Part 24 (1/2)

Even Daniel Moore reflected the good spirits of Miss Campbell and the Motor Maids, although his hat and coat and all his luggage had been carried away on the train. He had talked a little of Evelyn with Miss Helen before breakfast.

”Don't you think she is beautiful, Miss Campbell?” he asked.

”I certainly do; but she is very young and impetuous, and we must be extremely careful what we do, especially if you think she has been influenced against you in some way. Her father seems dreadfully stern and cruel. It made me s.h.i.+ver even to look at him.”

”He's really quite fanatic about his religion,” answered Mr. Moore. ”And you know what such people are-almost madmen; but he is crafty and shrewd and very cruel, and I would hate to involve you and the girls in any trouble. That is the reason I was hurrying on to Salt Lake City.

From the itinerary you gave me, I judged that would be your next address, and I wanted to stop you before you got into difficulties.”

”The girls have set their hearts on seeing Evelyn again,” said Miss Campbell, carefully refraining from mentioning that her own heart had some leanings in that direction also.

But the call to breakfast interrupted the conversation.

Another hour and the front of the little cabin appeared like an inscrutable face on the side of the mountain, with closed eyes and sealed lips. No need to bar the door now from the sheriff and his men, for the birds had flown. But because she was never to see the little house again, and because, in spite of everything, she had known some happiness there, Minnie dropped the calico curtain at the window and fastened the wooden latch on the door. It was the last rites before she buried her old life forever in the mountains and began a new one with Jim in the East.

With an expression of grave determination on her face she took her seat beside Nancy in the front and never once looked back until they had rounded the curve of the mountain.

n.o.body talked much on that morning ride. Billie was engaged in guiding the Comet carefully along the dangerous road which cut through a cleft in the mountain, and in many places was just wide enough for the car to pa.s.s. Sometimes they were on the edge of such dizzy heights that Miss Campbell held her breath and clenched her teeth to keep from crying out.

”I dare not even whisper,” she said to herself, ”for fear of startling that child at the wheel.”

She contented herself with clutching Daniel Moore's arm, but in her heart she doubted if even Jim's salvation was worth the risk of so many lives. As for the girls, they had hardly realized the dangers of the ride, so absorbed were they in the marvelous scenery. The snow caps of the distant ranges gleamed pink in the suns.h.i.+ne, and deep purple shadows lay on the ravines below.

As the Comet mounted up and up the steep grade, Miss Campbell's head became lighter and lighter, and her fears seemed to slip away. The high alt.i.tude had a strangely intoxicating effect on Nancy, too. She began to laugh just from the sheer joy of living.

”I feel like an inhabitant of Mars,” she said. ”Just a brains and a stomach, and no body. I haven't but two sensations-hunger and happiness.”

”Minnie, it's ten minutes of twelve o'clock,” said Billie presently.

”Are we anywhere near the Gap?”

The car had now turned a curve on the mountain and was going down grade.

”It's just down there,” answered Minnie, ”but I don't see Jim,” she added, looking about uneasily.

”Well, really--” began Miss Campbell, and paused.

The notion that Jim might not be there to guide them out of this wild country had never come to any of them.

”He's had a long ways to go to get here,” said Minnie. ”He's had to travel all night on horseback, but if nothin' happens to him, Jim'll keep his word. He ain't never broke it in his life.”

This was rea.s.suring in one way, but discouraging in another-if nothing happened! Why had it not occurred to them that many, many things could happen?

Miss Campbell looked reproachfully at Daniel Moore.

”Don't be uneasy,” he said. ”I daresay we can get a guide if Jim doesn't show up.”

The road now took a downward turn so precipitate that they wondered how the emigrant vans of the Mormons which had once traveled this way had been prevented from rolling over the horses and pitching headlong down the incline.

But the Comet made the down grade slowly and deliberately. Back of them they could see the road winding around the side of the mountain.

Suddenly a group of hors.e.m.e.n came into sight around the curve. They were mere specks of black against the white roadway at this distance, but Minnie recognized them.