Part 2 (1/2)
His silence had a ruminative quality, as though he were turning my reply over in his mind.
A few miles went by without conversation before he finally offered a faintly reproachful remark of his own.
”We didn't expect Mr. Lange. While the house is a large one, of course, much of it is closed up, and there has been no preparation for another guest. I'm not sure Mrs. Morgan-” He floundered, and I knew the proprieties were worrying him.
Hillary heard and turned in the front seat. ”Don't worry about me. If there's a motel or a boardinghouse, that's where I'll plan to stay. I don't want to inconvenience anyone.”
There was relief in Caleb Hawes' response. ”There's the Timberline Hotel, though I'm not sure Mrs. Morgan will ap- 33.prove of your staying there. It's the only place in town, so perhaps they can put you up until we-uh-have told her about your being here.”
In other words, break the news that Persis' granddaughter had arrived accompanied by a man, I thought.
”What's wrong with the Timberline?” I asked.
”Nothing. Nothing at all. It's running, and it has been recently renovated. A man named Mark Ingram has taken o er and opened up the hotel.”
Again he paused, and I sensed something hesitant in his manner, though I'd have said Caleb Hawes was hardly a hesitant man.
In the front seat Hillary turned again to fix him with a look that seemed almost challenging. I hoped he wouldn't take to baiting the people I must make my peace with.
”Is this the man Laurie's grandmother hinted about in her letter?” he asked. ”The one who is supposed to be trying towhat was the word she used?-to destroy her?”
”An unfortunate choice of expression,” Caleb Hawes said. ”He's hardly attempting that.”
”Just the same, he's as good as bought up most of the town/' Jon Maddocks said unexpectedly. Until now he had been mostly silent, giving his attention to his driving. ”Ingram would like to buy Mrs. Morgan out too, but she has gumption enough to resist him.”
Caleb Hawes cleared his throat with a sound that seemed to carry cold disapproval for our driver. ”We can discuss all this at some more suitable time. The point is that the Timberline is available and almost empty.”
”That sounds fine to me,” Hillary said, and I heard a certain relish in his voice. All this was an adventure to him, and I suspected that he might enjoy tilting at a few windmills. There were times when I wasn't sure he understood my own predicament as fully as I'd have liked.
34.By this time we had pa.s.sed through the town of Broomfield. There was an open stretch as we followed the mesa, with a spectacular view of Boulder and its environs, before the road dipped down into Boulder Valley-that great bowl at the base of the Flatirons.
Caleb Hawes broke the long silence during which I'd watched the mountains hungrily, and moved for the first time into a more personal area. ”What is your work, Mr. Lange? What brings you to Colorado?”
”At the moment Laurie brings me,” Hillary told him cheerfully. ”She didn't want to face an unknown situation alone, so I came along. To fend off Indians, or whatever. As for my work -I'm an actor.”
”A very good one,” I put in, sounding too eager to convince.
The lawyer decided to ignore Hillary for the moment, and went on to address me. ”Mrs. Morgan did not consult me about your coming. If she had, I'd have advised against it.” He looked away, out the window at the mountains that were coming a little closer all the time as we drove. ”For the moment I'm staying at the house myself, since your grandmother's state of mind and health have grown precarious.”
”Can you tell me what's wrong?” I asked. ”I mean why she sent for me now?”
”She'll tell you herself. Though she may not see you until tomorrow. She was in bed when I left this morning, and it seemed likely she would stay there.”
”Is she ill then?”
”I suppose you could call it that. Ill of old age. Do you remember her at all from your visits as a child?”
”Only a little,” I said cautiously.
”I was surprised that you were willing to return, Miss Morgan. I remember the state you were in when your mother took you away.”
”You-remember?”
”Yes, of course. After all, I was there in the house when- 35.that is, at the time you left. My father was head of our Denver law firm, but he was ill and I had come up to Jasper to take care of some business for Mrs. Armand.”
He was going too fast for me. I felt suddenly cold in spite of the bright day and the western sun still flowing over the tops of the mountain range we followed.
”Mrs. Armand?” I repeated.
