The Man of the Forest

by Grey, Zane

  "Huh! Would you expect me to be wearin' the smile of a fellar goin' to be married?" retorted Carmichael.

  "Shore you haven't made up with Bo yet," returned Roy.

  Bo blushed rosy red, and the cowboy's face lost something of its somber hue.

  "I allow it's none of your d—darn bizness if SHE ain't made up with me," he said.

  "Las Vegas, you're a wonder with a hoss an' a rope, an' I reckon with a gun, but when it comes to girls you shore ain't there."

  "I'm no Mormon, by golly! Come, Ma Cass, let's get out of here, so they can talk."

  "Folks, I was jest a-goin' to say thet Roy's got fever an' he oughtn't t' talk too much," said the old woman. Then she and Carmichael went into the kitchen and closed the door.

  Roy looked up at Helen with his keen eyes, more kindly piercing than ever.

  "My brother John was here. He'd just left when you come. He rode home to tell my folks I'm not so bad hurt, an' then he's goin' to ride a bee-line into the mountains."

  Helen's eyes asked what her lips refused to utter.

  "He's goin' after Dale. I sent him. I reckoned we-all sorta needed sight of thet doggone hunter."

  Roy had averted his gaze quickly to Bo.

  "Don't you agree with me, lass?"

  "I sure do," replied Bo, heartily.

  All within Helen had been stilled for the moment of her realization; and then came swell and beat of heart, and inconceivable chafing of a tide at its restraint.

  "Can John—fetch Dale out—when the snow's so deep?" she asked, unsteadily.

  "Shore. He's takin' two hosses up to the snow-line. Then, if necessary, he'll go over the pass on snow-shoes. But I bet him Dale would ride out. Snow's about gone except on the north slopes an' on the peaks."

  "Then—when may I—we expect to see Dale?"

  "Three or four days, I reckon. I wish he was here now.... Miss Helen, there's trouble afoot."

  "I realize that. I'm ready. Did Las Vegas tell you about Beasley's visit to me?"

  "No. You tell me," replied Roy.

  Briefly Helen began to acquaint him with the circumstances of that visit, and before she had finished she made sure Roy was swearing to himself.

  "He asked you to marry him! Jerusalem!... Thet I'd never have reckoned. The—low-down coyote of a greaser!... Wal, Miss Helen, when I met up with Senor Beasley last night he was shore spoilin' from somethin'; now I see what thet was. An' I reckon I picked out the bad time."

  "For what? Roy, what did you do?"

  "Wal, I'd made up my mind awhile back to talk to Beasley the first chance I had. An' thet was it. I was in the store when I seen him go into Turner's. So I followed. It was 'most dark. Beasley an' Riggs an' Mulvey an' some more were drinkin' an' powwowin'. So I just braced him right then."

  "Roy! Oh, the way you boys court danger!"

  "But, Miss Helen, thet's the only way. To be afraid MAKES more danger. Beasley 'peared civil enough first off. Him an' me kept edgin' off, an' his pards kept edgin' after us, till we got over in a corner of the saloon. I don't know all I said to him. Shore I talked a heap. I told him what my old man thought. An' Beasley knowed as well as I thet my old man's not only the oldest inhabitant hereabouts, but he's the wisest, too. An' he wouldn't tell a lie. Wal, I used all his sayin's in my argument to show Beasley thet if he didn't haul up short he'd end almost as short. Beasley's thick-headed, an' powerful conceited. Vain as a peacock! He couldn't see, an' he got mad. I told him he was rich enough without robbin' you of your ranch, an'—wal, I shore put up a big talk for your side. By this time he an' his gang had me crowded in a corner, an' from their looks I begun to get cold feet. But I was in it an' had to make the best of it. The argument worked down to his pinnin' me to my word that I'd fight for you when thet fight come off. An' I shore told him for my own sake I wished it 'd come off quick.... Then—wal—then somethin' did come off quick!"

  "Roy, then he shot you!" exclaimed Helen, passionately.

  "Now, Miss Helen, I didn't say who done it," replied Roy, with his engaging smile.

  "Tell me, then—who did?"

  "Wal, I reckon I sha'n't tell you unless you promise not to tell Las Vegas. Thet cowboy is plumb off his head. He thinks he knows who shot me an' I've been lyin' somethin' scandalous. You see, if he learns—then he'll go gunnin'. An', Miss Helen, thet Texan is bad. He might get plugged as I did—an' there would be another man put off your side when the big trouble comes."

