joe Hurley who first spoke. + +"Tolley!" he said fiercely but clearly, "I warned you what I'd do if you +repeated that lie about the girl. You remember, well enough, you hound! +Stand out from those bootlickers of yours and take your medicine." + +The challenge got no response from Tolley but a grimace like that of a +wolf in a trap. He did not make a motion to draw his own gun. He was too +wise to do that in any event, for he knew he could not beat Joe to it! +And then--what did he subsidize these gunmen for if not for such an +emergency as this? + +"Open your trap, you hound!" commanded Joe. "If you won't fight, speak!" + +"Wait a moment." + +The parson had actually not halted at all when he entered with Joe +Hurley. He had merely slowed up. He was approaching Tolley and his men +down the long length of the bar. But when he spoke Tom Hicks half drew +his gun. + +"Mr. Tolley," Hunt said in the same clear but quiet voice, "will +undoubtedly explain and apologize for what we understand he has said +about the young woman in question. Come now, Mr. Tolley! you are ready +to take back your words, aren't you? You have no more proof, have you, +of your--er--mis-statement than you had several weeks ago when you +discussed the affair with Mr. Hurley in my hearing?" + +"What are you butting in for?" returned Tolley with a threatening growl. + +"For the sake of peace, Mr. Tolley," explained the parson determinedly. + +"Get back, Willie!" Joe ordered from the background. + +He dared not draw his gun, for if he did Hunt would be right in the line +of fire again. With a single motion Tom Hicks could get into action. + +"You derned buttinsky!" spat out Tolley vengefully. "Mind what you are +doing, or you'll stop lead." + +"That will not make a lie the truth, Mr. Tolley," rejoined Hunt, now +squarely between the group of desperadoes and Joe Hurley's position. + +"You mean to say I'm a liar?" blustered Tolley. + +"I mean to say that the story you have repeated about the young woman +and the man you say has disappeared has no foundation in fact and that +you have in your possession no proof to back your statement. If that is +calling you a liar, Mr. Tolley, then consider yourself so called!" + +There was a little stir among the listeners at the tables--a stir of +approval, and one voice ejaculated: + +"What's it all about?" + +Evidently not all of these men now present had been at hand when Smithy +had taken offense at Tolley's words earlier in the evening which +precipitated this situation. Hunt, without raising his voice at all, +continued: + +"I take it that you have no new evidence of a crime having been +committed? You did not see the man fall? You merely saw the young woman +at the summit of the declivity? Later you recovered a saddle you +recognized from the fallen rubbish? Am I right? Isn't that the extent of +your evidence?" + +"Well! Look yere! I reckon I know what I am talkin' about----" + +"But you do not talk about what you know," interposed Hunt. "To my +personal knowledge--and that of Mr. Hurley--the missing man was not buried +under that heap of rubbish with his horse." + +"Then he went into the river!" cried Tolley. + +Here Joe Hurley put in a very pungent word: + +"And that might easily be true. If you found his horse and removed the +saddle, you might have found the man, too, Tolley, and removed some of +his harness." + +"What's that?" was the startled demand. + +"From the first," Joe said sternly, "I suspected you, Tolley. Your dust +won't hide what you have done. You are altogether too sure the man is +dead--after first reporting that you had heard from him in Denver. + +"In fact, you are too anxious to cast suspicion on another person. Your +conscience--if you have such a thing--is troubling you, Tolley. At least, +your fears have made you try to invent a lie that doesn't work out just +the way you expected it to." + +"I'll show you----" + +"You'll show me nothing, Tolley!" retorted Hurley. "You'll listen--and +these other gentlemen. You got the man's saddle. It is just as probable +that you found his body, as well as that of the horse. And he was known +to wear a money-belt around his waist. He was likewise known to be +well-fixed when he left Canyon Pass. He'd been doing well here. You knew +it, if anybody did. You confess that you rode after the man. And you +confess that you got his saddle. Confess the rest of it, you dog. What +else have you got in your safe that belonged to----" + +Boss Tolley threw caution to the winds at this juncture. Hurley's +scathing denunciation pricked to life in him such personal courage as he +possessed. He flung himself forward with a howl of rage and whipped the +gun from the holster at his hip. + +"Get down, Willie!" shouted Hurley and flung the table on its edge with +a crash, dropping behind it. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII--A FACE IN THE STORM + + +An interruption--a voice as hoarse as the croak of a vulture--rose above +the din of other voices: + +"Tolley! You other fellers! Put 'em up! H'ist 'em!" + +Tolley halted--it seemed in midflight. Even the gun hand of Tom Hicks +relaxed. From the other side of the room old Steve Siebert commanded the +situation--and the group of desperate men. The black muzzle of his gun +gaped like the mouth of a cannon. Hunt did not stand between him and +Tolley's crowd. The old man steadied the barrel of his weapon on the +edge of the table behind which he sat and covered the bunch perfectly. + +"H'ist 'em!" he said again, and as Tolley's gun clattered to the floor +and Hicks thrust back his weapon into his sheath, he added: "I don't aim +to mix in what ain't my business, as a usual thing. But when I see seven +skunks goin' after two boys--an' one o' them a parson and not ironed +a-tall--I reckon on takin' a hand. Put 'em up!" + +The ruffians obeyed. Seven pairs of hands reached for the smoke-begrimed +ceiling. Several startled faces appeared under the archway between the +barroom and the dance hall. One was the desert-bitten countenance of +Andy McCann. He would not have sat to drink in the same room with his +one-time partner; but Steve Siebert's voice had stung McCann to action. +Steve saw him. + +"Andy, you derned old rat!" Steve cried, "shut that office door and lock +it. Then, just frisk them rustlers and remove their irons. There ain't +goin' to be no shootin'. Whatever the row is, it's goin' to be settled +plumb peaceful." + +McCann snarled at the other old pocket-hunter like a tiger cat; but he +obeyed--and not without some enjoyment of the chagrin of Tolley and his +gangsters. + +"It takes us old sourdoughs to be slick," he chuckled, when he had +dumped an armful of guns on an empty table. "You boys ain't dry behind +the ears yet when it comes to shootin' scrapes." + +"There ain't goin' to be no shootin'," repeated Steve Siebert. "Not +'nless them fellers start it with their mouths," and he grinned such a +toothless grin that he almost lost his grip on the pipestem clamped in +one corner of his mouth. + +"Now, what's it all about? What's the row? What gal you talkin' about? +Who's the feller that was killed? I'm sort o' curious." + +Joe Hurley stood erect again. He laughed. + +"Great saltpeter!" he exclaimed, "you certainly are a friend in need, +old-timer." + +"Come on," rejoined Steve. "Let's have the pertic'lars." + +It was the Reverend Willett Ford Hunt who took upon himself the +explanation. + +"Nell Blossom!" cried Steve. "That leetle songbird? You mean to say all +this row is over her?" + +"Mr. Tolley has made the statement that Miss Blossom was the cause of +this Beckworth's death. His horse went over the cliff into the canyon. +Whether or not the man went with it----" + +"He did!" cried Andy McCann, smiting his thigh resoundingly with his +palm. "By gravy! Is that what's eatin' all you fellers?" + +"Say! Who's runnin' this court, I'd like to know?" demanded Steve +Siebert angrily. + +"Aw, shut up--you old lizard," said McCann, flaming at him. "'Tain't no +court. It ain't nothin' like it. Put up your gun. It's all off. Dick the +Devil ain't dead at all. At least he wasn't killed that time he went +over the cliff. He's Dick the Devil sure 'nough, and he's got more luck +than a hanged man." + +"Just what do you mean?" Hunt asked. + +"Why, we seen him--me and that old rat sittin' there with his gun, makin' +goo-goo eyes. Sure! And me and him pulled Dick out of the river. He went +clean over his horse's head and landed in the river--same's a bird. He +might have been drowned if me and that ground owl there hadn't got him +out. But he never said one word about Nell Blossom bein' with him or +havin' anything to do with his comin' down that cliff. No, sir!" + +"Nary a word," agreed the surprised Siebert. "Nary a word." + +"What--what became of him?" stammered Hunt, a great weight lifted from +his heart. + +"He went along with me to the edge of the desert," said Siebert slowly. +"He dried out at my fire that night. Next morning he lit out to hit the +Lamberton trail. That's all I know about Dick." + +"And it's more than I knowed," grunted Andy McCann. "That old rat there +might have garroted Dick for his money. But it sure wasn't Nell Blossom +that croaked Dick the Devil--if he's dead at all." + +Here Hunt stepped between the two old prospectors. It looked as though +somebody had to separate them or there might have been a shooting, after +all! + +But it was Joe Hurley who had the last word. He set up the overturned +table and walked over to the bar. + +"To show that there's no hard feelings," he drawled, "this'll be on me. +Get busy, Tolley, on the right side of this bar. And hereafter, you +think twice before you say anything you're not dead sure of about Nell +Blossom. Somebody'd better drag Sam Tubbs out from under that table. He +don't want to miss this." + +There sounded a sudden rush of heavily shod feet outside the barroom +door. As Hunt had expected, an angry crowd from Colorado Brown's burst +in. + +"Just in season, boys," Hurley continued. "All a mistake about our Nell. +Tolley just proved himself to be as careless with the truth as he always +is. Isn't that so, Tolley?" + +Tolley grunted. + + * * * * * + +The winter weather forecast by the return of Steve Siebert and Andy +McCann from the desert held off the next morning when Betty Hunt and +Nell started on their usual ride into the hills. + +Nell had heard a garbled report but few of the particulars of the +incident which the night before had threatened bloodshed at the Grub +Stake. She knew that the parson had again done something that was sure +to endear him to the Passonians in general. And his courageous act had +been in her cause. But she had failed to learn of the disproval of Dick +Beckworth's reported death. + +She said nothing to Betty about the incident. She had begun to shrink +from discussing the rougher side of the life of Canyon Pass with the +parson's sister. As Joe Hurley would have expressed it, Nell Blossom was +becoming "right gentled" through her association with Betty Hunt. + +Betty herself, in Nell's company, managed to put aside those more +serious thoughts and anxieties of mind that ruffled her natural +composure at other times. Since the day, weeks before, when she had been +forced to wreck Joe Hurley's hope of happiness, the cloud of despondency +that overshadowed her life seemed at times greater than she could live +under. + +Nor could the Eastern girl put aside such thoughts of the Westerner as +at first amazed and startled, then revealed to the honest soul of Betty +Hunt that the unfortunate circumstance in her past life that made it +impossible for her to make Joe happy, likewise barred her own heart from +happiness. + +Wicked as her strict upbringing made the fact seem, she had to admit +that she had fallen under the spell of Joe Hurley's generous character, +that she loved him. She could not deny this discovery, although it +filled her mind with confusion. Wedded to a man she hated and in love +with a man she could not wed! + +In any event, this was a secret--like the other that so disturbed +her--which under no circumstances could she confide to either her brother +or any friend. At first she felt the discovery a degrading one. Brought +up as she had been under the grim puritanism of her Aunt Prudence Mason, +the idea of a married woman admitting that she loved a man other than +the one she was married to was a sin. The idea of divorce was as foreign +to her religious training as was the thought of fratricide. + +She was cheerful on the surface at least when she and Nell rode out of +Canyon Pass and through the East Fork. They climbed the canyon wall on +that side by a tortuous path on which only a burro or a very sure-footed +pony was safe. It was Nell, when they were once on the summit, who +discovered the threat of a weather change. + +The air was very keen. Many of the bushes by the way had shriveled +during the night as though before a furnace blast. + +"Black frost," said the younger girl. "Old Steve and Andy know their +little book. Sam says Steve told him there was a blizzard coming. We +won't ride far to-day, Betty." + +"A blizzard? Only fancy," murmured the Eastern girl. + +She was not much impressed. She had no experience--even of New England +winter storms--to enable her to judge the nature of a storm in these +Western mountains. + +But Nell should have known better than to lead the way into a gulch +which quite shut them in from sight of the surrounding country. A +blizzard is a chancy thing; and often the first storm of a Western +winter is the worst of all. + +They rode to a spring at which deer drank; they saw many tracks, but +there were none of the pretty creatures in sight. Birds fluttered +through the chaparral with strange cries, and the rabbits ran back and +forth as though much disturbed by domestic happenings. + +"I never saw them jacks so queer acting," said Nell thoughtfully. "We'd +better ride home, Betty." + +"Why?" asked the other girl gayly. "You are not afraid they will attack +us, are you?" + +"Not that," and the Western-born young woman smiled. "But there's +something comin', I reckon--just as Steve and Andy say." + +Before they rode up out of the gulch they heard something slashing like +a multitude of knives through the dead leaves overhead. When they rode +out into the open they beheld the thick cloud that had almost reached +the zenith, and out of that cloud came not snow, but ice! + +Fine particles of the sharpest crystal were driven in a thick haze +through the singing air. Nell instantly whipped off her neckcloth and +tied it across her nose and mouth, warning Betty to follow her example. + +"Get this in your lungs, Betty, and you'll have pneumonia as sure as +sure!" she shouted. + +Frightened, they urged their ponies on to the beginning of the rough +path down the canyon wall. Although they were soon somewhat sheltered +from the driving ice-storm there were bare places where the two girls +suffered the full force of the gale. + +"I know a place!" cried Nell in a muffled voice. "We got to hole up till +this stops. Come