Powell and Chappo were alone in the new home at Hot Springs ranch.
Limber had gone to the Diamond H in order to adjust the final details of
the joint range work.
While the Mexican busied himself in the kitchen, Powell smoked
contentedly in the living-room as he sat before the fire of blazing
mesquite knots. He glanced about the home-like place, with its
red-shaded lamp on a large table that was strewn with magazines. A desk
occupied one end of the room and book shelves held well-worn volumes at
the opposite end. The couch, which was covered with a glowing Indian
blanket and mannish pillows, harmonized with the massive brown leather
chairs and Navajo rugs on the floor. The pictures bore signatures of
well-known artists.
"It's just what I've wanted all these years," said Powell aloud. The
collie pup at his feet looked up with questioning eyes, then telegraphed
reply with bushy tail. The man leaned over and patted the dog's head
before selecting a magazine and settling down for the evening.
"Buenos noches, Senor," Chappo smiled politely, his shabby sombrero in
hand.
"Buenos noches, Chappo," answered Powell, whose life for several years
in a South American mining camp had familiarized him with the language
and the type of people found in all Latin-American sections. A fortunate
mining investment during those years had awakened a love of the
untrammeled outdoors, and also made it possible for him to carry on his
plans for a sanitarium.
After Chappo had departed for his bunk-room, the doctor became absorbed
in his book. Three hours passed, then the drowsing collie started with
a muffled growl and sharply cocked ears.
"What's the matter, old chap?"
The dog leaped up ran to the door whimpering, and Powell went on the
front porch. It was too dark to discern anything and no unusual sounds
reached the man, but the dog, with a hysterical yelp darted from the
porch into the shadows. The short, sharp barks that broke the stillness
were barks of welcome such as always greeted the doctor upon his return
to the ranch.
A woman's voice spoke to the dog, and Powell ran quickly in the
direction the collie had taken. The way led to the Circle Cross; the
voice was that of Glendon's wife.
"Be quiet, Tatters," called Powell. As the noise abated, he reached
Katherine Glendon's side, and in the faint light saw that she was
carrying Donnie.
"Oh, I am so glad you are home!" she exclaimed. "Donnie is hurt, I don't
know how badly--but his arm is broken."
Already the doctor had reached for the child.
"Let me have him. Don't try to explain anything now."
They hurried toward the house, entered the room and Powell laid the
child on the couch. The doctor knelt down beside the almost unconscious
boy, then with gentle touch felt the broken arm. Chappo came through the
door, his faded brown eyes were full of pity as he watched the mother
who stood with tightly gripped hands waiting the doctor's words.
Donnie looked at her, his quivering lips showed the effort to control
his emotions when he tried to move his arm and saw that it was broken.
"It really don't hurt very much, Marmee," he said stoutly as Powell
finished the examination and rose to his feet.
"We'll fix you up in no time," the doctor announced cheerily. "Nothing
the matter with you except a broken bone, and that is in the very best
place it could happen." He turned to Katherine and continued, "Don't
worry, Mrs. Glendon. A healthy child's bones knit quickly and perfectly.
It's a simple fracture, fortunately, and above the elbow, so only one
bone to knit. He'll be playing around tomorrow."
Powell left her sitting by the couch, and Chappo listened carefully to
the doctor's low-voiced instructions which were spoken in Spanish.
"I understand, Senor," nodded the Mexican. "Lots of times I have helped
when there was no doctor. Horses, cows, dogs, and people, all bones are
the same."
The books on the table were removed for rolls of bandages and surgical
splints, then Powell turned briskly to Donnie and put his arm about the
child's shoulder as he said, "Now, old man, Chappo and I will take care
of that arm for you. It may hurt for a few seconds, but after that it
won't bother you at all."
"Let him brace himself against you, Mrs. Glendon," continued the
physician.
Chappo, at a nod from the doctor, grasped the boy's arm and pulled
steadily. Donnie's face paled but not a sound escaped his tightly set
lips. The doctor's fingers pressed the fractured bone and held it in
place while the splints were adjusted. A sling in which the hand rested,
finished the operation, then Powell arranged the pillows on the couch.
"Take it easy now, old man," he said. "You're the pluckiest boy I ever
knew."
Donnie tried to smile, but tears filled his eyes and he held out his
uninjured hand to his mother. She sat on the couch beside him smoothing
his hair and talking in a low voice, until at last, with his right hand
still clasped in hers, he fell asleep.
"All right now," Powell assured her, as he put away the articles on the
table. "He is exhausted from the nerve shock, nothing more."
The doctor glanced at Katherine and exclaimed, "Bless my heart! You
need attention almost as badly as Donnie."
He left the room and returned with a glass. "Just a little port wine.
Drink every drop of it," he ordered.