  "Roy, I promise you I will not tell Las Vegas," replied Helen, earnestly.

  "Wal, then—it was Riggs!" Roy grew still paler as he confessed this and his voice, almost a whisper, expressed shame and hate. "Thet four-flush did it. Shot me from behind Beasley! I had no chance. I couldn't even see him draw. But when I fell an' lay there an' the others dropped back, then I seen the smokin' gun in his hand. He looked powerful important. An' Beasley began to cuss him an' was cussin' him as they all run out."

  "Oh, coward! the despicable coward!" cried Helen.

  "No wonder Tom wants to find out!" exclaimed Bo, low and deep. "I'll bet he suspects Riggs."

  "Shore he does, but I wouldn't give him no satisfaction."

  "Roy, you know that Riggs can't last out here."

  "Wal, I hope he lasts till I get on my feet again."

  "There you go! Hopeless, all you boys! You must spill blood!" murmured Helen, shudderingly.

  "Dear Miss Helen, don't take on so. I'm like Dale—no man to hunt up trouble. But out here there's a sort of unwritten law—an eye for an eye—a tooth for a tooth. I believe in God Almighty, an' killin' is against my religion, but Riggs shot me—the same as shootin' me in the back."

  "Roy, I'm only a woman—I fear, faint-hearted and unequal to this West."

  "Wait till somethin' happens to you. 'Supposin' Beasley comes an' grabs you with his own dirty big paws an', after maulin' you some, throws you out of your home! Or supposin' Riggs chases you into a corner!"

  Helen felt the start of all her physical being—a violent leap of blood. But she could only judge of her looks from the grim smile of the wounded man as he watched her with his keen, intent eyes.

  "My friend, anythin' can happen," he said. "But let's hope it won't be the worst."

  He had begun to show signs of weakness, and Helen, rising at once, said that she and Bo had better leave him then, but would come to see him the next day. At her call Carmichael entered again with Mrs. Cass, and after a few remarks the visit was terminated. Carmichael lingered in the doorway.

  "Wal, Cheer up, you old Mormon!" he called.

  "Cheer up yourself, you cross old bachelor!" retorted Roy, quite unnecessarily loud. "Can't you raise enough nerve to make up with Bo?"

  Carmichael evacuated the doorway as if he had been spurred. He was quite red in the face while he unhitched the team, and silent during the ride up to the ranch-house. There he got down and followed the girls into the sitting room. He appeared still somber, though not sullen, and had fully regained his composure.

  "Did you find out who shot Roy?" he asked, abruptly, of Helen.

  "Yes. But I promised Roy I would not tell," replied Helen, nervously. She averted her eyes from his searching gaze, intuitively fearing his next query.

  "Was it thet—Riggs?"

  "Las Vegas, don't ask me. I will not break my promise."

  He strode to the window and looked out a moment, and presently, when he turned toward Bo, he seemed a stronger, loftier, more impelling man, with all his emotions under control.

  "Bo, will you listen to me—if I swear to speak the truth—as I know it?"

  "Why, certainly," replied Bo, with the color coming swiftly to her face.

  "Roy doesn't want me to know because he wants to meet thet fellar himself. An' I want to know because I want to stop him before he can do more dirt to us or our friends. Thet's Roy's reason an' mine. An' I'm askin' YOU to tell me."

  "But, Tom—I oughtn't," replied Bo, haltingly.

  "Did you promise Roy not to tell?"

&nbs
p; "No."

  "Or your sister?"

  "No. I didn't promise either."

  "Wal, then you tell me. I want you to trust me in this here matter. But not because I love you an' once had a wild dream you might care a little for me—"

  "Oh—Tom!" faltered Bo.

  "Listen. I want you to trust me because I'm the one who knows what's best. I wouldn't lie an' I wouldn't say so if I didn't know shore. I swear Dale will back me up. But he can't be here for some days. An' thet gang has got to be bluffed. You ought to see this. I reckon you've been quick in savvyin' Western ways. I couldn't pay you no higher compliment, Bo Rayner.... Now will you tell me?"

  "Yes, I will," replied Bo, with the blaze leaping to her eyes.

  "Oh, Bo—please don't—please don't. Wait!" implored Helen.

  "Bo—it's between you an' me," said Carmichael.

  "Tom, I'll tell you," whispered Bo. "It was a lowdown, cowardly trick.... Roy was surrounded—and shot from behind Beasley—by that four-flush Riggs!"

