Part 30 (1/2)

”Do you know why?”

The girl shook her head.

”Because he promised me he wouldn't take a drink until after he had talked with my husband. Win wants to see him on business. Wants to persuade him to keep the place he's held for a year, as foreman of the Y Bar. Win is going to buy the Y Bar.”

”The Y Bar!”

”Yes, do you know the Y Bar?”

The girl nodded slowly: ”I was born there, and lived there the most of my life. Dad moved over here onto Red Sand while I was away at school.

The Y Bar is--is like home to me.”

”Mr. Colston says he's the best foreman he ever had. You should hear him speak of him--of his taming a great wild stallion they call the Red King----”

”The Red King!” cried Janet, her eyes wide with excitement, ”I know the Red King--I've seen him often on the range. He's the most wonderful horse in the world. They said n.o.body could ride him. Once or twice men tried it--and the Red King killed them. And, did Tex ride him?”

Alice nodded: ”Yes, he rode him--tamed him so the great wild horse would come when he whistled. But he wouldn't brand him. And then, one night, he leaped onto his back without saddle or bridle and rode him straight out onto the open range--and turned him loose!”

The girl's eyes were s.h.i.+ning: ”Oh, I'm glad--glad! Wait till you see the Red King, and you will be glad, too. He's the embodiment of everything that's wild, and free, and strong. I should hate to think of him--branded--labouring under the saddle like a common cow-horse.”

”That's just what the Texan thought--so he turned him out onto the range again. It was a great big thing to do--and it was done in a great big way--by a man with a great big poetic soul.” There was a long silence during which the little clock ticked incessantly, Alice spoke again, more to herself than to the girl: ”What Tex needs is some strong incentive, something worth while, something to work for, to direct his marvellous energy toward--he needs someone to love, and who will love him. What he needs is not a sister--it's a wife.”

”Why didn't you marry him, then?” flashed the girl.

Alice smiled: ”He never asked me,” she answered, ”and I couldn't have married him, if he had. Because, really, I've always loved Win--for years and years.”

”Maybe he won't ask--anyone else, either. If he asks me, I won't marry him. I won't marry anybody!” She concluded with a defiant toss of the head.

”I certainly shouldn't either, if I felt that way. And if he should ask you, you stick to it, or you will spoil my plans----”

”Your--plans?” questioned the girl.

”Yes, I've got the grandest scheme. I haven't told a soul. When we get settled on the Y Bar I'm going to send for a friend of mine--she's a perfectly beautiful girl, and she's just as adorable as she is beautiful. And I'm going to make her come and pay us a long visit. I'm a great believer in propinquity, and especially out here----”

Janet sniffed audibly: ”She'd probably get lost the first thing----”

”That's it, exactly!” cried Alice enthusiastically. ”That's just what I'm counting on--and who would find her? Why Tex, of course! There you have it--all the ingredients of a first-cla.s.s romance. Beautiful maiden lost on the range--forlorn, homesick, wretched, scared. Enter hero--rescues maiden--if I could only work in a villain of some kind--but maybe one will turn up. Anyway, even without a villain it's almost sure to work--don't you think?”

Alice repressed a desire to smile as she noted the girl's flushed face, ”I--I think it's perfectly horrid! It's a--what do they call it? A regular frame-up! Suppose he don't love the girl? Suppose he don't want to marry her?”

Alice laughed: ”Well, then you may rest a.s.sured he won't marry her! He won't marry anyone he don't want to, and as the Irish say, 'by the same token,' when he finds the girl he wants to marry, he'll marry her. If I were a girl and he wanted to marry me, and I didn't want to marry him, I'd jump onto a horse and I'd ride and ride and ride till I got clear out of the cattle country.”

Janet stood up and drew on her gloves. ”Well, I must be going. It's nearly noon. Good-bye. Glad to have met you, I'm sure.”

”Good-bye,” called Alice, as the girl stepped from the door, ”and when we get settled at the Y Bar, do come over and see us--make us a nice long visit. Please!”

”Thank you, so much! I certainly shall--come to see you at the Y Bar.”

Alice Endicott smiled as she watched the girl stamp away toward the corral.

Declining the pressing invitation of both Jennie and Cinnabar Joe to stay for dinner, Janet mounted and rode across the creek.

”Well, I never!” exclaimed Jennie, as she watched her out of sight, ”she acted like she's mad! An' here I thought them two would hit it off fine.

Ain't that jest like women? I'm one myself, but--Gee, they're funny!”

Out on the bench Janet spurred the bay mare into a run and headed straight for the bad lands. A jack-rabbit jumped from his bed almost under her horse's hoofs, and a half-dozen antelope raised their heads and gazed at her for a moment before scampering off, their white tails looking for all the world like great bunches of down bobbing over the prairie--but Janet saw none of these. In her mind's eye was the picture of a slenderly built cowboy who sat his horse close beside hers, whose gloved hand slipped from her sleeve and gripped her fingers in a strong firm clasp. His hat rested upon the edge of a bandage that was bound tightly about his head--a bandage bordered with tatting. His lips moved and he was speaking to her, ”For G.o.d's sake, don't hinder--help!” His fine eyes, drawn with worry and pain, looked straight into hers--and in their depths she read--”Oh, I'm coming--Tex!” she cried aloud, ”I must find him--I must! If he knows she's safe--maybe he will--will stop hunting for Purdy! Oh, if anything should--happen to him--now!”