Sanchia Persistent
Thus, upon the barren flanks of Dry Gulch, a town was born. Mothered
by the stubborn desert that appears sterile and is not, it was a
sprawling, ungainly, ill-begotten thing. In the night it came; in the
dawn it grew; during the first day it assumed lustiness and an
insolence that was its birthright. And, like any welcome child, there
was a name awaiting it. Men laughed as the unceremonious christening
was performed. A half-drunken vagabond from no one knew where had
staked out his claim and drained his bottle. 'Here's lookin' at
Sanchia's Town!' he cried out, and smashed his bottle against a rock.
It appeared that every one had heard the tale of Longstreet's discovery
and of Sanchia Murray's manoeuvre. They made high fun of Longstreet
and declared that Sanchia was a cool one. The mere fact that she was a
woman enlisted their sympathies in an affair wherein they had no
interest. They were doomed to second choice and deemed it as well for
Sanchia to have had first as any one. When a narrow-headed individual
remarked that he had heard that the widow was getting nothing out of
it, but that Courtot and his crowd had cheated her, they hooted and
jeered at him until he withdrew wondering at their insane attitude. It
was generally taken for granted that Sanchia Murray knew what she was
about. If she chose to hunt in couple with Jim Courtot, that was her
business.
A town is something more than a group of men encamped. It connotes
many social facilities; first among which comes the store and, in
certain parts of the world, the saloon. Sanchia's Town was, upon the
first day, a town in these essentials. Shortly after dawn a string of
three six-horse teams crawled across the lowlands and, by a circuitous
way, to the camp. One wagon was heaped with bits of second-hand lumber
and a jumbled assortment of old tents and strips of canvas. In it,
also, were hammers, saws and nails. The two other wagons were filled
with boxes and bags--and kegs. There were two men to each team.
Arrived they gave immediate evidence that their employer had chosen
well. One of them, a crooked-eyed carpenter named Emberlee, directed,
hammer in hand. Before noon he had caused to grow up an architectural
monstrosity, hideous but sturdy. It was without floor, but it had
walls; wide gaps were doors and windows, but there was a canvas roof.
While his five companions brought their parcels into the place,
Emberlee climbed aloft and nailed up a big board upon which his own
hand, as the wagon had jostled along, had painted a sign. It spelled:
JIM COURTOT'S HOUSE. Then he descended and began a hurried grouping of
certain articles upon shelves and in corners. By the time the camp was
ready for a noon meal the word had flown about that at Jim Courtot's
House one could get food, water and a widely-known substitute for
whisky. Meantime Tony Moraga had come: he stood behind a bar hastily
made of two planks set on packing cases and sold a tin cup of water for
twenty-five cents, a glass of liquor for fifty. There were calls for
both. Emberlee, plainly a jack-of-all-trades, began displaying his
wares. He offered dried meats, tinned goods, crackers, cheese and
other comestibles at several times desert prices. And he, too, chinked
many a silver dollar and minted gold piece into his cash-box, because
when men rush to gold diggings they are not likely to go empty-handed.
Shortly after noon the three wagons returned to Big Run for more
supplies.
Obviously, though already Jim Courtot had departed from Dry Gulch when
Alan Howard came upon his agents, he was no less active than they with
rich gains in sight. It is to be doubted if the man slept at all
during the first three days and nights. He had made his own list of
foods and tobaccos and alcohols; he had selected men for his work.
Down in San Juan men said: 'Jim Courtot is playing his luck again.'
For though information was garbled long before it reached the mission
town, yet always it was understood that Jim Courtot was playing to win
heavily--he and Sanchia Murray.
Those hours which, in Sanchia's Town, had been given over to frenzy and
the fury of feverish endeavour, had dragged by wearily and anxiously
for the inmates of Longstreet's half-mile-distant cabin. For both
Monte Devine and Ed True the night was one of bitter rage and pain.
