Desert Gold and the Light of Western Stars

by Zane Grey

  * * *

  No slight task indeed was it to oversee the many business details of Her Majesty’s Rancho and to keep a record of them. Madeline found the course of business training upon which her father had insisted to be invaluable to her now. It helped her to assimilate and arrange the practical details of cattle-raising as put forth by the blunt Stillwell. She split up the great stock of cattle into different herds, and when any of these were out running upon the open range she had them closely watched. Part of the time each herd was kept in an inclosed range, fed and watered, and carefully handled by a big force of cowboys. She employed three cowboy scouts whose sole duty was to ride the ranges searching for stray, sick, or crippled cattle or motherless calves, and to bring these in to be treated and nursed. There were two cowboys whose business was to master a pack of Russian stag-hounds and to hunt down the coyotes, wolves, and lions that preyed upon the herds. The better and tamer milch cows were separated from the ranging herds and kept in a pasture adjoining the dairy. All branding was done in corrals, and calves were weaned from mother-cows at the proper time to benefit both. The old method of branding and classing, that had so shocked Madeline, had been abandoned, and one had been inaugurated whereby cattle and cowboys and horses were spared brutality and injury.

  Madeline established an extensive vegetable farm, and she planted orchards. The climate was superior to that of California, and, with abundant water, trees and plants and gardens flourished and bloomed in a way wonderful to behold. It was with ever-increasing pleasure that Madeline walked through acres of ground once bare, now green and bright and fragrant. There were poultry-yards and pig-pens and marshy quarters for ducks and geese. Here in the farming section of the ranch Madeline found employment for the little colony of Mexicans. Their lives had been as hard and barren as the dry valley where they had lived. But as the valley had been transformed by the soft, rich touch of water, so their lives had been transformed by help and sympathy and work. The children were wretched no more, and many that had been blind could now see, and Madeline had become to them a new and blessed virgin.

  Madeline looked abroad over these lands and likened the change in them and those who lived by them to the change in her heart. It may have been fancy, but the sun seemed to be brighter, the sky bluer, the wind sweeter. Certain it was that the deep green of grass and garden was not fancy, nor the white and pink of blossom, nor the blaze and perfume of flower, nor the sheen of lake and the fluttering of new-born leaves. Where there had been monotonous gray there was now vivid and changing color. Formerly there had been silence both day and night; now during the sunny hours there was music. The whistle of prancing stallions pealed in from the grassy ridges. Innumerable birds had come and, like the northward-journeying ducks, they had tarried to stay. The song of meadow-lark and blackbird and robin, familiar to Madeline from childhood, mingled with the new and strange heart-throbbing song of mocking-bird and the piercing blast of the desert eagle and the melancholy moan of turtle-dove.

  * * *

  One April morning Madeline sat in her office wrestling with a problem. She had problems to solve every day. The majority of these were concerned with the management of twenty-seven incomprehensible cowboys. This particular problem involved Ambrose Mills, who had eloped with her French maid, Christine.

  Stillwell faced Madeline with a smile almost as huge as his bulk.

  “Wal, Miss Majesty, we ketched them; but not before Padre Marcos had married them. All thet speedin’ in the autoomoobile was jest a-scarin’ of me to death fer nothin’. I tell you Link Stevens is crazy about runnin’ thet car. Link never hed no sense even with a hoss. He ain’t afraid of the devil hisself. If my hair hedn’t been white it’d be white now. No more rides in thet thing fer me! Wal, we ketched Ambrose an’ the girl too late. But we fetched them back, an’ they’re out there now, spoonin’, sure oblivious to their shameless conduct.”

  “Stillwell, what shall I say to Ambrose? How shall I punish him? He has done wrong to deceive me. I never was so surprised in my life. Christine did not seem to care any more for Ambrose than for any of the other cowboys. What does my authority amount to? I must do something. Stillwell, you must help me.”

  Whenever Madeline fell into a quandary she had to call upon the old cattleman. No man ever held a position with greater pride than Stillwell, but he had been put to tests that steeped him in humility. Here he scratched his head in great perplexity.

