Part 16 (1/2)

”Why, there are miles and miles of those corrals!” cried Bess, in wonder. ”You don't mean to say they are all for your father's cattle?”

”Oh, no, my dear. Several ranchers s.h.i.+p from Osaka,” explained Rhoda. ”And as we all s.h.i.+p at about the same season, there must be plenty of pens and cattle-chutes. Hurry, now. Get your things together.”

Bess scrabbled her baggage together, as usual leaving a good deal of it for somebody else to bring. This time it was Walter who gathered up her belongings rather than Nan.

”I never do know what I do with things,” sighed Bess. ”When I start on a journey I have so few; and when I arrive at my destination it does seem as though I am always in possession of much more than my share. Thank you, Walter,” she concluded demurely. ”I think boys are awfully nice to have around.”

”In that case,” said Rhoda, leading the way out of the car as the train slowed down, ”you are going to have plenty of boys to wait on you when you get to Rose Ranch. Those punchers are just dying for feminine 'scenery.' I know Ike Bemis once said that he often felt like draping a blanket on an old cow and asking her for a dance.”

”The idea!” gasped Mrs. Janeway, who was likewise making her first visit to the ranges.

At that moment Rhoda cried:

”There he is! There's Hess with the ponies.”

”Hess who?” asked Grace.

”Hess what?” demanded Nan, as the train stopped and the colored porter quickly set his stool at the foot of the car steps.

”Hesitation Kane,” explained Rhoda, hurrying ahead. ”Come on, folks! Oh, I am glad to get home!”

Bess, who was last, save Walter, to reach the station platform, gave one comprehensive glance around the barren place.

”Well!” she said. ”If this is home--”

”'Home was never like this,'” chuckled Walter.

A few board shacks, the station itself unpainted, sagebrush and patches of alkali here and there, and an endless trail leading out across a vista of flat land that seemed horizonless. The train steamed away, having halted but a moment. To all but Rhoda the scene was like something unreal. ”My goodness!” murmured Grace, ”even the moving pictures didn't show anything like this.”

”They say the desert scenes made by some of the movie companies are photographed at Coney Island. And I guess it's true,” said Walter.

Rhoda had run across the tracks toward where a two-seated buckboard, drawn by a pair of eager ponies, was standing. Beside it stood two saddle horses, their heads drooping and their reins trailing before them in the dust. The man who drove the ponies wore a huge straw sombrero of Mexican manufacture. When he turned to look at his employer's daughter the others saw a very solemn and sunburned visage.

”Oh, Hess!” cried Rhoda. ”How are you? Is mother all right?”

The man stared unblinkingly at her and his facial muscles never moved. He was thin-lipped, and his hawk nose made a high barrier between his eyes. He did not seem unpleasant, only naturally grim.

And silent! Well, that word scarcely indicated the character of Mr.

Hesitation Kane.

”Come on!” shouted Rhoda, looking back at her friends, and evidently not at all surprised that the driver of the buckboard did not at once reply to her questions. ”Mrs. Janeway, and Nan, and Bess, and Gracie--you all crowd into the buckboard. Walter and I are going to ride. Got my duds here, Hess?”

It was lucky Mr. Kane did not have to answer verbally. He thrust forward a bundle. Rhoda seized it and started for the station where there was a room in which she could change her clothes. Before she quite reached the platform the driver spoke his first word:

”Thanky, Miss Rhody. I'm fine.”

Rhoda nodded over her shoulder, laughing at the surprise and amus.e.m.e.nt of her friends, and disappeared. Walter helped the girls and Mrs. Janeway into the odd though comfortable vehicle. In a few moments Rhoda reappeared in a rough costume that even Mrs. Janeway had to admit did not make the Western girl any the less attractive.