by B. M. Bower
Robert Grant Burns came to a pause. Jean sensed that he was waiting for some reply, and she looked up at him. His hand was just reaching out to her shoulder, but it dropped instead to his coat pocket and fumbled for his handkerchief. Her eyes strayed to Pete Lowry. He was looking upward with that measuring glance which belongs to his profession, estimating the length of time the light would be suitable for the scene he had focussed. She followed his glance to where the shadow of the kitchen had crept closer to the bench. Jean was not stupid, and she had passed through the various stages of the kodak fever; she guessed what was in the mind of the operator, and when she met his eyes full, she smiled at him sympathetically.
“I should dearly love to watch you work,” she said to him frankly. “But you see how it is; Mr. Burns hasn’t got hold of himself yet. If he comes to his senses before he has a stroke of apoplexy, will you show me how you run that thing?”
“You bet I will,” the red-sweatered one promised her cheerfully.
“How much longer will it be before this bench is in the shade?” she asked him next.
“Half an hour,—maybe a little longer.” Pete glanced again anxiously upward.
“And—how long do these spasms usually last?” Jean’s head tilted toward Robert Grant Burns as impersonally as if she were indicating a horse with colic.
But the camera man had gone as far as was wise, if he cared to continue working for Burns, and he made no reply whatever. So Jean turned her attention to the man whose bulk shaded her from the sun, and whose remarks would have been wholly unforgivable had she not chosen to ignore them.
“If you really are anxious to go on making pictures, why don’t you stop all that ranting and be sensible about it?” she asked him. “You can’t bully me into being afraid of you, you know. And really, you are making an awful spectacle of yourself, going on like that.”
“Listen here! Are you going to get off that bench and out of the scene?” By a tremendous effort Robert Grant Burns spoke that sentence with a husky kind of calm.
“That all depends upon yourself, Mr. Burns. First, I want to know by what right you come here with your picture-making. You haven’t explained that yet, you know.”
The highest paid director of the Great Western Film Company looked at her long. With her head tilted back, Jean returned the look.
“Oh, all right—all right,” he surrendered finally. “Read that paper. That ought to satisfy you that we ain’t trespassing here or anywhere else. And if you’d kindly,”—and Mr. Burns emphasized the word “kindly,”—“remove yourself to some other spot that is just as comfortable—”
Jean did not even hear him, once she had the paper in her hands and had begun to read it. So Robert Grant Burns folded his arms across his heaving chest and watched her and studied her and measured her with his mind while she read. He saw the pulling together of her eyebrows, and the pinching of her under-lip between her teeth. He saw how she unconsciously sheltered the little brown bird under her left hand in her lap because she must hold the paper with the other, and he quite forgot his anger against her.
Sitting so, she made a picture that appealed to him. Had you asked him why, he would have said that she was the type that would photograph well, and that she had a screen personality; which would have been high praise indeed, coming from him.
Jean read the brief statement that in consideration of a certain sum paid to him that day by Robert G. Burns, her uncle, Carl Douglas, thereby gave the said Robert G. Burns permission to use the Lazy A ranch and anything upon it or in any manner pertaining to it, for the purpose of making motion pictures. It was plainly set forth that Robert G. Burns should be held responsible for any destruction of or damage to the property, and that he might, for the sum named, use any cattle bearing the Lazy A or Bar O brands for the making of pictures, so long as he did them no injury and returned them in good condition to the range from which he had gathered them.
Jean recognized her uncle’s ostentatious attempt at legal phraseology and knew, even without the evidence of his angular writing, that the document was genuine. She knew also that Robert Grant Burns was justified in ordering her off that bench; she had no right there, where he was making his pictures. She forced back the bitterness that filled her because of her own helplessness, and folded the paper carefully. The little brown bird chirped shrilly and fluttered a feeble protest when she took away her sheltering hand. Jean returned the paper hastily to its owner and took up the bird.
“I beg your pardon for delaying your work,” she said coldly, and rose from the bench. “But you might have explained your presence in the first place.” She wrapped the bird carefully in her handkerchief so that only its beak and its bright eyes were uncovered, pulled her hat forward upon her head, and walked away from them down the path to the stables.
Robert Grant Burns turned slowly on his heels and watched her go, and until she had led out her horse, mounted and ridden away, he said never a word. Pete Lowry leaned an elbow upon the camera and watched her also, until she passed out of sight around the corner of the dilapidated calf shed, and he was as silent as the director.
“Some rider,” Lee Milligan commented to the assistant camera man, and without any tangible reason regretted that he had spoken.
Robert Grant Burns turned harshly to the two women. “Now then, you two go through that scene again. And when you put out your hand to stop Muriel, don’t grab at her, Mrs. Gay. Hesitate! You want your son to get the warning, but you’ve got your doubts about letting her take the risk of going. And, Gay, when you read the letter, try and show a little emotion in your face. You saw how that girl looked—see if you can’t get that hurt, bitter look GRADUALLY, as you read. The way she got it. Put in more feeling and not so much motion. You know what I mean; you saw the girl. That’s the stuff that gets over. Ready? Camera!”