on!" + +It had grown dark of a sudden. Nell pulled her pony off the path, and he +picked his way daintily to a cavity in the wall. Here an overhanging +rock offered some shelter. At least, the girls were out of the steady +beat of the storm. + +They dismounted and got behind the ponies, between their warm bodies and +the rock itself. If Betty was the more frightened of the two, she showed +it no more than did Nell Blossom. + +The air became thicker and the whine of the wind rose to a shriek which +all but drowned their voices when they tried to communicate with each +other. It was such a manifestation of the storm king as Betty Hunt had +never seen before. + +They were but a little way off the path. Suddenly both girls, in spite +of the wind, heard the clatter of shod hoofs. Another horse was coming +down the path. In a moment they dimly saw the looming figure of a man +leading the animal. + +"Who is it?" gasped Betty, but if Nell heard the question she did not +answer. + +Nell clutched Betty's wrist for silence. The girls stared at the man +beating his way downward. He wore a broad-brimmed hat, but they could +see the long, black, curling hair flowing from beneath it. He turned his +face toward them, and Betty beheld the keen face and heavy mustache of +the stranger she had seen hiding from the sheriff and his posse weeks +before near the trail to Hoskins! + +The man progressed so slowly, and he was so near, that the Eastern girl +could study his features now with more certainty. There was something in +the contour of his face that reminded her of Andy Wilkenson! + +Could it be he? Was it possible that this fugitive--the man the officers +had accused of a crime--was the debonair Andy who had so enthralled her +girlish mind and heart back there at Grandhampton Hall? + +She had not forgotten Wilkenson's observations about Crescent City. +Betty had never ceased to fear that he might appear to her in this part +of the great West. But here--now--and in this dramatic manner? + +Much shaken, she turned to look at Nell Blossom. She suddenly realized +that the other girl was sagging against her shoulder very strangely. She +glanced down into Nell's muffled face. + +The younger girl's eyes were closed. She was as pallid as death itself. +Nell Blossom had fainted! + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII--A GREAT LIGHT DAWNS + + +Some men can escape their duty if they choose to--can ignore it, flout +it, even deny its very existence--but not one who is called to be a +leader of men toward a higher plane of daily existence. The greatest +sophism with which the race has ever been cursed is that hoary one of +the lazy preacher: "Do as I say, not as I do." + +Religious precept is utterly worthless if the preceptor does not follow +his own expounded faith with a living example. The Reverend Willett Ford +Hunt had come to that pass where he could no longer ignore the fact that +his friend, Joe Hurley, was on the down grade. When the parson cooled +down after the exciting events of that evening, both in Colorado Brown's +place and at the Grub Stake, he saw more clearly that he had fallen into +error. + +If he was to be the spiritual guide and mentor of his congregation at +Canyon Pass, he must be the same to one member of it as he was to +another. He had not been slow to admonish others of his parishioners; +but the man who had brought him here--the one whom he really looked upon +as being his chief supporter in the work he was striving to do--was +slipping away from him and into flagrantly evil ways. + +If Hunt's character has been revealed at all in this narrative, moral +and physical courage have not seemed to be its lack. Then why had the +young parson failed to go after Joe Hurley as he did after Judson, the +storekeeper, Sam Tubbs, Hi Brownell, Smithy, and other men who were wont +to "kick over the traces"? + +There was just one clear and cogent reason why Hunt had not taken Joe to +task for his failings, as he already had many another man in Canyon +Pass. His old friendship for Joe had nothing to do with this neglect. +And certainly he did not fear making the good cause in which he was so +interested a powerful enemy. There was nothing in Joe Hurley's generous +character that would suggest that for a moment. + +It was, in short, the fact that Hunt believed that he and Joe were in +love with the same girl. + +Although, as far as Hunt had observed, Nell Blossom displayed no +particular fondness for Joe Hurley, the latter believed the mining man +"understood" the cabaret singer. At least, Nell revealed no such disdain +for Joe Hurley as she had publicly for Hunt. + +When the latter reviewed the late incidents as they related to Joe, +while he tossed on his mattress that night, he admitted he was taking +the wrong course with his friend. He had seemed tacitly to overlook sins +of commission on Joe's part that he would have pilloried in another. + +Had Hurley not been heated by drink and his passion for gambling, he +would not have pursued that unwise course in going to the Grub Stake in +a mood which had all but precipitated tragedy. Joe's recklessness had +been unleashed, and Hunt had been obliged to stand by after the +unexpected conclusion of the scene and see his friend drink with the +very men who, a few minutes before, had been ready to take Joe's life. + +He arose with a new determination. He saw his sister and Nell Blossom +ride away from the Wild Rose Hotel. Then he made his way directly to the +Great Hope Mine. + +Hurley had an office--a small shack--off at one side. The parson found him +alone in it, his boots cocked on his battered desk, his pipe drawing +well. His grin was as infectious as ever. + +"Well, Willie! some time that last night, eh?" was Joe's greeting. "When +I get in a tight corner again, I'll never wish for a better side-partner +than you, old sobersides!" + +"Joe," returned Hunt with a directness that seemed brutal, "if you had +been your sober self last night--quite the same man you are wont to +be--there would have been no tight corner." + +"Huh?" The other's boots came to the floor with emphasis. His brown eyes +sparked. The muscles of his jaws set grimly. "You've got a crust, +Willie, to talk to me like that." + +"You need talking to, Joe; and I'm going to do the talking. No! Sit +right where you are and listen. You've got it coming to you; and, if you +are the man I have always thought you, you'll stand the gaff." + +"Aw, shucks! A drink or two isn't going to kill Joe Hurley." + +"A drink or two kills his moral sense, and kills his usefulness as a +good citizen," returned Hunt. "Then, you have been gambling steadily." + +"Great saltpeter! isn't a feller to have any fun at all? I haven't lost +much to Miguel." + +"It is your example to the rest. And what you have lost would help the +fund for our church building. And we must have a church, Joe." + +Joe uttered something under his breath. + +"What makes you so reckless, Joe?" + +"Shucks, Willie! Maybe I have slipped a few cogs. A lone bachelor like +me can't help it sometimes, can he?" asked Hurley, with a smile that +tried to be whimsical rather than bitter. "Remember, Willie, I haven't +got a sister to keep me well balanced. It's womenfolks and--and an +interest in one that makes a man a sobersides." + +"Is it!" returned Hunt, with scorn. "If a man hasn't the stamina to stay +straight, no girl will ever keep him in the narrow path--believe me!" + +"You belittle Miss Betty's powers of persuasion," returned Joe, with a +sly glance. + +"If that is your belief," Hunt said, with sharpness and a rising color, +"I should think you would keep straight for Nell's sake." + +"Nell Blossom?" + +"Yes. You are interested in her, aren't you?" + +"Surest thing you know, Willie." + +"Then, for her sake----" + +"Hold on!" ejaculated Hurley, sudden suspicion in his gaze. "Do you +think I'm soft on Nell?" + +"Well--er--aren't you?" demanded his friend rather faintly. + +"I'm free to confess I was," said Joe slowly, watching Hunt now with +growing understanding in his eyes. "But that little skeesicks showed me +where I got off long ago. And I tell you fair, Willie, she is not the +girl who is bothering me." + +"Then, there is a girl? Joe! You and Betty----" + +Hurley put up his hand, turning his face away. "No use, Willie. Betty's +given me my conge, too. I reckon I am an 'also-ran' with the ladies." + +"My dear Joe!" Hunt grabbed his hand. "I'm sorry. I don't understand +Betty." + +Hurley went to the door suddenly, opened it, and looked out. A cold +blast from the hills ruffled the papers on the desk. The sun was +suddenly dimmed. In the distance the coming wind whined like a sick dog. + +"Say! we're going to get it," he muttered. + +"A storm coming?" asked Hunt absently. His own heart sang. A foolish +happiness swept over him. He went to look out over Hurley's shoulder. +"Does it look bad to you?" + +"Youbetcha! It's coming faster than you ever saw a storm move, I reckon, +Willie. Those old has-beens, Steve and Andy, can't be fooled. They got +in from the desert just ahead of it." + +"A blizzard, Joe?" cried the parson with sudden anxiety. "The girls!" + +"What about them? What girls?" + +"Betty and Nell. They've gone out on horseback." + +"You don't mean it? Er--Well, Nell must have seen it coming and turned +back. She knows this country as well as a man. But, come on! Let's go +down to Tim's corral and see if the ponies are in again. It wouldn't +do----" + +He slammed the office door, shouted to his manager, and strode away. +Hunt had to put his best foot forward to keep up with him. Women and +children were already scuttling to shelter when they went down through +the town. Bill Judson waved a hand at them from his door, shouting: + +"Them old desert rats knowed their biz, didn't they? I'd set my clock by +them, I would." + +At the corral the two young men saw at a glance that the girls' ponies +had not been returned by Cholo Sam. They went on toward the hotel in +silence. Now the first needles of the ice-storm cut their faces. It was +nothing like any storm Hunt had ever seen. And how fast it grew in +volume and strength! + +Cholo Sam and Maria were at the door of the hotel, looking down the +street eagerly and anxiously. + +"Which way did they go?" shouted Hurley, without any preamble. + +"Oh, Senor Hurley!" cried Sam. "To the East. T'roo the East Fork." + +Already sight of the rugged path up the heights on that side of the +canyon was blotted out by the driving ice particles. + +"Shall we get horses and go after them?" panted Hunt. + +"Horses won't live in this. Maybe we can stir up some of the boys to go +with us. Wish I had my roughnecks here." + +But there was not time to go back to the mine. The storm had come on so +suddenly that the workers above the town might hole in until the first +force of the blizzard was over. + +Hunt ran up to his room to get his heavier coat and a couple of +blankets. As he descended the stairs, Cholo Sam came from the barroom +with a filled flask in his hand. + +"Some of the best brandy, Senor Hunt," he said. "It is for the seekness +only that comes with the cold. Ah thees ice in the lungs is death, +senor--death!" + +The parson took it without hesitation and slipped it into his pocket. He +ran out to see Joe Hurley coming out of Colorado Brown's place with Jib +Collins and Cale Mack behind him. In another few seconds, so rapidly did +the driving ice thicken the air, Hunt lost sight of the trio and they +fairly bumped into him when they reached the spot where he stood. + +"That you, Willie?" shouted Hurley. "We'll get a rope and tie ourselves +together. Tie mufflers over our faces. Say, there may be some more +fellers in the Grub Stake who will help." + +He turned that way, finding his direction more by sense than by sight. +They stumbled up the steps and in at the door of the Grub Stake. + +At that very moment a half-frozen man, leading a storm-battered horse, +had fallen at Tolley's rear door. The dive keeper was dragging him into +the place like a log as Hurley, Hunt, and their companions strode into +the barroom. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV--THE BARRIER DOWN--FOR A MOMENT + + +"Hey, you fellers!" shouted Tolley to the several men in the barroom of +the Grub Stake. "Come give me a hand. Here's a feller that's taken +pretty near his last pill, I reckon." + +The parson, as well as Hurley and the others, responded to the dive +keeper's call. Tolley kicked shut the back door with savage insistence +against the driving wind. + +"I reckon his hoss is done for," he panted. "But the feller himself--Hi, +Nobbs! get him a jolt of something hot." + +Hunt and Joe Hurley helped raise the senseless man, and, with Tolley +carrying the feet, they moved him close to one of the glowing stoves. +His hat fell off. It was Joe who voiced a surprise that was not his +alone. + +"Why, Tolley! here's your dead man now. As I'm a sinner--and the parson +assures me that I am--this is Dick Beckworth." + +"Dick the Devil!" ejaculated two or three in chorus. + +"This is a nice sort of a day for him to come back," muttered Tolley, +evidently quite as much amazed as the others. + +Hunt peered into the face of the senseless man. There was a certain +regularity of feature, in spite of the sharpness and blueness caused by +the extreme cold he had suffered, which the parson saw might lead the +casual observer to consider Dick Beckworth handsome. His complexion was +as spotless as a girl's; the skin scarcely tanned; ears and nose small +and perfectly formed; the closed eyes, long-lashed; and the brows as +delicately marked as though done with a stencil. + +He was shaved, although he had come out of the wilderness, and his +jet-black mustache was as silky as his long hair. Dick Beckworth, +gambler and lady's man, without doubt made a striking appearance +wherever he went. Even lying there on the bench, colorless, and with his +eyes closed, the parson realized that the man would be indeed a +"heart-breaker"--among young and inexperienced women at least. + +It could not be doubted that he had made a strong impression upon the +almost childish mind and heart of Nell Blossom. She must have been +attracted by this man just as she would have been by a gaudy flower or a +bird of brilliant plumage. + +Hunt felt a strange loathing for the gambler, much as his present state +should excite pity. This was the man, he believed, who had brought about +the change that Joe Hurley said had suddenly come over Nell Blossom's +character. + +Beckworth had hidden the fact that he had escaped death through his fall +into the canyon and so had laid a burden of terror and anguish upon +Nell's heart, which was reason enough for her apparent hatred of all +mankind. + +Nobbs, the barkeeper, brought the drink at Tolley's command. They forced +open Dick's jaws and poured the potent stuff into him. The color almost +instantly stained his cheeks. His eyelids fluttered. He choked. + +"What was it Andy McCann said about him?" Hurley said thoughtfully. +"He's got the luck of a hanged man. He's coming around all right. But +there are others out in the storm that need help more than this fellow." + +"Who's that?" asked one of the men who had been loitering at the Grub +Stake bar. + +Hurley explained briefly about the absent girls. Two men besides those +already of their party volunteered to join Hurley and the parson. A +rope--a hair lariat--was likewise found with which the searchers could +bind themselves together. It would be the simplest thing imaginable to +drift away from each other in such a blinding storm. + +Dick Beckworth gave unmistakable signs of returning consciousness. He +groaned, struggled, raised up on an elbow to stare about. + +"Hold on!" the parson said to Joe. "See if the man can speak. He may +know something." + +"Right you are, Willie," Hurley agreed. He leaned over the dazed +gambler. "Hi, Dick! Do you know me? Joe Hurley! See?" + +"Where--where am I?" whispered Dick. + +"You're in the Grub Stake, all right, Dick," broke in Tolley eagerly. +"The old Grub Stake, I tell ye--that you never ought t've left." + +"Grub Stake? Tolley?" questioned Dick. Then he opened his eyes wide and +recognized Hurley's face so close to his own. "That you, Joe? I----" + +"Which way did you come into town, Dick?" broke in the mining man. + +"Eh? What?" + +"Did you come through the East Fork or the West Fork?" + +"Why--why, the East Fork." + +"You did! Did you see anybody on the way down? You came down the cliff, +didn't you? Anybody up on the plain?" were Hurley's excited questions. + +"Why--I--I----" + +"Two women are out in the storm," went on Hurley. "Did you see them +anywhere up yonder?" + +"Two women? I--I thought they were men. They rode down ahead of me. Then +it grew so--so thick I couldn't see 'em again." + +"Great saltpeter!" exclaimed Hurley. "You must have passed 'em. They are +up there somewhere among the rocks." + +"Or they've gone over the rocks--hosses and all!" groaned Collins. + +"Shut up!" muttered his chum, Cale Mack. "Ain't you got no sense? Look +at the parson!" + +"This is Parson Hunt," explained Hurley to the staring Dick. "His sister +Betty is one of the missing girls you saw." + +"_Who?