Longstreet was gentle with them, bringing them water, asking them often
of their wants; Helen ministered to them silently, a strange new look
in her eyes. Often she went to the door and stood looking off into the
moonlit night, across the rolling hills and down into the wide sweep of
Desert Valley. Carr remained with them all night. It was as well to
be on hand, he suggested, if anything happened. He seemed scarcely
conscious of the presence of the two wounded men; tilted back in his
chair, smoking one cigar after another, he scarcely for an instant lost
sight of Helen.
In the morning early there was the sound of hoofs and then men's
voices. It was Carr who went to the door.
'It is Bettins and a couple of other men,' he said over his shoulder.
'Come for Devine and True, I guess.' And still without turning, he
demanded, 'Ready to go, Monte?'
'Damn right,' said Monte.
Between Carr and Longstreet, Monte shambled to the door. Here he was
turned over to his friends, who got him into his saddle. Then,
assisted as Monte had been, and cursing at every step, Ed True passed
through the door. The men outside accepted the two wounded men with
only a few low words; in another moment the five horses were carrying
their riders slowly toward Sanchia's Town. Carr returning saw the
whisk of Helen's skirt as she disappeared within the little room
partitioned off at the rear and knew that she had gone to fling herself
down upon her bed. He looked after her as though he still half hoped
she were coming back if only to say a belated 'good night.' Then he
and Longstreet made coffee and drank it perfunctorily. After breakfast
Carr left, saying that he would ride over to have a look at the new
camp, and would drop in again some time during the afternoon.
'If I am not making a nuisance of myself,' he said as Longstreet
followed him to the door, 'I should like to see what I can of you
during the next few days. And of Miss Helen,' he added with utter
frankness and clear meaning. 'I have business which will call me back
East before long.'
'Come as often as you can, my dear fellow,' invited Longstreet. But
his eyes had wandered toward the mining site which should have been
his, and his mind seemed to be less than half busied with Carr's words.
Carr, turning in the saddle, narrowed his eyes upon the university
man's face and, thinking that he had caught his thought, said bluntly:
'It's an infernal shame. It's all yours by right, and----'
'Oh,' cried Longstreet grandly, 'I'm not worrying about a little
diggings like that! Let them have it! Next time I'll show them a real
mine.'
'Well, I wish you luck,' rejoined Carr. But there was no great
conviction in his tone, since in his mind there was little expectation
that lightning was going to strike twice in the same place. However,
the caution came to his lips involuntarily: 'If there is a next time,
I'd be mighty careful whom I told about it. It will pay you to look
out for that Murray woman.'
Longstreet's face was puzzled and troubled.
'It does begin to look as though she gave me the--the double cross,
doesn't it?' he said as though he were afraid he must believe the worst
of Sanchia Murray despite his wish in the matter.
'It certainly does,' grunted Carr. 'She's absolutely no good.
Everybody knows it. Fight shy of her. Well, so long.'
'So long,' repeated Longstreet absently.
Carr rode away. Longstreet's eyes, following the galloping horse, were
still puzzled. 'I'm learning a thing or two,' he told himself soberly
as he went back into the cabin. Many times he nodded his head
thoughtfully. 'I've lived too long in another sort of world; now I am
coming to grips with real life, real men and women. There's a new set
of rules to grasp. Well,' and he straightened his thin body and a
flickering smile played over his lips, 'I can learn. As Barbee says of
stud poker: "You've got to set tight and keep your trap shut and your
eye peeled."'
Helen slept soundly all morning. Longstreet dozed, studied the maps he
had made during the last week and pottered. At noon they lunched
together, neither having a great deal to say. Helen regarded her
father more than ever as a baby who ought to be scolded and lessoned;
still, like any doting mother, she found excuses for him and told
herself that he had been amply punished for his indiscretion. She,
too, opined that he had learned a lesson. Consequently she coddled him
to such an extent that Longstreet remarked the fact and began to wonder
just what Helen wanted now; no doubt she was going to ask something of
him and was preparing the way after the approved and time-honoured
custom.