CHAPTER IX
A MAN-SIZED JOB FOR JEAN
Jean was just returning wet-lashed from burying the little brown bird under a wild-rose bush near the creek. She had known all along that it would die; everything that she took any interest in turned out badly, it seemed to her. The wonder was that the bird had lived so long after she had taken it under her protection.
All that day her Aunt Ella had worn a wet towel turban-wise upon her head, and the look of a martyr about to enter a den of lions. Add that to the habitual atmosphere of injury which she wore, and Aunt Ella was not what one might call a cheerful companion. Besides, the appearance of the wet towel was a danger signal to Jean’s conscience, and forbade any thought of saddling Pard and riding away from the Bar Nothing into her own dream world and the great outdoors. Jean’s conscience commanded her instead to hang her riding-clothes in the closet and wear striped percale and a gingham apron, which she hated; and to sweep and dust and remember not to whistle, and to look sympathetic,—which she was not, particularly; and to ask her Aunt Ella frequently if she felt any better, and if there was anything Jean could do for her. There never was anything she could do, but conscience and custom required her to observe the ceremony of asking. Aunt Ella found some languid satisfaction in replying dolorously that there was nothing that anybody could do, and that her part in life seemed to be to suffer.
You may judge what Jean’s mood was that day, when you are told that she came to the point, not an hour before the bird died, of looking at her aunt with that little smile at the corners of her eyes and just easing her lips. “Well, you certainly play your part in life with a heap of enthusiasm,” she had replied, and had gone out into the kitchen and whistled when she did not feel in the least like whistling. Her conscience knew Jean pretty well, and did not attempt to reprove her for what she had done.
Then she found the bird dead in the little nest she had made for it, and things went all wrong.
She was returning from the burial of the bird, and was trying to force herself back to her normal attitude of philosophic calm, when she saw her Uncle Carl sitting on the edge of the front porch, with his elbows resting loosel
y upon his knees, his head bowed, and his boot-heel digging a rude trench in the hard-packed earth.
The sight of him incensed her suddenly. Once more she wished that she might get at his brain and squeeze out his thoughts; and it never occurred to her that she would probably have found them extremely commonplace thoughts that strayed no farther than his own little personal business of life, and that they would easily be translated to the dollar sign. His attitude was one of gloomy meditation, and her own mood supplied the subject. She watched him for a minute or two, and his abstraction was so deep that he did not feel her presence.
“Uncle Carl, just how much did the Lazy A cost you?” she asked so abruptly that she herself was surprised at the question. “Or putting it another way, just how many dollars and cents did you spend in defending dad?”
Carl started, which was perfectly natural, and glared at her, which was natural also, when one considers that Jean had without warning opened a subject tacitly forbidden upon that ranch. His eyes hardened a little while he looked at her, for between these two there was scant affection.
“What do you want to know for?” he countered, when she persisted in looking at him as though she was waiting for an answer.
“Because I’ve a right to know. Some time,—within four years,—I mean to buy back the Lazy A. I want to know how much it will take.” Until that moment Jean had merely dreamed of some day buying it back. Until she spoke she would have named the idea a beautiful, impossible desire.
“Where you going to get the money?” Carl looked at her curiously, as if he almost doubted her sanity.
“Rob a bank, perhaps. How much will it take to square things with you? Of course, being a relative, I expect to be cheated a little. So I am going to adopt sly, sleuth-like methods and find out just how much dad owed you before—it happened, and just how much the lawyers charged, and what was the real market value of the outfit, and all that. Dad told me—dad told me that there was something left over for me. He didn’t explain—there wasn’t time, and I—couldn’t listen to dollar-talk then. I’ve gone along all this time, just drifting and getting used to facts, and taking it for granted that everything is all right—”
“Well, what’s wrong? Everything is all right, far as I know. I can see what you’re driving at—”
“And I’m a pretty fair driver, too,” Jean cut in calmly. “I’ll reach my destination, I think,—give me time enough.”
“Whatever fool notion you’ve got in your head, you’d better drop it,” Carl told her harshly. “There ain’t anything you can do to better matters. I came out with the worst of it, when you come right down to facts, and all the nagging-”
Jean went toward him as if she would strike him with her uplifted hand. “Don’t dare say that! How can you say that,—and think of dad? He got the worst of it. He’s the one that suffers most—and—he’s as innocent as you or I. You know it.”
Carl rose from the porch and faced her like an enemy. “What do you mean by that? I know it? If I knew anything like that, do you think I’d leave a stone unturned to prove it? Do you think—”
“I think we both know dad. And some things were not proved,—to my satisfaction, at least. And you know how long the jury was out, and what a time they had agreeing. Some points were weak. It was simply that they couldn’t point to any one else. You know that was it. If I could find Art Osgood—”
“What’s he got to do with it?” Her uncle leaned a little and peered into her face, which the dusk was veiling.
“That is what I want to find out.” Jean’s voice was quiet, but it had a quality which he had never before noticed.
“You’d better,” he advised her tritely, “let sleeping dogs lie.”
“That’s the trouble with sleeping dogs; they do lie, more often than not. These particular dogs have lied for nearly three years. I’m going to stir them up and see if I can’t get a yelp of the truth out of them.”
