Part 31 (2/2)

Margaret said nothing and he seized the bridle, pulled 'round the cayuse, and forced her to look down.

”Will you marry me at the Mission, Margaret?”

She met his glance and hers was proud. ”I think not, Jimmy. You are a white man and mean to take the proper line. But I will not marry you because I stopped the trooper.”

Jimmy threw back his head and she liked his frank, scornful laugh. ”Now, you're altogether ridiculous! Your stopping the fellow does not account for my wanting to marry you. Soon after I got to work at the ranch I knew I loved you, but I went to the mountains with Stannard and the trouble began. So long as the police were hunting for me I dared not urge you.”

”But now you urge me? It looks as if your scruples had vanished!”

Jimmy let go the bridle and bent his head. ”I suppose it does look like that. All the same, I love you.”

Margaret leaned down and touched him gently. ”You keep your rules, and your rules are good. Perhaps it's strange, but I think a woman will break conventions where a man will not. Still, you see, I'm proud----”

”You are very hard,” Jimmy rejoined. ”Yet you ran some risk to warn me.

I know your pluck, but if you had not loved me, I think you'd have stayed at Kelshope.”

”We'll let it go,” said Margaret in a quiet voice. ”There's another thing; ranching is a game for you, but it's my proper work. Yours is at the cotton mill. You're rich and your wife must be clever and cultivated.”

”I haven't known a girl with talents, grace and beauty like yours,”

Jimmy declared. ”Then I'm not rich yet, the police are on my track, and I may soon be a prisoner----” He looked up and added in a dreary voice: ”I admit it's not much of an argument for your marrying me.”

Margaret smiled ”Perhaps you were not logical, but we'll talk about it again, when we get to Green Lake. You mustn't talk now. I don't know if the trooper would stop long at the ranch, and we must cross the hill before the moon is up.”

She started her horse and they pushed on. An hour afterwards the moon rose from behind a broken range, and silver light touched the stiff dark pines. The high peaks sparkled; a glacier glimmered in the rocks, and the mists curling up from the valley were faintly luminous. Jimmy smelt sweet resinous smells and heard a distant river throb. The landscape was strangely beautiful, but its beauty was austere. All was keen, and cold, and bracing, and Jimmy, walking by Margaret's bridle, thought her charm was the charm of the stern and quiet North.

XXIV

JIMMY RESIGNS HIMSELF

The morning was calm and Jimmy, walking by Margaret's horse, turned his head. Faint, sweet notes stole across the rocks and he knew the distant chime of cow-bells. As a rule, the elfin music moved him. Where the cow-bells rang, cornfields and orchards advanced up the valleys and man drove back the forest, but Jimmy's satisfaction was blunted. For two days Margaret and he had pushed through the quiet woods. In the cold evenings they had talked by the snapping fire, but now the romantic journey was near its end.

After a few minutes Margaret stopped the horse. In front, dark pines rolled up the hill and the long rows of ragged tops looked like the waves of an advancing tide that broke against the rocks. Across the valley, the sun touched the snow, and at the bottom of a broken slope a lake sparkled. Jimmy saw its surface rippled, for a Chinook wind blew and the frost was gone. Near the end of the lake a plume of smoke streaked the trees.

”Green Lake ranch!” said Margaret.

For a few moments Jimmy was quiet. When they reached the valley he thought the strange charm he had felt in the mountains would vanish; it was too fine and elusive for him to recapture. Until they started for Green Lake, he had not known Margaret. Cleverer than himself at woodcraft, she had a man's strength and pluck. She did not grumble; she was frank and not embarra.s.sed. Yet a womanly gentleness marked her, and she did not think for herself. Although her touch was light, Jimmy had felt her control and took the line she meant him to take. In the meantime they were not lovers, but partners in romantic adventure.

”For your sake, I'm glad we'll soon reach your cousin's house,” he said.

”I don't know if I'm glad for mine.”

Margaret smiled but gently shook her head. ”You must play up, Jimmy!”

”I have played up. Perhaps it's strange, but in the woods to be content because we were pals was not hard. Now we'll soon reach your cousin's, I'm not content, and one is forced to think----”

”For a time you must think about beating the police; that's all,” said Margaret firmly.

<script>