A New Leaf
Hal Rutherford himself met the three riders as they drew up at the
horse ranch. He asked no verbal questions, but his eyes ranged
curiously from one to another.
"'Light, gentlemen. I been wanting to see you especially, Mr.
Beaudry," he said.
"I reckon you know where we've been, Hal," answered Dave after he had
dismounted.
"I reckon."
"We got a little news for public circulation. You can pass the word
among the boys. Dan Meldrum was shot three hours ago beside the pit
where Miss Beulah was imprisoned. His body is in the prospect hole
now. You might send some lads with spades to bury him."
"One of you shot him."
"You done guessed it, Hal. One of us helped him out of that pit
intending to see he hit the dust to Mexico. Dan was loaded to the
guards with suspicions. He chose to make it a gun-play. Fired twice.
The one of us that took him out of the pit fired back and dropped him
first crack. All of us saw the affair. It happened just as I've told
you."
"But which of you--?"
"That's the only point we can't remember. It was one of us, but we've
forgotten which one."
"Suits me if it does you. I'll thank all three of you, then."
Rutherford cleared his throat and plunged on. "Boys, to-day kinder
makes an epoch in Huerfano Park. Jess Tighe died yesterday and Dan
Meldrum to-day. They were both bad citizens. There were others of us
that were bad citizens, too. Well, it's right-about face for us. We
travel broad trails from now on. Right now the park starts in to make
a new record for itself."
Dave offered his hand, and with it went the warm smile that made him
the most popular man in Washington County. "Listens fine, Hal. I sure
am glad to hear you say so."
"I niver had any kick against the Rutherfords. They were open and
aboveboard, anyhow, in all their diviltry," contributed Ryan to the
pact of peace.
Nobody looked at Roy, but he felt the weight of their thoughts. All
four of them bore in mind the death of John Beaudry. His son spoke
quietly.
"Mr. Rutherford, I've been thinking of my father a good deal these last
few days. I want to do as he would have me do about this thing. I'm
not going to chop my words. He gave his life to bring law and order
into this country, The men who killed him were guilty of murder.
That's an ugly word, but it's the true one."
The grim face of the big hillman did not twitch. "I'll take the word
from you. Go on."
"But I've been thinking more and more that he would want me to forget
that. Tighe and Meldrum are gone. Sheriff Beaudry worked for the good
of the community. That is all he asked. It is for the best interest
of Washington County that we bury the past. If you say so, I'll shake
hands on that and we'll all face to the future. Just as you say."
Dingwell grinned. "Hooray! Big Chief Dave will now make oration.
You've got the right idea, son. I knew Jack Beaudry. There wasn't an
atom of revenge in his game body. His advice would have been to shake
hands. That's mine, too."
The hillman and Roy followed it.
Upon the porch a young woman appeared.
"I've written those letters for you, dad," she called.
Roy deserted the peace conference at once and joined her.
"Oh! I didn't know it was you," she cried. "I'm so glad you came this
way. Was it . . . all right?"
"Right as the wheat. Why did you send Pat up Del Oro?"
She looked at him with eyes incredibly kind and shy. "Because I . . .
didn't want to run any chance of losing my new beau."
"Are you sure that was your only reason?"
"Certain sure. I didn't trust Meldrum, and . . . I thought you had
taken chances enough with him. So I gave Mr. Ryan an opportunity."
"He took it," her lover answered gravely.
She glanced at him quickly. "You mean--?"
"Never mind what I mean now. We've more important things to talk
about. I haven't seen you for eight hours, and thirty-three minutes."
Rutherford turned his guests over to Ned, who led the way to the
stable. The ranchman joined the lovers. He put an arm around Beulah.
"Boots has done told me about you two, Mr. Beaudry. I'm eternally
grateful to you for bringing back my little girl to me, and if you all
feel right sure you care for each other I've got nothing to say but
'God bless you.' You're a white man. You're decent. I believe you'll
be kind to her."
"I'm going to try to the best I know, Mr. Rutherford."
"You'd better, young man." The big rancher swallowed a lump in his
throat and passed to another phase of the subject. "Boots was telling
me about how it kinder stuck in yore craw to marry the daughter of Hal
Rutherford, seeing as how things happened the way they did. Well, I'm
going to relieve yore mind. She's the one that has got the forgiving
to do, not you. She knew it all the time, too, but she didn't tell it.
Beulah is the daughter of my brother Anse. I took her from the arms of
her dying mother when she was a little trick that couldn't crawl.
She's not the daughter of the man that shot yore father. She's the
daughter of the man yore father shot."
"Oh!" gasped Roy.
Beulah went to her lover arrow-swift.
"My dear . . . my dear! What does it matter now? Dad says my father
was killed in fair fight. He had set himself against the law. It took
his life. Your father didn't."
"But--"
"Oh, his was the hand. But he was sheriff. He did only his duty.
That's true, isn't it, dad?"
"I reckon."
Her strong young hands gripped tightly those of her lover. She looked
proudly into his eyes with that little flare of feminine ferocity in
hers.
"I won't have it any other way, Roy Beaudry. You're the man I'm going
to marry, the man who is going to be the father of my children if God
gives me any. No blood stands between us--nothing but the memory of
brave men who misunderstood each other and were hurt because of it.
Our marriage puts an end forever to even the memory of the wrong they
did each other. That is the way it is to me--and that's the way it has
got to be to you, too."
Roy laughed softly, tears in his eyes. As he looked at her eager young
beauty the hot life in his pulses throbbed. He snatched her to him
with an ardor as savage as her own.
THE END
OF THE BEGINNING