  CHAPTER XIX

  The memory of a woman had ruined Milt Dale's peace, had confounded his philosophy of self-sufficient, lonely happiness in the solitude of the wilds, had forced him to come face to face with his soul and the fatal significance of life.

  When he realized his defeat, that things were not as they seemed, that there was no joy for him in the coming of spring, that he had been blind in his free, sensorial, Indian relation to existence, he fell into an inexplicably strange state, a despondency, a gloom as deep as the silence of his home. Dale reflected that the stronger an animal, the keener its nerves, the higher its intelligence, the greater must be its suffering under restraint or injury. He thought of himself as a high order of animal whose great physical need was action, and now the incentive to action seemed dead. He grew lax. He did not want to move. He performed his diminishing duties under compulsion.

  He watched for spring as a liberation, but not that he could leave the valley. He hated the cold, he grew weary of wind and snow; he imagined the warm sun, the park once more green with grass and bright with daisies, the return of birds and squirrels and deer to heir old haunts, would be the means whereby he could break this spell upon him. Then he might gradually return to past contentment, though it would never be the same.

  But spring, coming early to Paradise Park, brought a fever to Dale's blood—a fire of unutterable longing. It was good, perhaps, that this was so, because he seemed driven to work, climb, tramp, and keep ceaselessly on the move from dawn till dark. Action strengthened his lax muscles and kept him from those motionless, senseless hours of brooding. He at least need not be ashamed of longing for that which could never be his—the sweetness of a woman—a home full of light, joy, hope, the meaning and beauty of children. But those dark moods were sinkings into a pit of hell.

  Dale had not kept track of days and weeks. He did not know when the snow melted off three slopes of Paradise Park. All he knew was that an age had dragged over his head and that spring had come. During his restless waking hours, and even when he was asleep, there seemed always in the back of his mind a growing consciousness that soon he would emerge from this trial, a changed man, ready to sacrifice his chosen lot, to give up his lonely life of selfish indulgence in lazy affinity with nature, and to go wherever his strong hands might perform some real service to people. Nevertheless, he wanted to linger in this mountain fastness until his ordeal was over—until he could meet her, and the world, knowing himself more of a man than ever before.

  One bright morning, while he was at his camp-fire, the tame cougar gave a low, growling warning. Dale was startled. Tom did not act like that because of a prowling grizzly or a straying stag. Presently Dale espied a horseman riding slowly out of the straggling spruces. And with that sight Dale's heart gave a leap, recalling to him a divination of his future relation to his kind. Never had he been so glad to see a man!

  This visitor resembled one of the Beemans, judging from the way he sat his horse, and presently Dale recognized him to be John.

  At this juncture the jaded horse was spurred into a trot, soon reaching the pines and the camp.

  "Howdy, there, you ole b'ar-hunter!" called John, waving his hand.

  For all his hearty greeting his appearance checked a like response from Dale. The horse was mud to his flanks and John was mud to his knees, wet, bedraggled, worn, and white. This hue of his face meant more than fatigue.

  "Howdy, John?" replied Dale.

  They shook hands. John wearily swung his leg over the pommel, but did not at once dismount. His clear gray eyes were wonderingly riveted upon the hunter.

  "Milt—what 'n hell's wrong?" he queried.

  "Why?"

  "Bust me if you ain't changed so I hardly knowed you. You've been sick—all alone here!"

  "Do I look sick?"

  "Wal, I should smile. Thin an' pale an' down in the mouth! Milt, what ails you?"

  "I've gone to seed."

  "You've gone off your head, jest as Roy said, livin' alone here. You overdid it, Milt. An' you look sick."

  "John, my sickness is here," replied Dale, soberly, as he laid a hand on his heart.

  "Lung trouble!" ejaculated John. "With thet chest, an' up in this air?... Get out!"

  "No—not lung trouble," said Dale.

  "I savvy. Had a hunch from Roy, anyhow."

  "What kind of a hunch?"

  "Easy now, Dale, ole man.... Don't you reckon I'm ridin' in on you pretty early? Look at thet hoss!" John slid off and waved a hand at the drooping beast, then began to unsaddle him. "Wal, he done great. We bogged some comin' over. An' I climbed the pass at night on the frozen snow."

  "You're welcome as the flowers in May. John, what month is it?"

  "By spades! are you as bad as thet?... Let's see. It's the twenty-third of March."

  "March! Well, I'm beat. I've lost my reckonin'—an' a lot more, maybe."

