William MacLeod Raine

“ From the overturned chuck wagon scattered food lay trampled into the ground by sharp feet. The surveying instruments were broken beyond repair.
A huddled mass lay motionless in the track of the avalanche. Tug knelt beside it and looked into the battered outline of what a few moments earlier had been a man’s face quick with life. No second glance was necessary to see that the spirit had passed out of the crushed body. The engineer recognized him by the clothes. His name was Coyle. He had been a harmless old fellow of many quips and jests, one full of the milk of human kindness. ”

“ Don’t you ever sympathize with any one that’s in hard luck?” she cried out, her cheeks glowing with a suffusion of underlying crimson.
“Not when he lies down under it.”
She flashed at him a look resentful of his complacency. It held, too, for the first time a critical doubt. There was plenty to like about Justin Merrick, and perhaps there was more to admire. He got things done because he was so virile, so dominant. To look at the lines and movements of his sturdy body, at the close-lipped mouth and resolute eyes, was to know him a leader of men. ”

“ Betty helped to wear away the long night with talk. She forced into her voice cheerfulness and courage, though there was not a minute of the dark hours not filled with alarms. It would be morning soon, she promised. Daddy would come and get them, or Lon, or perhaps Justin Merrick’s men who were camping on the Flat Tops. Then they would have fun talking it all over and telling how brave Ruth had been for not crying (except just the teentiest time) like a silly little girl. ”

“ Her eyes sparkled. “You’re not consistent. When the city ways don’t suit you, I’m to live like people in the country, but when you don’t approve of ranch ways, then I’m to be like girls in Denver. I’m not to go into business, but I’m not to be neighborly as my mother was.”
“You’re distorting what I said, Betty.”
“Am I? Didn’t you say I wasn’t to help take care of a sick man because it wasn’t proper?”
“I said you were acting rather absurdly about this man Hollister,” he replied tartly. “There’s no call to turn the world upside down because he’s wounded. You want a sense of proportion.” ”

“ The engineer had accused Prowers point-blank of the crime. His men had talked of lynching, and Prowers had fled.
Black did not discuss the situation. He returned to camp, saddled a horse, and took from his roll of bedding a revolver. Five minutes later he was jogging into the hills. A day of settlement had come between him and the man who had deflected him from the straight and well-worn trails of life.
He knew the size of his job. Jake was a bad man with a gun, swift as chain lightning, deadly accurate in aim. It was not likely that he would let himself be taken alive. ”

“ Betty broke in eagerly. “And you thought he meant to kill Father. So you followed him out here to-night,” she cried.
“Not quite,” the tramp answered with an edge of cold anger in his voice. “I wouldn’t have lifted a finger for your father. He brought it on himself. He could look out for himself. I don’t know what he did to Cig yesterday afternoon, but I know it was plenty. What would he expect from a fellow like Cig after he’d treated him that way? He’s dangerous as a trapped wolf and just about as responsible morally.” ”

“ The blow would fall when his victim’s wariness relaxed, at the moment when he was least expecting it.
Tug knew that neither of these two in the room with him had any regard for the sanctity of human life. There are such people, a few among many millions, essentially feral, untouched by any sense of common kinship in the human race. Prowers would be moved by one consideration only. Would it pay to obliterate him? The greatest factor in the strength of the cattleman’s position was that men regarded him with fear and awe. The disappearance of Hollister would stir up whisperings and suspicions. ”

“ Black must hunt ptarmigan for broth, Clint Reed go foraging for milk and eggs. They submitted cheerfully to be bullied in the interest of the patient. His needs ruled the household, since he was an invalid. Betty pampered and petted and poked fun at him, all with a zeal that captivated his imagination.
In the evenings they talked, three of them in a semi-circle before the blazing logs, the fourth sitting up in the bed propped by pillows. The talk ranged far, from cattle to Château-Thierry. It brought to the sick man a new sense of the values of life. ”

“ You can’t understand, Justin. I’m not what you want—not at all. If you saw me as I am, you’d know it. I’d always be affronting your sense of the fitting thing. The right wife for you is one who would sit at the head of your table well-dressed, handsome, and charming, an evidence of your standing in the community. You know—a gracious hostess, good at teas and bridge and that sort of thing. You’re really a city man. I’m not a city woman and never shall be.”
To Merrick, clear-eyed in spite of his fondness for her, came a flash of insight that told him she had been wiser than he. ”

