Overland Red: A Romance of the Moonstone Cañon Trail
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CHAPTER XXIV
"LIKE SUNSHINE"
Louise drew off her gauntlets and tossed them on the rock. Collie sawthe print of Saunders's fingers on her wrist and forearm. "I ought to'a' made him kneel down and ask you to let him live!" he said.
"I was afraid--at first. Then I was just angry. It was sickening to seethe marks grow red and swell on his face. I hit him as hard as I could,but I'm not sorry."
"Sorry?" growled Collie. "He takes your brand with him. He didn't getthe letter. I got to thank you a whole lot for that."
"But how did he know I had it? What did he want with the letter?"
"He saw me give it to you. He's one of the bunch, the Mojave bunchthat's been trailing Red all over the country. When Red disappeared upin those desert hills, I reckon Saunders must have got hold of a paperand read about the get-away here at the Moonstone. He just naturallycame over here and got a job to see if he couldn't trace Red."
"You are thinking of joining Mr. Summers at the claim?"
"Yes. The Eastern folks are gone now. I hate to go. But I got to getbusy and make some money. A fellow hasn't much of a show without moneythese days."
Louise was silent. She sat gazing across the valley.
Collie approached her hesitatingly. "I just got to say it--after allthat's happened. Seems that I could, now."
Louise paled and flushed. "Oh, Collie!" she cried entreatingly. "We havebeen such good friends. Please don't spoil it all!"
"I know I am a fool," he said, "or I was going to be. But please to takeBoyar and go. I'll bring Rally. I was wrong to think you would listen alittle."
But Louise remained sitting upon the rock as though she had not heardhim. Slowly he stepped toward her, his spurs jingling musically. Hecaught up one of her gloves and turned it over and over in his fingerswith a kind of clumsy reverence. "It's mighty little--and there's theshape of your hand in it, just like it bends when you hold the reins. Itseems like a thing almost too good for me to touch, because it means_you_. I know you won't laugh at me, either."
Louise turned toward him. "No. I understand," she said.
"Here was where Red and I first saw you to know who you was. I used tohate folks that wore good clothes. I thought they was all the same, youand all that kind. But, no, it ain't so. You looked back once, when youwere riding away from the jail that time. I was going to look for Redand not go to work at the Moonstone. I saw you look back. That settledit. I was proud to think you cared even anything for a tramp. I wasmighty lonesome then. Since, I got to thinking I'd be somebody some day.But I can see where I stand. I'm a puncher, working for the Moonstone.You kind of liked me because I had hard luck when I was a kid. But thatmade me _love_ you. It ain't wrong, I guess, to love something you can'tever reach up to. It ain't wrong to keep on loving, only it's awfullonesome not to ever tell you about it."
"I'm sorry, Collie," said Louise gently.
"Please don't you be sorry. Why, I'm glad! Maybe you don't think it isthe best thing in the world to love a girl. I ain't asking anything butto just go on loving you. Seems like a man wants the girl he loves toknow it, even if that is just all. You said I love horses. I do. Butloving you started me loving horses. Red said once that I was justliving like what I thought you wanted me to be. Red's wise when hetakes his time to it. But now I'm living the way I think I want to. Iwon't ask you to say you care. I guess you don't--that way. But if Iever get rich--then--"
"Collie, you must not think I am different from any other girl. I'm justas selfish and stubborn as I can be. I almost feel ashamed to have youthink of me as you do. Let's be sensible about it. You know I like you.I'm glad you care--for--what you think I am."
"That's it. You are always so kind to a fellow that it makes me feelmean to speak like I have. You listened--and I am pretty glad of that."
He turned and caught Boyar's bridle. Mounting he caught up Yuma andRally. Slowly Collie and the girl rode the trail to the level of thesummit. Slowly they dropped down the descent into Moonstone Canon. Theletter, Overland Red, Silent Saunders, were forgotten. Side by sideplodded the pony Yuma and Black Boyar. Rally followed. The trees on thewestern edge of the canon threw long, shadowy bars of dusk across theroad. Quail called from the hillside. Other quail answered plaintivelyfrom a distance. Alternate warmth and coolness swam in the air andtouched the riders' faces.
