CHAPTER XVIII
PLOTS AND COUNTERPLOTS
Fourth of July was at hand, and Lucy Bancroft made ready for their stayat the Socorro Springs ranch with a resolve in her heart. Some timeduring their two days' visit she would tell Curtis Conrad the truthabout her father. Of course, many people would be there, and thesuperintendent would be busy, but she expected to see a good deal ofhim--he was sure to show her much attention--and it would not be hard tofind the few minutes of privacy in which to impart the secret. She wasquite sure that the knowledge would bring to a harmless end his longquest of vengeance, and that at once he would cease his pursuit ofDelafield. But she was equally sure that he would no longer love her orbe friendly with her father. "He can't respect either of us after that,"she mused. "He'll feel toward us just as he does toward Mr. Baxter; andI can't blame him, for we're worse than Mr. Baxter is." Her heartpleaded eagerly for a little period of grace in which to feel his loveand live it, to take delight in his favor and admiration. She need nottell him at the outset.
While Lucy was considering and deciding upon her action, on the morningbefore the Fourth, Mrs. Ned Castleton was saying to her husband in theprivacy of the great, empty plain across which they were taking an earlygallop:
"I know why Lena was so willing to come down here with Turner and us.You'd never guess, Ned."
"Of course I couldn't, Francisquita. So you'll have to tell me."
"I know I shall have to, for you'd never discover it yourself, until toolate to do anything about it. She didn't come because she wanted to seethe place,--though she's never been here before, you know,--nor becauseshe thought it would be something unusual to do, nor because she caresany more about Turner's affairs than she did last year, nor even becauseshe wanted to keep track of me, nor because--"
"Never mind the didn'ts, Fanny! Let's skip ahead to why she did."
"That's just like you, Ned. You never can understand what a flavor itgives to something that really _is_ to consider first all the thingsthat it _isn't_."
"Well, you've had the flavor, now you can give me the fact. I'vewondered myself why she was so gracious about coming with us."
"Yes; wasn't it surprising? It puzzled me so that I couldn't give upthinking about it until I solved the mystery."
"And aren't you going to let me into the secret?"
"Of course I am, Ned; that's what I'm doing right now! I studied aboutit on the way here, and I managed to find out a lot of things it wasn't.But I didn't discover what it was till after we reached the ranch."
"Well, what did you find out then?"
"Why, Ned, I'm telling you just as fast as I can! Although I think Iknow Lena pretty well, and am quite accustomed to her doing things thatnobody else would think of, really, Ned, I was so surprised at thisfreak that you could have knocked me down with a feather!"
Ned Castleton looked caressingly at the slender, graceful figure of hiswife, erect upon her horse, and smiled broadly. "Fanny, I'm in thatcondition right now, from unassuaged curiosity. Please knock me downwith a feather and then go on and tell me this deep, dark secret."
She tickled his cheek with her quirt. "Why, Ned, I've been telling youall about it for the last five minutes, but you won't understand what Imean. It's all because she's immensely taken with your handsomesuperintendent, and she's deeply interested in the cattle businessbecause she wants him to explain it to her!"
Castleton gave an incredulous laugh. "Nonsense, Francisquita! You are aclever woman, my dear, especially when it comes to divining what yourdearly beloved sister-in-law is planning to do year after next. But youtwo women do get most remarkable notions about each other sometimes."
Mrs. Castleton shrugged her shoulders, tapped her horse, and boundedahead. They raced for a mile before she allowed him to regain his placeat her side. "Granting that you're right, Francisquita," he said, "whatmakes you think so?"
"Why, Ned, it's perfectly plain. I've seen Lena pave the way for toomany flirtations not to know exactly what she's doing now. And she'spreparing to have a perfectly furious affair with Mr. Conrad."
Castleton kept discreet silence for some moments and studied thehorizon. When he turned again to his wife he asked, "Well, dear, whatare you going to do about it?"