“ Hollister told her. “He wanted to stop progress—said there shouldn’t be any dam to reclaim the Flat Tops for settlers. Merrick will rebuild it. The land will be watered. Your ranch will be good as ever in three months. And he’ll be buried and forgotten.”
“And poor Don Black?” she whispered. “Poor Don, who never had a chance in this world, or, if he had one, muddled it so badly?”
He could only hope that Don had gone to a better-ordered world where circumstances did not dominate good intentions.
Betty’s sense of tragedy lingered just now no longer than a cinema picture. ”

“ The joys of the senses would be shared and transmuted to spiritual power. They ought not to put chains on a man or a woman that would narrow the horizon.
An illusion had been shattered. Justin was not the man with whom she could walk hand in hand. She sighed, and drew the gauntlet from her left hand.
Merrick looked at the ring she had dropped into his hand, then straight at her with rigid gaze.
“Are you in love with this fellow Hollister? Is that what it means?” he asked harshly.
The color in her cheeks deepened. “That’s—hateful of you, Justin,” she said, her voice ragged with feeling. ”

“ From the summit they could see the great white wastes, stretching mile on mile. The snow was soft and heavy, and the wind had not drifted it a great deal since Lon had driven through the previous day. But the horses were pulling a load, and soon the sweat stood out on their bodies.
They reached and circled Round Top, passed a treacherous dugway, and moved into the deep drifts below the rim. Betty looked up once and a little shudder ran down her spine. The wind up on the bluff had a clean sweep. ”

“ She can’t be put away in moth balls, Justin. Every girl is talked about some time or other by somebody if she’s alive. It’s of no importance what gossips say.”
“It’s of the greatest importance that a girl give no chance for idle gossip about her,” he demurred.
Betty’s irritation expressed itself in the voice, a trifle sharp. “How do you think I can run the Quarter Circle D E without being criticized? I’m there with the men hours and days at a time, and no other woman on the place except old Mandy, who is deaf as a post and can’t see six feet from her nose. ”

“ Ruth’s happiness was quite restored after her sister had given her a glass of milk and a cookie and sent her out to play.
The young woman waved her a smiling good-bye and went to work.
She had some business letters to write and she went to the room that served her as a library and office. The sound of the typewriter keys drifted out of the open window for an hour or more.
The girl worked swiftly. She had a direct mind that found fluent expression through the finger-tips. When she knew what she wanted to say, it was never any trouble for Betty Reed to say it. ”

“ Tug was careful to walk with Black between him and the cabin as long as it was in sight.
The wind had died completely, so that the air was no longer a white smother. Travel was easy, for the cold had crusted the top of the snow. They worked their way out of the gulch, crossed an edge of the forest reserve, and passed the cabin of the homesteader Howard. Not far from this, Black turned into his own place.
The range rider kicked off his webs and replenished the fire. While he made supper, Hollister sat on the floor before the glowing piñon knots and dried his skis. ”

“ Justin Merrick smiled, a rather peculiar smile that suggested a knowledge of facts not on the surface. “I don’t think so, but there’s no reason why Prowers shouldn’t.”
“Rather tame surrender, wouldn’t it be? If you’re within your rights, why not stand our ground and fight them off?”
“For the moral effect, you mean?”
“Yes. Isn’t it a sign of weakness for us to hoist the white flag after the first brush?”
“That’s a point of view. We’re playing for position. Let Prowers break the law and get in wrong. If we’re armed and looking for trouble, we don’t come into court with clean hands ourselves. ”

“ Betty was relieved. It is an embarrassing thing to talk with a man about those hidden things of his life that are important to him. She felt almost as though she had escaped from some peril.
“No, the car’s on the road halfway up the hill. We couldn’t make it. Ruth’s waiting for us there,” she answered, hurrying to follow the lead he had given. “She has her favorite little puppy in the car with her. We thought the climb up might be a little too much for her.”
Hollister walked back with them to the car. He talked with her father about the outrage that had resulted in the death of poor Coyle. ”

“ The engineer nodded a good-morning at him and stopped. “Not so hot as yesterday,” he said by way of introduction.
“No,” assented the ragged one gloomily.
“I’ve learned that Sheriff Daniels wants you to stay around a few days. I’m in charge of the Sweetwater Dam irrigation project. We need men. Want a job?”
“If it’s one that suits me,” answered the tramp, eyeing Merrick ungraciously. He recognized the man’s strength and force. Every line of him, every glance, every inflection of the voice helped to bear out the impression of success he radiated. ”

