If Gordon had happened to look behind him before riding on down into the
cañon, he might have seen with the naked eye two black dots crawling
like flies along the high bare flank of a mountain far behind. Under a
binocular the flies would have resolved into Lee and Ramon. Further, in
that clear, dry atmosphere, a good telescope would have revealed both
the girl's worried expression and Ramon's glowing ardor. For just as the
"wages of sin is death," so the wages of flirtation--especially if the
party of the second part be of Latin blood--is apt to be disaster. Lee
was now reaping where she had sown, garnering in full measure, heaped up
and pressed down, last night's consequences.
With a girl's keen intuition in such things, she had seen it coming and
had thought of turning back. But after her summary dismissal of Gordon,
that would have appeared ridiculous--besides, though she would not have
admitted it, there he was riding on to a rendezvous with that _dreadful_
girl! How she regretted, now, the flirtation! How she berated herself
for sending him home! But, there being nothing else to do, she had
ridden rapidly, staving off the inevitable with a stream of excited
chatter--Ramon's family, _hacienda_ affairs, the scenery--while she
dodged like a chased rabbit she secretly wondered at herself. Supposing
this were six months ago? Say, on the morning she had put on his hat?
Would she have doubled and dodged? She knew better! She could not say,
herself, what her answer might have been! But she _did_ know that she
would have let him speak.
If then, why not now? Was it Gordon? Her pride--bolstered by irritation,
for with a woman's illogic she charged her present plight to him--her
pride rose in arms at the thought! Nevertheless, it did not prevent her
from riding hard on his trail; nor from holding Ramon off with an effort
great as a physical strain.
But it was all in vain. Her retreats, though real, were alluring as the
mock ones which, at that moment, Felicia was practising on Gordon. And
their effect was the same. Her efforts were as bags of sand piled to
check a rising torrent. Stayed for a time, it rose the higher; presently
leaped over and swept all before it.
A remark of hers concerning his father's age precipitated the flood.
"Si, he has many years." Then, his dark, handsome face aglow, Ramon ran
on: "Yesterday he was saying that he would be content to pass could he
but see me settled with a wife. I told him it depended on"--he paused,
then added the _tu_ of lovers--"on _thee_. If--"
"Oh, Ramon!" she pleaded, in wild distress. "_Please_--don't!"
But the dam was gone! In terms that would seem extravagant in English,
but flowed naturally in the eloquent, rhythmic Spanish, he told his
love. Sunshine and star fire; moonlight and bird-song; the bloom of
spring flowers; loom of the mountains; wide spread of the desert--all
were she! Warmth, light, happiness, from her proceeded! She was his
universe. In her all beauty dwelt! And so on. To a girl who loved him,
it would have been delightful wooing. Six months ago she would have
listened, charmed; perhaps have been persuaded. But now--it filled her
with dismay.
"Oh, you poor Ramon!" She held out her hand in remorse and pity, but
when, seizing it, he tried to draw her to him, she pulled away. "Oh no!
_no!_ Oh, what a miserable creature I am! Here I have played--"
But she got no further. Realizing with sympathetic intuition that the
moment was unpropitious, he stopped her. "There is no hurry. I did not
intend to tell thee for a little while. But there is no harm done. Thou
hast always known it."
"Oh yes." Tears dimming the blue eyes, she nodded. "Yes, but--" Then
realizing that argument would but reopen the case, she accepted the
compromise. "No, I won't answer now. Wait."
"If there be any one else--" His brow drew down over somber, threatening
eyes.
"Oh, there isn't!" She was conscious, herself, of over-emphasis. But she
repeated again. "There _isn't_, Ramon!"
"Bueno!" His face cleared. "Then I am content."
Now she was conscious of vast relief as though at the passing of
imminent danger. Relief from what? She refused to think.
Content with her reassurance, he laughed and chatted again as they moved
on, but it was a miserable girl that rode beside him; one torn between
remorse and a dread curiosity concerning feelings which she obstinately
refused to examine. When, finally, they rode down into the cañon,
curiosity and remorse both gave place to indefinite apprehension.
Without trying, she learned more of herself while they followed the
zigzag staircases down and down than she dared to contemplate.
Their first view of the _fonda_ showed, of course, only the roof and
walls. But from the lower levels they sighted, first, Gordon's horse
tied to a post of the _ramada_, then the young man himself leaning at
ease across the bar. Ramon, who was riding ahead, obtained first view of
the "long-haired _diccionario_," which was now being consulted in the
matter of hair and eyes.
"The señor seems to be enjoying himself."
His laugh came floating back. Passing around the next turn, he did not
see Lee rein in her beast. Sitting her horse, still as a marble statue,
she watched from across the stream the girl's head go up and meet
Gordon's in a kiss.
For a disinterested spectator the scene would have had vast interest.
The chrome-yellow walls of the _fonda_, toned under the eaves by Time's
green brush; the great shading trees through which the sun sent down a
greenish lace of light; the stream singing musically among its glazed
brown boulders; all formed a proper setting for the forest love which
knows no other sanction than that of the eye. The beauty and abandon of
it all would have thrilled the aforesaid disinterested spectator; have
carried a theater by storm. But Lee was neither disinterested nor an
audience--in the accepted sense. She saw only the abandon. Conscious of
a deathly chill at her heart, white as the aforesaid statue, she just
sat her beast.
In taking the last turn, Ramon's horse dislodged a pebble, and as it
rolled down the bank and splashed in the stream Gordon broke the girl's
clasp. Ramon was still out of sight, and Gordon's glance of startled
inquiry rose to Lee sitting above, so still and quiet.
"My God, she saw it!"
Even as it flashed upon him he was convicted of a vast and sudden change
wrought in himself by the last twenty-four hours. Only yesterday he had
assured Lee, with sincerity, that he lost interest in grown-up girls.
Now, just because she had caught him in a little gallantry, the whole
world had gone to smithereens!
"Competition is the life of love!" Mrs. Mills might have
added--sometimes its death. The "wind" had blown with a vengeance--from
opposite ways. Sitting above, Lee shook under its chill. Below, Gordon
shivered. Though only a few seconds passed before she rode on down and
joined Ramon in front of the _fonda_, it seemed to both a deathless age.
After passing a pleasant word with Gordon, Ramon had called for a drink,
and till Felicia brought her a glass Lee sat quietly talking. But as the
girl looked up, revealing the soft glow in her great dusky eyes, Lee
stiffened and looked at Gordon.
"I am glad that we overtook you. Señor Icarza has asked me to marry him.
You shall be first to congratulate us."
Gordon's glance had risen to hers in wonder and consternation. Then--the
tricks fancy plays us! _Fonda_ and ravine faded into a glade in a Java
forest where the light broke down through giant fronds and twined a
golden aureole around her fair hair. From that great distance, without
recognizing it for his own, he heard a voice.
"I wish you all happiness!"
The crash of Lee's glass as she threw it among the stones brought him
back to the sight of her riding at full speed down the cañon.
Ramon was looking after her, transfixed with wonder.
Gordon's practical Anglo-Saxon instinct was first to assert itself. He
spoke very quietly. "We'd better catch her before she breaks her neck."