But the day wore on with never a favour asked. In the drowsy afternoon
Helen coaxed her father into her room and dropped the shades and
ordered him to sleep, telling him that he looked like a ghost of his
former rugged beauty. Then she sank down listlessly upon the doorstep,
brooding, her eyes wandering through the green fields of Desert Valley.
Her musings were disturbed by the clatter of shod hoofs across the
rugged plateau; she looked up quickly, her eyes brightening. Then she
saw that it was John Carr returning, and into her look there came an
expression much resembling that which had been so much to-day in her
father's--one of uncertainty.
Carr staked out his horse before he came to her. Then he sat down on a
box near the doorstep and studied her gravely before he spoke. Helen
smiled.
'You are thinking unpleasant things about some one,' she stated
quickly. 'Has the world turned into a terribly serious place all of a
sudden?'
There was little levity in Carr's make-up at any time; just now his
speech was as sober as his look.
'I am thinking about you and your father, to begin with,' he replied
gravely. 'I have been over yonder all day.' He swept out an impatient
arm toward Dry Gulch. 'They call it Sanchia's Town. And it is a town
already. I saw Nate Kemble there; he's the big man of the Quigley
Mines, and you see how long it has taken him to get on the spot. Your
father evidently made no mistake in his location. There's gold there,
all right!'
Helen waited expectantly for him to go on. For certainly the fact that
her father had been able to find gold was no cause for Carr's frowning
eyes.
'My blood has been boiling all day,' Carr blurted out angrily.
'Longstreet should be a rich man to-day and he has gained nothing. I
saw Nate Kemble pay one man ten thousand dollars for his claim; Kemble
wouldn't pay that if the thing were not worth a great deal more.
Kemble doesn't make many mistakes. Your father stumbled on to the
place and then he couldn't hold it. When do you think he will make
another discovery? And, if his lucky star should lead him aright
again, is he the man to cash in on his luck? Don't you see, Helen,
that James Edward Longstreet in this man's land is a fish out of water?'
'I understand what you mean,' Helen nodded slowly. Again her look
wandered through the fields stretching out far below. 'And you are
right. I didn't want papa to come in the first place; now, as you say,
he is only wasting time.' She smiled a little tenderly. 'He is just a
dear old babe in the woods,' she concluded softly.
Carr's approval of her mounted swiftly to admiration. They lowered
their voices and spoke at length of the professor and of what should be
done for him. They agreed perfectly that, while he was an unusually
fine technical man and an able instructor in matters of geological
theorizing, he was not the man to wander with a prospector's pick
across these rugged lands.
'Even grant the extremely unlikely,' concluded Carr hastily as they
heard the subject of their discussion moving about in the cabin, 'and
admit that he may chance upon a second strike. What then? Why,
Sanchia and Devine and Courtot and a crowd of hangers-on have their
eyes on him. They'd oust him again with not the shadow of a doubt or a
second's hesitation.'
Helen nodded and they went in together.
Carr stayed on to supper. Longstreet looked rested from his nap,
bright and eager and as usual interested in everything in the world.
Carr had bought a new hat yesterday; Longstreet tried it on and
approved of it extravagantly. He asked what it cost and jingled his
few coins, admitting ruefully that he'd have to wait until he uncovered
his 'real mine.' Just the same, he proclaimed brightly, clothes did
help make the man, and inside a year when he was decked out entirely to
his own liking and a tenderfoot saw him, there would be no suspecting
that Longstreet was not a Westerner born and bred. He put the hat away
and sat down with them at the table. As he mentioned in such a
matter-of-fact way his intention of tarrying a year, Carr and Helen
glanced at each other significantly. And Carr after his direct fashion
opened his campaign.
'There are other things than gold mines, and you were not made for this
country,' he said. 'What would you say to going back East if I showed
you the chance there to clean up more money than you'll ever see out
here? I have been thinking about you, and I know the place where
you'll fit in.'
This was all news to Helen, and her look showed her eager interest.
Longstreet smiled and shook his head.
'That's kind of you,' he said warmly. 'But I like it out here.'
