The Professor Dictates
Sanchia was cool and bright and merry. She sat flicking at her
gleaming boot with her whip, and laughing. Helen, who had stood very
close to a great happiness, now shivered as though the day had turned
cloudy and cold. But she was still Helen Longstreet, her pride an
essential portion of the fibre of her being. Because she was hurt,
because suddenly she hated Sanchia Murray with a hatred which seemed to
sear her heart like a hot iron, she commanded her smile and hid all
traces of agitation and spoke with serene indifference.
'Mr. Howard was telling me of the work on the ranch. Isn't it
interesting?'
'So interesting,' laughed Sanchia, 'that no doubt the heartless
vagabond forgot to mention that he had just left me and that I had sent
word by him that I was coming?'
'I don't believe you did say anything about it, did you?' Helen's
level regard was for Howard now; the red of anger still flared under
his tan and looked as much like guilt as anything else. 'Although,'
and again she glanced carelessly toward the trim form on the white
mare's back, 'we were speaking of you only a moment ago.'
If Sanchia understood that nothing complimentary had been spoken of her
she kept the knowledge her own.
'We just had a little visit together in the mining-camp,' she said,
veiling the look she bestowed upon Howard so that one might make
anything he pleased of it. 'Alan knows he'd better always run in and
see me first when he's been away for ten days at a stretch; don't you,
Boy?'
For Howard the moment was nothing less than a section of purgatory. He
was no fine hand to deal with women; he stood utterly amazed at
Sanchia's words and Sanchia's attitude. He had not learned the trick
of saying to a woman, 'You lie.' He had a confused sort of impression
that the two girls were merely and lightly teasing him. But having
eyes that were keen and a brain which, though a plain-dealing man's,
was quick, he understood that somehow there was a stern seriousness
under all of this seeming banter. Single-purposed he turned to Helen;
bluntly he intended to tell how he had seen Sanchia and how he had left
her.
But Helen's quick perception grasped his purpose, and in an anger which
included him as well as herself with Sanchia, she wanted no
explanations. It was enough for her that he had seen Sanchia Murray
first; that he had come direct from her. She left the new bridle and
spurs lying on the ground, passed swiftly by him and as she walked on
said carelessly:
'If you both will excuse me a moment I must run into the house. I have
something to do before papa comes in.'
Sanchia's face glowed triumphantly, and her triumph was clearly one of
sheer malevolence. Howard lifted his face to hers, letting her read
his blazing wrath. She only shrugged her shoulders.
'I wish to God you were a man!' was all that he said.
'I don't,' she rejoined coolly. 'It's a whole lot more fun being a
woman. Men are such fools.'
She saw a tremor shake him from head to foot. He came a quick step
toward her, even laid a tense hand on her horse's mane as involuntarily
his other hand was lifted; for the instant a wild fear thrilled through
her. She thought that he was going to drag her from the saddle; she
had driven him hard, perhaps too hard. But she saw beyond him Helen
hurrying down the trail, she saw even that Helen was turning to glance
back. Resourceful in a crisis had Sanchia Murray always been;
resourceful now. She leaned forward, and, for Helen to see, patted the
rigid hand on her horse's neck. She laughed again as she saw that
Helen was almost running now; she could fancy that she had heard a gasp
catch in the girl's throat.
'You'll keep your hands off my affairs, Mr. Alan Howard,' she said
evenly. 'Or I'll spoil every dream of your life.'
He held back his answer, his throat working. He saw the forsaken spurs
and bridle near the bower which John Carr had constructed; he saw the
sunlight and shadow across the trail down which Helen had vanished.
Then, his own spurs clanking to his long strides, he too went down the
trail, his back and shoulders to Sanchia, stiff and belligerent.
Helen was in the cabin, the door closed. He called, and she did not
answer. He could hear her within, rummaging about, evidently very busy
with something or other; had it not been for the little snatch of song
which came out to him he could have thought that she was in the grip of
a frenzy no less than that riding him. He rapped on the door and
called again.
'Is that you, papa?' Helen's song was suspended briefly.
'No,' answered Howard. 'Won't you let me have a word with you?'
'I'd love to,' she rejoined. 'But I'm terribly busy just now. I'll be
out in a minute.' And again he heard her humming and stirring about.