At a bend in the road the ponies crowded together. Collie's handaccidentally brushed against the girl's and she drew away. He glancedup quickly. She was gazing straight ahead at the distant peaks. He feltstrangely pleased that she had drawn away from him when his hand touchedhers. Some instinct told him that their old friendship had given placeto something else--something as yet too vague to describe. She was notangry with him, he knew. Her face was troubled. He gazed at her as theyrode and his heart yearned for her tenderly. Life had suddenly assumed atensity that silenced them. The little lizards of the stones scurriedaway from either side of the road. One after another, with sprightlysteps, a covey of mountain quail crossed the road before them, leavinglittle starlike tracks in the dust. Though homeward bound the poniesplodded with lowered heads. Moonstone Canon, always wonderful in itswild, rugged beauty, seemed as a place of dreams, only real as it echoedthe tread of the ponies. The canon stream chattered, murmured, quarreledround a rock-strewn bend, laughed at itself, and passed, singing acool-voiced melody.
They rode through a vale of enchantment, only known to Youth and Love.Her gray eyes were misty and troubled. His eyes were heavy withunuttered longing. His heart pounded until it almost choked him. He bithis lips that he might keep silent.
The glint of the slanting sunlight on her hair, the turn of her wrist asshe held the reins, her apparent unconsciousness of all outward thingsenthralled him. A spell hung round him like a mist, blinding andbaffling all clearer thought. And because Louise knew his heart, knewthat his homage was not of books, but of his very self, she lingered inthe dream whose thread she might have snapped with a word, a gesture.
Generously the girl blamed herself that she had been the one to causehim sorrow. She could not give herself to him, be his wife as she knewhe wished her to be. Yet she liked him more than she cared to admit. Hehad fought for her once and taken his punishment with a grin. She feltjoy in his homage, and yet she felt humility. In what way, she askedherself, was she better, cleaner of heart, kinder or cleverer thanCollie? Why should people make distinctions as to birth, or breeding, orwealth, when character and physical excellence meant so much more?
"Collie!" she whispered, and the touch of her fingers on his arm was asthe touch of fire,--"Collie!"
She drew one of her little gray gauntlets from her belt. "Here," shesaid, and the word was a caress.
But he put the proffered token away from him with a trembling hand."Don't!" he cried. "I tried not to want you! I did try! Thismorning--before I told you--I could have knelt and prayed to your glove.But now, Louise, Louise Lacharme, I can't. That glove would burn me anddrive me wild to come back to you."
"To come back to you ...?" The words sung themselves through herconsciousness. "Come back to you...." He was going away. "You care somuch?" she asked. There was a new light in her eyes. Her face was almostcolorless. So she had looked when Saunders threatened her. She swayed inthe saddle. Collie's arm was about her. She raised one arm and flung itround his neck, drawing his face down to her trembling lips. Then shedrew away, her face burning.
Across the end of the canon a vagrant sunbeam ran like a bridge of faerygold. It pelted the gray wall with a million particles of mellow fire.It flickered, flashed anew, and faded. The ponies drew apart. The coltYuma grew restless.
"Good-bye," murmured Louise.
"Like the sunshine," he said, pointing to the cliff.
"It is gone," she whispered, shivering a little as the shadows drewdown.
"It will shine again," he said, smiling.
Without a word she touched Black Boyar with the spurs. A stone clattereddown as he leaped forward, and she was gone.
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p; Collie curbed the colt Yuma, who would have followed. "No, littlehummingbird," he said whimsically. "We aren't so used to heaven that wecan ride out of it quite so fast."
* * * * *
Next morning, with blanket and slicker rolled behind his saddle, he rodedown the Moonstone Canon Trail. At the foot of the range he turnedeastward, a new world before him. The far hills, hiding the desertbeyond, bulked large and mysterious.
Louise had not been present when he bade good-bye to his Moonstonefriends.