'But, papa,' cried Helen, 'surely you should hear Mr. Carr's
proposition! It is not merely kind of him; it is wonderful if he can
help us that way, and it is wise.'
'No,' said Longstreet. 'Carr won't think me ungrateful. I told them
in the East that there was nothing simpler than the fact that a man
like me, knowing what I know, can discover gold in vast quantities.
First, it is universally conceded that the auriferous deposits
remaining untouched are vastly in excess of those already found and
worked. Second, all of my life I have made a profound study of
geognosy and geotectonic geology. Now, it is not only the money; money
I count as a rather questionable gift, anyway. But it is my own
reputation. What I have said I could do, I will do.' And though his
words came with his engaging smile, he seemed as firmly set in his
determination as a rock hardened in cement.
Helen, who knew her father, sighed and turned from him to Carr. Then
her eyes wandered through the open door, across the flat lands and down
to the distant hills of Desert Valley.
'I should not speak as I am going to speak,' Carr was saying, 'if
matters were not exactly as they are. To begin with, I take it that I
have been accepted as a friend. Hence you will forgive me if I appear
to presume and will know that I have no love of interfering in another
man's personal affairs. Then, I must say what I have to say now: in a
few days I am leaving you. I've got to go to New York.'
'Oh,' said Helen. 'I am sorry.'
'You are kind to me,' he acknowledged gravely. 'And I am sorry to go.
Unless you and your father will consent to come also. Now, I am going
to have my say--and, Mr. Longstreet, I hope you will forgive me if I am
assuming a privilege which is not mine. I take it that you have no
great amount of ready cash. Further, that your income has been that of
most college men, who are all underpaid--say, three or four or five
thousand a year. I have talked with Nate Kemble about you. His
concern is a tremendously big affair with head offices in New York.
Kemble is a friend of mine: I own stock in his company: he will
acknowledge, quite as I am prepared to acknowledge, that there is a
place for an expert of your type in the company. And the place will
pay you, from the jump, ten thousand dollars.'
Helen fairly gasped. Despite her father's talk of the extravagant sums
he meant to wrest from the bowels of the earth, she had never dreamed
of so princely an income for them. Longstreet, however, merely shook a
smiling head.
'You're a real friend, John,' he said. 'But here we stick. And, when
you come down to dollars and cents, I'll eat your new hat for you if I
can't make ten times your ten thousand in the first year.'
Before such amazing confidence Carr stalled. But he did not give up;
it wasn't his habit of thought to relinquish anything which he had
undertaken. Still for a little he was silent, studying his man. Again
Helen was staring out through the open door.
'Some one is coming,' she announced. Then, her tone quickening, 'It is
Mr. Howard; I knew he would be riding over before night. I know his
horse,' she explained hastily, flushing a trifle under Carr's eyes
which told her that he was surprised that she could tell who it was at
such a distance. 'It is the horse he rode the first time we ever saw
him. There is some one with him. It looks like----'
She did not say whom it looked like. Carr and Longstreet looked out.
The second rider was a woman; her horse was not Sanchia Murray's white
mare, but none the less they all knew that with Alan Howard came
Sanchia. Carr's heavy brows gathered blackly. The flush died out of
Helen's face and her lips tightened. Longstreet sprang up and went to
the door.
'If it is Mrs. Murray,' he called back, something like triumph in his
excited voice, 'and if she is coming here--why, then maybe there was a
mistake after all.'
'She is not coming here!' cried Helen hotly. 'Papa, I will not have
that woman in the house. After the way she has cheated you, fooled
you, lied to you----'
'Come, come, my dear,' chided Longstreet. 'No one must be judged and
condemned unheard. And remember that she is coming with Mr. Howard.'
Helen looked hopelessly at Carr. There were times when she utterly
despaired of her father. But she could find comfort in the thought
that if that Sanchia woman sought to perpetrate any more of her
villainy and deceit, she was going to stand at her father's side
through all of it. Meantime the two riders came on swiftly. As they
drew up at the door Helen saw that Howard looked worried and ill at
ease and that Sanchia Murray's eyes were red as though with copious
weeping. Whereas Helen sniffed audibly.