He tried to open the door. It was locked. He turned away and sat down
on the doorstep.
'I'll wait here,' he told her. 'I'll wait all day and all night if I
have to.'
But there is nothing harder than an indefinite waiting. He saw that
Sanchia still sat upon her white mare where he had left her, that her
head was bent, and she seemed to be in a profound study. Now and then
he heard Helen; she appeared to be re-arranging their scant
furnishings. Ten minutes passed. He called softly:
'Aren't you coming out, Helen?'
'Presently.' By now Helen had commanded and subdued her agitation
entirely to her own satisfaction. 'I know it seems rude, but I simply
_must_ get a few things done.'
'What sort of things? Can't I help you?'
'Help?' She laughed. 'Men are such funny animals when it is a matter
of helping indoors.
Sanchia had just said men were such fools. Well, come right down to
it, he was rather inclined to accept the statement as largely true.
And women were so utterly beyond comprehension.
'Anyway, can't I just come in and watch you?'
He wondered why she should seem so highly amused.
'In this little house you always seem about seven feet tall,' she
laughed at him. 'You'd be terribly in my way. And you haven't waited
half a day yet, let alone all night.'
He saw that Sanchia had suddenly lifted her head and had jerked her
horse about in the trail. But she was not riding this way. She had
turned toward the cliffs and was waving her hand. Then he saw
Longstreet, grotesque in the various bits of Western accoutrement which
he had incorporated into his wardrobe, humorously militant as to
swinging revolver, miner's pick in hand, high-booted and red-shirted.
'Your father is coming,' he offered. 'That Murray woman is going to
meet him.'
Helen had paused in her activities. But he could not guess how her
expression had changed. 'That Murray woman,' as he spoke the words,
did sound convincing. Still she did not come out. She knew that it
would be a full ten minutes before Longstreet would make his way down
the steep slope and come to the cabin. She resumed her occupation and
remembered to accompany it with her tantalizing bit of song. Howard
began to hate that air whole-heartedly.
The longest day has its end, the longest ten minutes fall something
short of an eternity. At length, walking side by side, leading the
white mare and chatting gaily, Longstreet and Sanchia approached the
house. Longstreet saw Howard and put out a friendly hand.
'Glad to see you, my boy,' he called warmly. 'Helen and I have talked
of you every day; we've missed you like the very mischief. Where is
Helen, by the way?'
'Inside,' Howard told him sombrely. 'Changing things around and making
them all over.'
Helen opened the door. Howard wondered how she had found the time to
lay aside her hat, give a new effect to her hair and pin on those field
flowers. Her cheeks were only delicately flushed, her eyes were filled
with dancing lights.
'Back again, pops?' She appeared to see only her father, though Howard
still had a foot on the step and Sanchia was fluttering close at his
elbow. 'And no new gold mine to-day!' It was quite as though a gold
mine were virtually an everyday occurrence. She patted his dusty
shoulder.
'No,' said Longstreet lightly. 'No new mine to-day, my dear. But I'm
right; I'm getting all the signs I want and expected. To-morrow or
maybe the next day, we'll have it. I know right where it is. Take the
trail by----'
'Papa,' said Helen hastily and a trifle impatiently, 'can't you ever
learn, even after you have been bitten? If you do stumble on anything,
I should think you would remember and not talk about it.'
'But, my dear,' he expostulated, 'we are among friends.'
'Are we?' Helen demanded coolly. 'We were among the same friends
before.'
Longstreet looked frankly displeased, vaguely distressed. Sanchia was
listening eagerly, her eyes stony in their covetousness. Howard,
staring only at Helen, had hardly heard.
'Well, well,' said Longstreet. 'I haven't found anything, so that's
all there is to to-day's tale, anyway.' He got his first view of the
cabin's interior. 'What in the world has happened in there?' he
demanded, in amazement.
'Nothing,' answered Helen. 'I'm just packing; that's all.'
'Packing, my dear? Packing what? And, pray, with what intention?'
'Packing everything, of course. And with the intention of travelling.'
Longstreet looked perplexed. He turned to both Howard and Sanchia as
though he suspected that they must share the secret.