“ Don rode straight to the Circle J P ranch. He swung from the saddle and dropped the lines in front of the house. As he did so, he noticed two buzzards circling high in the sky.
Prowers must have seen him coming, for when Don turned toward the porch the little man was standing there watching him. Black moved forward, spurs jingling.
His eyes did not lift from those of Prowers. At the foot of the steps he stopped. “I’ve come after you, Jake,” he said evenly.
The skim-milk eyes in the leathery face narrowed. They were hard and shining pin-points of wary challenge. ”

“ But the eyes of sick men are like those of children. They tell the truth. From them is stripped the veil woven by time and the complexities of life.
Sounds of voices on the hillside drifted to the cabin. Betty’s heart leaped joyfully. Friends were at hand. [193] It was too late now for Prowers to do any harm even if it was in his mind.
The voices approached the cabin. The girl recognized that of Merrick, strong and dominant and just a little heavy. She heard Black’s drawling answer, without being able to distinguish the words. ”

“ He hoped that she and Merrick had come to the parting of the ways. The engineer was the last man in the world to make her eager spirit happy. His strength [212] never spent itself in rebellion. He followed convention and would look for the acceptance of it in her. But Betty was cast in another mould. What was important to him did not touch her at all, or, if it did, seemed a worthless sham. She laughed at social usage when it became mere formalism. No doubt she would be a disturbing wife. Life with her would be exciting. That was not what Justin Merrick wanted. ”

“ Sometimes he borrowed technical books from Merrick and tried to bury himself in study. More often he tramped till physical exhaustion drove him back to his cot to stare up sleeplessly at the canvas roof of his tent.
Suffering wears itself out at last. There came a time when the edge of the craving grew less keen, when its attack was less frequent. In the pure, untempered air of the hills the cement gang foreman came to sounder health. His appetite increased with his physical stamina. ”

“ Betty could count the time in months now since she had sent her salvaged tramp into the hills to help her lover wrestle with the problems of the Sweetwater Dam project. It was still a joy to her that she had been intuitively right about him. He was making good. He had brains and ability and the power of initiative which marks the strong man from the subordinate. Justin admitted this generously, giving her credit for a keener insight than his own. ”

“ Clint Reed took his daughter by the shoulders and spun her out of the way when she tried to stop him. “Be fresh if you want to, my young wobbly. I reckon I can stand it if you can.” He whirled the tramp round and kicked him away.
“Oh, Dad! Fighting with a tramp,” the girl wailed.
Tug swung round unsteadily, eyes blazing. He took a step toward the rancher. His glance fell on the girl who had just called him a tramp, and in saying it had chosen the last word of scorn. Her troubled, disdainful gaze met his fully. The effect on him was odd. It paralyzed action. He stopped, breathing hard. ”

“ Outside, he fastened on his skis.
During the night the weather had changed. It had come on to snow. The flakes were large and few, but experience told the engineer that soon they would be coming thick enough. He put on a slicker before he started on his tramp.
Uncertain which way to go, he stood for a moment outside the flap of the tent. The rim of the saucer-shaped valley lay straight ahead. Beyond were the great white snow wastes, stretching mile on mile, isolating the little camp more effectually than a quarantine. He decided to climb out of the draw and push across the hilltops. ”

“ Clint’s wrath began to simmer. “If he’s got a notion that he can take or leave you as he pleases—”
Betty put a hand on his arm. “Please, Dad. I don’t mean what I said. It’s not fair to him. He doesn’t think that at all.”
“There’s no man in the Rockies good enough for you—”
“Are you taking in enough territory?” she teased, her face bubbling to mirth. “I don’t even know whether you’re including Denver. Justin came from there, and he’s too good for me.” ”

“ As soon as Betty was in her own room, alone with her thoughts and the rest of the world shut out, her mind went back to the problem of the boy who had so early made such shipwreck of his life. She puzzled over this while she was preparing for bed and afterward while she lay between the white sheets, barred squares from the window frames checkering the moonlight on the linen. What in the world could cause a man, educated, clean-fibered, strong, to let go of life like that?
It could not be a woman. In spite of her youth, she [60] knew this by instinct. ”