“Oh, you are!” Carl laughed ironically. “You’ll stir up a lot of unpleasantness for yourself and the rest of us, is what you’ll do. The thing’s over and done with. Folks are beginning to forget it. You’ve got a home—”
Jean laughed, and her laugh was extremely unpleasant.
“You get as good as the rest of us get,” her uncle reminded her sharply. “I came near going broke myself over the affair, if you want to know; and you stand there and accuse me of cheating you out of something! I don’t know what in heaven’s name you expect. The Lazy A didn’t make me rich, I can tell you that. It just barely helped to tide things over. You’ve got a home here, and you can come and go as you please. What you ain’t got,” he added bitterly, “is common gratitude.”
He turned away from her and went into the house, and Jean sat down upon the edge of the porch and stared away at the dimming outline of the hills, and wondered what had come over her.
Three years on this ranch, seeing her uncle every day almost, living under the same roof with him, talking with him upon the everyday business of life,—and tonight, for the first time, the forbidden subject had been opened. She had said things that until lately she had not realized were in her mind. She had never liked her uncle, who was so different from her father, but she had never accused him in her mind of unfairness until she had written something of the sort in her ledger. She had never thought of quarrelling,—and yet one could scarcely call this encounter less than a quarrel. And the strange part of it was that she still believed what she had said; she still intended to do the things she declared she would do. Just how she would do them she did not know, but her purpose was hardening and coming clean-cut out of the vague background of her mind.
After awhile the dim outline of the high-shouldered hills glowed under a yellowing patch of light. Jean sat with her chin in her palms and watched the glow brighten swiftly. Then some unseen force seemed to be pushing a bright yellow disk up through a gap in the hills, and the gap was almost too narrow, so that the disk touched either side as it slid slowly upward. At last it was up, launched fairly upon its leisurely, drifting journey across to the farther hills behind her. It was not quite round. That was because one edge had scraped too hard against the side of the hill, perhaps. But warped though it was, its light fell softly upon Jean’s face, and showed it set and still and stern-eyed and somber.
She sat there awhile longer, until the slopes lay softly revealed to her, their hollows filled with inky shadows. She drew a long breath then, and looked around her at the familiar details of the Bar Nothing dwelling-place, softened a little by the moonlight, but harsh with her memories of unhappy days spent there. She rose and went into the house and to her room, and changed the hated striped percale for her riding-clothes.
A tall, lank form detached itself from the black shade of the bunk-house as she went by, hesitated perceptibly, and then followed her down to the corral. When she had gone in with a rope and later led out Pard, the form stood forth in the white light of the moon.
“Where are you going, Jean?” Lite asked her in a tone that was soothing in its friendliness.
“That you, Lite? I’m going—well, just going. I’ve got to ride.” She pulled Pard’s bridle off the peg where she always hung it, and laid an arm over his neck while she held the bit against his clinched teeth. Pard never did take kindly to the feel of the cold steel in his mouth, and she spoke to him sharply before his jaws slackened.
“Want me to go along with you?” Lite asked, and reached for his saddle and blanket.
“No, I want you to go to bed.” Jean’s tone was softer than it had been for that whole day. “You’ve had all the riding you need. I’ve been shut up with Aunt Ella and her favorite form of torture.”
“Got your gun?” Lite gave the latigo a final pull which made Pard grunt.
“Of course. Why?”
“Nothing,—only it’s a good night for coyotes, and you might get a shot at one. Another thing, a gun’s no good on earth when you haven’t got it with you.”
“Yes, and you’ve
told me so about once a week ever since I was big enough to pull a trigger,” Jean retorted, with something approaching her natural tone. “Maybe I won’t come back, Lite. Maybe I’ll camp over home till morning.”
Lite did not say anything in reply to that. He leaned his long person against a corral post and watched her out of sight on the trail up the hill. Then he caught his own horse, saddled it leisurely, and rode away.
Jean rode slowly, leaving the trail and striking out across the open country straight for the Lazy A. She had no direct purpose in riding this way; she had not intended to ride to the Lazy A until she named the place to Lite as her destination, but since she had told him so, she knew that was where she was going. The picture-people would not be there at night, and she felt the need of coming as close as possible to her father; at the Lazy A, where his thoughts would cling, she felt near to him,—much nearer than when she was at the Bar Nothing. And that the gruesome memory of what had happened there did not make the place seem utterly horrible merely proves how unshakable was her faith in him.
A coyote trotted up out of a hollow facing her, stiffened with astonishment, dropped nose and tail, and slid away in the shadow of the hill. A couple of minutes later Jean saw him sitting alert upon his haunches on a moon-bathed slope, watching to see what she would do. She did nothing; and the coyote pointed his nose to the moon, yap-yap-yapped a quavering defiance, and slunk out of sight over the hill crest.
Her mind now was more at ease than it had been since the day of horror when she had first stared black tragedy in the face. She was passing through that phase of calm elation which follows close upon the heels of a great resolve. She had not yet come to the actual surmounting of the obstacles that would squeeze hope from the heart of her; she had not yet looked upon the possibility of absolute failure.