'If you'll come in, pops,' Helen informed him, 'we'll arrange for
everything. I wanted to get the worst of it done before you came, as
you're so frightfully upsetting when there's anything like this to be
done. Mr. Howard and Mrs. Murray,' she added, explaining sweetly,
'just ran in for a minute's call. They are both in a hurry, and we had
better not detain them.'
Howard flushed. But his jaw muscles only bulged, and he did not
withdraw his foot from the doorstep. Sanchia bestowed upon the girl a
long searching look; it may have suggested itself to Sanchia's open
mind at that instant that Helen was likely to prove a more troublesome
factor than she had counted on.
'If you don't mind,' Howard said with slow stubbornness, 'I'd like just
a few words with you and Miss Helen. Mrs. Murray came alone, and no
doubt would prefer to return alone.'
Sanchia's eyes flashed and she bit her lip. Then, though her words
came quickly, they were smooth and quiet and had a note of bantering
laughter in them.
'Dear me, we must all be tired and hungry like a lot of children who
have played too hard! We'll be quarrelling in another moment. But I
am not going to be so sensitive as to feel hurt and run off and cry; we
are too good friends for that, as you've just said, Mr. Longstreet.
And I did so want to ask you some questions; I sent right away for the
books you told me of, and I am simply mad over them. And I got one of
yours, too; the one on south-western desert formations. It is the most
splendid thing I ever read. But it is so erudite, so technical in
places. I was going to ask if you would explain certain parts of it to
me?'
'Delighted to,' ejaculated Longstreet. His old beaming cheeriness
enwrapped him like a rosy mist. 'Come in, come in. And you, too,
Alan.'
They entered, Sanchia with a sidelong look at Helen, Howard grave and
stubborn. Everything was in a state of confusion which Sanchia was
quick to mark, while Howard saw nothing of it. He saw only Helen
looking a far-off princess, cold and unapproachable. And only a few
minutes ago she had been just a winsome girl who leaned toward him,
whom he dared to hope he could gather up into his arms.
Helen's expression was one of set determination. She breathed quickly
and deeply. Her anger rose that her two guests had overridden her
expressed wish. She watched her father hand Sanchia a chair. She saw
them sit down together at the table, Longstreet beginning to talk
largely upon his hobby, Sanchia encouraging him with her sympathetic
smile and her pertinent questions. It appeared that Sanchia had really
read and understood and was interested.
'Papa,' said Helen quietly, though her voice shook a little, 'I suppose
that a time for very plain talking has come. We will never get
anywhere without it. I have shown Mrs. Murray as plainly as I could
that I don't trust her and further that I do not like her. She should
not come into my house. You should not ask her, if she has not enough
pride to refuse your invitation. Do you want me to go? Or will you
ask her to go?'
Longstreet had not expected this, and for a moment was utterly at a
loss. He looked at his daughter in bewilderment; he turned from her to
Howard and finally to Sanchia herself as though for help. His face was
puckered up; he looked ridiculously as though he were on the verge of
tears. Sanchia had the effrontery to pat his arm and whisper:
'Dear friend, that you should be distressed because of me.'
But she did not offer to go. She sat still again and watched and
waited.
'I have begun packing for both of us,' Helen went on. 'You should come
back home. If you refuse to go I shall have to go alone.'
To her amazement her father appeared suddenly relieved. He had never
been parted from her for forty-eight hours consecutively since she
could remember; he had never seemed competent to get through the day
without her countless ministrations; he had leaned on her more than she
on him; and yet the stupefying certainty was that now his face cleared
and he actually smiled as he accepted her threat as a sensible solution
of the problem.
'No doubt you are right, my dear,' he nodded vigorously. 'This is a
wild sort of country after all; it is hard for a girl, bred as you have
been. Perhaps if you went East it would be better. I could stay here;
I'd find my mine very soon; I'd take some one in with me in order to
raise a large sum of money immediately. And then, when I had builded a
fine home and had everything ready for you, you'd come back to me!' He
was carried away with his dream. He rubbed his hands together, and had
he been playing poker you would have known he held nothing less than a
royal flush. 'You always rise superior to the situation, my dear;
always.'
But Helen's face would have indicated that the situation had mastered
her. Her own eyes filled with vexation; she dashed the tears aside and
her anger rose. Of all men in the world her father, with his gentle
innocence, could at times be the most maddening. And, withdrawn a
little behind her father, she saw Sanchia laughing into her
handkerchief.