Francisquita Castleton was half Mexican, and on her mother's side couldtrace descent through a long line of dons back to a valiant governor andcaptain-general of the province who had done great deeds nearly twohundred years before. Her heritage had dowered her well with theinstinctive coquetry, the supple, unconscious grace, the feminine,artless art that are the birthright of the women of Spanish blood. Allof it was in the movement of her arm, the turn of her neck, and thepoise of her head as she raised her veil and lifted her face toward herhusband. Her voice was as soft as velvet and as caressing as an infant'spalm as she exclaimed:
"Do anything? I? Why, Ned Castleton, how you surprise me! Why should Iinterfere with Lena's whims?"
Castleton laughed. "Ask me something easy, Fanny! I'm sure I don't knowwhy you should, but I've noticed that Lena's plans sometimes shrivel uplike a stuck balloon. Of course, it may be mere chance."
"No, Ned; it isn't chance at all. It's only because Lena doesn't plancarefully enough."
He took time for reflection. "I say, Francisquita," he presently brokeout, "if you're right about this--and I must admit you don't often missit about Lena--it may be a serious matter."
"Of course I'm right, Ned. You'll soon see for yourself just how thingsare going. You know Lena likes admiration and she likes having her ownway and she dearly loves making Turner jealous and she's positivelyunhappy if every man in sight isn't prancing along in her train. Mr.Conrad is a fine-looking young man, and he made a very good appearancewhen she saw him in San Francisco last year. I suppose she thought hedidn't yield to her fascinations as he should, so she decided to comedown here and gather him in. She knows she'll be awfully bored unlessshe can make her flirtation with him--well--ardent enough to keep herinterested. I know enough about Lena to see that she's planning to havean affair that will keep her and Turner and Mr. Conrad simply sizzlingas long as we stay."
Castleton gave a long, low whistle. "Turner gets more jealous with everyflirtation Lena has, and this whim of hers may prove serious. Conrad isthe best superintendent this ranch ever had, and we want to keep him.But if Turner gets jealous he'll have to go--and mighty quick, too. Andif he doesn't promptly succumb to Lena's fascinations--well, she's justvain enough to carry some story about him to Turner, so that we'd haveto let him out for the sake of peace. We can't afford to lose Conrad,Fanny. I'll propose to Turner that we cut our stay short and go the dayafter the Fourth. We'll have to be here for the barbecue, of course."
"Really, Ned, that's just like a man! Don't you know Lena can't bemanaged that way? She'd suspect at once that I was at the bottom of itand wanted to get her away from here, and then nothing could induce herto go. And you know, Ned, she always winds Turner around her finger asif he were a piece of silk. I can't understand why American wives takeso much pleasure in managing their husbands; we Mexican women don't careto do that sort of thing." It was a prim little figure that pronouncedthe last sentence--save for the coquettish turn of the head and amelting glance of dark eyes that flashed for a moment upon her husband.
He bent toward her a lover's face. "But you know how to manage just thesame, Francisquita, _mi corazon_. Can't you think of some way to headLena off and get her away before she does any mischief?"
Francisquita turned a contemplative eye upon the forest ofcrimson-flowered cactus through which they were riding. "Well, I don'tknow that I can do anything--still, Lena's methods are always so--broad!I suppose I might try, if you'd like me to. It might have some effect ifI stepped in right away--you wouldn't mind it, would you, Ned?--and dida little flirting with Mr. Conrad on my own account; not very much, youknow; but I could manage to keep him busy about things--oh, youunderstand!--just make it pleasant for him to be with me. Really, Ned,Lena hasn't much chance if I start even with
her; we've tried itbefore--you remember--I told you all about it at the time--and I thinkshe'll quit right away and want to go home, or somewhere, as soon as shesees what I'm doing."
Castleton laughed aloud. "And poor Conrad! What's to become of him inthe midst of all these sighs and glances?"
She threw him a smiling glance, and broke into a little, low laugh. "Oh,he won't mind! He's no silly! And he doesn't care anything about theladies, anyway."
"But suppose, Fanny," her husband teased, "that he should prefer Lena'smethods after all, and cast himself at her feet instead of yours?"