'The horrid cat,' she said.
Sanchia began pouring out a torrent of confused words which Howard's
curt speech interrupted. As he lifted his hat his eyes were for Helen
alone: she flashed him a scornful look and turned away from him. Then
he turned to Longstreet.
'Mr. Longstreet,' he said sharply, 'I want you to know my position in
this matter. As I was starting Mrs. Murray came to the ranch. I was
naturally astonished when she said that she was on her way to see you.
I had thought, from what has happened, that you would be the last man
in the world whom she would care to meet. She said, however, that she
must speak with you and that she hoped she could do something to right
matters. When she asked for a fresh horse I loaned her one. That,' he
concluded harshly, 'is all that I have to do with Sanchia Murray and
all that I want to do with her. The rest is up to you.'
The spite in Sanchia's quick sidelong look was for Howard alone.
'Alan is rather hard on me, I think,' she said quite simply as she
turned her eyes upon the three at the cabin door. 'Especially,' and
again she gave him that look for him alone, 'after what has been
between us. But I must not think of that now. Oh, Mr. Longstreet, if
you only knew how this thing has nearly killed me----'
She broke off, hiding her face in her hands, her body swaying in the
saddle as though surely she would fall. Longstreet looked concerned.
'Get down and come in,' he exclaimed. 'You are utterly exhausted.
Helen, my dear, a cup of coffee, quick. This poor lady looks as though
she hadn't slept or rested or eaten since we saw her last.'
'How could I eat or rest or sleep?' cried Sanchia brokenly. 'After all
that has happened? Oh, I wish I were dead!'
Helen did not budge for the coffee. Her eyes were blazing. Sanchia
slid down from the saddle and came to the door. Longstreet hastened to
her side and the two went in together. Helen, without looking toward
Howard, followed, determined that she would hear whatever it was that
Sanchia Murray had to say.
'Come in, Howard,' Longstreet remembered to say. 'We're having supper.
Both you and Mrs. Murray will eat with us.'
Sanchia bathed her eyes and they all sat down. When Howard looked
toward Helen she ignored him. Outside Carr had demanded, 'What in
hell's name made you bring that woman here?' and Alan had rejoined, 'I
couldn't stop her coming, could I?' And now the two had nothing to say
to each other. Longstreet, nervous and impatient for whatever
explanations were coming, fidgeted constantly until Sanchia began
speaking.
'When I learned what had happened,' she said, 'I thought at first that
I could not live to endure it. I could have shrieked; I could have
killed myself. To think that I had been the cause of it all. Oh, it
was hideous! But then I knew that I must live and that I must seek
somehow to make reparation. All of my life, as long as I live, I shall
hope and try and work to undo what I have done.'
She was watching them all through her handkerchief, which she was using
to dab her eyes; of Longstreet she never for an instant lost sight.
She saw the eagerness in his eyes and knew that it was an eagerness to
believe in her. She saw Helen's anger and contempt; she saw Carr's
black looks; she saw, too, how Howard kept his eyes always on Helen's
face, and she read what was so easy to read in them. It was her
business, her chief affair in life just now, to keep her two eyes wide
open; hence she saw, too, the look which Helen had flashed at the
cattleman. And while she observed all of this she was speaking
rapidly, almost incoherently, as though her one concern lay in the
tragic error she had made. Had she been less than a very clever woman
who had long lived, and lived well, by her wits, she must have found
the situation too much for her. But no one of her hearers, excepting
possibly the one chiefly interested, failed to do Sanchia Murray
justice for her cleverness. As it was, she did not fear the outcome
from the outset.
