Part 33 (1/2)
She was plumb unusual”
He seemed to ponder this a moment, and then resumed:
”It don't an to forget that anything else in the world orth having but her I'd lived in the woods all s and bees than I did about women; I hadn't been broke proper, and didn't kno to act with theirl, and I did fairly well There's so wild in every woman that needs to be tamed, and it isn't like the wildness that runs in wood critters; you can win that over by gentleness, but you have to take it away fro that couldn't talk wasthat when two of any species entle Even so, I reckon I'd have won out only for another man
Dan Bennett was his name--the kind that due adjoined h I'd never seen him, I heard stories now and then--the sort of tales you can't tell to a good woirl Still, I thought she'd surely find hinize the kind of felloas; but, Lord! a wo, and there wasn't any one to warn her There were plenty of woht, while she lived in the sunshi+ne; and women of that kind don't make complaint, anyhow
”This Bennett caaain in the night, and as I didn't drink nor listen to theball, e neverto Chandon
Understand, I wasn't too good for those amusements; I just didn't happen to hanker after thee of the little school-ma'am in my mind, and that destroyed what bad habits I'd foran to see I had notions about her, but my damned backwardness wouldn't letcloser to ore every shot at theoff until I could lay both oldmine at her feet, and ask her to take the two of us, so if one didn't pan out the other et into pay The closer I got the harder I worked, and, of course, the less I saw of her, likewise the oftener Bennett came I reckon no hteen hours, with six to sleep The skin caered when I caht, for the rock was hard, and I had no , and the hope of her was like drink and food and sleep to er till I could be sure Then I went down to my little shack and put on one so thin that they hung loose, andthe buttons, and got my shi+rt all bloody, for I'd been in the drift forty hours, without sleep and breathing powder smoke, till my knees buckled and wobbled under me To this day the smell of stale powder soing for hter than it has ever been for eighteen years The little school-house was closed, at which I reround for weeks and lost track of the days, so that I had to count the tiured it out I went on to where she was boarding
”The woman of the place came to the door, a Scotch-woman She had a mole on her chin, I remember, a brownish-black mole with three hairs in it She wore an apron, too, that was kind of checkered, and three buttons were open at the neck of her dress I recall a lot h the rest of what happened is rather dreaone away--gone with Bennett, the night before, while I was coughing blood from the powder smoke; that they were married in the front room, and that the bride looked beautiful She had cried a bit on leaving Chandon, and--and--that was about all I counted the buttons on the Scotchwoht or ten times, and by-and-by she asked if I was sick But I wasn't She was a kind-hearted woood deal, so she asked me to come in and rest I wasn't tired, so I went away, and climbed back up to the little shack and thefor the bottle, poured hilass of brandy, which he spilled into his throat raw, then continued:
”I turned into a kind of herot so they shunned e stories, because I heard therub once a es and other friends quit ot out a ton or two of rock and sold it, but I never worked the o inside the drift I tried it tiain, but the sed walls had left its ed and shi+vered worse than its seaes I could have sold it, but there was no place for o, and what did I ith money? I was shy of the world, like a crippled child that dreads the daylight, and I shrank froht seethe hurt that never got any better You see, I'd been raised a the hills and rocks, and I was like therow and alter and heal up
”Froladdeningout what bits of suffering were left in me, and I fairly ached for her nobody comes to see clearer than a wo to find out the kind of man Bennett was He wasn't like her at all, and the reason he had courted her so hotly was just that he had had everything that rightly belongs to a man like him, and had sickened of it, so he wanted her because she was clean and pure and different; and realizing that he couldn't get her any other way, he had married her But she was a treasure no bad man could appreciate, and so he tired quickly, even before the little one cahter I wrote her a letter, which took me a month to compose, and which I tore up One day a story came to me that made me saddle my horse to ride down and kill him--and,things
But I knew she would surely send for ear and hung it up, and waited and waited and waited Three long, endless years I waited, almost within sound of her voice, without a word frolimpse of her, and every hour of that time went by as slowly as if I had held my breath Then she called to me, and I went
”I tell you, I was thankful that day for the fortune that had ood care of rew ht as I raced down the valley, and the foaed onsun would show Dan Bennett's blood in its place I rode through the streets of Mesa, where they lived, and past the lights of his big saloon, where I heard the sound of devil's revelry and a shrill-voiced wo--a woman the like of which he had tried to make my Merridy I never skulked or sneaked in those days, and no man ever made me take back roads, so I caate-post She heard me on the steps and opened the door
”'You sent for hboring ca, at which I felt the way a thief must feel, for I'd hoped towhen the husband was out I couldn't think very clearly, however, because of the change in her She was so thin and worn and sad, sadder than any woirl I'd known three years before I guess I'd changed a heapshe spoke about, and the tears came into her eyes as she breathed:
”'Poor boy! poor boy! You took it very hard, didn't you?'”
”'You sent for me,' said I 'Which road did he take?'”
”'There's nothing you can do to him,' she answered back 'I sent for you to make sure that you still love an to cry, sobbing like a woman who has worn out all emotion
”'Can you feel the same after what I've made you suffer?' she said, and I reckon she ood at talking, and the sight of her, so changed, had taken the speech out ofbut aches and pains and ashes in its place
When she sahat she wished to know, she told h of to suspect Why she'd married the other man she couldn't explain herself, except that it was a woman's whim--I had stayed away and he had come the oftener--part pique and part the man's dare-devil fascination, I reckon; but a month had shown her how she really stood, and had shown him, too Likewise, she saw the sort of h and cruel to her, trying every way to break her spirit; and even the baby didn't stop hi--till he swore he'd oodness see lived with the kind of woman you have to beat, he tried it on her Then she knew her fight was hopeless, and she sent for me”
”'He's a fiend,' she told me 'I've stood all I can He'll make a bad woman of me as sure as he will of the little one, if I stay on here, so I have decided to go and take her with me'”
”'Where?' said I”
”'Wherever you say,' she answered; and yet I did not understand, not till I saw the look in her eyes Then, as it dawned on ood woirl!' she cried 'More than her life depends upon it We et her away from him'”
”She saas her only course, and here her heart was calling”