Part 35 (1/2)

”I'm sure Freeman--Professor Ward--will know you, for he also saw the placard.”

”That's no sign. Suppose he does--maybe he won't think it is his job to interfere. Anyway”--here his voice became decisive--”I won't leave you in such a fix as this.” His eyes spoke to her of that which his tongue could not utter. ”I wanted an excuse to come back, anyway,” he concluded. ”No matter what comes now, my job is here to protect you.”

She did not rebuke him, and Peggy--though she wondered at his tone--was too grateful for his presence even to question Alice's motive in permitting such remarks.

As for Alice, she felt herself more and more involved in the tangled skein of his mysterious life. His sudden and reckless abandonment of the old love which had ruined him, and the new and equally irrational regard which he now professed for her, filled her with a delicious marveling.

He appealed to a woman's imagination. He had the spice of the unknown.

In her relations.h.i.+p with Ward there was no danger, no mystery--his courts.h.i.+p narrowly escaped being commonplace. She had accepted his attentions and expected to marry him, and yet the thought of the union produced, at its warmest, merely a glow of comfort, a sense of security, whereas the hint of being loved and protected by this Rob Roy of the hills, this reckless Rough Rider of the wilderness, was instinct with romance. Of course his devotion was a crazy folly, and yet, lying there in her rough bunk, with an impenetrable wall of snow shutting out the rest of the world, it was hard not to feel that this man and his future had become an inescapable part of her life--a part which grew in danger and in charm from hour to hour.

Full two miles above the level of her own home, surrounded by peaks unscalably wild and lonely, deserted by those who should care for her, was it strange that she should return this man's adoring gaze with something of the primal woman's grat.i.tude and submission?

The noon darkened into dusk as they talked, slowly, with long pauses, and one by one the stirring facts of the rover's life came out. From his boyhood he had always done the reckless thing. He had known no restraint till, as a member of the Rough Riders, he yielded a partial obedience to his commanders. When the excitement of the campaigns was over he had deserted and gone back to the round-up wagon and the camp-fire.

In the midst of his confidences he maintained a reserve about his family which showed more self-mastery than anything else about him. That he was the black sheep of an honorable flock became increasingly evident. He had been the kind of lad who finds in the West a fine field for daredevil adventure. And yet there were unstirred deeps in the man. He was curious about a small book which Alice kept upon her bed, and which she read from time to time with serene meditation on her face.

”What is that?” he asked.

”My Bible.”

”Can I see it?”

”Certainly.”

He took it carefully and read the t.i.tle on the back, then turned a few of the leaves. ”I'm not much on reading,” he said, ”but I've got a sister that sends me tracts, and the like.” He returned to the fly-leaf.

”Is this your name?”

”Yes.”

”'Alice Mansfield,'” he read; ”beautiful name! 'New York City'! That's pretty near the other side of the world to me.” He studied the address with intent look. ”I'd like to buy this book. How much will you take for it?”

”I'll trade it for your weapon,” she replied.

He looked at her narrowly. ”You mean something by that. I reckon I follow you. No, I can't do that--not now. If I get into business over the line I'll disarm, but in this country a fellow needs to be protected. I want this book!”

”For the fly-leaf?”

He smiled in return. ”You've hit it.”

She hesitated. ”I'll give you the book if you'll promise to read it.”

He clapped the covers together and put the volume in his pocket. ”It's mine! I'll read every word of it, if it takes an age, and here's my hand on it.”

She gave him her hand, and in this clasp something came to her from his clutching fingers which sobered her. She drew her hand away hastily and said: ”If you read that book--and think about it--it will change your whole world.”

He, too, lost his brightness. ”Well, I'm not so anxious to keep up this kind of life. But if anybody changes me it will be you.”

”Hus.h.!.+” she warned with lifted finger.