The Ranch Girls at Home Again

by Margaret Vandercook

  CHAPTER VI

  "COURAGE MAKES THE MAN"

  THERE were as many as twenty men waiting to talk to Ralph Merrit withinthe vicinity of the Rainbow Mine. And they chanced to be standing closetogether near one of the big rocks that rose like a miniature fortressbeside Rainbow Creek. After Ralph had entered the group, Jean managedwithout being observed to slip behind this rock where she was in safehiding.

  But just why she had followed the two men and what her motive was forconcealing herself she did not try to explain to herself. Simply she hadyielded to an impulse of fear, of curiosity and perhaps to some otherinstinct that was partly protective. One young fellow among so manyolder, rougher and more lawless characters! What might not happen tohim?

  And yet Jean Bruce had not her cousin Jacqueline's physical bravery nordetermination of purpose, and moreover she had an openly expresseddislike of mixing herself up in the things which she did not consideressentially feminine. However, she had no idea now of letting anyoneguess her nearness, not even Ralph Merrit himself.

  Sitting down on the ground in a kind of scooped-out cave in a rock shecould occasionally manage to get a glimpse of the miners, although atpresent while they were talking quietly she could only rarely catch aword or so of what they were saying, and not a sound from Ralph, whoseemed the calmest and most self-controlled of them all. After a whileshe realized that John Raines, the man who had been sent to summon hercompanion, must now have been chosen as spokesman for the lot and wasevidently making his voice sufficiently loud for them all to heardistinctly. And this of course included the unknown listener.

  "See here, Mr. Merrit," John Raines began quietly, "us men have beentalking things over among ourselves for some time past and we have donecome to the pretty positive conclusion that we don't like the way you'rerunning things at Rainbow Mine. And we thought it might be fairer toyou, all told, just to mention this little fact and to let you quitwithout any kind of rumpus or trouble for nobody."

  Jean could not see Ralph Merrit's face or even his figure, he was soclosely surrounded, but because he too was speaking so that his entireaudience might hear, Jean understood every word.

  "What's the trouble with me, Raines, as a boss?" he asked with suchself-control and apparent lack of anger that Jean was both amazed andpleased.

  Then there was a kind of low muttering among the other men and finallytheir spokesman went on:

  "I guess you know most of our complaints pretty well by this time--we'vebeen tellin' 'em to you long enough and hard enough. If this is aprofit-sharing business, as you and Jim Colter and Miss Ralston said itwas goin' to be, then you ain't gettin' gold enough out of the RainbowMine to suit us."

  "But we are getting all we can, aren't we? You men aren't loafing withthe work?" Ralph interrupted.

  John Raines scowled. "That's senseless talk! You know what the troubleis; we have already gotten out most all the gold there is near thesurface of the earth around here. Now what we have got to do to make itpay big again is to get more machinery and try different ways ofworking. And we want a boss to tell Miss Ralston and Jim Colter to getbusy buying the new machinery and then to show us how to run it. We arenot going to waste any more time around here on a few dollars pay aday."

  From her hiding place Jean did her best to hear Ralph. Here of coursewas the time and place for him to make the same confession to the minersthat he had recently made to her. For he did intend to do just what themen had demanded of him, resign his work and give way for a better man.Nevertheless, he evidently intended delaying a bit longer before makingthe confession.

  "But I have explained to you men before this why I have not done whatyou ask," he went on, still in a reasonable tone of voice. "I told youthat I did not feel certain that it was the _best_ thing to do. We areby no means sure that there is enough gold below the present mine tomake it worth while to go deeper. You men know what a lot of money themachinery for certain kinds of gold digging takes. It would probably eatup pretty much all the capital that the owners of the Rainbow Minehave. And I don't want to tell them to buy this machinery until I am alot surer that the gold is down there waiting to be hauled out."

  John Raines glanced about at the faces surrounding him. It was easyenough to take his tone from their expressions.

  "Then there is no use wasting any more of our time and yours in talk,Merrit," the older man announced in a rougher manner than he had beforeemployed. "Your sentiments was pretty well known to us before youspouted them forth. And that's just the point! You don't know what oughtto be done about things and we do. And we want a man to boss us thatknows same as we. Now, young man, you just get out pleasant and thequicker the better."

  All over her body, to the very tips of her ears, Jean felt herselftingling with sudden, overpowering anger. Why had Ralph Merrit not saidwhat he intended saying before now? To resign at this moment in the faceof this other man's insolence, which represented the same feeling in hiscompanions, was to behave like a small boy at school who had been stoodup in a corner and soundly thrashed by his schoolmaster and then madeto apologize for his pains. Jean felt that she would never care to lookRalph in the face again. But he was speaking now for the third time.

  "SHE HAD HEARD THAT MASTERFUL TONE BEFORE"]

  "Have Miss Ralston and Mr. Colter told you that they wanted me to quit?"he inquired. "It seems like they would have mentioned the matter to mefirst. I have usually taken my orders from them and not from the men_under_ me."

  There was quite a different ring in Ralph Merrit's voice during thisspeech that made the girl behind the rock unexpectedly put up her coldhands to cool her hot cheeks. She had heard that masterful tone before,but not in some time.