_" gasped Dick. "Betty Hunt? Here? Here? At Canyon Pass?" + +"My sister," Hunt said hoarsely. "Didn't you see her and Nell Blossom +again as you rode down?" + +"Your sister?" repeated the startled gambler. "Betty Hunt--your sister?" + +He fell back and closed his eyes. Hurley started for the front door. + +"No time to lose, boys," he cried. "Come on! Betty and Nell are +somewhere up there along that path. No more delay." + +He had already knotted one end of the rope around his waist. Hunt +followed his example, leaving six feet or more of slack between them. +The other men who were going with them quickly fastened themselves in +rotation. They knotted neckerchiefs or mufflers across their faces. +Nobbs opened the door for them, and the file went out into the storm. + +The roar of the storm as the men came out upon the open bank of the East +Fork made the human voice quite inaudible. Nor could they communicate by +signs, for only the dim outlines of the man before him could be seen by +the man behind. A tug of the rope was the only signal understood between +the searchers. + +The driven hail churned the surface of the river to a livid foam. The +reflection of this sheet of ruffled water lent them more light than the +sun itself. The storm beat upon the string of men with a savageness that +appalled Hunt, who had never experienced nature in so bitter a mood. + +But what these men of Canyon Pass could do, the parson would not shrink +from. And were not the two beings he loved most in this world--Nell +Blossom and his sister Betty--in desperate peril somewhere on the other +side of the wind-lashed stream? + +The water was all of knee-depth over the bar, but Joe waded in without +hesitation. They were none of them shod properly for the wading of the +stream; but their personal discomfort--or, indeed, their personal peril +in any way--did not enter into their consideration in this emergency. Two +girls were somewhere up there among the rocks, harassed by the storm and +in danger of their lives. The men's job was to get them. + +The ice--it was more than mere sleet that whipped them so +unmercifully--cut such parts of their faces as were bare, needle sharp +and stinging. From under the peak of his cap each man could now see +scarcely a yard before him. They stumbled on as though they were in an +unlighted cavern. Once Joe stepped off the track and plunged waist deep +in a hole. Hunt hauled him back by the rope, and after a moment they +went on again. + +They reached the farther bank and stumbled up the sleet-covered strand, +standing in a group together for a minute to get their breath and to +ease the binding-rope about their bodies. + +"I reckon I can smell out the path, boys," said their leader, so they +started off again. + +As they pressed upward, now and then they shouted--sometimes in unison. +But their voices could not penetrate the gale far. The sounds were blown +back into their faces as though rebounding from a blank wall. + +At a point some distance up the path Hurley halted again and allowed the +others to approach. He bawled at them: + +"There's a place yonder somewhere under the cliff--I remember it--a +half-shelter. They might have reached it." + +"Don't get off the path, Joe!" warned Jib Collins. + +"But if the girls got off the path?" + +"We don't want to lose our way," objected Mack. + +"I'm going to take a look!" ejaculated Hurley obstinately. But he could +not untie the knot which held him. He fumbled at it. "Got a knife, +Willie?" + +The parson had already drawn out his pocket-knife. But he slashed the +rope between Collins and himself. + +"I'm going with you, Joe," he declared. + +"Keep shoutin'!" bawled Collins, as the two younger men started off at a +tangent from the path. + +The bowlders were glassed with ice. The two friends floundered and +slipped about in an awkward way, straining themselves enormously and not +seldom falling. The one aided the other. It was fortunate, Hunt +realized, that they had come together, for one man alone could never +have accomplished the journey to the sheer wall of the cliff. + +Of a sudden there seemed to be a lull in the gale. Really, they had +reached a more sheltered spot. The storm sang around them, but they were +not so terribly buffeted. + +Joe shouted again: + +"Nell! Nell Blossom! Betty!" + +Hunt joined his voice to that of his friend. They continued to bellow +the girls' names. Hurley grabbed the parson's arm suddenly. + +"Hush!" + +There was a response. A wailing voice replied. + +"It's Betty! Your sister!" shouted Joe, and plunged forward, +half-dragging the equally excited Hunt with him. + +Something loomed up before the latter. He ran into the barrel of a +standing horse! + +"Here they are!" yelled Hurley. + +Somehow, the two young men got around the horses. There was a sheltered +place between the beasts and the wall of rock. Hunt heard his sister +crying and laughing somewhere near. But it was not she whom he first +found. + +"Oh, Mr. Hunt! Oh, Mr. Hunt!" sobbed Nell Blossom's voice. "Are you +real? You ain't another ghost, are you? Oh! Oh!" + +Hunt's arms were around the girl, and he held her fast. Near by, he +knew, Joe and Betty were talking--perhaps were whispering. His own lips +were close to Nell's ear. + +"My dear! My dear!" the parson said over and over again. "God is good to +me! I've found you safe." + +Nell snuggled into his arms like a frightened child and clung to him. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV--UNDERSTANDING + + +It was Betty Hunt, who, after all, seemed to possess the bolder spirit +of the two girls. Nell clung to the parson like a frightened child. He +realized, however, after the first flush of his emotion that he had +allowed his own overpowering desire for the singer to confuse his mind. +The barrier between them was down for a moment only; he raised it again +himself, for he knew he was taking advantage unfairly of the terrified +girl. + +It was Hunt, however, who lifted Nell Blossom into her pony's saddle +with one of the blankets wrapped well about her, and when Joe Hurley +started away leading Betty's mount, the parson followed close behind. +The two young men had freed themselves of each other; but the horses and +their riders bulked so big against the driving curtain of the storm that +they could scarcely lose each other. + +They heard the other searchers shouting and Joe pulled his gun from its +holster and fired two shots into the air. The signal was replied to +immediately. In a minute or two Joe ran, head-on, into Jib Collins. + +"Hey! did you find 'em both?" bawled the man. + +"Youbetcha!" responded Hurley. "When the parson and I go out, we bring +home the bacon, every time." + +They took up the march to the ford. At the water's edge one of the other +men came to the off side of each pony, and they forced the snorting +animals into the stream. The foaming barrier did not look encouraging to +the storm-beaten beasts. + +They all got through safely and up into the town. The driving storm was +changing to snow and sleet; but the foundation of ice that had first +fallen made walking difficult. The girls were lifted off their horses +and carried up into Betty's room, where Maria gave them every assistance +in her power. Somebody put away the horses. Joe scurried off to his own +bachelor shack, while Hunt stripped in his room and gave himself a +savage rub-down with coarse towels. It had been a terrible experience; +but his spirits and his blood were both in glow! + +Surely Nell Blossom could not be unfriendly hereafter. It must be +confessed that the parson's thought was more entangled with Nell and his +recent association with her than in anything else. + +Cholo Sam brought up a steaming pot of coffee, his dark face expanded +with delight. + +"Ah, Senor Hunt!" the Mexican said, "you an' de Senor Hurley--you are de +pure queel, eh? De boys all cheer you--my goodness, yes!" + +When Hunt was dressed again he went to Betty's door and knocked. His +sister's response to his summons was brisk and cheerful, as usual. Yet, +when he entered and looked keenly at her, he thought there was something +feverish--or was it expectant?--in the look she gave him. + +The girls were both in the big bed, heaped with blankets. Nell's petite +face, ruffled about by one of Betty's boudoir caps, was pale. Indeed, +the parson's sister looked in much the better condition of the two. The +excitement and danger of the adventure which had befallen them seemed to +have affected the girls in a paradoxical manner. Whereas the Eastern +girl might be expected to be overcome by the affair and Nell have +suffered the adventure as an ordinary experience, the result seemed +really to be the other way around! Nell lay in the bed pale, almost +hysterical it would seem. Betty could scarcely control her excitement. + +"Ford!" she exclaimed, "I need you. Try to convince this foolish girl +that there is no such thing as a ghost--a real ghost." + +Hunt smiled, but he could not be unsympathetic. He realized that Nell +Blossom, being brought up as she had been--even associating so long with +Mother Tubbs--was probably hopelessly superstitious. He could not find it +in his heart to oppose roughly any fear Nell might hold regarding +supernatural things. He tried to put his admonition in a kindly way. + +"If there is any truth at all in the matter of ghosts," he said, "it +must be of a somewhat unreal nature, must it not? Ghosts are supposed to +be too ethereal for sight or touch or sound. And the only smell, even, +accompanying their visitations, is supposed to be of brimstone, isn't +it?" + +"That feller ought to smell of brimstone all right!" muttered Nell +suddenly hectic in her language. "He ought to come plumb from the bad +place." + +"What does she mean?" Hunt asked Betty. Yet he half suspected what was +in the singer's mind. "Did you girls see----" + +"Nell declares," interrupted Betty, still with that strange excitement, +"that she has seen the ghost of a man she calls Dick Beckworth." + +"Dick Beckworth," Hunt repeated calmly. "You saw him, I presume," he +watched the pale face on the pillow all the time, "on the side of the +cliff over yonder? He rode down behind you----" + +"Do you mean----" gasped Nell. + +A flame of color flashed into both her cheeks. Her blue eyes grew round +with surprise. + +"He says he came into town by that path," the young man rejoined. "He +put us on to the track of you girls. He said he saw you start down the +path ahead of him." + +"He is alive!" murmured Nell. + +"His horse was in bad shape, I believe," Hunt told her. "But the last I +knew--just before we left the Grub Stake to look for you--Dick Beckworth +gave every promise of getting on quite well." + +"Dick the Devil!" muttered Nell. "That sure is his name." + +"From what I have heard about him," said Hunt, "I think his nickname +quite fits him. But it was probably Tolley's meanness alone that made +you--that is," he hastened to correct himself, "that made all of the +trouble. That was thrashed out last evening, Miss Nell. Steve Siebert +and Andy McCann proved Dick was not dead, although he did go over the +cliff back there in the spring." + +"I don't know what you are both talking about," Betty interposed. "Who +is this--this--Dick Beckworth, do you call him?" + +"A gambler, Betty," said her brother. "You would scarcely know such a +person. But unfortunately both Miss Nell and I have been obliged to mix +with all classes of society," he smiled again, "and so we know such +people." + +"Nell should not sing in those places." Betty said it with conviction. +But in a moment she turned again to the identity of the man whose +reappearance had startled Nell Blossom so greatly that she had fainted +in the storm. "What--what does this man, Dick, look like?" + +"Not an unhandsome fellow," said the parson generously. "A somewhat +cruel face--ruthless perhaps would be the better term. Good features; a +beautiful complexion--if such a term should be applied to a man's skin," +and he laughed. + +"You do not like him, Ford!" exclaimed Betty quickly. + +"Would I be likely to?" mildly asked her brother. + +"Oh! But I do not want a psychoanalysis of the man," said Betty, and she +used a handkerchief to half hide her own face. "Just what does he look +like?" + +"Mildly dark. A beautiful, oiled mustache--like a crow's wing as the +Victorian lady novelists would say. Heavy black hair. Under different +circumstances--you must remember I saw him only after he was dragged out +of the storm and on the border of a collapse--I judge Dick Beckworth +would be quite the gentleman in all appearance, and quite the devil at +heart." + +"You said it!" agreed Nell. + +"A mustache--and thick black hair," murmured Betty. "Yes. I saw him go by +when we were cowering there under that wall, too. Well, I am relieved." +Her laugh did not sound right in her brother's ears. "I am glad that it +did not turn out to be a