  “Dog-gone the luck! What’s this elopin’ bizness to do with cattle-raisin’? I don’t know nothin’ but cattle. Miss Majesty, it’s amazin’ strange what these cowboys hev come to. I never seen no cowboys like these we’ve got hyar now. I don’t know them any more. They dress swell an’ read books, an’ some of them hev actooly stopped cussin’ an’ drinkin’. I ain’t sayin’ all this is against them. Why, now they’re jest the finest bunch of cow-punchers I ever seen or dreamed of. But managin’ them now is beyond me. When cowboys begin to play thet game gol-lof an’ run off with French maids I reckon Bill Stillwell has got to resign.”

  “Stillwell! Oh, you will not leave me? What in the world would I do?” exclaimed Madeline, in great anxiety.

  “Wal, I sure won’t leave you, Miss Majesty. No, I never’ll do thet. I’ll run the cattle bizness fer you an’ see after the hosses an’ other stock. But I’ve got to hev a foreman who can handle this amazin’ strange bunch of cowboys.”

  “You’ve tried half a dozen foremen. Try more until you find the man who meets your requirements,” said Madeline. “Never mind that now. Tell me how to impress Ambrose—to make him an example, so to speak. I must have another maid. And I do not want a new one carried off in this summary manner.”

  “Wal, if you fetch pretty maids out hyar you can’t expect nothin’ else. Why, thet black-eyed little French girl, with her white skin an’ pretty airs an’ smiles an’ shrugs, she had the cowboys crazy. It’ll be wuss with the next one.”

  “Oh, dear,” sighed Madeline.

  “An’ as fer impressin’ Ambrose, I reckon I can tell you how to do thet. Jest give it to him good an’ say you’re goin’ to fire him. That’ll fix Ambrose, an’ mebbe scare the other boys fer a spell.”

  “Very well, Stillwell, bring Ambrose in to see me, and tell Christine to wait in my room.”

  It was a handsome, debonair, bright-eyed cowboy that came tramping into Madeline’s presence. His accustomed shyness and awkwardness had disappeared in an excited manner. He was a happy boy. He looked straight into Madeline’s face as if he expected her to wish him joy. And Madeline actually found that expression trembling to her lips. She held it back until she could be severe. But Madeline feared she would fail of much severity. Something warm and sweet, like a fragrance, had entered the room with Ambrose.

  “Ambrose, what have you done?” she asked.

  “Miss Hammond, I’ve been and gone and got married,” replied Ambrose, his words tumbling over one another. His eyes snapped, and there was a kind of glow upon his clean-shaven brown cheek. “I’ve stole a march on the other boys. There was Frank Slade pushin’ me close, and I was havin’ some runnin’ to keep Jim Bell back in my dust. Even old man Nels made eyes at Christine! So I wasn’t goin’ to take any chances. I just packed her off to El Cajon and married her.”

  “Oh, so I heard,” said Madeline, slowly, as she watched him. “Ambrose, do you—love her?”

  He reddened under her clear gaze, dropped his head, and fumbled with his new sombrero, and there was a catch in his breath. Madeline saw his powerful brown hand tremble. It affected her strangely that this stalwart cowboy, who could rope and throw and tie a wild steer in less than one minute, should tremble at a mere question. Suddenly he raised his head, and at the beautiful blaze of his eyes Madeline turned her own away.

  “Yes, Miss Hammond, I love her,” he said. “I think I love her in the way you’re askin’ about. I know the first time I saw her I thought how wonderful it’d be to have a girl like that for my wife. It’s all been so strange—her comin’
an’ how she made me feel. Sure I never knew many girls, and I haven’t seen any girls at all for years. But when she came! A girl makes a wonderful difference in a man’s feelin’s and thoughts. I guess I never had any before. Leastways, none like I have now. My—it—well, I guess I have a little understandin’ now of Padre Marcos’s blessin’.”

  “Ambrose, have you nothing to say to me?” asked Madeline.

  “I’m sure sorry I didn’t have time to tell you. But I was in some hurry.”

  “What did you intend to do? Where were you going when Stillwell found you?”

  “We’d just been married. I hadn’t thought of anything after that. Suppose I’d have rustled back to my job. I’ll sure have to work now and save my money.”

