Realizing that the girl would probably have her fair share of the
prejudice, he opened his case very gently an hour later. But he might
have saved his diplomacy.
"Of course!" she exclaimed, as soon as she grasped the facts. "Poor
little thing! I'll go right over with Mr. Bender.
"And remember," the doctor said, finishing his instructions, "she needs
mothering more than medicine."
So, satisfied, he and Carter hit the back trail, but not till he had
examined Morrill with stethoscope and tapping finger. "Must have some
excuse for my trip," he said, "and you'll have to serve. So don't be
scared if you happen to hear that you have had another hemorrhage. Good!
Good!" he exclaimed at every tap, but once on trail he shook his head.
"May go in a month; can't last six. Be prepared."
A fiery sunset was staining the western sky when, on his way back from
Lone Tree, Carter stopped at Bender's door. The glow tinged the furious
cloud that rose from the Cougar's pipe.
"Doing well," he laconically answered. "Never saw a gal pull round
better from a fainting spell."
Nodding comprehension, Carter mentioned a doubt that had nettled him on
the trail. "Jed? Do you think he'll--"
Sudden ferocity flamed up in the Cougar's face. "I tended to him this
morning," he said, slowly, ominously. "He's persuaded as he mistook the
girl's symptoms. Anyway, he ain't agoing to foul his own nest so long as
no one knows."
"Wants her back, I suppose?"
The Cougar nodded. "She's worth more to him than his best ox-team. But
he ain't agoing to get her. Don't go! Miss Morrill's inside an' wants
to run over home for some things. Fine gal that." The Cougar's set
fierceness of face almost thawed as he delivered his opinion.
Driving homeward, Helen opened the subject just where the Cougar had
left it. "She won't go back to her father," she said, "and I don't
blame her. But she can't stay here."
However, Jenny's future was already provided. "You needn't to worry,"
Carter said. "The doctor's fixed things. He and his wife have neither
chick nor child of their own; they'll take her in."
The girl exclaimed her surprised gladness. To her, indeed, the entire
incident was a revelation. Here three rough frontiersmen had banded
successfully together to protect a wronged child and keep her within
their rough social pale. Through all they had exhibited a tact and
delicacy not always found in finer social stratas, and the lesson went
far in modifying certain caste ideas--would have gone farther could she
have known the fulness of their delicacy.
Only once was the cause of Jenny's illness ever hinted at among the
three; that when Carter and Bender lay waiting for the doctor in the
stable.
"You don't happen to have made a guess at the man?" Carter had asked.
"She hain't mentioned him," the giant answered, a little stiffly.
But he thawed when Carter answered: "You'll pardon me. I was just
wondering if a rope might help her case."
Bender had shaken his head. "Las' year, you'll remember, one of
Molyneux's remittance-men uster drive her out while Jed had her hired
out to Leslie's. But he's gone back to England."
Also Helen had learned to look beneath Bender's scarred surface. Every
day, while Jenny lay in his shanty, he would slip in between loads of
hay to see her. At first the presence of so much femininity embarrassed
him. One petticoat hanging on the wall while another floats over the
floor is enough to upset any bachelor. Only when sitting with Jenny did
he find his tongue; then, giant of the camps, he prattled like a
school-boy, freeing thoughts and feelings that had been imprisoned
through all his savage years. It was singularly strange, too, to see
how Jenny reciprocated his feelings. She liked Helen, but all of her
petting could not bring the smile that came for Bender, in whom she
sensed a kindred shy simplicity.
Helen was to get yet one other light from these unpromising surfaces, a
light bright as those of Scripture which are said to shine as lamps to
the feet. A few days after Jenny's departure Bender rode up to the door
where Carter sat talking with Morrill.
"Got any stock to sell?" he inquired. "Cows in calf?"
"Going in for butter-making?" Carter inquired, grinning.
"Nope!" The giant laughed. "'Tain't for myself I'm asking. I'm a
lumberman born an' bred; the camps draw me like salt-licks pull the
deer. I'd never have time to look after them. Farming's play with me.
On'y I was thinking as it wouldn't be so bad if that little gal had a
head or two of her own growing inter money. You kin let 'em run with
your band summers, an' I'll put up winter hay for them an' the increase.
How are you, miss?" He nodded as Helen came to the door.
It was her first experience in such free giving, and she was astonished
to see how devoid his manner was of philanthropic consciousness.
Plainly he regarded the whole affair as very ordinary business.
Carter's answer accentuated the novel impression--"What's the matter
with me contributing them heifers?"
"Da--beg pardon, miss." Bender blushed. "No you don't. This is my
funeral. But I'm no hawg. Now if you wanter throw in a couple of
calves--"
Thus, without deed, oath, or mortgage, but with a certainty that none of
these forms could afford, did little Jenny Hines become a young lady of
property. The matter disposed of, Bender called Carter off to the
stable, where, after many mysterious fumblings, he produced from a
package a gorgeous silk kerchief of rainbow hues.
"You'll give Miss Morrill this?"