She shrugged her shoulders and turned toward him with a smile tremblingat the corners of her mouth. "Oh, in that case he would quite deserve tolose his position."
"But what about me? Should I deserve to lose him?"
She tapped her horse and darted ahead, throwing back a laughing retort:"Of course you would, for not having married a more attractive wife!"
Later in the day Mrs. Ned Castleton was busily engaged with CurtisConrad and his brother Homer in the grove of cottonwoods across the roadfrom the ranch house, showing them where to hang the last of theJapanese lanterns. Many people had already arrived and were scatteredthrough the grove, or were wandering about the corral. Others were inthe stockade behind the house, where Red Jack, Nosey Ike, and JoseGonzalez were quartering the steer for the barbecue, and Hank Peters andTexas Bill were heaping wood on the fire where it was to be roasted. Inthe grove long tables had been made of planks and a floor laid fordancing. The lanterns hung in festoons around the platform and dependedfrom the branches of the trees. Conrad saw Bancroft, Lucy, and Miss Dentdriving up, and went to meet them.
Mrs. Ned Castleton beckoned to her husband. "I'm sure Lena is going todo something perfectly outrageous," she said softly as they went togreet the arrivals, "something that will fairly knock us off our feet.She has looked so indifferent and so innocent all day and has been sosweet to me that I'm expecting a thunder clap every minute. I hope itwon't be anything disgraceful."
It was one of Mrs. Ned's important occupations, and she considered ither chief duty, for the sake, as she often told her husband, "ofpreserving at least a shred of the Castleton reputation," to discoverthe daring whims of her sister-in-law and nip them in the bud beforethey were ready to blossom upon the world. Francisquita knew also thatMrs. Turner enjoyed saying and doing audacious things, quite as muchbecause they shocked Mrs. Ned as because they gave her a piquant voguein San Francisco society. "I wonder what it is going to be," sherepeated in a whisper to her husband as they came back with Conrad andthe Bancroft party and went in search of Mrs. Turner. They found hersitting beside one of the tables, the centre of a group of men. Lucy,looking with interest, saw a large, golden-haired woman in a blue linengown, that fitted perfectly her well corseted figure, and a blue picturehat, that matched the hue of her eyes. Her complexion of exquisitefairness and delicacy of coloring, and features of perfect regularityand proportion, made Lucy own to herself that she deserved herreputation as "the beautiful Mrs. Castleton."
"What are we going to do all the rest of the day?" Mrs. Turner presentlysaid, hiding a little yawn behind diamond-decked fingers. "It isn'tthree o'clock yet, and it seems as if it ought to be the day afterto-morrow. Let's go in the house and play I'm a barber. Mr. Conrad, willyou let me shave you?"
A thrill of shocked astonishment went through the group. Lucy droppedher eyes and felt her cheeks burn and Miss Dent turned uneasily away.Some of the men looked at one another and grinned; others caught theirbreath and avoided their neighbors' eyes. Conrad masked a moment'shesitation with a gay laugh.
"I would, with pleasure, Mrs. Castleton, if I had time; but just now I'mpretty busy. Here's a lot of fellows with nothing to do, who'll bedelighted to help you amuse yourself."
Mrs. Castleton glanced up at the men with a confiding smile. "I believeit's really because he's afraid; and he needn't be, for I do it verywell--don't I, Ned?" Her brother-in-law gave gallant, if vague,confirmation, and she went on: "And he knows, for I shave him every timehe comes to our house. But there's too much wind out here, it would drythe lather too quickly; let's go in the house." She rose, and one of themen hastened to open her sunshade, another picked up her fan, a thirdher handkerchief, and the statuesque blue figure with its group ofsatellites left the grove.
"What does it mean, Fanny? Is this a new fad?" Ned Castleton asked hiswife. "I never heard of it before, and she took my breath away when shetold those people she always shaved me."
"You backed her up splendidly, Ned; and I think you'd better go in nowand let her shave you along with the others."
"Fanny! I'd as soon allow her to black my boots!"
