CHAPTER XVII
OLIVE'S REMORSE
BACK at the Lodge Olive undressed and lay down upon the bed for a shortrest. Afterwards, when she felt that Jack must surely have received hermessage she rose and put on the lavender frock that was the other girl'sespecial favorite.
Olive was by this time no longer tired, but in better spirits than shehad been for several weeks. For in less than an hour, perhaps, thingswould be entirely cleared up between herself and her best friend.
"Dear old Jack, was there ever anyone else in the world quite sogenerous or so absurd? Did Jack really think that she had the privilegeof bestowing her lover upon her friend, simply because she was under theimpression that the friend desired him? What would Frank have had to sayin the matter?"
Then Olive blushed. Possibly after all she had been more absurd inallowing herself even for an hour or a day to think that she cared fora man as far beyond her reach as the moon. Let her be honest withherself at least! Had she not actually shed tears in secret? And thiswhen from the very beginning of their acquaintance, Frank Kent hadalways been her only loyal and devoted friend and nothing else. Well,matters would soon be sensibly adjusted.
In the living room Olive found Ruth and Jean sewing, but in realitydevoting by far the greater portion of their time to admiring the baby,who from inside his crib was placidly surveying the world with thedignity of a philosopher.
"Where is Jack, Olive?" Ruth inquired at once, frowning and glancingtoward an open window. "It is so hot I am afraid we are going to have astorm and I have been reproaching myself all day for letting you girlsstart out on such a wild goose chase this morning. Why on earth did Jacknot send the men after the stock?"
Jean looked up from her work. "Oh, don't worry about Jack, she has beendoing this kind of thing ever since she could walk or ride and she beganboth at about the same time. I believe Jack did send one of the cowboysoff in one direction while she and Olive and Carlos took the other. Butyou know most of the men have gone with Jim and Frank to a round-up agood many miles off. I wonder if they will be back in time for dinner?"
During this speech the door of the living room had slowly opened andFrieda in a white muslin frock with a big book under her arm had quietlyentered. Her cheeks were flushed and her expression so uncommonlyserious, that remembering Jack's story of her younger sister's devotionto the Professor, Olive smiled.
However, Frieda's first remark was an odd one.
"I am sorry if you have left Jack and Carlos together, Olive," shebegan, puckering her white brow. "I don't believe any one in this familyrealizes how Carlos hates Jack. I think if he could he would like to doher an injury. You see she tries to boss him and he perfectly loatheshaving any one dare interfere with him. Then Carlos is so lazy and Jackhas no use for any one who is lazy, except me. I wish she would comehome. If I had not promised Mr. Russell to go on reading to him I shouldgo out and look for her."
Frieda walked over to the front window and the next moment Ruth hadjoined her. They both stood staring ahead of them hoping for a sight ofthe familiar brown figure on horseback. For Jack usually rode up to thehouse with such a splendid rush toward the end that even under ordinarycircumstances a vision of her was worth while.
"Don't be tiresome, Baby, and frighten Ruth," Jean expostulated.
Olive said nothing, but slipped out of the room and hall into thegarden. It would not be worth while to trouble the others with the storyof the difficulty between Jack and Carlos that morning. Nevertheless itwas not pleasant to recall the expression on the Indian boy's faceduring their ride home, nor his long silence. Of course he rarely spoketo other persons, but ordinarily he engaged in long confidences withher, talking of the birds, wild flowers, any outside thing which he sawand loved.
Surely in ten or fifteen minutes more the two wayfarers must return. Inthe meantime Olive would not go back to join the others as it would notbe wise to communicate her own nervousness to them. So for the nextquarter of an hour she walked up and down outside the Lodge, makingseveral trips to the stables to see if the stable men had anysuggestions to make and to inquire what they thought concerning thepossibility of a storm. For there was little use in trying to argue thetruth away. The atmospheric conditions were strange and depressing.Unless the wind changed, driving the single black cloud in an oppositedirection, something out of the common was sure to occur. If only FrankKent or Jim Colter or even the cowboys belonging to the ranch were athome, in order that they might go out and look up the wanderers!
Finally Olive sent the two men who took care of the private stables toreconnoiter. Then on her way back to the Lodge she found Jean hurryingin the direction of the Ranch house.