  “Oh, well, Ambrose, I am glad you realize your responsibilities. Do you earn enough—is your pay sufficient to keep a wife?”

  “Sure it is! Why, Miss Hammond, I never before earned half the salary I’m gettin’ now. It’s some fine to work for you. I’m goin’ to fire the boys out of my bunk-house and fix it up for Christine and me. Say, won’t they be jealous?”

  “Ambrose, I—I congratulate you. I wish you joy,” said Madeline. “I—I shall make Christine a little wedding-present. I want to talk to her for a few moments. You may go now.”

  It would have been impossible for Madeline to say one severe word to that happy cowboy. She experienced difficulty in hiding her own happiness at the turn of events. Curiosity and interest mingled with her pleasure when she called to Christine.

  “Mrs. Ambrose Mills, please come in.”

  No sound came from the other room.

  “I should like very much to see the bride,” went on Madeline.

  Still there was no stir or reply.

  “Christine!” called Madeline.

  Then it was as if a little whirlwind of flying feet and entreating hands and beseeching eyes blew in upon Madeline. Christine was small, graceful, plump, with very white skin and very dark hair. She had been Madeline’s favorite maid for years, and there was sincere affection between the two. Whatever had been the blissful ignorance of Ambrose, it was manifestly certain that Christine knew how she had transgressed. Her fear and remorse and appeal for forgiveness were poured out in an incoherent storm. Plain it was that the little French maid had been overwhelmed. It was only after Madeline had taken the emotional girl in her arms and had forgiven and soothed her that her part in the elopement became clear. Christine was in a maze. But gradually, as she talked and saw that she was forgiven, calmness came in some degree, and with it a story which amused, yet shocked Madeline. The unmistakable, shy, marveling love, scarcely realized by Christine, gave Madeline relief and joy. If Christine loved Ambrose there was no harm done. Watching the girl’s eyes, wonderful with their changes of thought, listening to her attempts to explain what it was evident she did not understand, Madeline gathered that if ever a cave-man had taken unto himself a wife, if ever a barbarian had carried off a Sabine woman, then Ambrose Mills had acted with the violence of such ancient forebears. Just how it all happened seemed to be beyond Christine.

  “He say he love me,” repeated the girl, in a kind of rapt awe. “He ask me to marry him—he kees me—he hug me—he lift me on ze horse—he ride with me all night—he marry me.”

  And she exhibited a ring on the third finger of her left hand. Madeline saw that, whatever had been the state of Christine’s feeling for Ambrose before this marriage, she loved him now. She had been taken forcibly, but she was won.

  After Christine had gone, comforted and betraying her shy eagerness to get back to Ambrose, Madeline was haunted by the look in the girl’s eyes, and her words. Assuredly the spell of romance was on this sunny land. For Madeline there was a nameless charm, a nameless thrill combating her sense of the violence and unfitness of Ambrose’s wooing. Something, she knew not what, took arms against her intellectual arraignment of the cowboy’s method of getting himself a wife. He had said straight out that he loved the girl—he had asked her to marry him—he kissed her—he hugged her—he lifted her upon his horse—he rode away with her through the night—and he married her. In whatever light Madeline reviewed this thing she always came back to her first natural impression; it thrilled her, charmed her. It went against all the precepts of her training; nevertheless, it was somehow splendid and beautiful. She imagined it stripped another artificial scale from her over-sophisticated eyes.

  Scarcely had she settled again to the task on her desk when Stillwell’s heavy tread across the porch interrupted her. This time when he entered he wore a look that bordered upon the hysterical; it was difficult to tell whether he was trying to suppress grief or glee.

  “Miss Majesty, there’s another amazin’ strange thing sprung on me. Hyar’s Jim Bell come to see you, an’ when I taxed him, sayin’ you was tolerable busy, he up an’ says he was hungry an’ he ain’t a-goin’ to eat any more bread made in a wash-basin! Says he’ll starve first. Says Nels hed the gang over to his bunk an’ feasted them on bread you taught him how to make in some new-fangled bucket-machine with a crank. Jim says thet bread beat any cake he ever eat, an’ he wants you to show him how to make some. Now, Miss Majesty, as superintendent of this ranch I ought to know what’s goin’ on. Mebbe Jim is jest a-joshin’ me. Mebbe he’s gone clean dotty. Mebbe I hev. An’ beggin’ your pardon, I want to know if there’s any truth in what Jim says Nels says.”

