AN UNACCEPTED CHALLENGE
"I wants ter hev speech with ye, stranger."
The words, spoken in a harsh voice, fell gratingly on Donald's ears, and
brought to an abrupt end the happy thoughts with which his mind was
occupied. He stopped, forcing the growling Mike behind him, as Judd
stepped out from the bushes, squarely across his path.
"I would be glad to stop and talk with you, Judd, but I'm due in
Fayville before noon, and have already stayed too long at Big Jerry's."
"Yo' hev," was the prompt and surly reply.
"What the devil do you mean by that?" snapped Donald, with rising ire.
"What I says, goes," was the reply. "This hyar place air a powerful good
one fer yo' ter keep erway from, stranger."
"Indeed? Well, you don't own it."
The younger man's color heightened, and his lean jaws clamped together.
"I warns ye fair," he said, after a brief pause.
"And I don't accept such a warning from any one," shot back Donald,
momentarily growing more angry. "It's no business of yours, whether I go
or stay."
"I makes hit my business," replied the other sullenly. "Big Jerry air
growin' old an' foolish, I reckon; but I seen what I seen, an' thar
haint no city man ergoin' ter come up hyar an' make trouble fer a gal uv
our'n."
"Judd, it's you who are the fool. I don't admit your right to discuss
this, or any matter, with me, but Rose is nothing to me but a very good
friend. Besides, she's only a child."
"She's nigh onter old ernough ter wed," was the uncompromising answer.
"An' ef she haint nothin' ter ye, the more shame on ye fer tryin' ter
make her love ye, an' mayhaps break her heart."
"But I haven't tried to make her love me," broke in Donald impatiently.
"Then fer what did yo' put yer arms erbout her an' kiss her, like I seen
ye through the winder awhile back, I wants ter know?" demanded the
other, as he hastily frustrated Donald's attempt to step by him.
The man felt his own face flush hotly, and was angry over this visible
display of feeling.
"I tell you she's only a child. I kissed her as I would any little girl
of whom I was fond."
"Yo' love her, an' yo' haint the man ter say hit."
"Very well, then. Supposing I admit that I love her, what is it to you?"
replied Donald, with a flash of heat.
"I loves her, too. I've loved her since she come ter these hyar
mountains, a leetle baby; an' I don't calkerlate ter hev yo', er any
city man, make a plaything uv her. Hit's man ter man, now. Air yo', er
haint yo', a-goin' ter leave hyar, an' keep erway?"
"As I told you before, it's none of your business," replied Don shortly.
"An' es I told ye before, hit air. Now I tells ye thet yo' haint
a-comin' back."
"That ... remains to be seen," Donald answered wrathfully as he stepped
past Judd, this time unimpeded.
He had not gone more than a score of swinging strides, keeping the
bristling dog close beside him, when he heard the staccato crack of a
rifle, and simultaneously the high-pitched whine of a bullet past his
head.
Once before, in the Maine woods, he had been an unwilling target, on
that occasion for an overanxious deer hunter. Then he had sprung up,
waving his arms and shouting a warning, but now instinct told him that
the opposite procedure was the proper one, and he threw himself
precipitately into the enveloping rhododendrons. As he did so, from the
path above him came a derisive laugh which set his blood boiling.
It awakened in Donald all the blind, fighting spirit which, in gridiron
days, had driven him with clinched teeth into the thick of the battering
melee. He sprang into a crouching posture, face turned toward the
taunting sound, every muscle taut, every nerve tingling, and with but
one thought surging through his brain--the desire to charge back and
attack Judd, barehanded.
Slowly the red demons of primitive passion vanished before the returning
light of wisdom, born of maturity and the restraining power of
civilization. He quickly realized that he had no right to make a fool of
himself for the sake of such a cause, and in such a childish manner. His
duty was paramount to the satisfaction of an atavistic impulse, and,
placing a strong mental grasp upon his nerves, which cried for drastic
action, Donald turned downward into the footpath again, and broke into a
run.
Haste was doubly essential, for little time remained before the hour for
the departure of his train, and, even in Virginia, it _might_ leave
according to schedule. As he crashed impetuously through a bush whose
branches blocked the path, he heard again the laughter from above him
and caught a new note therein--that of exultation.
Donald stifled an oath, while an additional reason for returning to the
mountain burned its way into his heart.
* * * * *
On the path above, Judd deliberately blew the fouling smoke from his
rifle barrel, turned about, and, with a satisfied smile mingling with
the expression of hate on his lips, climbed back towards Jerry's cabin.
In its doorway stood Rose. The happy flush still lingered delicately on
her cheeks, and her limpid eyes were full of a soft, dreamy light.
"What war yo' ershootin' at, Judd?" she cried, as the man came into
view, carelessly swinging his long weapon.
"Et a pole-cat," was his brief reply, as he removed his broad straw hat
and sank with the unconscious grace of a wild animal onto the stoop at
her feet.
Neither broke the silence for several minutes, but the man scarcely took
his burning gaze from the child's lovely face. At length she sighed ever
so gently, and, seating herself beside him, dropped her firm chin into
her cupped hands.
"Smiles," began Judd, with all the harshness gone from his voice, "I
don't enjoy fer ter hear yo' sigh thet erway, er ter see ther fur-off
look in yo'r purty eyes, 'cause I fears thet hit means thar's some one
else then me in yo'r heart."
Instantly she sat up straight, and turned her eyes, full of surprise,
upon him. "Why, Juddy!" she said.