real ghost." + +Hunt sat down upon a chair at Nell's side of the bed. The singer looked +at him, and there suddenly flashed into her eyes a warm light that +enhanced her beauty. She put out a little brown hand and gripped his, +which was only too ready to be seized. + +"Parson--Mr. Hunt, you are a good man!" she said, chokingly. "I heard +about what you did last night. But I didn't hear all about it; so I +didn't know Dick was alive. I--I'm mighty wicked, I reckon. I ain't glad +he didn't die----" + +"No need to go into that," urged Hunt quickly. "All such things are in +the hands of Providence. But your mind, I hope, Nell, is relieved." + +Betty looked from the face of the girl on the pillow to her brother's +glowing countenance. It was another shock for Betty Hunt, but she +understood. + + * * * * * + +The sudden, sharp blizzard that tore across the country blew itself out +by nightfall. In the morning the sun shone brilliantly, a warm wind +followed the gale, and the snow and ice melted like a September frost. +It had been only a foretaste of winter. + +The effect of the incidents of that day remained longer in the hearts of +some of the participators in the events than it did upon the earth or +the rivers, the rocks and gorges, the frosted herbage, or other physical +and material matters about Canyon Pass. To be in mutual peril, to suffer +alike the buffetings of the storm, had linked Betty Hunt and Nell +Blossom with a chain that could not lightly be severed. + +There was, too, a secret knowledge on the Eastern girl's part that made +this chain stronger than Nell imagined. The latter had no suspicion that +Dick Beckworth--Dick the Devil--was a link in the chain that bound her to +the parson's sister. There was as well another thing that made the +cabaret singer an object of Betty's deeper interest. The latter had seen +in her brother's face something which had vastly surprised her and +something which--had it been revealed to her before this time--would have +horrified Betty as well as startled her. + +The Reverend Willett Ford Hunt was plainly and frankly more concerned in +Nell Blossom than he had any right to be--unless he proposed to declare +himself the singer's suitor. It was a somewhat shocking thought for +Betty--no two ways about it. She had scarcely ever considered her brother +in the light of a marrying man, and never here at Canyon Pass! For it to +have been suggested that Hunt would find an object of sentimental +interest in this Western mining camp would have completely confounded +Betty at an earlier date. + +And Nell Blossom? A singer in a rough amusement place that Betty would +consider herself smirched if she entered? Yet--and Betty was surprised to +consider it--she was much less amazed by her brother's seeming choice +than she presumed she would be. Besides, there was a reason why Betty +Hunt felt that she might not criticise her brother's course in this +affair. + +When Nell Blossom had recovered from the exposure sufficiently to go +home to Mother Tubbs, and that was not until late in the day following +the storm, Betty had gained from her brother all he knew and much that +he surmised regarding Nell's association with the gambler who had +returned to the Grub Stake at so dramatic a moment. + +For his part, Hunt had not the first suspicion that Betty held any +personal interest in the man, Dick Beckworth. But he knew that his +sister suspected his love for Nell Blossom. + +Hunt braced himself for an argument, and a serious one. Betty veered +from Nell herself in a most surprising manner and seemed to feel +interest only in Dick the Devil. + +"He is scarcely a person in whom you would find any interest did you +meet him, Betty," declared the parson. "Believe me, as Joe says, the +fellow is one of those fungi attached to society that would much better +be lopped off than allowed to develop and spread their vile spawn +about." + +"Oh!" gasped Betty. "You mean it would have been better had you and--and +Mr. Hurley found the man's remains where you found his horse? Oh, Ford!" + +"Somehow," said the parson gravely, "I feel that way." + +"Ford!" cried his sister vehemently. "This is an awful place! Let--let us +go back East." + +The parson shook his head slowly. "No, Betty. You may go if you wish. I +do not blame you for wanting to give it up. There is no reason why you +should sacrifice yourself. But for me--Canyon Pass is mine. I will not +own to failure. Indeed, my work is not without promise. I am going to +reach the heart of Canyon Pass in some way, and I will keep on in the +quest as long as I am given strength." + +It was Betty's last outbreak against conditions. Nor did her brother +suspect for a moment the reason for the sudden renewal of her hatred of +the mining town. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI--THREATENING WEATHER + + +Joe Hurley had taken a new lease on cheerfulness; yet he scarcely could +have explained why his condition of mind had so suddenly improved. But +it was not difficult for him to put a digit upon that very moment of +time when this new feeling had dawned in his mind. + +It was when, with Hunt, he had plowed his way through the driving storm +to the nook under the sheltering cliff and had, seemingly, by instinct, +found Betty Hunt rather than Nell Blossom. + +Joe told himself that this very fact--that he had stumbled upon Betty +rather than Nell--was a miracle of love. + +All the time they were beating through the blizzard, crossing the icy +river and climbing the steep path, it seemed to Joe that Betty had been +calling to him. It had been the most natural thing in the world that at +the end of the fearful struggle he should find in his arms the girl whom +he loved and whose peril had caused him such anguish. + +And Betty did, quite of her own volition, enter that shelter. It was no +mistake, no chance happening. Betty did not think he was her brother. +"Oh, Joe! I was sure you would find us," she had said. + +Joe did not overlook the confession Betty had made that there was a man +back East who must, in some way, hold her promise if not her affections. +But Joe hoped that by now Betty had taken time to compare that unknown +with himself; and that he, Joe, had a chance. He decided to await +Betty's good pleasure. + +At least, Joe Hurley's recklessness was submerged once more in those +better qualities that the Reverend Willett Ford Hunt warmly liked. Joe +was bound to be the parson's chief assistant and backer in all his +efforts for the betterment of Canyon Pass. And Hunt faced now--he had +seen it coming of course--a situation that must practically make +effective or mar seriously all that he had striven for since he had come +West. + +This emergency came up for discussion that Saturday night in Bill +Judson's Three Star Grocery. The interest of the more decent element of +the town's population was centering in the church and in Parson Hunt's +work. This was a rallying point for all progressive effort and +determination in Canyon Pass. + +In addition, the happenings of the past week seemed to have focused on +Hunt and the good work the eyes of all those Passonians who possessed +vision at all. The almost tragic brawl in Tolley's Grub Stake had +aroused a great deal of warm discussion. What did Canyon Pass and Canyon +County have a sheriff for, if roughnecks were to go armed--and use those +arms--just as they had been wont to do in the old days? + +"Why, we're plumb civilized now. We ain't supposed to go around wearin' +shootin'-irons and pluggin' holes in store-fronts and citizens' hats. If +a bunch of cow-punchers came riotin' in yere and started to shoot up the +camp, Sheriff Blaney would show 'em what-for, blame sudden." + +"Youbetcha!" agreed one of the storekeeper's listeners. "That's a true +word, Bill. If a man means to be peaceable, why go ironed at all?" + +"That's just it," complained the gangling Smithy. "There's them that +ain't for peace. That's why the rest of us hafter go heeled." + +Smithy had been waiting on customers with a gun belted to his waist ever +since the night he had lost two teeth and gained a black eye. Perhaps +the evidence of this gun so prominently displayed had saved the gangling +clerk from much hectoring comment that he might otherwise have suffered +from some of the patrons of the Three Star. + +However, Smithy basked in a certain heroic light. He had been the first +to resent Tolley's scurrilous tale about Nell Blossom, and no matter +what Joe Hurley and the parson had done later, Smithy's small share of +glory could not be ignored. On this very afternoon Nell herself had come +into the Three Star Grocery and thanked Smithy very sweetly for his +courageously expressed opinion on her behalf, the result of which had +rather marred what good looks Smithy had ever been able to lay claim to. + +"Layin' off whatever that boy's mother said about him when he was an +infant," drawled Judson, "nobody ever could honestly say that Smithy +should take a medal for good looks. Now he looks plumb woeful! I come +pretty near bustin' out crying when I look at him." + +"Oh, it's not as bad as all that, Bill Judson, and you know it," Nell +declared. "Don't you believe him, Smithy. I don't think it hurts your +looks any." + +"It couldn't," was Judson's grim comment. + +But this missed Smithy. He fairly gasped with pleasure at Nell's +statement. + +"Don't you mind about it, Miss Nell," he said. "I was goin' to have them +teeth drawed, anyway. I'll get gold ones. And I'd have 'em all knocked +out if 'twould do you a mite of good." + +Now that the conclave between the serious-minded citizens had begun, +even Smithy was listened to with some respect. Besides, the gangling one +put forward an unmistakably pregnant fact. + +"If it wasn't for Tolley and his gang, wouldn't none of us hafter tote +guns," Smithy observed. + +"Surest thing you know!" exclaimed Collins. "Run them out o' town and +the decent men here wouldn't hafter develop saddle-galls from wearing +ten pound or more of iron and lead belted around their waists. Yes, sir! +I'm in favor of reviving the old vigilance committee and running these +yere undesirable citizens out into the Topaz." + +"What would become of them?" put in Hunt mildly. + +"Let 'em 'root, hog, or die'!" muttered Judson. "Tolley, of course, has +got a stake yere. We can't take a man's property away from him. But +those hangers-on of his----" + +"It is a part of Tolley's stake that is the immediate cause of this +discussion, gentlemen," put in the parson again. "Tolley still owns the +place in which we hold our meetings, and Judson's lease will soon run +out." + +"Run Tolley out," said Smithy, who had now enthusiastically taken sides +with the church people, "and you needn't worry about that shack." + +"Maybe he would sell," Hurley suggested. + +"You try to buy it," and Judson grinned. "His eye teeth has done been +cut a far time back. Tolley ain't that kind of a fool. He is wise to the +idea that we'd like to buy that place. If you paved the shack floor with +gold eagles Tolley wouldn't bite." + +"He'd like to bust up the church and run the parson out, if you ask me," +was the comment of another bystander. "And he's got a sharp side-pardner +now, boys. I hear tell Dick the Devil is a-hintin' that things will go +different in Canyon Pass, now that he's come back." + +"How's that?" asked Hurley quickly, his eyes sparkling as they always +did when his temper was ruffled. "What's Dick got to say about it?" + +"He don't favor no parson. He says so." + +"Looks to me," drawled Judson, "that it's comin' close to a show-down. +Either we folks that want a church and decency has got to cave in, or we +got to fight." + +"The right kind of fighting, I hope," said Hunt quickly. "We must hold +our own without open quarreling." + +"Well, it won't be peaceful when we try to hold onto Tolley's shack," +growled Jib Collins. + +"Look yere," queried a voice from the dark end of the store, "what have +you shorthorns been doin' all this time you've had a parson? Why ain't +ye built him a church?" + +"Another county heard from!" snapped Judson, as old Steve Siebert came +forward. "Easy enough to ask that." + +"Why don't ye answer it?" asked the old prospector. "I see you have got +yere in Canyon Pass a blame good parson. I never seen one I liked +better. I ain't heard him preach, and I ain't been to your meetin's. But +any parson that can walk barehanded up to a gang like that Boss Tolley +and his whelps gets my vote, and he can have everything I've got when he +wants it for his church." + +"Them that ain't got nawthin' can easy give it away," muttered Judson. + +But it was another voice that ruffled the serenity of Steve Siebert. On +a box by the door the hooped figure of Andy McCann straightened up. + +"I reckon," he sneered, "that that old gray-backed lizard has got him a +poke full o' nuggets out in the Topaz, and he's goin' to hand it over +for to pay for a church edifice," and his senile giggle was more +maddening than the laughter of the crowd. + +"I likely brought in full as much as yonder ground-owl ever scooped out +o' the ground. But ye don't answer my question, neither. Why ain't you +fellers made some preparation for buildin'?" + +"Mr. Siebert," said the parson soothingly, "the men and women interested +in our work have subscribed several hundred dollars toward a building +fund. But we are none of us prepared to finance such a work as yet. We +wish to put up a fairly good structure when we get at it. We cannot +freight in the frame and heavier timbers. They must be cut and sawn on +the spot. The expense of getting in a mill, aside from the labor, is +enormous." + +"I reckon these hard-shells have tol' you that because their pockets +squeal ev'ry time they put their hands in 'em," growled Siebert. "I know +'em." + +"Look here, old-timer," said Joe Hurley, sharply, "we figure it will +cost close to ten thousand dollars to put up a church. What do you say +to that?" + +"Put your hand in your poke and hand over ten thousand in dust, you +miser'ble desert rat!" cackled Andy McCann. + +"And how much of it can you rake up, after prospectin' this country for +nigh on to thutty years?" was Steve's answer, glowering at his enemy. + +"Wal, dern your hide! there was a time when I might ha' done my share of +it without weepin' none," muttered Andy. "And if it hadn't been for +you----" + +"Is that so?" cried the other old man, his face ablaze with wrath. "And +how about me bein' right in sight once't of the most promisin' lead that +ever was uncovered in Canyon County?" + +"If it hadn't been for you," rejoined Andy, "I would ha' been rollin' in +wealth. And you know it--dad burn your hide!" + +"Look here," interjected Joe Hurley, interested rather than amused. "If +you both tell the truth, you must have together struck a rich streak. +Why didn't you develop it? You were partners, weren't you?" + +"Me, pardners with that yere!" croaked Steve. + +"D'ye think for one moment," demanded Andy, "that I'd help make that +feller's fortune? Not on your tintype!" + +Here Judson, with enormous disgust, broke into the discussion. "Dad burn +it!" he exclaimed, "this ain't helpin' none to build the parson a +church." + +The others were laughing uproariously. Steve and Andy glared at each +other like two angry dogs with a strong fence between them. But slowly +their fierce expressions changed. Hunt, who was watching them with +something more than idle curiosity, saw that both old men began to look +slyly at each other as they calmed down. The others paid no further +attention to Steve and Andy, the flurry of their verbal battle being +over. But in the rheumy eyes of Andy there grew a light which seemed to +register some secret amusement, while Steve's toothless grin displayed a +humorous appreciation of a phase of the argument that the bystanders in +general quite failed to catch. + +"Now," thought the Reverend Willett Ford Hunt, "I wonder, to use one of +Joe's favorite expressions, what those two old fellows have up their +sleeves. Perhaps the joke is on Canyon Pass, rather than on these two +queer old prospectors. I wonder!