  "Thar!" declared John, slapping the mustang. "You can jest hang up here till my next trip. Milt, how 're your hosses?"

  "Wintered fine."

  "Wal, thet's good. We'll need two big, strong hosses right off."

  "What for?" queried Dale, sharply. He dropped a stick of wood and straightened up from the camp-fire.

  "You're goin' to ride down to Pine with me—thet's what for."

  Familiarly then came back to Dale the quiet, intent suggestiveness of the Beemans in moments foreboding trial.

  At this certain assurance of John's, too significant to be doubted, Dale's thought of Pine gave slow birth to a strange sensation, as if he had been dead and was vibrating back to life.

  "Tell what you got to tell!" he broke out.

  Quick as a flash the Mormon replied: "Roy's been shot. But he won't die. He sent for you. Bad deal's afoot. Beasley means to force Helen Rayner out an' steal her ranch."

  A tremor ran all through Dale. It seemed another painful yet thrilling connection between his past and this vaguely calling future. His emotions had been broodings dreams, longings. This thing his friend said had the sting of real life.

  "Then old Al's dead?" he asked.

  "Long ago—I reckon around the middle of February. The property went to Helen. She's been doin' fine. An' many folks say it's a pity she'll lose it."

  "She won't lose it," declared Dale. How strange his voice sounded to his own ears! It was hoarse and unreal, as if from disuse.

  "Wal, we-all have our idees. I say she will. My father says so. Carmichael says so."

  "Who's he?"

  "Reckon you remember thet cow-puncher who came up with Roy an' Auchincloss after the girls—last fall?"

  "Yes. They called him Las—Las Vegas. I liked his looks."

  "Humph! You'll like him a heap when you know him. He's kept the ranch goin' for Miss Helen all along. But the deal's comin' to a head. Beasley's got thick with thet Riggs. You remember him?"

  "Yes."

  "Wal, he's been hangin' out at Pine all winter, watchin' for some chance to get at Miss Helen or Bo. Every
body's seen thet. An' jest lately he chased Bo on hossback—gave the kid a nasty fall. Roy says Riggs was after Miss Helen. But I think one or t'other of the girls would do thet varmint. Wal, thet sorta started goin's-on. Carmichael beat Riggs an' drove him out of town. But he come back. Beasley called on Miss Helen an' offered to marry her so's not to take the ranch from her, he said."

  Dale awoke with a thundering curse.

  "Shore!" exclaimed John. "I'd say the same—only I'm religious. Don't thet beady-eyed greaser's gall make you want to spit all over yourself? My Gawd! but Roy was mad! Roy's powerful fond of Miss Helen an' Bo.... Wal, then, Roy, first chance he got, braced Beasley an' give him some straight talk. Beasley was foamin' at the mouth, Roy said. It was then Riggs shot Roy. Shot him from behind Beasley when Roy wasn't lookin'! An' Riggs brags of bein' a gun-fighter. Mebbe thet wasn't a bad shot for him!"

  "I reckon," replied Dale, as he swallowed hard. "Now, just what was Roy's message to me?"

  "Wal, I can't remember all Roy said," answered John, dubiously. "But Roy shore was excited an' dead in earnest. He says: 'Tell Milt what's happened. Tell him Helen Rayner's in more danger than she was last fall. Tell him I've seen her look away acrost the mountains toward Paradise Park with her heart in her eyes. Tell him she needs him most of all!'"

  Dale shook all over as with an attack of ague. He was seized by a whirlwind of passionate, terrible sweetness of sensation, when what he wildly wanted was to curse Roy and John for their simple-minded conclusions.

  "Roy's—crazy!" panted Dale.

  "Wal, now, Milt—thet's downright surprisin' of you. Roy's the level-headest of any fellars I know."

  "Man! if he MADE me believe him—an' it turned out untrue—I'd—I'd kill him," replied Dale.

  "Untrue! Do you think Roy Beeman would lie?"

  "But, John—you fellows can't see my case. Nell Rayner wants me—needs me!... It can't be true!"

  "Wal, my love-sick pard—it jest IS true!" exclaimed John, feelingly. "Thet's the hell of life—never knowin'. But here it's joy for you. You can believe Roy Beeman about women as quick as you'd trust him to track your lost hoss. Roy's married three girls. I reckon he'll marry some more. Roy's only twenty-eight an' he has two big farms. He said he'd seen Nell Rayner's heart in her eyes, lookin' for you—an' you can jest bet your life thet's true. An' he said it because he means you to rustle down there an' fight for thet girl."