CHAPTER XXII
A PARTY AT THE RANCHO
Ralph Merrit arrived in two days at the Rainbow Ranch, and he, Frank andJim worked continuously in the vicinity of the muddy creek. Soon therewas little doubt of the wonderful value of the diggings, for the miners,even with primitive methods of gold washing, found lumps of pure goldvarying in size from a pea to a marble.
Jim was distracted. News of the find began to spread about theneighborhood and the ranch to be crowded with curiosity seekers of everykind, miners looking for jobs, tramps and ne'er-do-wells, besides kindand officious neighbors. Sternly as the ranch girls were ordered toremain in the house, Jean and Olive and Frieda had ways of stealing downto the creek on remarkably plausible errands; a message for Jim fromRuth, an inquiry from Jack to Frank Kent as to how things were going,and if Jean appeared with a pot of hot coffee for the workmen, she usedto manage to find Ralph and sit and talk to him, until Jim scolded andmade her go back to the ranch house.
It was pretty hard on Jack, who would have been the leading spirit ineverything, to remain all day on the little porch without stirring, butRuth rarely left her and there was a new bond of sympathy between them.Jack had guessed that her old and dearest friend had asked theirchaperon to marry him and that Ruth was waiting to come to a decision,but Jack felt little doubt of her answer. Most of the time Jim Colterwas obliged to be away from home--there was never a chance for a quietmoment with Ruth--machinery had to be ordered for the new mine, legalformalities to be gone through with. But just once Jim spared an hourfor an interview with Mr. Harmon; and in a short time afterwards the NewYork financier announced to his family that they would leave RainbowLodge within the next few days. Fortunately Joe Dawson had disappearedand Jim was spared this additional annoyance.
Early one morning Ruth came down late to breakfast at the rancho to finda note from Jim saying he had been called away for the day and askingher to wait up for him until he got back that night.
Ralph Merrit and Frank Kent had finished eating and were deep in theconsideration of the newest and most approved methods of placer mining.A hydraulic monitor was to be set up and Rainbow Creek dammed so thatthe water could be piped to the workings. Already negotiations had beenstarted with a neighbor for a part of his water supply, so that thecattle business of the ranch need not be given up.
For the moment Jean, Olive and Frieda were listening to the conversationof the boys. It was most unusual, for the greater part of their time wasnow devoted to an endless discussion of what they would do when theywere rich. But the ranch girls' idea of wealth was limited. Jean, whohad the most gifted imagination of the four, had only conceived of afortune of about ten thousand dollars.
"How's Jack, Ruth?" Jean inquired, as soon as their chaperon entered thebreakfast room. "You are so late I feel kind of worried."
"Jack's all right," Ruth answered.
"Then tell her we are awfully sorry to leave her again to-day, but someof the new machinery has just arrived, and Frank and Ralph have promisedto explain it to us. We won't be back until after lunch," Jean ended.
Ruth frowned. "Jack is pretty tired of just _my_ society," she said."You girls are away nearly all of the time. Don't you think we couldthink of something to amuse her? Everybody else is out of doors frombreakfast till dinner and too tired at night to talk."
Jean flushed and Olive's eyes filled with tears.
"I'll not leave the house, Ruth," Olive replied. "I have been so excitedlately it has never dawned on me that I was neglecting Jack. I don't seehow I can have been so selfish!"
"I wish I could stay too, Miss Ruth," Frank Kent added; "but with Mr.Colter away I can't leave Merrit to shoulder the whole work."
"The Harmons are coming down to the rancho some time to-day to saygood-by to Jack; you know they are leaving for New York in the morning,"Jean interposed, feeling conscience-smitten, but anxious to escape ascolding.
All this time Frieda had been silent, but now she clapped her handstogether so suddenly that she made everybody in the room start. "I havea perfectly lovely idea," she announced. "Let's give Jack a surpriseparty. We need not ask any outside people except the Harmons, for poorJack can't dance or play many games any more, but she will like thesurprise, I know."
Ruth leaned over and kissed Frieda, and there was a moment of silence.The girls were thinking that money would mean very little to any one ofthem if Jack did not regain her strength.
