Part 2 (1/2)

CHAPTER III

He turned the horses about and took charge of her just as if he were accustomed to managing stray ladies in the wilderness every day of his life and understood the situation perfectly; and Margaret settled wearily into her saddle and looked about her with content.

Suddenly, again, the wide wonder of the night possessed her.

Involuntarily she breathed a soft little exclamation of awe and delight.

Her companion turned to her questioningly:

”Does it always seem so big here--so--limitless?” she asked in explanation. ”It is so far to everywhere it takes one's breath away, and yet the stars hang close, like a protection. It gives one the feeling of being alone in the great universe with G.o.d. Does it always seem so out here?”

He looked at her curiously, her pure profile turned up to the wide dome of luminous blue above. His voice was strangely low and wondering as he answered, after a moment's silence:

”No, it is not always so,” he said. ”I have seen it when it was more like being alone in the great universe with the devil.”

There was a tremendous earnestness in his tone that the girl felt meant more than was on the surface. She turned to look at the fine young face beside her. In the starlight she could not make out the bitter hardness of lines that were beginning to be carved about his sensitive mouth. But there was so much sadness in his voice that her heart went out to him in pity.

”Oh,” she said, gently, ”it would be awful that way. Yes, I can understand. I felt so, a little, while that terrible man was with me.”

And she shuddered again at the remembrance.

Again he gave her that curious look. ”There are worse things than Pop Wallis out here,” he said, gravely. ”But I'll grant you there's some cla.s.s to the skies. It's a case of 'Where every prospect pleases and only man is vile.'” And with the words his tone grew almost flippant. It hurt her sensitive nature, and without knowing it she half drew away a little farther from him and murmured, sadly:

”Oh!” as if he had cla.s.sed himself with the ”man” he had been describing. Instantly he felt her withdrawal and grew grave again, as if he would atone.

”Wait till you see this sky at the dawn,” he said. ”It will burn red fire off there in the east like a hearth in a palace, and all this dome will glow like a great pink jewel set in gold. If you want a cla.s.sy sky, there you have it! Nothing like it in the East!”

There was a strange mingling of culture and roughness in his speech. The girl could not make him out; yet there had been a palpitating earnestness in his description that showed he had felt the dawn in his very soul.

”You are--a--poet, perhaps?” she asked, half shyly. ”Or an artist?” she hazarded.

He laughed roughly and seemed embarra.s.sed. ”No, I'm just a--b.u.m! A sort of roughneck out of a job.”

She was silent, watching him against the starlight, a kind of embarra.s.sment upon her after his last remark. ”You--have been here long?” she asked, at last.

”Three years.” He said it almost curtly and turned his head away, as if there were something in his face he would hide.

She knew there was something unhappy in his life. Unconsciously her tone took on a sympathetic sound. ”And do you get homesick and want to go back, ever?” she asked.

His tone was fairly savage now. ”No!”

The silence which followed became almost oppressive before the Boy finally turned and in his kindly tone began to question her about the happenings which had stranded her in the desert alone at night.

So she came to tell him briefly and frankly about herself, as he questioned--how she came to be in Arizona all alone.

”My father is a minister in a small town in New York State. When I finished college I had to do something, and I had an offer of this Ashland school through a friend of ours who had a brother out here.

Father and mother would rather have kept me nearer home, of course, but everybody says the best opportunities are in the West, and this was a good opening, so they finally consented. They would send post-haste for me to come back if they knew what a mess I have made of things right at the start--getting out of the train in the desert.”

”But you're not discouraged?” said her companion, half wonderingly.

”Some nerve you have with you. I guess you'll manage to hit it off in Ashland. It's the limit as far as discipline is concerned, I understand, but I guess you'll put one over on them. I'll bank on you after to-night, sure thing!”

She turned a laughing face toward him. ”Thank you!” she said. ”But I don't see how you know all that. I'm sure I didn't do anything particularly nervy. There wasn't anything else to do but what I did, if I'd tried.”