"But if she wants to, Ned! And I don't think she'd hurt you much,because she's been practising on their butler for a month--so her maidtold mine, though I'd forgotten all about it. As Turner's brother Ireally think you ought to go in and seem to join in the fun, so it won'tlook quite so bad."
"If Lena doesn't care about the looks of it, why should I, or you?"
"But you ought to care on Turner's account. It would be dear of you,Ned, if you would go in, for Turner's sake, and lend your countenance tothe affair."
"My countenance, Francisquita, but not my face. Since you're so anxious,dear, I'll go in and chaperon this shaving party if you'll tell me thereal reason why you want me to do it. Is it a bargain?"
She leaned toward him with a delighted little chuckle. "Don't you see,Ned, that if you go in and I stay out she'll think that I'm keeping Mr.Conrad out-of-doors, and she will be so angry about it that it will makeher nervous, so she will cut their faces dreadfully, and that will makeher freak such a failure that she'll have to drop it. Do go along, Ned;for I'm going to keep your manager busy for the next two hours. And, bythe way, dear, if you should come out and not see me anywhere, it'slikely to be because he's asked me to drive to the post-office withhim."
She sauntered through the grove toward the pond where a group of peoplehad gathered under a big tree. She knew that Curtis was there, with theBancrofts. Her cousin Juan--"Johnny"--Martinez was with them, and so wasDellmey Baxter. Dan Tillinghurst leaned against the tree, and beside himwere Emerson Mead and his young wife, from Las Plumas. Judge Harlan andColonel Whittaker, the former with his wife and the latter with hisdaughter, had also come from Las Plumas, where a political peace ofunusual length and stability enabled them to leave town at the sametime, and together.
Mrs. Castleton came smiling down the hill and joined in the generaltalk. But in five minutes the assemblage had broken into little groupsof two or three, of which she, her cousin, and Conrad made one. She sentMartinez to do some small service for Miss Whittaker, and began to tellCurtis that she feared there were not lanterns enough. Would he come andlook at them? As they went back to the grove she suggested that theymight get paper bags from the store at White Rock, fill each half fullof sand, put a candle in it, and set them in rows wherever there wasroom for them. She had often seen her native town illuminated in thisway on _festa_ nights, and the effect was really very beautiful. Hethought it a good idea and asked if she would mind driving over to WhiteRock with him to help select the best sizes and colors. Five minuteslater Lucy watched them driving away. "I saw how Mrs. Castleton wasmanoeuvring," she thought with an angry throb of the heart. "But itdoesn't matter the least bit. I can have quite as good a time withanybody else."
Presently she seemed greatly pleased when Homer Conrad asked if she andMiss Dent would like to see the horses. They made the round of thestables, and went to see the angora goats in their enclosure beyond thecorral, and the dog kennels, and the chicken yard. They walked acrossthe alfalfa field, and amused themselves in the prairie dog village onthe hillside beyond. Lucy was so interested in everything, and said somany bright and pleasant things, and was so vivacious, and looked sopretty with her dimples and her color coming and going and her big browneyes sparkling, that Homer thought her quite the nicest, jolliest girlhe had seen in a long time. He was much like his brot
her in build,though less sinewy and a trifle fleshier in body; while in manner he wasslower and less eager and alert. His eyes showed the same bright bluetint, but their expression was mild and trustful, while his brother'shad always a dauntless look, as if challenging the world. His face wasof the same general type, but the features were not so strongly marked,although he had the same firm mouth and strong chin. His countenancegave the impression of a character phlegmatic but forceful.
That evening Lucy told Miss Dent that she liked Don Homer very much,adding, "And he's been more polite and pleasant to us this afternoonthan Mr. Conrad himself." Mrs. Ned Castleton had applied the Spanishtitle to the younger Conrad to distinguish him from his brother, andthe rest had followed her example. Louise was secretly pleased at thisdissatisfaction with Curtis, for her aversion to him was so great thatshe disliked even to see them together. But she reminded the girl thatwith so many people there he could not pay much attention to specialones. Lucy tossed her head and replied, "He had plenty of time for Mrs.Ned Castleton."