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII--SEVERAL CONCLUSIONS + + +Nell Blossom had not gone back to sing at Colorado Brown's place. It was +some time before Hunt found this out, and he wondered why she had broken +her agreement with Colorado, for he knew she had entirely recovered from +the effects of her adventure in the storm. + +Had the parson asked his sister, Betty might have illuminated his mind +not a little regarding this and other mysteries about Nell; but he was +chary of ever speaking of the singer in other than a general way before +Betty. + +To tell the truth, he shrank from any argument regarding the Blossom of +Canyon Pass. He had learned just how sweet and innocent Nell Blossom +was. But he did not know how far Betty might approve of the younger +girl, especially if he showed any personal interest in the latter. + +He was firm in his conviction that Nell Blossom was a being set apart as +his mate from the beginning! Strange as it might seem at first view, +Hunt was positive that he and the half-tamed mining-camp girl held much +in common. He had found opportunity to talk with her of late--both at +Mother Tubbs' and elsewhere--and he knew her tastes and aspirations far +better than before. She had confided to him, although with much +timidity, some of her girlish desires and her conclusions upon topics +which she had thought seriously about. + +She was, too, of the very stuff these Canyon Pass people were made--one +of themselves. If he got Nell Blossom for a wife she would be of greater +aid to him in his work here than any other one person possibly could be. +With Nell Blossom for his very own, the Reverend Willett Ford Hunt would +indeed have won the Heart of Canyon Pass. + +Hunt kept all this a secret and said little to Betty about the cabaret +singer. Nothing indeed that gave her a chance to tell him that her eyes +had seen already most of what he thought was hidden from her, and seen +it in a single glance. + +As her brother sat beside the bed the day of the ice-storm and held Nell +Blossom's hand, Betty saw how it was with the Reverend Willett Ford +Hunt. The only matter that puzzled her at all was Nell's possible +attitude. Unsophisticated as the mining-camp girl was, Betty could not +know for sure what Nell's feeling for the parson was. + +But Betty might have given Hunt a pretty correct explanation of why Nell +did not go back to sing at Colorado Brown's place. The girls were +together almost every day after their adventure in the storm. + +Betty did not go to Mother Tubbs'. She scarcely left the hotel at all in +the day time, though going out on the first Sunday following their +perilous adventure to attend church service. + +But Nell came to the Wild Rose, and the two girls grew to know each +other better than before. This because they both wished a closer +understanding. Nell had begun to admire something about Betty Hunt +besides her frocks and the way she manicured her nails. The parson's +sister now desired to know Nell better for the parson's sake. + +"I'm sick to death, Betty, singing for those roughnecks," Nell had burst +forth on one occasion. "I used to think it was great to have 'em cheer +me and clap me off and have 'em throw money at me. But I'm plumb sick of +it." + +"It's a great gift to be able to move people with one's voice so." + +"It ain't nothing of the kind!" Nell declared vehemently. "It's because +they ain't got no brains--at least, what they've got are addled with +hootch. I've only got just a nice, sweet, singing voice. Them fellers +are so plumb ignorant that they hoot and holler for me because I please +'em. I'd love to be really able to sing!" + +"I am not so sure that you cannot sing, as you mean it," was Betty's +sympathetic rejoinder. "Merely, you do not sing worth-while +songs--altogether." + +"I'm mighty ashamed about singing that 'This Is No Place for a +Minister's Son,'" burst out Nell suddenly. + +"Why, I think it's funny," and Betty laughed. "I've often heard Ford +humming it." + +"Oh! I--I sang it at him, Betty. I did!" + +"I am quite sure it never disturbed Ford in the least." + +"Well, no, I reckon not. Nothing a girl like me done----" + +"Did!" + +"_Did_--could bother a man like Parson Hunt." + +"I am not so sure of that," Betty rejoined, eyeing the other girl +keenly. + +But Nell Blossom, if she had a secret, hid it successfully. Betty did +not miss the opportunity, however, of trying to help her friend. + +"Suppose you learn some better songs--some really worth-while pieces? I +brought my music with me, although I do not know if I shall ever touch a +piano again." She sighed. "But I sometimes sit and hum over my +favorites. You read music of course, Nell?" + +"I don't know a note--to speak the name of it, I mean," confessed the +singer. "But I never saw the piece yet that I couldn't pick up pretty +easy. Rosabell Pickett says I'm a natural sight-reader with a great ear +for harmony." + +She accepted with gratitude the selections Betty made from her library. +Betty had chosen the songs with some little guile. That fact was proved +by what occurred later. + +"Anyway," Nell concluded, "I ain't going back to Colorado's place for a +while. I got some money, and Sam's bringing his pay home to Mother Tubbs +pretty reg'lar now. I can live for a while without singing for those +roughnecks, that's a sure thing!" + +But Betty had her own grave thoughts--thoughts that kept her awake at +night. Hollow eyes and certain twitching lines about her sensitive mouth +were the result of these secret cogitations. Hunt noticed his sister's +changed appearance but he misunderstood its source. He feared that Betty +found the life at Canyon Pass, with winter coming on, too hard to bear. +Yet he saw that she always cheered up when Joe Hurley ran in to see +them. + +The Eastern girl's trouble did not arise from the locality in which she +was forced to live; it was the presence of one person in the town that +caused her such serious thoughts. The man who had passed Nell Blossom +and her in the storm, whose unexpected appearance had made Nell faint, +had shocked Betty much more deeply than he did the singer! + +Without that heavy mustache, with his waving hair cut more to conform to +Eastern ideas of propriety, the girl visualized the fellow as she had +once known Andy Wilkenson. He was the man, thought of whom had so +worried Betty's mind for these long months since she had left +Grandhampton Hall. Andy Wilkenson! The man she had hoped never to see or +hear from again. Her worst fears on coming West were now realized. And +his reappearance here at Canyon Pass warned Betty that she could never +allow Joe Hurley to see just how much she had learned to care for him. + +She went to church on that next Sunday morning in fear and trembling. +She sat well forward as usual. But she knew when "Dick Beckworth" came +in and sat down in one of the rear seats. + +His coming here surprised them all. Heads were turned, and there was +whispering. Dick was dressed in the same flashy way, for he had left a +trunk at the Grub Stake when he went away in the spring. He sat during +the sermon with a sneer on his handsome face and the dancing light of +the demon flickering in his hard eyes. Hunt usually met strangers after +the meeting with a cordial handclasp. He did not approach Dick +Beckworth. + +Betty drew a veil across her face before she arose for the benediction. +She waited to return to the hotel with her brother. + +She was the only person in the assembly who was not amused by the +appearance of the two old prospectors, Siebert and McCann, at the +service. They did not come in together; and when Andy McCann entered to +see Steve seated at one side, he chose a seat just as far from the other +old-timer as he could and on the other side of the house. Their scowls +turned on each other were more significant than words. + +Hunt did not let Steve and Andy get away without a personal word with +them. + +"I am very glad to welcome you among us, Mr. McCann," he said to that +individual when he shook the pocket-hunter's wrinkled claw. + +"Wal, it's all right, I reckon," muttered Andy. "In a meetin' you've got +to stand for most anybody droppin' in. But that old rip," nodding toward +the distant Steve, "would look a heap better 'cordin' to my idee in jail +than at church." + +"We must be charitable, Mr. McCann," said the parson, moving toward the +other prospector. + +Old Steve was quite as bitter in his comment. But he added something, +too, that gave Hunt pause. + +"It seems a good deal like old times. I used to go to church reg'lar, +onc't," said Siebert. "But I miss something, parson--I sure do." + +"What's that?" asked Hunt smiling. + +"Let alone I never expected to see that old has-been at meetin'--an' I +don't reckon he's come for any good--I see you don't look jest like a +preacher ought to look. Say, don't ministers dress different no more +from other folks? You might be a banker or a gambler as far as your coat +goes to show." + +The blunt criticism shocked Hunt not a little. Up to this time he had +carefully eschewed clerical dress. He began to wonder if, after all, he +was not making a mistake. + +Dick Beckworth was not on the street when the parson and his sister went +back to the hotel. In fact Dick had slipped out very soon after the +meeting ceased and was then in conference with Boss Tolley in the little +office at the end of the long bar in the Grub Stake. + +"Well," said Tolley, eagerly, "did you see her?" + +"Sure as sure." + +"Is it her?" demanded the dive keeper, grinning like a wolf. + +"It sure is. It's her that was Betty Hunt." + +"Dad burn it! And she paradin' 'round here like an unmarried woman. +Dick, we got that parson on the hip." + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII--CATASTROPHE + + +No more snow or ice had followed that first sharp, furious blizzard; but +with the higher temperature had come heavy rainstorms which the natives +declared were quite unseasonable. The rivers were bank full. The lower +end of Main Street was washed by the water from both Forks. Several +families had been obliged to move into the higher part of the town. + +But the flood had not driven Mother Tubbs and her little family out of +their home. The wise old woman did not know just why Nell Blossom sang +no more at the dance hall; but in her mind she knew that "suthin' was +workin' on that gal." Meanwhile she proceeded to "work on" Sam as usual. + +Rocking on her back porch with the vista of dreary yards under her eye, +but the rugged beauties of the Topaz Range in the distance, she +philosophized as usual on all things both spiritual and mundane. Sam was +pottering about a broken table that she had convinced him he must mend +before he left the premises for a stroll into the town, it being +Saturday afternoon. + +"I must say, too, that it seems as peaceful as Sunday back in +Missouri--or pretty near," Mother Tubbs observed. "Things is changed yere +in Canyon Pass. Ye must admit it, Sam." + +"Drat it!" snarled her husband, sucking a thumb he had just smashed with +his hammer. "I admit it all right. The Pass is gettin' plumb wuthless to +live in. Psalm singin', and preachin', and singin' meetings, and sech. +Huh! Parson wants me to come to Bible class." + +After all he said it with some pride. Sam had, as he expressed it, "a +sneakin' likin'" for the parson. But he was determined not to show that +this was so before Mother Tubbs. + +"Ain't you glad to live less like a savage--more decent and civilized +like--than you useter, Sam Tubbs?" demanded the old woman. + +"I was satisfied as I was," grunted her husband. "I ain't one o' them +that's always wantin' change and somethin' new. If I had been, I'd +picked me a new woman before now." + +"The pickin' ain't very good in Canyon Pass," rejoined Mother Tubbs +complacently. "Them that's got husbands don't want to exchange. 