On the instant Helen had the clear vision to know that in this skirmish
she was defeated. She had thought her father would follow her; she
knew that she would not go without him. At least not yet. In a moment
her anger would get the best of her; she went quickly to the door and
outside. Howard came quickly behind her.
'Helen,' he said harshly, 'you've got to listen to me.'
'Well?' She whirled and confronted him, her body drawn up rigidly.
'What have you to say?'
'You mustn't leave like this. You must stay.'
'I am not going to leave,' she retorted. 'I am going to stay!'
'But,' he began, at sea once more, 'I thought----'
'Think what you please, Mr. Howard,' she told him hotly. 'But here's
one thing you don't have to speculate upon. I am not going to leave my
father in the hands of that Murray woman to do as she pleases with.
She can have whatever I don't want,' and he knew she meant Alan Howard,
'but I am not going to give her the satisfaction of having all of the
mines and horses in the world named after her.'
The last came out despite her; she could have bitten her tongue to hold
back the words which came rushing forth with such vehemence. She did
not know what had put that thought into her mind at this crisis;
perhaps it had always been there. But it was this which had chief
significance for Howard.
'I have a horse named Sanchia,' he said. 'The one I rode the first day
I saw you. You think that I named it after her?'
'What if you did?' she demanded. 'Do you suppose that I care?'
'That horse,' he went on steadily, 'I bought a long time ago from
Yellow Barbee. It was before I had so much as heard of Sanchia Murray.
He named the beast.'
Helen's old familiar sniff was his answer. The matter, he was to know,
was of no moment to her. But she knew otherwise, and looked at him
swiftly hoping he had something else to say.
'You've got to stay here,' he continued gravely. 'And we both know it.
I believe in your father and in his ultimate success. We must watch
over him, we must see that Mrs. Murray does not worm his secret out of
him again and steal what he finds. And you've got to know that when a
man loves a girl as I love you, he is not going to tolerate any further
interference from a lying, deceitful jade like that woman in there.'
Helen laughed her disbelief.
'I rode first of all to the place where your cabin used to stand,' he
went on, his big hat crumpled in his hands. 'You had left, and I was
afraid you had gone East. I rode into the mining-camp to get word of
you. I saw Barbee; he said that Sanchia Murray knew where you had
moved. I asked her. When she said she was coming up this way, I did
not wait for her. She appears to have it in for me; she hates you for
standing between her and your father. She knows that I love you,
and----'
Longstreet was calling from the door,
'Helen, I want you and Howard to come back. We must talk everything
over. Mrs. Murray has much to explain; she hates Jim Courtot and his
crowd, she is working against them instead of with them. Be fair,
young people; remember these words,' he paused, lifted his hand
oratorically and then made his statement with an unusually deep
gravity,--'Every one, though appearing guilty, must be given an
opportunity to prove himself innocent. That's it and that's fair: _the
opportunity to prove his innocence_.' He emphasized the words in
repeating them. 'That's all that I ask now. Please let's talk things
over.'
Helen returned slowly to the cabin.
'I must go back,' she said to Howard. 'After all, I must keep my head
and watch over papa every minute while she is with him.'
'May I come in, too?' he asked gently.
'Won't you believe me, Helen? And won't you let me help you?'
She hesitated. Then she turned her head so that he could see her eyes.
'I am apt to have my hands full,' she admitted. She even smiled a
little. 'Maybe there _will_ be work for both of us.'
But when he sought to come to her side, she ran on ahead of him. The
face which she presented at the door for Sanchia's vision was radiant.
Even Sanchia was at a loss for the amazing alteration. How these two
could have come to an understanding in two minutes baffled her. But as
Howard presented his own face at the door there was no misdoubting that
he and Helen had travelled far along the road which she had thought to
close to them.
'What in the world has happened?' Guarded as was the tongue of Sanchia
Murray it was human after all.
Helen laughed merrily and gave her eyes for an instant to Howard's.
Then, lightly, to Sanchia:
'We were just laughing over a story Alan was telling me. Yellow Barbee
has a new girl.'
Sanchia understood, and her face went red. Howard merely knew that for
the first time Helen had called him Alan. Of trifles is the world made.