Evening came, and with it a huge white moon that poured upon earth andair and sky a flood of silvery white radiance in which the illuminationsat the ranch shone with a mellow, golden glow. Mrs. Ned Castleton sat onthe edge of the porch, her guitar in her lap, looking with satisfactionat the rows of paper bags, each containing a lighted candle in its bedof sand, set thickly upon the window-sills, the adobe walls, and thetables in the grove. They were not only effective, but they had enabledher to keep Curtis Conrad out of the hands of her sister-in-law theentire afternoon. Mrs. Turner had only just gone across to the grove, inthe belief, subtly engendered by Francisquita, that the superintendentwas to be found there, where most of the company had gathered and thedancing was about to begin. She knew, however, that he was overseeingthe stowing of some cases of beer in the ice house in the back-yard. Andshe had not forgotten that when he was at their house in San Franciscohe had been much pleased by her rendering of Spanish airs on the guitar."He doesn't need to appear in the grove," she thought, "until Lena hashad time to engage several dances." She began to play "La Golondrina,"and as the sweetly plaintive notes rose higher, Lucy, looking houseward,saw a tall figure vault the wall around the grass plot and disappear inthe shadows of the porch, whence came the strains of Mrs. Ned's guitar.A little later she saw them come across the road together, and at oncebecame deeply interested in the talk of Don Homer, her partner, as theymade their way to the dancing floor. Lucy danced twice with him, oncewith Martinez, and once with Emerson Mead before she made it possiblefor Curtis to speak with her. She knew he had been hovering near morethan once, but she would not see him, and appeared always to be gaylyinterested with her partner.
She gave him only one dance during the evening. But, noting hismovements, she had seen with much bitterness of heart that he dancedfrequently with Mrs. Ned Castleton. She began to wonder, with chilldoubt in her breast, if she had deceived herself in thinking he caredfor her. She had expected to see so much of him; and yet, except for thefirst half-hour after their arrival, he seemed to have ignored her. Shebegan to realize that she had depended much on her belief in his lovewhen she resolved to tell him the secret of her father's identity. Shestill had confidence that her words would turn him from his purpose--butit was going to be a hard thing to do!
"Mrs. Ned is just amusing herself," she thought angrily. "She ought tobe ashamed--married woman flirting like that! Well--he's not the onlyone!" And before the evening was over Homer Conrad had neither eyes norears for any one but Lucy Bancroft.
The house was given over to the ladies for the night. The men had ablanket apiece, and all the wide out-doors in which to couch themselves.Some climbed to the flat adobe roof of the house, or to the brush thatchof the stables, while others declared the ground in the grove goodenough for them. It was decided by unanimous outcry that the dancingplatform should be turned over to Dellmey Baxter and Johnny Martinez,the opposing candidates for Congress.
First they all went trooping, each with his blanket stringing over hisshoulder, to the kitchen door, where Conrad and the two Castletonsdispensed nightcaps of varied concoction. The women heard them talking,story-telling, laughing, and now and then singing a snatch from somerollicking song. When the last light disappeared from within the house,a group of men began singing "Good-Night, Ladies." A round of vigorousapplause from the darkened windows rewarded them, and they went on with"Annie Laurie," "Comin' through the Rye," and "How Can I Bear to LeaveThee." Johnny Martinez sang a Spanish love song in a falsetto voice, andreceived much applause from within.
The men sang their way along the windows, up one side of the long,rambling house, across the front, and down the other side. They climbedto the roof, and serenaded the men who were trying to sleep there,varying the line or two of song accorded to each with much chaffing andguying. When the last straggling half-dozen of singers finally went offto seek their own resting-places in the grove, they marched in singlefile round and round the dancing floor, where Baxter and Martinez hadalready stretched themselves, and sang in a solemn croak: "John Brownhad one little, two little Indian boys; one went to Congress, the otherstayed at home."
When peace settled at last over the Socorro Springs ranch house it wasnear the dawn of another day.
The Delafield Affair Page 18