'Twould +be like jumpin' out of the skillet onto the coals. Them women that ain't +got nary man are well content, I reckon, to get on without one if you, +Sam Tubbs, are the only hope they got." + +"Huh!" + +Nell's sweet, clear voice floated down from the upper chamber. In +accents that caressed, she sang an old song which she had found in Betty +Hunt's music, arranged for solo use. + +"Hear that child, Sam!" whispered the old woman, wiping her eyes when +the pleading verse was finished. "Ain't that heaven-born?" + +"Huh!" said Sam, but in truth a little doubtfully. "I never considered +our Nell as bein' pertic'lar angelic. No ma'am! Not before." + +"She's as good as any angel," declared Mother Tubbs with conviction. +"Only she's flighty. Or useter be. And if she'd just go and sing them +songs at meetin', Canyon Pass would learn for once just what good +singin' is." + +"I dunno but you're right, old woman," said Sam softly, as the voice +from above took up the song again. "I've heard Nell Blossom sing many a +time before; but it never so sort o' caught in muh cogs as that song +does. But she can't sing them kind o' tunes in Colorado Brown's or the +Grub Stake." + +"Hush, Sam! Don't mention it!" whispered his wife. "I hope to the Lord +she won't never hafter work in them places again." + +"Huh! How's she going to live?" asked the startled Sam. + +"You leave it to Parson Hunt," declared Mother Tubbs in the same +secretive way, "and Nell Blossom won't never no more hafter sing for her +livin'." + +Sam stared. His bald head flushed as his eyes began to twinkle and the +knowing grin wreathed his sunken lips. He suddenly burst into a cackle +of delight. + +"D'ye mean it? The parson? By mighty! So he's willin' to go the way of +all flesh, is he? Nell needn't work no more for her livin' if she don't +want?" + +"You poor fool," scornfully said his wife, holding up one of his +enormous blue yarn socks with a gaping hole in the heel, "if the parson +is as hard on his socks as you are, Sam Tubbs, Nell will have her work +cut out for her--sure as sure!" + +It was the very next night that Nell Blossom sang for the first time at +the Canyon Pass church service. She had been twice to morning service +before this, coming in alone, refusing to sit near Mother Tubbs or +Betty, and remaining silent even through the hymns. In truth, she had +never learned those hymns that chanced to be given out on those +occasions. Rosabell Pickett did yeoman's service at the badly tuned +piano; but her own voice had the sweetness of a crow with the carrying +power of that same non-soothing bird. Rosabell kept the hymns going; but +sometimes Hunt could have wished for even Miss Pelter of the Ditson +Corners' choir to carry the air! + +As has been said, the Sunday evening service at Tolley's old shack was +not so formal as the morning session. Hunt tried in the evening to lead +the singing himself. He had managed through the summer to teach the +young folks several of the newer and more sprightly songs out of the +collection he had brought with him from the East. Some of the rougher +young men who filled the rear benches in the evening were glad to make a +noise with something besides their heavy boots, and they "went in" for +the singing with gusto. + +On this evening Nell came in with Mother Tubbs and Sam, but she sat down +on the front bench between Betty and Rosabell Pickett. She handed some +sheets of music to Rosabell, and Betty recognized them with a flush of +pleasure. It was plain that the accompanist had been prepared for Nell's +new move. + +"Do you think Mr. Hunt would let me sing a song?" whispered Nell to +Betty. + +"Let you!" returned Betty eagerly. "He'll love you for it." + +Perhaps the emphatic statement was made by the parson's sister without +thought of how it sounded. Nell's flower-like face warmed to a flush +that spread from the collar of her blouse to the waving tendrils of hair +under her hat brim. She hid her face quickly from Betty. The latter, +perhaps somewhat wickedly, enjoyed the other girl's confusion. Her heart +had suddenly expanded to Nell and her brother Ford. If she saw no +happiness ahead of her in life, Betty Hunt had begun to hope that the +Reverend Willett Ford Hunt and the Canyon Pass blossom would realize all +the happiness that a loving pair could compass. + +With a whisper and a head shake Betty informed the parson of what he +might expect from Nell at this meeting. Her presence had already filled +Hunt's heart with singing. Now, before his talk to the congregation--it +was not a sermon--he smiled at Nell and sat down while she sang the song +she had prepared and that had so stirred the hearts of Mother Tubbs and +Sam the day before. + +Rosabell Pickett for once got the spirit of the composition. She played +the accompaniment softly, and she slurred over the sour notes of the old +piano. When Nell stood up a hush of expectancy fell upon the +congregation. Even the boot-scrapings from the back benches were +silenced. + +Never had Canyon Pass heard Nell Blossom sing so sweetly. The girl's +tones fairly gripped the heart-strings of her hearers and wrung them. +The tears rolled down good old Mother Tubbs' face. Sam sat beside her, +looking straight ahead more like a gargoyle than ever, afraid to wink +for fear the salt drops would carom from his bony cheeks. Steve Siebert +in his corner, and Andy McCann in his--as far apart as the width of the +room would allow--looked like their burros, carved out of desert rock. +Nothing seemed to move those old fellows. But the rest of the +congregation--even the roughnecks on the back seats--were subdued when the +song was done. + +After the service Hunt apprehended a new note in the manner and speech +of his flock. He scarcely realized that his own talk had been more +spiritual than usual because of the emotion roused within him by Nell's +song. There was a hush over the room. The noisy fellows went out on +tiptoe. Voices were subdued. For almost the first time the atmosphere of +this rough room where they "held meetings" had become that of a real +house of worship. + +"Steve Siebert is right," the parson told himself not without gravity. +"It is time that I should show my own respect beyond peradventure for +the religion I preach. Betty must shake the mothballs out of that coat." + + * * * * * + +Lizard Dan tooled his six mules across the East Fork. The water was more +than waist deep, and the beasts swam for part of the way, and the inside +passengers sat on the small of their backs with their boots up on the +cross-straps. The driver urged the team with voice and whip up the muddy +rise to the Wild Rose. His desert-stained face was full of wrinkles of +excitement. Joe Hurley, who chanced to be lingering at the door of the +hotel, spied the emotion in the bus-driver's countenance. + +"What's got you, old-timer?" asked the mining man, strolling down to the +step below the driver. "Something on the road over from Crescent City +bite you?" + +"I got bit all right," growled Lizard Dan. He stooped to put his tobacco +stained lips close to Joe's ear. "The sheriff of Cactus County rode over +on the seat with me. Yeppy! And he dropped off back yonder to talk to +Sheriff Blaney." + +"Something doing?" + +"Youbetcha! The Cactus County sheriff was tellin' me. He's been after a +guy that turned a trick last summer--fore part of the summer in fact--'way +out beyond Hoskins. He was some pretty shrewd short-card tin-horn, if +you ask me." + +"A gambler? Anybody know him?" asked Joe quite idly. + +"I didn't get his name. The sheriff was pumpin' me a lot about who was +new--if any--in Canyon Pass. I told him," and Dan grinned widely, "that +'bout the newest citizens we had yere was Parson Hunt and his sister." + +"You're some little josher, aren't you, Dan?" said Joe, grimly. "What +had the feller done?" + +"The one the sheriff's after? Cleaned out a sheep camp with marked cards +and then made his get-a-way under a gun. Cool as the devil! Shot one of +those sheepticks--I mean to say, a shepherd. Never did have much use for +sheep men----" + +"Me neither," admitted Hurley. + +"But they are ha'f human--leastways, that's how I look at 'em," pursued +Lizard Dan. "They should have their chance. Marked cards and a gun is no +way to win their spondulicks. No, sir." + +"What makes the Cactus County officer think the sharper came this way?" + +"Says he and a posse follered him to the Canyon County line, up yonder, +'long back in the summer. They figgered he'd gone Lamberton way, so they +swayed off and didn't come yere. Now something new has come up about the +feller, I take it, and the Cactus County sheriff has come yere to get +Blaney to help comb this part of the territory. I told him we didn't +have no loose gamblers yere. They all got jobs and have held 'em some +time." + +"Tolley is always picking up new hombres," said Hurley thoughtfully. "I +can't keep run of all the scabby customers he brings in here." + +"But not card-sharps," said Lizard Dan, shaking his head. "He ain't got +a new dealer in a dog's age. You wouldn't count Dick Beckworth one. It's +just like he's always been yere." + +He waddled away with the mail sacks and his large-bore gun. Hurley found +himself suddenly startled by an entirely uncalled-for thought. Surely +nothing Lizard Dan had said should have inspired this: + +Dick Beckworth had been away from Canyon Pass from the early springtime +until recently. He had ridden in from the wilderness on the occasion of +the first blizzard. Where had the gambler been during the months he was +missed at the Grub Stake? + +Hurley was half tempted to go to the Grub Stake and make an inquiry or +two, but since that notable night when Steve Siebert had held up Tolley +and his gang, Joe had seldom been inside the place. He did, however, +wander along the now quiet street toward the honkytonk. + +It was drawing toward evening, and a drizzle of rain, which had +threatened all day, swept across the West Fork and muffled the town +almost instantly as in a gray blanket. The roar of Runaway River in the +canyon blew back into Joe's ears and made him deaf to most other sounds. + +But as he crossed the mouth of the alley beside Tolley's place he heard +a sharp "Hist!" He turned to look. A girl, wrapped in a fluttering +cloak, stood there, dimly revealed in the thicker darkness of the alley. + +"Well, what do you want?" demanded the mining man. + +"Mr. Hurley!" + +"Great saltpeter! what's the matter, Rosy?" + +"Hush! Shet your yawp!" warned the piano player. "Want to get me into +trouble?" + +"Not a bit. What's up?" + +"I don't know. But it's something--something bad." + +"Bad? About whom?" + +"Parson Hunt and his sister Betty." + +"Betty Hunt?" muttered the mining man with an emphasis that would have +told a woman of much less discernment than Rosabell Pickett all that was +necessary. + +"Yeppy. You like her, Joe Hurley. You want to look out for her. Somebody +has got to. That Dick Beckworth----" + +"Dick the Devil?" + +"You said it! He's got something on her." + +"He's got something on Betty Hunt? Never!" + +"No use layin' your hand on your gun butt. It needs something besides +that. When fire's touched to the end of the fuse, no use tryin' to stamp +on the ashes. It is burning toward the powder barrel. The thing's +started. Dick's told it about her----" + +"Told what?" asked Hurley, almost shaking the girl. + +"That she was married back East, long before she come out here, and is +posing here as an unmarried woman. He says he knows the man that was +married to her." + +Hurley was stricken dumb for the moment. Yet recovery was swift. He +stammered: + +"She--she might. It's no crime. She--she might have got a divorce and +taken her maiden name again, if it's true. But I wouldn't take Dick the +Devil's word as to the color of the blue sky." + +"He's got a paper to prove it. I seen him show it to Boss Tolley. I run +to get you. I saw you at the Wild Rose. I figger you are the one to tell +the parson." + +"And who's to tell Betty?" Joe inquired. "I--I----" + +"Oh! What's that?" exclaimed Rosabell, shrinking away. "I--I thought it +was thunder." + +A muttering sound grew in Hurley's hearing, but he paid little attention +to it at first. Was it this Betty had meant all the time, when she had +kept him at arm's length? When she had told him that there was somebody +back East who, at least, had her promise? + +Then the air quaked as though there had been a volcanic upheaval within +the immediate district of Canyon Pass. Rosabell shrieked and ran back +into the gloom, disappearing toward the rear door of the Grub Stake. Joe +ran out into the street, seeing other men coming from the shops and +saloons. + +His gaze by chance was turned upon the wagon track down the slope beyond +the West Fork. He saw a flaming patch of white there. It came down the +wagon track with terrific speed. In a moment he realized that it was a +white pony and rider. + +Lashing the steed the rider forced it into the West Fork. The animal had +to swim for it. It seemed as though the stream had filled terrifically +within the last few minutes. + +Out of the flood scrambled the pony. It was not until then that anybody +recognized Nell Blossom and her cream-colored mount. She urged the horse +up into the town and they heard her clear voice rising above the sullen +thunder of the three rivers: + +"The Overhang! The Overhang! It's down--it's filled the canyon! Runaway +River is stoppered like with a cork in the neck of a bottle. The flood +is coming!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX--HIS LAST CARD + + +Hunt lingered in his sister's room after Joe Hurley had left them. They +were talking when Maria came up to take away the tea things. The Mexican +woman was greatly excited. + +"Those bad men! She get it now--in the neck you say, si? My goodness, +yes! He no run you out of town lak' he say, Senor Hunt." + +"Who is this who wants to run me out?" asked Hunt good-naturedly. "I +must be getting awfully unpopular in some quarters." + +"Those bad man at Tolley's Grub Stake. Ah, yes, Senor! She hate you--my +goodness, yes!" + +Betty began to be troubled--as she always was when she heard her +brother's peace threatened. + +"Have you heard something new, Maria?" she asked the woman. + +"Cholo, he hear. He come just now from the sheriff. A man come to town +and he say he want those bad man." + +"What bad man? Not my brother?" cried Betty. + +"_Madre de Dios!_ Is the Senor Hunt bad?" gasped Maria. "Why, it is Dick +the Deevil I say." + +"Ah-ha!" muttered Hunt, with more interest than surprise. He did not +look at Betty. "This man has something against Dick Beckworth?" + +"Cholo whisper to me, jus' now, before I come up here, that the sheriff +weel arres' Dick the Deevil. For robbery and swindle, you say. Si!" + +"This is news!" ejaculated Hunt, putting on his coat and hat. "I must go +down and get the particulars." + +"Oh, Ford!" + +What Betty might have said--how much she might have betrayed of her +secret to her brother at that moment--will never be known. Before he +could turn to look at her anguished face the house shook, and an +atmospheric tremor seemed to pass over the town. An "airquake" was the +better term for it! And with it they heard a continuous thundering roar +that seemed to mingle with, yet almost drown, the chorus of the rivers +which had been a monotone in their ears all day. + +Maria screamed and flew out of the room. Hunt exclaimed: + +"Something's blown up at one of the mines, perhaps. But Joe is all +right. He could not have got far away from the hotel." + +It was not until he ran down and reached the street that he learned the +truth. Nell had pulled in her wet and exhausted pony before the hotel +and was surrounded by the excited populace. Joe was with her, and Hunt, +seeing both safe, was relieved. + +The parson listened to her story with amazement and some of the dread +that the older inhabitants of Canyon Pass felt. Something like this had +happened twenty years before. She had seen a great landslide--a large +part of the Overhang she thought--fall into the canyon. Already the +rivers were backing up. Filled as they were by the recent unseasonable +rains, the flood, if the canyon bed was really closed by the landslide, +would soon rise into the town. + +Hunt and Hurley joined a party that launched a big batteau to go down +the Runaway to the first turn in the canyon wall to see just what the +danger was. Most of the other inhabitants of Canyon Pass were crowding +into Main Street. It might be that all would have to get back to the +headlands where the mines were in order to escape the flood. + +Betty, alone in her room in the hotel, saw the people milling about +below and could only guess what it meant. She did not dare go down to +ask about the catastrophe, and Maria did not return. But as she sat +there, trembling not altogether from fear of what might happen to the +town, she saw the knob of her door turn slowly. There was somebody in +the hall--somebody coming in! + +In her terror--terror of she knew not what--the girl could not move. She +could only watch the frail door sag slowly open. She saw a hand with a +sparkling diamond upon