  "No, they ain't said nothing yet," Raines admitted. "But it don'tmatter; you got to quit just the same. You can't run a gold mine byyourself with all your 'book larnin,' and it's either you or us thatgets out."

  "Then it'll be you," Ralph replied in such a matter-of-fact andundisturbed fashion that Jean could hardly believe she had heard himaright, or else she must have been dreaming less than an hour before.

  "Look here, fellows, don't be fools," Ralph went on, still showing noloss of temper. "The hour Mr. Colter and Miss Ralston tell me they wantme to give up my job at the Rainbow Mine, that hour I go. And the minuteI am really convinced that another man is able to do my work better thanI can, that man gets my position, if I can persuade the Rainbow Mineowners to try him. But I've got to study things out here a littlelonger, I've got to make some new experiments and maybe kind of feel myway slowly toward deciding what had best be done. I have been away forthe past ten days studying conditions at other mines and trying to findout some of the latest ideas in mining machinery."

  But the other men were making no pretense of listening and weremuttering and talking among themselves as a direct and intentionalinsult to the speaker. Ralph waited in silence, and Jean had anintuition that the end of the discussion was about to take place. Thenoises that the miners were making were ugly, vicious sounds entirelyunfamiliar to the girl's ears and she had no conception of what theymight portend. She had a sudden fear that they might mean some bodilyinjury to the younger man. Then would she have the courage to rush outto his defense as Jack undoubtedly would have, no matter what overtookher?

  But she was mistaken in the form of her present uneasiness.

  "You can talk that way here, if it makes you feel better, young fellow,"one of the other miners announced contemptuously, "but it ain't goin' tomake a mite of difference in the way things has to go. We give youthirty-six hours' notice to get clear of Rainbow Mine, and if you don't,why you can stay around here and play by yourself as long as you likeprovided your bosses are willing to give up the gold-mining business.Because if you stay, we git out and that means there is not anotherminer going to be allowed down a shaft in this here mine."

  "You mean," said Ralph, "that you are going to strike and make the othermen boycott us. I don't believe your union will stand for it. Youhaven't got a kick coming to you abou
t your hours of work, or your pay,or any of the conditions about the mine. And just because you don'tthink I've got brains enough for my job is no reason why you shouldstrike. I want you to know, you fellows," and here Ralph's voice was nolonger in the least conciliatory, but as firm and decisive as a judge'ssentence, "I am a union man myself, but you must understand once and forall that if the Rainbow Mine owners agree to stand by me I am going tokeep on with the job of bossing this mine. And I am going to keep ondigging out the gold we can get with our old tools until there's a wayof knowing what ought to be done next. But I think in the future it isgoing to suit me better to have another lot of men to work with me and Ithink I'll be able to get hold of them. You may go to your quarters now.I'll let you hear in the morning what Miss Ralston and Mr. Colter wantto do."

  And to Jean Bruce's immense amazement, though some of the men laughedrudely and others muttered threats and curses, the entire number aftersome delay and further discussion among themselves, walked off, leavingRalph Merrit entirely alone. Notwithstanding, the miners were evidentlyunanimous in their intention.

  Jean snuggled closer than before in her rocky alcove, scarcely daring tobreathe for fear of their discovering her and so creating further illfeeling. Then after they had gone, and the last man of them wasentirely out of sight, she still did not move. For Ralph Merrit hadnever stirred from his position and she did not know whether she evenwished him to learn of her eavesdropping.

  Ralph did not move and Jean was growing bored with her cramped position,now that events were no longer sufficiently exciting to make her forgetherself. Besides, did she not really wish to let Ralph know just how shefelt about him?

  Curiously he did not turn around until she was within a few feet of him.Yet when he did, Jean laughed and clapped her hands childishly at thechange in his expression since their interview on the veranda.

  "Why, Jean, where have you come from? You did not see anybody, did you,on your way from the house? This is not a place where you should be."

  Jean nodded. "Yes, I did see everybody and heard everything. Pleaseforgive me for being a horrid spy," she confessed, "but I was hidingbehind that rock the whole blessed time. And oh, Ralph, I am so pleasedand proud of you! Of course Jack and Jim will stand by you to the bitterend--I should dare them not to; but then nobody need ever accuse Jimand Jack of not enjoying a good, clean fight."

  Jean put her hand through the young man's arm. "Do come on back to theLodge with me. It is almost time for the others to be coming home. Youmust rest a while first and have dinner and then tell them what youintend to do."

  A little dazed by the girl's unexpected appearance and by her suddenflow of words, and still deeply engrossed on what had just taken place,Ralph Merrit allowed himself to be led along for a few steps in silence.

  "You must think I am a good deal of a turncoat, Jean, and don't know myown mind for half an hour," he said finally. "Maybe I haven't the rightafter all to get you people into trouble."

  Jean gave the young man's arm a vehement shake. "You haven't got theright to be anything but--a man, Ralph Merrit!" she announced."Goodness, you don't know how ashamed I was of you and for you a whileago! I suppose it is because I am such a coward myself, because I am soafraid of rough things and rough places, that I love courage more thananything else in the world."

  "Do you, Jean?" Ralph murmured almost to himself. "Well, I have been acoward in more ways than one in these past six months."