"Ef hit's thet doctor man, I likes hit least uv all, Smiles," the man
continued, speaking bitterly. "He haint come fur no good, leetle gal,
an' I don't want fer yo' ter think on him."
"I reckon I thinks on whom I likes," she responded briefly.
"Don't go fer ter git angry with me, Rose gal. Hit aint thet I wants ter
be selfish er onreasonable, but ..." Judd stopped. Words of passionate
love trembled on his lips, but were held there by a barrier of
inherited reticence in matters of the heart. Iron reserve and laconic
speech were essentially typical of his breed; but, at length, the eager
utterances strained against the fetter of his will, and broke them.
"I kaint speak as I desires to, Smiles. I fears I kaint make ye
understand what's in my heart; but I've keered mightily fer ye, dear,
ever since yo' war a smilin' leetle baby gal, an' now ... now yo'r most
a woman grown, an' I love ye, want ye more come each new day an' each
new night. Thar haint one ef them passes but thet I make excuse fer ter
see ye, an' jest ther sight o' yo'r sweet face somehow kindles a light
inside me that burns, 'thout scarcely dimmin', till I sees ye agin.
Thet's ther reason I said what I done, a moment back.
"I jest kaint bear fer ter think uv yo' lovin' some one else then me. I
... I keers so much thet I believes I'd rather see ye dead then thet,
Rose gal."
Fairly trembling with the sweep of his unloosed emotion, the reserved,
strong-willed man paused, and, as the girl stood up hastily, she was
trembling, too.
"Why, Juddy," she cried softly, distress in her voice, "I didn't rightly
understand thet yo' felt thet erway. I likes ye, in course, but I'm only
a leetle gal, an' I haint keerin' fer any one ... thet erway. I ... I
don't enjoy fer ter hyar yo' say sech words ter me now, Juddy."
"I reckon yo'r right, an' I shouldn't hev told ye yet, Rose," answered
the man, almost humbly. "I kin bide my time, but I wants ye ter know
thet I feels es I does. I'm a-goin' ter keep right on lovin' ye more an'
more, and, when yo'r older, I plans ter ask ye ter marry with me."
"I likes ye ... indeed I likes ye, Judd, but ... oh, please don't ever
go fer ter do that. I kaint never marry ye, Judd."
The man stiffened, and his face grew black again. "I believes thet yo'
air in love with thet doctor man, atter all," he shot out.
"I haint neither," cried the girl, angrily stamping her bare foot, "I
does love him, but I haint _in_ love with nobody, 'ceptin' grandpap."
"Yo' submitted ter his takin' ye in his arms an' kissin' ye," burst out
the mountaineer.
"Judd Amos, yo'r a mean, spyin' sneak, an' I hates ye!" stormed Rose,
while her eyes filled with angry tears.
"I didn't go fer ter spy on ye, Smiles," he protested, "I seen ye by
chance. But, whether yo' love him er not, yo' might jest as well fergit
him. He keered fer ye jest because yo' air er purty mountain flower, an'
he haint never ercomin' back hyar ergin."
"He air, too," contradicted the girl rebelliously. "He air ercomin' back
an' he's promised ter help me git edercation."
Judd laughed shortly.
"I warned him fair ter keep erway, an' p'inted my warnin' with a rifle
ball."
Rose's eyes widened in horror.
"Yo' ... yo' means yo' shot him, Judd?" she whispered, with both hands
pressed to her breast.
"Shot him? No. I didn't aim fer ter hurt him, an' 'twarn't in nowise
necessary. I jest put a bullet past his head an' he run like a skeered
rabbit."
"Taint so. He never run from no one," she cried staunchly.
"Wall, hit shor' appeared like hit ter me," was the gloating answer.
Feminine instinct gave Rose an intuitive insight into the real reasons
which underlay Donald's apparent flight; but pride sealed her lips, just
as she was on the point of explaining triumphantly that the doctor had
been called back home that day, and that it was the following summer
when he would return.
"Juddy," she said gently, after a moment, "yo' hed no reason fer doin'
what yo' done. Hit war mighty wrong, but I fergives ye. I wants ter
still be friends with ye. I wants ye ter help me, Juddy."
The last words were breathed softly, and the naive appeal in her voice
brought the hostile man quickly back to submissive and worshipful
fealty.
"Yo' know thet I'd do enything in the world fer ye, Smiles," he answered
simply.
"I believes thet yo' _think_ yo' would, Judd, but I wonders ef, deep in
yo'r heart, yo' really keers ernough fer me ter ... I kaint scarcely
explain what I means. I reckon I air powerful ignerrant in
speecherfyin'."
"I don't rightly know what yo' means, Smiles, but I give ye my promise
ter do whatsoever yo' wants, ef hit takes my life," he declared
earnestly, his former selfish desire to bend her will into compliance
with his own for the moment yielding to his blind eagerness to prove his
love.
Youthful and unsophisticated in worldly wiles as she was, the eternal
feminine in Rose sensed her victory and power, and, still maintaining
her half commanding, half tenderly appealing tone, she outlined her
plan, for the accomplishment of which his aid was all essential.
Judd protested, pleaded and stormed--all to no avail. He felt himself
like a man caught in a snare of his own weaving--a snare strengthened by
fair, yet unbreakable, silken threads added by the child.
Finally, miserable at heart, he yielded, and departed with his hand
tingling from the impulsive affectionate pressure of Smiles' fingers
upon it. But, as the conscious thrill which it caused in his being
lessened, his thoughts became immersed in gloom, through which no
encouraging light made its way. He realized that he had lost the first
battle for her heart, and the loss brought closer the dark spectre of
ultimate defeat.