it. But it was a man's hand. A shoulder appeared +as the door was thrust farther inward. + +Then she saw the face of the intruder. + +"Andy Wilkenson!" + +Betty did not know that her voice was audible. But as the man slid in +with the sleekness of a cat and closed the door behind him, he +whispered: + +"So you know me all right, do you? Then that makes it easier. You've got +to hide me, Betty. They are after me. I got out of the Grub Stake +through a window--just in time." + +He laughed. There was a reckless gayety in his manner that was forced; +but it seemed to Betty more terrible than if he had shown fear. + +"You wouldn't want them to get your husband, would you, honey?" he went +on, his back against the door, his eyes glittering. "And there's going +to be high water. I can't get away at once. I've got to hide. You'll +have to keep me here." He chuckled. "A girl wouldn't give her hubby up +to the sheriff, would she? I----" + +"Go away!" she gasped. + +"Not a chance!" exclaimed Dick lightly. "That sheriff will comb the +town. But he will never come into your bedroom, honey. And I'm going to +stay here till the flurry is over." + +He took a step into the room. Betty shrank from him. Her eyes were now +aflame--and there was something besides fear in them. + +"I will give you time to get out, Andy Wilkenson," she said hoarsely. +"But no more. All I have to do is to raise this window and scream----" + +"Dare to!" he snapped. "I'll stay right here. You're my wife----" + +"Nobody will believe that if I deny it!" she exclaimed. + +"So you think I can't prove it?" He laughed again. "I know that you +would deny it if you could. I know that you even tore up the marriage +certificate that old minister gave you. But I went back to him and got a +copy. And I have got a copy of the license record, and all. Think I'm a +fool? You may have fooled me about your aunt's money; but one never +knows when such a moment as this may come. If you give me up to the +sheriff, I'll tell 'em all just who and what you are. Mrs. Andy +Wilkenson! Sounds good, don't it? And 'Andy Wilkenson' is Dick +Beckworth. Being married under an assumed name don't make the tie any +less binding, Betty. You are married to me hard and fast, and I'm going +to turn the fact to good account. Don't doubt it!" + +"I--I'll call my brother," said Betty weakly. + +"I bet he doesn't know, either. Nor that Joe Hurley you've been chumming +around with," and Dick chuckled hugely. "Oh, I've got you, my girl. You +had the chance to call me, and call me good, that time. But it's my turn +now. You are going to hide me here, and then help me get away. I know +your breed. You'd die rather than let the story of our marriage get to +the people of Canyon Pass." + +The girl sat huddled in the chair by the window. She stared at him with +an intensity of horror that seemed to have paralyzed her whole body. And +what he said--his final declaration--she knew was true. + +She would much rather die than have it revealed to all Canyon Pass that +Dick the Devil was the discarded husband of the Reverend Willett Ford +Hunt's sister! + +The smile with which Dick watched the agonized girl marked the cruelty +that was the underlying trait of his whole character. He knew she +suffered. He knew how she suffered now. And he exulted in it. + +But he was, too, fearful for his own safety. The crime he had committed +miles away across the sheep range, and which had set the sheriff on his +track, was a most despicable one. It was, too, in this community a crime +that might easily excite the passions of the rougher element. Men had +been lynched for much less than Dick Beckworth's crime! + +With night coming on, the waters about the town rising, and no means for +quick egress before morning at least, Dick the Devil realized that his +only hope lay with this tortured girl. Aside from the satisfaction it +gave him to make her shield him, he was quite aware that no better place +than Betty Hunt's room could be imagined in which he might hide from the +officers. + +"There's a closet," he said finally, seeing the small door in the +partition. "Put me in that. You can let your brother in if you like--or +Joe Hurley." He sneered at her. "They'll never believe the proper Betty +Hunt has a man hidden in her room. What's that?" + +He hissed the question, grabbing the handle of the closet door, and +looked back at the one opening from the hall. There was a light step +outside; the door-knob rattled. + +"Quick!" breathed Dick. "Don't say a word----" + +He tried to open the closet door. Although it was a spring latch, it was +likewise locked. All Betty's little valuables were in the closet, and +she had the key. + +"The key!" shrilled the man. "You fool! Do you want me to give the thing +away? As sure as you are alive I'll tell them you're my wife. Quick!" + +Betty did not move. She shook her head. The door-knob was again rattled. +A muffled voice cried: + +"Betty!" + +The knob turned--as it had before, slowly, hesitatingly. The door was +pushed inward. Dick the Devil snatched a pistol from its sling under his +left armpit, with the motion of a rattlesnake about to strike. + +Nell Blossom stepped into the room and closed the door swiftly behind +her. She had seen Betty. Her cry of "Betty! what's happened?" was +answered by a sigh from Dick of such relief that it seemed like a sob. + +Alert as she could be, Nell wheeled to look at the man. Although there +was no light in the room and the evening was drawing on, the singer knew +that half-crouching figure at first glance. She saw, too, the flash of +the weapon in the gambler's hand. + +"Dick Beckworth! I might have known you'd come sneaking to a girl's room +to hide," said Nell, her voice quite unshaken. "Put away that gun. I'm +not the sheriff." + +Dick was silent. But he had the grace to put away his gun. Nell said to +Betty: + +"Has he scared you, honey? Don't you mind. Dick the Devil has got his +comeupance this time, I reckon. The minute he steps out of this house +they'll nab him. Somebody saw him sneak in by the back way. But nobody +thought of his daring to come into your room. Come on, you, get out! +Take your miserable carcass off to some other part of the house." + +"Oh, Nell!" breathed Betty. + +"Don't you be afraid, honey," said the cabaret singer again. "This +rascal knows me, I reckon. It's too bad he wasn't killed--like I thought +he was--back last spring when I was fool enough to be caught by his sleek +ways and talk. Oh, yes! I played the fool. And I come pretty near +believing since that time that there wasn't any decent men in the world. +All because of that whelp." + +For once Dick Beckworth had nothing to say. At another time he might +have flouted the girl. But the moment was not propitious. He stood and +glared from Nell to Betty, and back again; but said nothing. + +"Come! Beat it!" said Nell harshly. "Don't you hear me?" + +"I am going to remain here," Dick said in a low voice. "Right here." + +"Not much!" Nell wheeled to open the door. "I'll call 'em up. They are +watching for you below." + +"Nell!" gasped Betty. + +"You better speak for me," sneered Dick. "I don't reckon that you two +girls will turn me over to the sheriff. Don't forget, Nellie, that once +I was your honey-boy." + +The mining-camp girl's whole person seemed to fire under this spur. Her +face blazed. She was tense with wrath--wrath that she could not for the +moment audibly express. + +But when she did speak her voice was as hard as ice and her accents as +cold: + +"Dick Beckworth, you get out of here! March!" + +"Not much." + +Nell had been riding. She never went abroad on horseback without wearing +her belt and gun. The latter flashed into her hand too quickly for Dick +to have again produced his weapon, had he so desired. + +"Put 'em up!" was Nell's concise command. "Don't flutter a finger wrong. +I been thinking for months that I saw you go over that cliff to your +death. Maybe I worried some over being the possible cause of your taking +that drop. But I feel a whole lot different about you now, Dick +Beckworth. Keep your hands up and march out of this room." + +The man, sneering, his countenance torn with emotion, his eyes as +glittering as those of an angered serpent, came forward into the middle +of the room again. He was staring at Betty rather than at Nell. He said +to the former: + +"You going to let me go out, Betty?" + +"Oh! Oh! I----" + +"Don't mind even to answer him--the dog!" Nell muttered. "I swear, after +this, I would not lift a hand to stop the boys from stringing him up." + +"Is that so?" queried Dick, turning to her again. "You think you've got +things your own way, don't you? I'll show you. Betty! tell this girl +what and who I am and why I am not going to leave this room. Tell her, +my dear, why you can't bear to see me given up to the sheriff." + +"You dog!" ejaculated Nell. + +"Tell her, Betty," commanded Dick, but without raising his voice. + +The parson's sister, fairly writhing in her chair, put up her clasped +hands to Nell. She whispered brokenly: + +"Don't--don't send him out. Don't tell, Nell. I--I couldn't bear it!" + +"In the name of common sense," queried the singer, "what do you mean? +This fellow's frightened you out of your wits." + +"No, no! For my sake----" + +"You're crazy. He can't hurt you. I have him under my gun. If he makes a +move----" + +"Betty!" shot in Dick. + +"For Ford's sake let him stay!" begged Betty, and sank back in her chair +again, almost at the point of collapse. + + + + +CHAPTER XXX--CLEARING SKIES + + +Betty Hunt had, after all, retained her self-possession in a +considerable degree throughout this trying interview. Dick Beckworth's +appearance had startled her; but already she had schooled her mind to +expecting an interview with him. + +Really, the coming of Nell Blossom and what had followed her entrance +had disturbed Betty more than Dick's appearance. But now she had got a +clutch again upon her mental processes and at this moment, when Dick was +about to reveal to the cabaret singer the fact that Betty was his wife, +the Eastern girl apprehended and seized upon the plea she believed +would, more than any other, cause Nell to let the villain remain without +question. + +For, with the hotel surrounded and the officers searching for Dick, it +was probable that the moment he stepped out of the room he would be +caught. So Betty cried: + +"For Ford's sake let him stay!" + +It was, after all, a shot in the dark. Betty had not been sure up to +this moment that Nell really felt toward the parson as his sister knew +Hunt felt toward Nell. But she was in a desperate plight. Betty could +not bear to have even her girl friend know of her relation to Dick +Beckworth, not as Dick would tell it! And if the villain spread the tale +as he promised, Betty knew that her brother's work might be greatly +injured even in such a community as Canyon Pass. + +For after all, although the mining town was not like Ditson Corners, +human nature is about the same everywhere. Betty had done nothing +disgraceful in marrying Dick Beckworth and leaving him so abruptly. But +for hiding the unfortunate alliance and posing here as an unmarried +girl, the tongue of gossip would undoubtedly drag both her own name and +Ford's through the mire of half-truths and suppositions. + +If Nell loved Ford and thought that Dick might reveal something that +would injure the parson, Betty hoped the singer would relent. Afterward +she could in her own way explain to Nell. + +The latter stared now at Betty; but Dick was quite in the line of her +gun and her hand did not tremble. + +"You--you mean he's got something on the parson?" she asked. + +Dick grinned. Betty tried to speak. Before another word could be said, +however, there was a sudden outbreak of sound from below and loud voices +on the stair. + +"Betty!" shouted Joe Hurley's voice. + +"Is Nell Blossom there?" called Hunt. + +Both young men were tramping up to this very room. They would be here in +thirty seconds. + +Betty came to her feet as though galvanized by an electric shock. She +fumbled in her bosom and drew forth the key of the closet door. She +extended it to Dick. + +"Let him--let him hide!" she gasped. + +Nell lowered her gun. Dick grabbed the key, the grin on his face +demoniac, and leaped across the floor on the balls of his feet. In a +flash he had the door open, was inside, the door closed and the spring +lock snapped. Nell thrust the gun back into its holster. Came a +thunderous knock upon the door. + +"Girls!" shouted Hunt, "may we come in?" + +Betty and Nell looked at each other. The latter sat down on the bed. +Betty dropped back into her chair. + +"Of course you may come in, Ford," she said in a voice that, if not +unshaken, seemed calm to the ears of the men. + +Hunt and Hurley, both splashed with mud, appeared at the open door. + +"Pack a bag, Betty," said her brother. "The water is backing up into the +town, and although we don't believe it will rise high, it may come in +over the lower floor. It won't be pleasant here to-night. Joe suggests +that we take you both up to his office at the Great Hope. That can be +made comfortable for you until we see just how bad a time Canyon Pass is +in for." + +"If you say so," said Betty in a low voice. "Will you go, Nell?" + +"Sure," declared the other girl. + +She thought that probably anything was better for Betty than to remain +here. In ten minutes they set forth, hurrying down and out of the hotel. +Sheriff Blaney, and a red-faced man whom Betty remembered having seen +before on the Hoskins trail hunting a fugitive, was on the porch. + +"Derned funny where that Dick Beckworth has holed up," Blaney was +saying. "But he can't get out of town to-night, that's sure." + +That was a night scarcely to be forgotten in the annals of Canyon Pass. +The people streamed up the muddy roads on to the highlands all night +long while the waters rose higher and higher. They could hear toward +morning the crashing of undermined buildings, but not until dawn did the +fugitives learn all the damage of the flood. + +Then, just before sunrise, there sounded several tremendous explosions +from below, in the canyon. Joe Hurley and a gang of engineers had been +down there all night, and the several charges of dynamite they put in at +the barrier across the river brought the relief that had been hoped. In +an hour a way was burst through the wall of fallen debris and the mad +waters tore a passage to freedom. + +The flood began to recede, and by the time the expedition got back from +the canyon in the batteau, the mud hole of Main Street could be seen +again from the site of the Great Hope. Joe Hurley looked grave, however, +when he rejoined his friends in the little shack of an office. + +"It's done a sight of damage," the mining man said. "A lot of folks will +have to double up till new shacks can be built. The church--Tolley's old +place--is standing, Willie." + +"I see it is," returned the parson. "But I miss some buildings----" + +"You miss one in particular," said his friend quickly. "I don't know