Part 57 (2/2)
”Ahuh!... Wal, wal, life is a h.e.l.l of a deal! Wade, if you could live yours over again, knowin' what you know now, an' that you'd love an'
suffer the same--would you want to do it?”
”Yes. I love life, with all it brings. I wouldn't have the joy without the pain. But I reckon only men who've come to our years would want it over again.”
”Wal, I'm with you thar. I'd take what came. Rain an' sun!... But all this you tell, an' the h.e.l.l you hint at, ain't changin' this hyar deal of Jack's an' Collie's. Not one jot!... If she remains my adopted daughter she marries my son.... Wade, I'm haltered like the north star in that.”
”Belllounds, will you take a day to think it over?” appealed Wade.
”Ahuh! But that won't change me.”
”Won't it change you to know that if you force this marriage you'll lose all?”
”All! Ain't that more queer talk?”
”I mean lose all--your son, your adopted daughter--his chance of reformin', her hope of happiness. These ought to be all in life left to you.”
”Wal, they are. But I can't see your argument. You're beyond me, Wade.
You're holdin' back, like you did with your h.e.l.l-bent story.”
Ponderously, as if the burden and the doom of the world weighed him down, the hunter got up and fronted Belllounds.
”When I'm driven to tell I'll come.... But, once more, old man, choose between generosity an' selfishness. Between blood tie an' n.o.ble loyalty to your good deed in its beginnin'.... Will you give up this marriage for your son--so that Collie can have the man she loves?”
”You mean your young pard an' two-bit of a rustler--Wils Moore?”
”Wils Moore, yes. My friend, an' a man, Belllounds, such as you or I never was.”
”No!” thundered the rancher, purple in the face.
With bowed head and dragging step Wade left the room.
By slow degrees of plodding steps, and periods of abstracted lagging, the hunter made his way back to Moore's cabin. At his entrance the cowboy leaped up with a startled cry.
”Oh, Wade!... Is Collie dead?” he cried.
Such was the extent of calamity he imagined from the somber face of Wade.
”No. Collie's well.”
”Then, man, what on earth's happened?”
”Nothin' yet.... But somethin' is goin' on in my mind.... Moore, I'd like you to let me alone.”
At sunset Wade was pacing the aspen grove on the hill. There was sunlight and shade under the trees, a rosy gold on the sage slopes, a purple-and-violet veil between the black ranges and the sinking sun.
Twilight fell. The stars came out white and clear. Night cloaked the valley with dark shadows and the hills with its obscurity. The blue vault overhead deepened and darkened. The hunter patrolled his beat, and hours were moments to him. He heard the low hum of the insects, the murmur of running water, the rustle of the wind. A coyote cut the keen air with high-keyed, staccato cry. The owls hooted, with dismal and weird plaint, one to the other. Then a wolf mourned. But these sounds only accentuated the loneliness and wildness of the silent night.
Wade listened to them, to the silence. He felt the wildness and loneliness of the place, the breathing of nature; he peered aloft at the velvet blue of the mysterious sky with its deceiving stars. All that had been of help to him through days of trial was now as if it had never been. When he lifted his eyes to the great, dark peak, so bold and clear-cut against the sky, it was not to receive strength again. Nature in its cruelty mocked him. His struggle had to do with the most perfect of nature's works--man.
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