Part 3 (1/2)
”Love it! Of course I love it! And so do you love it! And you were just as crazy about coming as I was--only you wouldn't admit it. It's just as Tex said that day way up on top of Antelope b.u.t.te. He was speaking of you and he said: 'He'll go back East and the refinement will cover him up again--and that's a d.a.m.ned shame. But he won't be just the same, because the prejudice is gone. He's chewed the meat of the cow country and found it good.' I've always remembered that, and it's true--you are not just the same, dear,” she reached over and took his hand in both of hers. ”And, oh, Win--I'm glad--glad!”
Endicott smiled as he raised the slim hand to his lips: ”Considerable of a philosopher--Tex. And cowboy par excellence. I hope we can find him.
If we buy the ranch I've been counting on him to manage it.”
”We've got to find him! And dear Old Bat, too! And, Win, won't it be just _grand_? We'll live out here in the summer and in the winter we'll go to New York and Florida, and we'll never, never go back to old Half-Way Between. The place fairly reeks of soap and whisky--and I don't care if their old soap does float!”
Again, Endicott laughed: ”I suppose it will do us lots of good. I'll probably spend my days in the saddle and come home smelling of horses, and covered with alkali dust.”
”Horses smell better than gas, anyway, and alkali dust is cleaner than coal-soot. Look, Win, quick! A family of Indians camped beside the trail--see the scrawny, sneaky-looking dogs and the ponies with their feet tied together, and the conical tepee. And, oh, on that red blanket--the darlingest little brown papoose! I can hardly wait to get into my riding clothes and gallop for miles! And, Win, dear, you've just got to promise me that if we do buy the ranch, you'll never bring a motor out here--not even a roadster--it would spoil everything!”
”Don't set your heart too strongly on buying that ranch,” cautioned her husband.
”But the man said he'd sell at a reasonable figure.”
”Yes, but you must remember that a 'reasonable figure', when you're talking about an outfit that runs ten thousand head of cattle mounts up into big money. It all depends upon the terms.”
”Well, if he wants to sell his old ranch, he'd be foolish to haggle over a little thing like terms. Some way, I just feel it in my bones that we're going to buy. A woman has intuition--you wait and see.”
”Colston was to meet us at Timber City today, and tomorrow we'll ride out and look over the ranch. Do you think you're up to a sixty-mile ride?”
”Sixty! I could ride six hundred!” The brake-shoes creaked as the driver drew his horses up for a breathing spell at the top of the divide.
”See!” Alice cried, pointing far out into the foothills. ”There is Timber City, with its little wooden buildings huddled against the pines exactly as it was a year ago today when we looked back at it from this very spot. And way beyond you can see the river glistening in the sun, and beyond that are the bad lands.” Involuntarily she shuddered: ”It's all as vivid as though it had happened yesterday--the dust storm, and the terrible thirst--only you and Tex cheated and gave me all the water.”
Endicott nodded: ”I don't think we'll ever forget it--it was a mighty close call for all of us.” The stage descended the long slope and wound in and out among the foothills, its two occupants contenting themselves with watching the lazy wheeling of the buzzards against the blue, and the antics of the prairie dogs that scolded and chickered at the stage, only to dive incontinently into their holes at its approach. The little steepleless church loomed up before them, and Endicott glanced at his watch: ”Four o'clock,” he announced, ”I wonder if Colston is waiting?”
”Well, if he is, he can wait a little longer,” smiled Alice. ”Because the first thing we do after we have removed some of this dust, will be to go right over and call on the Camerons--there's the cottage now, dear--just think, a year ago today we stood in that little corner room and Mr. Cameron p.r.o.nounced the words that made us two the happiest people in the world--stop--please--Win! We're right in town! And if we hurry we can be there at the very same hour and minute we were there last year.”
The stage drew up at the door of the little wooden hotel. The driver tossed his reins to the hostlers who were waiting with fresh horses, threw off the mail pouch, and lowered the express box to the ground where it was receipted for by the agent, who was also the post-master, and the proprietor of the hotel.
Endicott approached that dignitary who, mail pouch in hand, was gazing toward a little knot of men farther down the street: ”I want to engage two rooms and a bath,” he explained.
The man favoured him with a glance of surprise. ”Goin' to stop over?” he queried.
”Yes, my wife and I shall be here over night.”
”Married? What d'ye want of two rooms, then? Have 'em if you want 'em.
Cost you more--'tain't none of my business. Take them two front ones--head of the stairs. Just give a hand an' we'll git yer trunk up, an' quick as the old woman gits the worsh out you c'n have a tub of water--that'll be four-bits extry, though--an' a dollar if I've got to fill it up twict.” As they descended the stairs the man's eyes sought the group down the street: ”Must be somethin's comin' off down to the Red Front. The boys ain't missed a mail sence the day they strung up Red Kelley, an' that's seven year ago, come August the fourth----”
”Fifth,” corrected the stage driver who stood in the doorway.
”They brung Red in on the fourth, an' some of the boys hadn't got in yet, an' they didn't git in till after dark, so they helt Red over----”
”That was the third----”
”'Twasn't neither! I'd ort to know--it was the day my off leader throw'd his nigh fore shoe----”
Alice was manifesting impatience, and Endicott interrupted with a question: ”Is Mr. W. S. Colston here?”