The Ranchman
Page 35
CHAPTER XXXV--TRIUMPH AT LAST
A month later, Taylor walked to the front door of the Arrow ranchhouseand stood on the threshold looking out over the great sweep ofgreen-brown plain that reached eastward to Dawes.
A change had come over Taylor. His eyes had a gentler light in them--asthough they had seen things that had taken the edge off his sternerside; and there was an atmosphere about him that created the impressionthat his thoughts were at this moment far from violence.
"Mr. Taylor!" said a voice behind him--from the front room. There hadbeen an undoubted accent on the "Mr." And the voice was one that Taylorknew well; the sound of it deepened the gentle gleam in his eyes.
"Mrs. Taylor," he answered, imparting to the "Mrs." exactly the emphasisthe voice had placed on the other.
There was a laugh behind him, and then the voice again, slightlyreproachful: "Oh, that sounds so _awfully_ formal, Squint!"
"Well," he said, "you started it."
"I like 'Squint' better," said the voice.
"I'm hoping you keep on liking Squint all the days of your life," hereturned.
"I was speaking of names," declared the voice.
"Doan' yo' let her fool yo', Mr. Squint!" came another voice, "fo' shethink a heap mo' of you than she think of yo' name!"
"Martha!" said the first voice in laughing reproof, "I vow I shall sendyou away some day!"
And then there was a clumping step on the floor, and Martha's voicereached the door as she went out of the house through the kitchen:
"I's goin' to the bunkhouse to expostulate wif that lazy Bud Hemmingway.He tole me this mawnin' he's gwine feed them hawgs--an' he ain't doneit!"
And then Mrs. Taylor appeared at the door and placed an arm around herhusband's neck, drawing his head over to her and kissing him.
She looked much like the Marion Harlan who had left the Arrow on a nightabout a month before, though there was a more eloquent light in hereyes, and a tenderness had come over her that made her whole beingradiate.
"Don't you think you had better get ready to go to Dawes, dear?" shesuggested.
"I like that better than 'Squint' even," he grinned.
For a long time they stood in the doorway very close together. And thenMrs. Taylor looked up with grave eyes at her husband.
"Won't you please let me look at _all_ of father's note to you, Squint?"she asked.
"That can't be done," he grinned at her. "For," he added, "that dayafter I let you read part of it I burnt it. It's gone--like a lot ofother things that are not needed now!"
"But what did it say--that part that you wouldn't let me read?" sheinsisted.
"It said," he quoted, "'I want you to marry her, Squint.' And I havedone so--haven't I?"
"Was that _all_?" she persisted.
"I'd call that plenty!" he laughed.
"Well," she sighed, "I suppose that will have to be sufficient. But getready, dear; they will be waiting for you!" She left him and went into aroom, from where she called back to him: "It won't take me long todress." And then, after an interval: "Where do you suppose Uncle Elamwent?"
He scowled out of the doorway; then turned and smiled. "He didn't say.And he lost no time saying farewell to Dawes, once he got his hands onthe money Carrington left." Taylor's smile became a laugh, low and fullof amusement.
Shortly Mrs. Taylor appeared, attired in a neat riding-habit, and Taylordonned coat and hat, and they went arm in arm to the corral gate, wheretheir horses were standing, having been roped, saddled, and bridled bythe "lazy" Bud Hemmingway, who stood outside the bunkhouse grinning atthem.
"Well, good luck!" Bud called after them as they rode toward Dawes.
Lingering much on the way, and stopping at the Mullarky cabin, theyfinally reached the edge of town and were met by Neil Norton, whogrinned widely when he greeted them.
Norton waved a hand at Dawes. As in another time, Dawes was arrayed inholiday attire, swathed in a riot of color--starry bunting, flags, andstreamers, with hundreds of Japanese lanterns suspended festoonlikeacross the streets. And now, as Taylor and the blushing, moist-eyedwoman at his side rode down the street, a band on a platform near thestation burst into music, its brazen-tongued instruments drowning thesound of cheering.
"We got that from Lazette," grinned Norton. "We had to have _some_noise! As I told you the other day," he went on, speaking loudly, sothat Taylor could hear him above the tumult, "it is all fixed up. JudgeLittlefield stayed on the job here, because he promised to be good. Hehadn't really done anything, you know. And after we made Danforth andthe five councilmen resign that night, and saw them aboard theeast-bound the next morning, we made Littlefield wire the governor aboutwhat had happened. Littlefield went to the capital shortly afterward andtold the governor some things that astonished him. And the governorappointed you to fill Danforth's unexpired term. But, of course, thatwas only an easy way for the governor to surrender. So everything islovely."
Norton paused, out of breath.
And Taylor smiled at his wife. "Yes," he said, as he took her arm, "thisis a mighty good little old world--if you treat it right."
"And if you stay faithful," added the moist-eyed woman.
"And if you fall in love," supplemented Taylor.
"And when the people of a town want to honor you," added Nortonsignificantly.
And then, arm in arm, followed by Norton, Taylor and his wife rodeforward, their horses close together, toward the great crowd of peoplethat jammed the street around the band-stand, their voices now raisedabove the music that blared forth from the brazen instruments.