Part 3 (1/2)
Zephyr was carefully adjusting the straps of his pack.
”It looks pretty much that way, Benjamin. When a man's got all he wants, it's time for him to lope. If he stays, he might get more and possibly--less.”
”What will I do with these sacks?” Bennie asked hurriedly, as Zephyr pa.s.sed through the door.
Zephyr made no reply, further than softly to whistle _Break the News to Mother_ as he swung into the trail. He clumped st.u.r.dily along, apparently unmindful of the rarefied air that would ordinarily make an unburdened man gasp for breath. His lips were still pursed, though they had ceased to give forth sound. He came to the nearly level terrace whereon, among scattered boulders, were cl.u.s.tered the squat shanties of the town of Pandora.
He merely glanced at the Blue Goose, whose polished windows were just beginning to glow with the light of the rising sun. He saw a door open at the far end of the house and Madame La Martine emerge, a broom in her hands and a dust-cloth thrown over one shoulder.
Pierre's labours ended late. Madame's began very early. Both had an unvarying procession. Pierre had much hilarious company; it was his business to keep it so. He likewise had many comforting thoughts; these cost him no effort. The latter came as a logical sequence to the former.
Madame had no company, hilarious or otherwise. Instead of complacent thoughts, she had anxiety. And so it came to pa.s.s that, while Pierre grew sleek and smooth with the pa.s.sing of years, Madame developed many wrinkles and grey hairs and a frightened look, from the proffering of wares that were usually thrust aside with threatening snarls and many harsh words. Pierre was not alone in the unstinted pouring forth of the wine of pleasure for the good of his companions and in uncorking his vials of wrath for the benefit of his wife.
Zephyr read the whole dreary life at a glance. A fleeting thought came to Zephyr. How would it have been with Madame had she years ago chosen him instead of Pierre? A smile, half pitying, half contemptuous, was suggested by an undecided quiver of the muscles of his face, more p.r.o.nounced by the light in his expressive eyes. He left the waggon trail that zig-zagged up the steep grade beyond the outskirts of the town, cutting across their sharp angles in a straight line. Near the foot of an almost perpendicular cliff he again picked up the trail. Through a notch in the brow of the cliff a solid bar of water shot forth. The solid bar, in its fall broken to a misty spray, fell into a mossy basin at the cliff's foot, regathered, and then, sliding and twisting in its rock-strewn bed, gurgled among nodding flowers and slender, waving willows that were fanned into motion by the breath of the falling spray.
Where the brook crossed the trail Zephyr stood still. Not all at once.
There was an indescribable suggestion of momentum overcome by the application of perfectly balanced power.
Zephyr did not whistle, even softly. Instead, there was a low hum--
_But the maiden in the garden Was the fairest flower of all._
Zephyr deliberately swung his pack from his shoulders, deposited it on the ground, and as deliberately seated himself on the pack. There was an unwonted commotion among the cl.u.s.ter of thrifty plants at which Zephyr was looking expectantly. A laughing face with large eyes sparkling with mischievous delight looked straight into his own. As the girl rose to her feet she tossed a long, heavy braid of black hair over her shoulder.
”You thought you would scare me; now, didn't you?” She came forth from the tangled plants and stood before him.
Zephyr's eyes were resting on the girl's face with a smile of quiet approbation. Tall and slender, she was dressed in a dark gown, whose sailor blouse was knotted at the throat with a red scarf; at her belt a holster showed a silver-mounted revolver. An oval face rested on a shapely neck, as delicately poised as the nodding flowers she held in her hand. A rich glow, born of perfect health and stimulating air, burned beneath the translucent olive skin.
Zephyr made no direct reply to her challenge.
”Why aren't you helping Madame at the Blue Goose?”
”Because I've struck, that's why.” There was a defiant toss of the head, a compressed frown on the arching brows. Like a cloud wind-driven from across the sun the frown disappeared; a light laugh rippled from between parted lips. ”Daddy was mad, awfully mad. You ought to have seen him.”
The flowers fell from her hands as she threw herself into Pierre's att.i.tude. ”'Meenx,'” she mimicked, ”'you mek to defy me in my own house?
Me? Do I not have plenty ze troub', but you mus' mek ze more? _Hein?_ Ansaire!' And so I did. So!” She threw her head forward, puckered her lips, thrusting out the tip of her tongue at the appreciative Zephyr.
”Oh, it's lots of fun to get daddy mad. 'Vaire is my whip, my dog whip?
I beat you. I chastise you, meenx!'” The girl stooped to pick up her scattered flowers. ”Only it frightens poor mammy so. Mammy never talks back only when daddy goes for me. I'd just like to see him when he comes down this morning and finds me gone. It would be lots of fun. Only, if I was there, I couldn't be here, and it's just glorious here, isn't it?
What's the trouble, Zephyr? You haven't said a word to me all this time.”
”When your blessed little tongue gets tired perhaps I'll start in.
There's no more telling when that will be than what I'll say, supposing I get the chance.”
”Oh, I knew there was something I wanted especially to see you about.”
The face grew cloudy. ”What do you think? You know I was sixteen my last birthday, just a week ago?” She paused and looked at Zephyr interrogatively. ”I want to know where you are all the time now. It's awfully important. I may want to elope with you at a moment's notice!”
She looked impressively at Zephyr.
Zephyr's jaw dropped.