Her hand shook as she lifted the glass to her white lips, then she held
out the empty glass and sank into a chair that Powell rolled before the
fireplace. Her eyes closed wearily. The doctor understood the over taxed
nerves, and as he glanced from mother to child, a feeling of rage
against Glendon consumed him. The only sound in the room was the sputter
of the burning wood. Katherine looked anxiously at the sleeping child,
then at the doctor.
"He's all right," Powell answered her unvoiced fear. "It had been a
terrible strain on you both. The bone will begin to knit in a few days
and Donnie will have nothing to remind him of the accident in a short
time. It's part of a boy's life to have such things as broken legs and
arms," he smiled.
"Please don't think I am ungrateful. There are some emotions one almost
cannot express, because we feel them too deeply for words. I don't know
how to thank you."
"How did it happen?" asked Powell, trying to divert her from any sense
of obligation.
"It came so suddenly that it dazed me," she began. "Last summer the wall
of the bedroom bulged and Juan made new adobes to fix it; but Mr.
Glendon has been too busy to attend to it. We never thought of danger,
for an adobe wall often stands for years with big cracks in it, you
know. Donnie was sleeping next to the wall in my bed when the crash
came. The wall fell outward, but part of the adobe struck his arm. It
was dark. I spoke to him and he did not answer. I thought he was dead
until I heard him moan." She stopped and bit her lip fiercely.
The doctor placed a fresh log on the fire, and while he prodded the
embers, the woman gained control of her voice.
"I lit the candle, but when I looked at him he was unconscious. I lifted
him and when the bed covers fell from his arm, I saw the bone had been
broken. Then--I thought of you, and brought him here."
Powell knew that her fear that the child she carried might be dying in
her arms, or that she might not find anyone but Chappo at the Springs,
must have made the three-mile walk seem endless.
"Were you alone?"
"Yes. Juan is on the San Pedro for ten days and my husband went to
Willcox yesterday morning. He does not expect to return home for a week.
I had no horse or I could have ridden here."
"You and Donnie must go to bed now and rest," commanded the doctor,
cutting short the words she was about to utter. "I have a guest room
and Chappo sees to everything necessary, so you need not fear you are
causing me the least inconvenience. Tomorrow we can drive down to your
place and take inventory of the damage. Since Juan has the adobes ready
to use, Chappo and I can fix up the wall. I learned all about adobes
while I lived in South America eight years ago."
"That was the same year we came here," commented the woman.
Powell smothered an ejaculation of indignation and wonder at her
endurance of such a life. "Yet," he mused, "a bruised flower becomes
more fragrant." His elbow rested on the mantle and he looked down,
studying her face line by line. Again that vague resemblance baffled him
until he recalled a stream near his boyhood home, where a shallow
current reached a bend and formed a deep pool. He had loved to sprawl on
the bank and gaze into the wonderful, ever-changing reflections, where
rough trees were softened, the sky became more blue and the many-hued
flowers more beautiful. It was a magic pool to his boyish eyes; in later
years be called it his Pool of Illusion.
Down in its mysterious depths lived a shadowy form. A woman's face with
steadfast eyes looked back into his own, understanding his unspoken
dreams, while her slender white hands were held out to him. The longing
to touch them was actual physical pain, and often he dived into the
water, but the vision vanished in the ripples. He had gone his way,
looking into many women's faces in many lands, always hoping to find
what he had seen in his Pool of Illusion, but the years of search had
been fruitless.
Tonight the firelight from his hearth flickered across that dream face.
The dream and reality blended so perfectly that it startled him when
Katherine rose from her chair and held out her hand, saying, "I do thank
you with all my heart. I shall never forget what you have done for us.
Maybe some day I can show my gratitude."
"Please don't speak of it again," he replied, and seeing Donnie on his
feet, Powell added, "Good night, old man.
"It's lucky that adobe fell on the left hand, for it's much harder to
learn to use it. My right arm was broken when I was your age. It's
funny, though, how quickly my left hand learned to work like its twin
brother. After my arm was well, I used my left hand much of the time."
Mother and child entered the cheerful guest room and for a while Powell
heard their voices through the closed door. He sat by the dying embers
of the fire. He had found the woman of the Pool. She was the wife of his
neighbour Glendon. The realization of his dream was more unattainable
than ever, but his bitterness held an undercurrent of happiness in
knowing that he might be able to ease the burden she was bearing so
bravely.
With a sudden movement he touched the chair where her head had rested.
Then he turned out the lamp and went to his own room, but that night in
his dreams he saw the Woman of the Pool sitting again before his
fireplace, and a child leaned against her shoulder. As he drew nearer,
her lips smiled and her eyes met his in perfect confidence and
understanding.
He held out his arms to her and the child, for they were his own.