”Yes-surely you remember that your grandmother was Mrs. Noah Armand at that time. It was only after Noah-went away-that she took back the name of her first husband-Morgan. It's a respected name out here.”
Armand. That was the last name I hadn't been able to remember. And Noah was the name that sometimes came into my mind carrying some frightening connotation that I always turned away from.
I spoke hurriedly, hating the tension in my voice. ”I'd better tell you-I don't remember anything about the time when I last visited my grandmother. I was ill when my mother brought me East and I was in a hospital for a while. Afterward there was a gap in my memory. So it's all gone.”
I was aware of the half-turn of Jon Maddocks' head before he attended again to his driving, but he didn't speak. At my side Caleb Hawes' straight mouth tightened.
”Perhaps it's wiser not to remember. Your grandmother will be just as glad. She doesn't want to recall that time either.”
It was hard not to s.h.i.+ver. How long could I remain outwardly calm in the company of those who remembered every detail of what I had so completely forgotten? I tried to remind myself that this was the reason for my coming-to know, to find out. Only I mustn't go too fast. I must take this a step at a time, so that I could learn how to deal with it in a way that wouldn't overpower me and send me over that precipice I feared.
In the front seat Hillary had turned to watch me, his look in- ^^^^^^^^^Bl^^^^ 36.tent, and I knew that he half expected me to crack, to fall apart in terror, sooner or later. But that I was determined not to do, and I managed a smile.
”We're missing the mountains,” I said. ”Let's not talk. Let's just watch.”
We were driving through Boulder now, and I could see the thousand-foot-high Flatirons, with their jagged peaks slicing the sky. Then the road took us up Boulder Canyon to Nederland, and on west.
I recognized nothing of what I saw. I could look at the spectacular scenery with the eyes of a stranger seeing it for the first time. With a sense of awe, yet without recognition. I only knew I loved the mountains-any mountains. Before long I found myself breathing more quickly as the air thinned to a mixture I wasn't accustomed to, and Caleb Hawes noticed my puffing.
”It may give you a sort of euphoria at first. You'll think you're full of all kinds of energy-so watch it. You'll tire quickly until you get used to the alt.i.tude. Just breathe faster for a while.”
At my knees Red yawned widely, and Hillary looked around and grinned, following suit.
”Tell me about Jasper,” I said to Caleb. ”I've seen pictures of Central City. Is it like that?”
”It's hardly a Central City, or a Leadville, or Durango. Not room enough to spread. Your great-grandfather, Malcolm Tremayne, found a rich vein of purple quartz over on Old Desolate that a.s.sayed high in silver. It pinched out after a while, but there were other strikes. Enough to make him one of the silver kings. So Jasper was born.”
”I'd like to have seen it in the old days.” Jon Maddocks' voice carried a deep timbre. When he spoke, I noticed that we all listened-though he had said so little that his words always seemed to come as a surprise. He continued, with his eyes on 37.the road ahead. ”I've heard my grandfather talk about it. The way those little camps like Domino sprang up all over the place. The way thousands poured in, crazy for gold and silver. He used to say it wasn't just the notion of wealth that kept them going. It was treasure fever-the strike that could be made just over the next hill, or in the next riverbed.
His words brought pictures to my mind that Caleb Hawes' dry facts had not done. I wanted to hear more.
”Was your grandfather a miner?”
”My great-grandfather was a Comishman. He was one of the tinners who came to America when the bad times. .h.i.t the tin mines in Cornwall. He worked in Domino along with Malcolm Tremayne and Tyler Morgan, and he's buried in the Jasper cemetery. He died of lung cancer from the rock dust, I gather. Your grandmother remembers him. It's strange to think of that whole silver boom over so suddenly.”
”Why? Why was it over?”
”It's a complicated political story. But to put it simply, the bottom dropped out of silver when Congress removed the price support back in 1893. A lot of the camps disappeared into dust almost overnight when that happened.”
”Not everyone left,” Caleb Hawes said. ”The Tremaynes and the Morgans stayed on. They were rich enough by that time to do as they pleased, and they'd made sound investments. So that's where they raised their families, right in Jasper, and sent them off to school in Boulder and Denver.”