These words kept ringing in Jen’s ears as she stood again in the doorway
that night with her face turned to the beacon. How different it seemed
now! When she saw it last night it was a cheerful spirit of light--a
something suggesting comfort, companionship, aspiration, a friend to the
traveller, and a mysterious, but delightful, association. In the morning
when she returned from that fortunate, yet most unfortunate, ride, it
was still burning, but its warm flame was exhausted in the glow of
the life-giving sun; the dream and delight of the night robbed of its
glamour by the garish morning; like her own body, its task done, sinking
before the unrelieved scrutiny of the day. To-night it burned with a
different radiance. It came in fiery palpitations from the earth. It
made a sound that was now like the moan of pine trees, now like the
rumble of far-off artillery. The slight wind that blew spread the
topmost crest of flame into strands of ruddy hair, and, looking at it,
Jen saw herself rocked to and fro by tumultuous emotions, yet fuller of
strength and larger of life than ever she had been. Her hot veins
beat with determination, with a love which she drove back by another,
cherished now more than it had ever been, because danger threatened the
boy to whom she had been as a mother. In twenty-four hours she had grown
to the full stature of love and suffering.
There were shadows that betrayed less roundness to her face; there were
lines that told of weariness; but in her eyes there was a glowing light
of hope. She raised her face to the stars and unconsciously paraphrasing
Pierre’s song said: “Oh, the God that dost save us, hear!”
A hand touched her arm, and a voice said, huskily, “Jen, I wanted to
save him and--and not let you know of it; that’s all. You’re not keepin’
a grudge agin me, my girl?”
She did not move nor turn her head. “I’ve no grudge, father; but--if--if
you had told me, ‘twouldn’t be on my mind that I had made it worse for
Val.”
The kindness in the voice reassured him, and he ventured to say: “I
didn’t think you’d be carin’ for one of the Riders of the Plains, Jen.”
Then the old man trembled lest she should resent his words. She seemed
about to do so, but the flush faded from her brow, and she said, simply:
“I care for Val most, father. But he didn’t know he was getting Val into
trouble.”
She suddenly quivered as a wave of emotion passed through her; and she
said, with a sob in her voice: “Oh, it’s all scrub country, father, and
no paths, and--and I wish I had a mother!”
The old man sat down in the doorway and bowed his grey head in his arms.
Then, after a moment, he whispered:
“She’s been dead twenty-two years, Jen. The day Val was born she went
away. I’d a-been a better man if she’d a-lived, Jen; and a better
father.”
This was an unusual demonstration between these two. She watched him
sadly for a moment, and then, leaning over and touching him gently on
the shoulder, said: “It’s worse for you than it is for me, father. Don’t
feel so bad. Perhaps we shall save him yet.”
He caught a gleam of hope in her words: “Mebbe, Jen, mebbe!” and he
raised his face to the light.
This ritual of affection was crude and unadorned; but it was real. They
sat there for half-an-hour, silent.
Then a figure came out of the shadows behind the house and stood before
them. It was Pierre.
“I go to-morrow morning, Galbraith,” he said. The old man nodded, but
did not reply.
“I go to Fort Desire,” the gambler added.
Jen faced him. “What do you go there for, Pretty Pierre?”
“It is my whim. Besides, there is Val. He might want a horse some dark
night.”
“Pierre, do you mean that?”
“As much as Sergeant Tom means what he says. Every man has his friends.
Pretty Pierre has a fancy for Val Galbraith--a little. It suits him to
go to Fort Desire. Jen Galbraith, you make a grand ride last night. You
do a bold thing--all for a man. We shall see what he will do for you.
And if he does nothing--ah! you can trust the tongue of Pretty Pierre.
He will wish he could die, instead of--Eh, bien, good-night!” He moved
away. Jen followed him. She held out her hand. It was the first time she
had ever done so to this man.
“I believe you,” she said. “I believe that you mean well to our Val.
I am sorry that I called you a devil.” He smiled. “Ma’m’selle, that is
nothing. You spoke true. But devils have their friends--and their whims.
So you see, good-night.”
“Mebbe it will come out all right, Jen--mebbe!” said the old man.
But Jen did not reply. She was thinking hard, her eyes upon the Prairie
Star. Living life to the hilt greatly illumines the outlook of the mind.
She was beginning to understand that evil is not absolute, and that good
is often an occasion more than a condition.
There was a long silence again. At last the old man rose to go and
reduce the volume of flame for the night; but Jen stopped him. “No,
father, let it burn all it can to-night. It’s comforting.”
“Mebbe so--mebbe!” he said.
A faint refrain came to them from within the house:
“When doors are open the bird is free
Oh, the sweet Saint Gabrielle hear!”