She told how she had been so overjoyed at Longstreet's news; how, for
that dear child Helen's sake, she had rejoiced; how she had for a
little felt less lonely in sharing a secret meant for a wonderful
birthday surprise; how she had yearned to help in this glowing hour of
happiness. She had tried to help Mr. Longstreet with Mr. Harkness at
the court-house; she had learned that he was out of town; she had been
told that his assistant was at the Montezuma House. In spite of her
abhorrence of going to such a place she had gone, carried away by the
high tide of excitement. And there she had been tricked into
introducing Mr. Longstreet to no less a terrible creature than Monte
Devine. She hastened to add that she told Mr. Longstreet that she did
not know this man; he would bear her out in this; she too had been
tricked. But she would never, never forgive herself.
'Nor,' said Helen's voice coldly, 'will I ever forgive you. Nor am I
the fool to believe all these tales. Maybe you can make a fool of my
father, but----'
'Helen, Helen,' expostulated Longstreet sternly, 'you are being hasty.
At times like this one should seek to be kind and just.'
Again Helen's sniff was audible and eloquent.
'Do you mean,' she demanded, 'that you believe all of this nonsense?'
'I mean, my dear, that one should be deliberate. Mrs. Murray has made
an explanation, she is plainly sick with grief at what has occurred.
She has ridden straight to us. What more could one do? When you are
older, my dear, and have seen more of life you will know that the world
sometimes makes terrible mistakes.'
'You are so great-hearted!' sobbed Sanchia. 'So wonderful! There is
not another man in the world who would be even tolerant at a time like
this. And to think that it is you--you whom I have hurt.' Her sobs
overcame her.
Helen flung herself angrily to her feet.
'Papa,' she cried, 'can't you see, can't you understand that this woman
is determined to make a fool of you again? Hasn't she done it once
already? Oh, are you going to be just a little baby in her hands?'
Sanchia lowered her handkerchief for a swift glance at Helen and then
at the other faces in the room. The sternness on Howard's and Carr's
faces did not greatly concern her, for she saw written across
Longstreet's countenance just about what she had counted on. And
Helen's words had simply succeeded in drawing his indignation toward
his daughter. Hence, wisely, Sanchia was content to be silent for a
spell. Matters seemed to be going well enough left alone.
Helen had meant to run out of doors, to close her ears to this
maddening discussion. She felt that it was either that or deliberately
slap Sanchia Murray's face. Now, however, she sat down again, deciding
with a degree of acumen that Sanchia would prefer nothing to a
_tête-à-tête_ with Longstreet.
'After all,' said Helen more quietly and with a look which was hard as
it flashed across Sanchia's face to Howard's and then on, 'threshing
all this over is valueless. Forgive her, father,' she went on
contemptuously, 'if either of you will feel better for it, and don't
detain her. We are going back East in a few days, anyway.'
Howard stared at her wonderingly as Carr nodded his approval of the
speech. But Longstreet spoke with considerable emphasis.
'Aren't you rather premature in your announcement, my dear? I am not
going back East at all.'
There might have been no discussion of the matter had he ended there.
But seeing the various expressions called by his words to the faces
about the table, he added the challenge:
'Why should I go? Haven't I already demonstrated that I know what I am
doing? Isn't this the place for me?'
Helen answered him first and energetically. He should go, she cried
hotly, because he had demonstrated nothing at all save that he was a
lamb in a den of wolves. He was a university man and not a mountaineer
or desert Indian; he knew books and he did not know men; it was his
duty to himself and to his daughter to return home. The girl's colour
deepened and grew hot with her rapid speech, and Sanchia, sitting back,
watching and listening, lost never a word. Before Longstreet could
shape a reply John Carr added his voice to Helen's plea. He said all
that he had said once before to-day; he elaborated his argument, which
to him appeared unanswerable. When he had done, always speaking
quietly, he turned to Howard.
'Don't you think I am right, Al?' he asked.
'No!' replied Howard emphatically. 'I don't. Mr. Longstreet does know
his business. He has located one mine in this short time. It was not
chance; it was science. There is more gold left in these hills. Give
him time and a free swing, and he'll find it.'
Carr appeared amazed.