"I want to find Ralph Merrit and ask his advice as soon as possible,"Jean explained. "It is so late now he is sure to have quit work at themine. Ruth is convinced that we are going to have a cyclone and isnearly frantic over Jack and Jim and Frank, all away from home. Yet Ihate having Ralph start out alone--he does not understand what theweather out here means so well as the rest of us, even if he has beenhere a good many years now. But I must confess I wish that Frieda hadnot made that uncomfortable speech about Carlos' disliking Jack so much.I am afraid it is true. Oh, Olive, what a pity it is that you happenedto leave them!"
This was the only word of reproach that any member of the Rainbow ranchfamily made to Olive Van Mater during all the excitement and distressthat came afterwards. And of course Jean did not mean her words to carrya sting--they were only an obvious exclamation.
Nevertheless Olive did not require outside censure to make her suffer askeen remorse as was possible to her sensitive and devoted nature. Forshe knew herself to be far more responsible for the day's catastrophethan any one would ever dream.
Only the edge of the sand storm swept the neighborhood of the RainbowLodge. Half a mile from the house it veered in its unaccountable way,carrying its destructive force straight across the adjoining ranch,wrecking half a dozen valuable buildings and killing a large number ofcattle. Yet it came sufficiently near the Lodge for everybody inside thehouse to understand what was happening, even if Jim Colter and FrankKent and a dozen of the cowboys had not ridden home furiously only fiveor ten minutes before, having raced the wind storm across the prairiesand come off victorious. Both looked fairly worn out, as they cameclanking into the living room, still in their riding clothes and bootsand covered with a fine coating of yellow sand.
"Jehoshaphat, but it is good to be indoors!" Jim exclaimed at once,putting his arm about his wife and gazing around him. "It is a goodthing Frank isn't a tenderfoot, even if he is an Englishman. For if thatsand storm had struck us--well, I am not going to put on airs. I havebeen a ranchman now for a good many years, but I never feel very hopefulthat anybody such a gale hits is going to come out alive." Then perhapsin answer to the thought in the mind of every person in the room Jimended abruptly: "Where's Jack? Hasn't she manners enough to say 'howdy'to two fellows who have nearly ridden themselves to death?"
Following his speech, Jim was not immediately aware of the peculiarstrained silence in the room, although Frank knew instantly thatsomething had occurred in which Jack had a part. Under the western tanof the past few weeks his face whitened. But he set his teeth andstraightened his broad shoulders. For his was a strength of will and ofcharacter worthy to match with Jack and capable of longer endurance.
For a moment no one seemed to dare to answer Jim's question. And then itwas not Ruth or any one of the three Ranch girls who replied, but HenryRussell, who had hobbled into the living room on his crutches,forgetting his terror and dislike of girls in his effort to offer hisfriendly sympathy, and incidentally, though he himself was not aware ofit, to keep the lovely blond doll of his first acquaintance from makingherself more miserable than necessary.
"I, I am afraid Mrs. Colter and--and the others are feeling a littleuneasy about Miss Ralston," he murmured. "She went out this morning withthe Indian boy, Carlos, to ride over the ranch and she has not come injust yet. I have told them t
hat she certainly must have taken refugewith a neighbor or else that the storm has not come within her vicinity.They tell me that these western siroccos are very freakish."
But neither Jim Colter nor Frank had heard anything except the firstpart of their visitor's speech.
Afterwards Jim paid no attention to any one in the room except to leanover and kiss Ruth. "We will find her in a little while, don't worry.Jack is always getting into scrapes and being grown up seems to makelittle difference," he remarked grimly as he marched off.
But Olive clung desperately to Frank Kent's arm as he tried to followhim.
"Please let me speak to you a minute alone before you go," she pleaded.Then when they were out in the yard and away from the others she put herhand on Frank's arm and looked at him with an earnestness which he didnot in the least understand.
"When you find Jack will you please give her this message from me," sheasked. "Tell her that she has been making a dreadful mistake all alongand that there is nothing in the world that will make me so happy as tohear of her engagement to you. Please tell her this when you first findher, don't wait until you are at home again."
With a rather unusual show of emotion Frank pressed both of Olive'shands in his. "You believe that Jack really cares for me?" he demanded.
And then as Olive bowed her head without replying he mounted a freshhorse, riding away in the direction that Olive had indicated.
The Ranch Girls at Home Again Page 18