but +you and Betty are chief among the flood sufferers." + +"What do you mean, Joe?" Betty asked quickly. + +"The hotel. It was undermined and is in ruins; looks like it had been +rammed. Oh!" as he saw Betty pale, "nobody was hurt. Cholo Sam and Maria +are safe. Fact is, not a life lost as far as we know. It might have been +a whole lot worse. We had great luck." + +"Great luck!" murmured Betty, looking at Nell, whose face likewise +showed a strange anxiety. + +"Talking about luck," added Hurley suddenly. "What do you know about old +Steve and Andy? They've been out all night." + +"What do you mean?" asked Hunt. "They haven't gone back to the desert?" + +"Not on your life. They've been prospecting where they prospected twenty +years ago. Or that's what I figger. Just at dawn, after we let off those +shots that started the dam-busting, I spied 'em prowling around up there +on the side of the canyon. Reckless as kids, those old tykes are. Might +another slip come 'most any time." + +"Oh!" said Betty, "I hope you did not leave them in danger, Joe." + +"If they were, I couldn't help 'em," Hurley replied. "You can't +influence those old desert rats any more than you could lead an iron +horse to drink. No, sir! Steve and Andy were up there on a shelf that +was uncovered by the last slip, a-holding hands and ghost-dancing like a +couple of Piute Injuns. Acted plumb crazy. + +"They must have swum the West Fork to get there. And I bet they didn't +go together. But when they got up there and saw the way open----" + +"To what?" interrupted Nell. "You haven't told us what they found." + +"That's so," chuckled Joe. "They've found something all right. I reckon +Steve and Andy can't be fooled when it comes to 'color.' They certainly +have made a ten-strike. Steve shouted down to me that the slip had +uncovered the mother lode. Of course, they are claiming everything in +sight. Got their claims staked out, and if it's really a sure-enough +find I expect there will be a small stampede to that side of the canyon. +There's gold all through those cliffs. This is a gold country. Some day +they'll find out how to work the Topaz Desert as a paying proposition. +The wash from these headlands and the canyon sides has been carried out +into the desert by the Runaway for a couple of million years--more or +less." + +"Anyway," said Nell, her eyes sparkling, "the old-timers are going to be +rich at last? How fine!" + +"It may only be a pocket--or a broken lead. But I wish 'em both +millionaires. Me, I'll stick to the Great Hope a while longer." He +looked at Betty. "I am a great feller for sticking to a thing." + +Betty blushed and looked away. Hunt said thoughtfully: + +"If the slide has only caused Siebert and McCann to be friends again, it +has brought about something good--something very good indeed." + +"Well, you talk to Judson about that. His stock is pretty near ruined. +And see Tolley. He's almost weeping. And Colorado Brown. To say nothing +of Cholo Sam, who has lost his hotel." + +The girls again looked at each other. There was the same thought in +their minds. What had become of Dick Beckworth if the hotel had +collapsed? Of course there had been plenty of time for him to have +escaped from the building before it went down. None of the structures +had fallen much before daybreak. Yet thought of him continued to trouble +the girls. + +Joe Hurley got Betty off to one side. There was no work being done at +any of the mines, so the owner of the Great Hope had nothing to do at +this hour. Having been at work all night it might be supposed that he +would need sleep; but when he looked on Betty Hunt his gaze was anything +but somnolent. + +"There's a whole lot been happening in a few short hours, Betty," he +said to the parson's sister. "It come on us so quick and it happened so +fast that it put out of my head for the time being something I had to +say to you." + +"Something--Nothing you shouldn't say, Joe?" she stammered, looking at +him with pleading eyes. + +"I get you, Betty," said the mining man. "I get you--sure. You are +warning me off the grass. I don't blame you. You think I am kind of +dense, I expect----" + +"Oh, never that, Joe," she murmured. "You are kind and thoughtful only." + +"I hope you will believe so," said Joe bluntly, "when I tell you I know +what your trouble is--and I know there ain't no chance for me now. But I +am going to be your friend just as you said I could." + +"Oh! Joe, do you know?" + +"I got wind of a story Dick Beckworth's been telling--about your being +already married. It's so, isn't it?" + +Betty, her face working pitifully, nodded. + +"All right. We won't say no more about it. He's a low dog for telling +about it. I don't want to know no more--not even who the feller is who +married you. But you can bank on me, Betty, every time! I'm your +friend." + +"I know you are, Joe," she whispered, and the look she gave him paid Joe +Hurley for a good deal. + +But he was by no means satisfied to consider that Betty Hunt's marriage +closed the door of paradise in his face. He was just as determined to +get her as ever he had been. He had learned the great thing that he had +desired to know. Betty loved him. He had seen it in her look! He could +wait, and be patient, and let things take their course. She could be +wedded to another man as hard and fast as all the laws could make it. +But Joe Hurley felt a glory in his soul that expanded from the +heaven-born belief that time would change all that! + +They started down into the town, the girls shod with rubber boots that +Joe supplied. The people of Canyon Pass were running about like muddy +ants seeking their flooded hills. Mother Tubbs and Sam were high and dry +in the loft of the stamp mill. The old woman had made Sam lug up there +her one good feather-bed--and it was dry. But as she said, she expected +to find all her other possessions "as wet as a frog's hind leg." + +Bill Judson lounged in the doorway of the Three Star and hailed them +with some cheerfulness. + +"There's one sure thing, Parson Hunt," he said. "What I got in cans +ain't water-soaked--much. And the cat and six kittens ain't drowned. I +expect I can keep shop with what I got left for a while. But Smithy's +lost all his clo'es that's fit to wear, dad burn it! I can't have him +waitin' on lady customers in a gunny-sack and a pair of ridin' boots." + +A little group surrounded Sheriff Blaney on the street as the quartette +strolled along. Joe was interested. + +"Find him, Blaney?" he asked the officer. + +"Not any. And it beats my time. I don't see where that Dick Beckworth +could have holed up. He sure didn't get out of town, for the Forks are +both plumb impassable for man or beast." + +The two girls exchanged glances again. What had happened to Dick +Beckworth? Surely he must have got out of the closet--out of the hotel---- + +Suddenly Betty seized Nell's arm with an hysterical grip. + +"Nell! Nell!" she whispered. + +"Don't give way. Of course he's all right--though he ought not to be!" + +"That closet door! It shut with a spring lock. It could not be opened +from inside!" + +"Oh, he could smash down the door." + +The two young men did not notice the girls' perturbation. They were +striding ahead. A crowd was running toward the fallen hotel. Something +of moment was happening there. But before they reached the place Cholo +Sam saw them, and started toward the parson and Joe. + +"Senor Hunt! Senor Joe! Keep the senoritas back. It is not for them to +see." + +"What's the matter, Sam?" asked Hurley. + +"That Dick the Deevil! He ees found--my goodness, yes! They haf just +pulled him out of the ruins of my Wild Rose--drowned like one rat!" + + * * * * * + +Fortunately for Canyon Pass and its flood-harassed inhabitants, frost +and snow held off that winter until remarkably late. The mild season +gave ample opportunity for new homes to be built and for the necessary +repairs to be made upon the structures that had withstood the rising +waters. + +The supply wagons brought in quantities of necessary goods from Crescent +City and the railroads. The mines and washings shut down while all +turned to the work of rebuilding. Tolley's Grub Stake and Colorado +Brown's place, both swept by the water, were the last buildings to be +remodeled. The gamblers and dance-hall girls and other employees of +those places left town, for it promised to be a lean winter for their +ilk at Canyon Pass. + +In fact, Boss Tolley sold out and got out himself among the very first +to desert the town. His departure and the sale of all his property +opened the way for Parson Hunt's supporters to buy from the purchaser of +Tolley's property the building which had been used for church services +and the lot on which it stood. + +They could not begin the building of a proper church until spring, of +course; but the money was pledged for an edifice that would cost all Joe +Hurley had planned. + +Hurley himself was able to subscribe a much larger sum than at first, +for the Great Hope had proved to be as valuable a mine as he had told +Betty and the parson he believed it would. But it was from another +source that the church building fund gained its largest contribution. + +Old Steve Siebert and Andy McCann had "struck it rich." The romance of +the uncovering of a rich vein of gold in the west wall of the canyon is +told to-day to every tourist who comes to Canyon Pass. + +How, at a time in the camp's early history, two partners who had +prospected the Topaz Range and the desert adjoining fruitlessly for +years had found traces of gold high up on the canyon wall behind a +sheltering ledge and had "locked horns" in their first quarrel over how +the lode was to be got at. + +At the height of their argument a landslip had buried the hollow where +the rich find was located and, rather than that either should profit by +the joint find, the two old fellows had never tried to open the claim +until nature, by another freak, uncovered it for them. + +"I says to Andy, and Andy says to me," Steve Siebert was wont to recall, +"when we seen how rich that lode was, a part of our profits oughter go +to the parson and his church." + +"You're mighty right we did," agreed Andy. Agreeing was now Andy's +strongest trait. "We-all got to pull together in this world. And if +we-all pull together yere in Canyon Pass we can have as good a church as +any camp needs. We sure got the best parson." + +"You're right, Andy," Steve said. "I certainly do despise folks that are +always fighting each other and pullin' contrary. No sense in it--no sense +a-tall." + +In fact the two old fellows became joint treasurers of the church +building fund. They took it upon themselves, too, to pass the +contribution plates at service. The only friction Andy McCann and Steve +Siebert were ever known to display thereafter was a mild rivalry as to +the amount of money collected from the congregation seated on their +particular sides of the house. It was suspected that each swelled his +collection considerably on Sunday mornings so that his half of the house +would make the best showing when the offering was counted! + +"Dad burn it!" muttered Bill Judson, "let 'em alone. That's a mild +matter for disagreement. They ain't likely to pull no guns on each other +over that." + +Indeed Canyon Pass was on its good behavior that winter. The exigencies +of the flood which had driven out a good deal of the worst element of +the town gave the better people a chance to take hold of its government +with a firmer hand--and a hand that Hunt and his associates were +determined should not again lose its grip. Even Slickpenny Norris in +time came to see that religious progress was not actually synonymous +with bankruptcy. + +To the parson's standard flocked many of those who had before been but +lukewarm. Not least of his new helpers was the erstwhile cabaret singer. +Nell Blossom proved her value in the work to be quite all that Hunt had +hoped. + +This busy time, when Joe Hurley and Betty really were so wrapped up in +each other that they could scarcely be expected to be of value to +anybody but themselves, the parson found in Nell Blossom a willing and +efficient aid. They were both earnest in the cause, and so earnest that +it seemed they had little thought for extraneous matters. Yet on one +occasion when they were looking over the blueprints of the proposed +church edifice, Nell slipped an extra sheet of plans into sight from +beneath those of the church. + +"Why, what is this, Ford?" she asked. + +"Oh, yes! I wanted to show you that, Nell. And get your approval." + +"My approval?" + +"Er--yes. You see, I've bought the lot right next to the church site. +Now, this cottage--er---- Here! Let me show you. We can have the mill work +for it shipped in with the church stuff. The same gang that builds the +church can run the house up. There's the front elevation. Say, Nell, how +do you like it?" + +"Why, it's lovely!" she cried. + +"Do you think it's nice enough for a parson's wife to live in?" + +"Ford! Mr. Hunt! I----" + +"Better let the 'Mr. Hunt' stuff slide, Nell Blossom," he said, getting +hold of her hand. "Even a minister's wife is supposed to call her +husband by his first name--at least, in private." + +"Oh, Ford!" + +"That's better." + +"But--but I am not fit to be a parson's wife, Ford," she cried, +trembling. + +"Do you know, sometimes I've half believed I wasn't fit to be a parson? +But it's my job and I'm going to do the best I can with it. And--I need +your help, Nell Blossom." + +"I came out here to try to win the heart of Canyon Pass. I found +it--almost as soon as I arrived. But I thought for a long time that it +never would be mine. I am bold enough now, Nell, to believe that I may +win it." + +He smiled at her with such affection in his gaze, such a warmth of +comprehension as well as desire, that Nell Blossom, tearful, trembling, +half fearful, swayed toward him and felt again his strong arms about +her. + +"If--if I can only be worthy of you, Ford. If I don't disgrace you," she +sobbed. "Just think! A singer all my life in those ugly cabarets----" + +"Ah, yes," said the Reverend Willett Ford Hunt quietly. "And only for a +difference in environment I might have been a part of the most reckless +audience you ever had to sing to. We will let the past bury the past, +Nell. We have only to deal with the future." + +And he held her to him close. + + THE END + + + + +Popular Copyright Novels + +AT MODERATE PRICES + +Ask Your Dealer for a Complete List of +A. L. Burt Company's Popular Copyright Fiction + + Adventures of Jimmie Dale, The. By Frank L. Packard. + Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. By A. Conan Doyle. + Affinities, and Other Stories. By Mary Roberts Rinehart. + After House, The. By Mary Roberts Rinehart. + Against the Winds. By Kate Jordan. + Ailsa Paige. By Robert W. Chambers. + Also Ran. By Mrs. Baillie Reynolds. + Amateur Gentleman, The. By Jeffery Farnol. + Anderson Crow, Detective. By George Barr McCutcheon. + Anna, the Adventuress. By E. 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