"It's a beautiful plan, Frieda," Jean answered at last, with hot cheeks."We will stay at home to-day and decorate the rancho so no one will knowit to-night. I suppose it will be nice to have a farewell party for theHarmons. We ought not to show that we have any feeling against them, butit is pretty hard," she concluded.
"Jack does not believe that Elizabeth or Donald or Mrs. Harmon knew whyMr. Harmon wanted to buy our ranch," Ruth interposed.
"Donald Harmon knew," Olive interrupted quietly, but no one couldpersuade her to say how she had found this out.
By half-past seven the front of the rancho was hung with Japaneselanterns. On the old divan in the sitting room Jack was enthroned likean Oriental princess, with her blue crepe shawl draped over a bluemuslin gown and a wreath of red roses in her coronet of gold hair.
Peter Drummond had at last returned to his home in New York withoutpaying a visit to the ranch, but never a week passed that he did notsend a large box of red roses to Jack with a letter urging her to hurryto New York.
The girls had decided to have a fancy dress party, and, as there was notime for preparation, their costumes were an odd assortment of all theodds and ends they could find. Early in the day, when Jack guessed thatsomething unusual was to take place, Ruth decided that she would enjoythe preparations more than the surprise. So it was she who helped dressOlive, who never looked so lovely in her life. Quite by accident her oddcostume exactly suited her. She wore a simple white dress, with a shortjacket of gold embroidery, and a round, gold-embroidered cap on herloose black hair; and around her throat on a chain the silver crosswhich she had found in the sandalwood box hidden by old Laska.
Jean and Frieda in kimonos, with sashes about their waists, wereJapanese geisha girls, and found their costumes excessively inconvenientin their efforts to help Ralph Merrit freeze the ice cream in the backyard.
Olive and Jack were waiting for the party to begin, when ElizabethHarmon arrived early to say good-by to Jack alone, and Olive stole outon the porch of the rancho to wait.
Frank Kent, in his evening clothes, coming from his tent across thefields on his way into the house, spied Olive. Suddenly he rememberedthe frightened, ignorant girl who had sought shelter at the RainbowRanch less than a year before, and marveled at the change. He stoppedfor a moment; and in the stiff English fashion, which no amount ofAmerican experience would make him lose, said admiringly: "I say, MissOlive, you are looking awfully pretty to-night. I want to tell you howglad I am that you have never had any more trouble from the Indian womanand that things are now so jolly for you," and then he passed on indoorsto find Jack.
Ten minutes later Donald and Mrs. Harmon found Olive still on the porchready to receive them. Mrs. Harmon took Olive's hand and then dropped itand stared at her curiously. The image of a half-forgotten face cameback to her; somewhere in her past had she not seen a girl who lookedlike this Olive Ralston? Yet when and where had she seen her?
"Olive," Mrs. Harmon questioned, for a moment losing her reserve andcaution, "have you any Spanish or Italian ancestors? I have no right tobe curious about you, but you are so unlike the other ranch girls, and Iremember Jack said you were only an adopted sister."
Olive shook her head; but she looked straight at the older woman andthere was something in her timid, appealing gaze that gave another pullto the chords of memory.
"I don't know anything about my people, Mrs. Harmon," Olive answeredwith quiet dignity. "Since you seem interested to know, I was brought upby an old Indian woman and her son, until Jack and the other girls foundme and brought me home to live with them
. I don't even know my ownname."
A hundred questions came to Mrs. Harmon's mind and almost forcedthemselves from her lips, but she was resolutely silent. Why should shecare to know more of this stray girl's past history; what could it meanto her? If she knew nothing she could always assure herself that thesuspicion that had just crossed her mind was an absurdity. Withoutanother word, followed by Olive and Donald, they entered the rancho.
At ten o'clock the party was going successfully. But Ruth found herinterest waning; it seemed almost time for Jim to come home.
She _must_ see him alone to tell him that life was worth while to hernow only because of his love. Jim was not like other men, he was betterand braver and stronger; the woman who loved him believed she trustedhim utterly.
It was a clear, starlit night without a moon. Silently Ruth slipped awayfrom the familiar company, and wrapping a white shawl around her, stolefrom the house along the trail.
A man came down the path toward her and she ran forward with handsoutstretched to meet him. Then she stopped short, her heart flutteringand her knees trembling.
The Ranch Girls' Pot of Gold Page 24