'I can't imagine what makes you talk like that, Al,' he said shortly.
'It's rather a serious thing with the Longstreets which way they move
now. You are deliberately encouraging him to buck a game which he
ought to leave to another type of man.'
'Deliberately is the right word,' said Howard. 'And I can't quite
understand what makes you seek to discourage him and pack him off to
the East again.'
Carr was silent. Sanchia's eyes, very bright, grew brighter with a
keen look of understanding. Very innocently she spoke.
'Are you thinking of going East, too, Mr. Carr?' she asked.
'Yes,' snapped Carr. 'I am. What of it?'
'Oh, nothing,' said Sanchia. But she laughed. Then as Longstreet was
opening his mouth to make his own statement, she cut in, turning to
him, speaking directly to him, in some subtle way giving the impression
that she was quite oblivious of anyone but of him and herself.
'You mustn't go,' she said softly. She studied his face and then put a
light hand on his arm. Helen stiffened. 'How shall I say all that I
feel here?' She gave an effective gesture as she pressed the other
hand against her own bosom. 'You have come into a land of nothing but
ignorance and into it you have brought the brain of a scholar. You
said, "I will find gold," and they laughed at you--and you found it!
It was not chance; Alan was right. It was the act of a man who knew.
This land has many kinds of men, Mr. Longstreet. It has no other man
like you. It needs you. You must stay!'
'Oh,' said Helen. It was scarcely more than a gasp, and yet it bespoke
profound disgust. The woman was insufferable. Here, upon the top of
her treachery, was most palpable flattery. Surely her father would not
fail to see now the woman's true character; surely he must baulk at
such talk as this. But he was beaming again as though the clouds of a
storm had passed and the sunlight were streaming upon him; he rubbed
his hands together and spoke cheerfully.
'Sanchia is right; Alan is right. These two understand me. I shall
show to the world that they have not misjudged me. I know my own
limitations. I am no superman. I have made blunders in my time. But
I do know my own work, and I am the only man here who does! In a way
Sanchia is right when she says that this country needs me. It does.
And I need it. We are going to stay, my dear.'
Sanchia flashed Helen a look of triumph; her eyes, passing on to
Howard, held briefly a sparkle of malice.
'Alan and I are very grateful to have your approval,' she said sweetly.
'Aren't we, Alan?' and again her look was for Helen and was triumphant.
Helen pushed her plate away and for a second time rose abruptly.
'I'll choke if I stay in here,' she said. And, with breast heaving,
she went to the door and out into the fading afternoon. Sanchia's
glance followed her and then returned placidly to the men.
'The dear child is high-strung, and Heaven knows she has been through
enough to upset anyone,' she said condoningly. Then, 'Mr. Carr and
you, Alan, don't seem to be hungry any more. I would like a word with
Mr. Longstreet, and if you two went out to Helen perhaps you might
soothe her. Remember she is only a child after all.'
Glad of the excuse to be gone, both men rose. As they went out they
saw how Sanchia was already leaning toward Longstreet, how her hand had
again found its way to his arm. Then they lost sight of her and saw
Helen standing upon the cliff edge looking off to the lowlands of the
south. In silence they joined her.
'I don't know whether I love this country or hate it most,' Helen said
without withdrawing her troubled eyes from the expanse of Desert
Valley. The sun was down, the distances were veiled in tender shades,
pale greens of the meadowlands, dusky greys of the hills. 'If it were
only all like that; if there were only the glorious valley and the
peace of it instead of this hideous life up here!'
It was in Alan Howard's heart to cry out to her, 'Come down into the
peace of it; it is all mine. Come down to live there with me.' It may
have been in John Carr's heart to whisper: 'It is mine until the last
cent is paid on it; if you love it so, there may still be the way to
get it back for you.' But neither man spoke his thought. The three
stood close together, the girl with troubled eyes standing between the
two friends, and all of their eyes searched into the mystery of the
coming dusk.
From the cabin came the sound of a laugh. It was Longstreet's, and it
was like a pleased child's.