  Whereupon it became necessary for Madeline to stifle her mirth and to inform the sadly perplexed old cattleman that she had received from the East a patent bread-mixer, and in view of the fact that her household women had taken fright at the contrivance, she had essayed to operate it herself. This had turned out to be so simple, so saving of time and energy and flour, so much more cleanly than the old method of mixing dough with the hands, and particularly it had resulted in such good bread, that Madeline had been pleased. Immediately she ordered more of the bread-mixers. One day she had happened upon Nels making biscuit dough in his wash-basin, and she had delicately and considerately introduced to him the idea of her new method. Nels, it appeared, had a great reputation as a bread-maker, and he was proud of it. Moreover, he was skeptical of any clap-trap thing with wheels and cranks. He consented, however, to let her show how the thing worked and to sample some of the bread. To that end she had him come up to the house, where she won him over. Stillwell laughed loud and long.

  “Wal, wal, wal!” he exclaimed, at length. “Thet’s fine, an’ it’s powerful funny. Mebbe you don’t see how funny? Wal, Nels has jest been lordin’ it over the boys about how you showed him, an’ now you’ll hev to show every last cowboy on the place the same thing. Cowboys are the jealousest kind of fellers. They’re all crazy about you, anyway. Take Jim out hyar. Why, thet lazy cow-puncher jest never would make bread. He’s notorious fer shirkin’ his share of the grub deal. I’ve knowed Jim to trade off washin’ the pots an’ pans fer a lonely watch on a rainy night. All he wants is to see you show him the same as Nels is crowin’ over. Then he’ll crow over his bunkie, Frank Slade, an’ then Frank’ll get lonely to know all about this wonderful bread-machine. Cowboys are amazin’ strange critters, Miss Majesty. An’ now thet you’ve begun with them this way, you’ll hev to keep it up. I will say I never seen such a bunch to work. You’ve sure put heart in them.”

  “Indeed, Stillwell, I am glad to hear that,” replied Madeline. “And I shall be pleased to teach them all. But may I not have them all up here at once—at least those off duty?”

  “Wal, I reckon you can’t onless you want to hev them scrappin’,” rejoined Stillwell, dryly. “What you’ve got on your hands now, Miss Majesty, is to let ’em come one by one, an’ make each cowboy think you’re takin’ more especial pleasure in showin’ him than the feller who came before him. Then mebbe we can go on with cattle-raisin’.”

  Madeline protested, and Stillwell held inexorably to what he said was wisdom. Several times Madeline had gone against his advice, to her utter discomfiture and rout. She dared not
risk it again, and resigned herself gracefully and with subdued merriment to her task. Jim Bell was ushered into the great, light, spotless kitchen, where presently Madeline appeared to put on an apron and roll up her sleeves. She explained the use of the several pieces of aluminum that made up the bread-mixer and fastened the bucket to the table-shelf. Jim’s life might have depended upon this lesson, judging from his absorbed manner and his desire to have things explained over and over, especially the turning of the crank. When Madeline had to take Jim’s hand three times to show him the simple mechanism and then he did not understand, she began to have faint misgivings as to his absolute sincerity. She guessed that as long as she touched Jim’s hand he never would understand. Then as she began to measure out flour and milk and lard and salt and yeast she saw with despair that Jim was not looking at the ingredients, was not paying the slightest attention to them. His eyes were covertly upon her.

  “Jim, I am not sure about you,” said Madeline, severely. “How can you learn to make bread if you do not watch me mix it?”

  “I am a-watchin’ you,” replied Jim, innocently.

  Finally Madeline sent the cowboy on his way rejoicing with the bread-mixer under his arm. Next morning, true to Stillwell’s prophecy, Frank Slade, Jim’s bunk-mate, presented himself cheerfully to Madeline and unbosomed himself of a long-deferred and persistent desire to relieve his overworked comrade of some of the housekeeping in their bunk.