A BITTER AWAKENING
The first day on which my attendants would treat me as a rational being
was a memorable one to me. It must have been late in the morning when I
opened my eyes, for the sun had risen above the level of the open
window, and I lay still blinking out across the prairie with, at first,
a curious satisfaction. I had cheated death and been called back out of
the darkness to sunlight and life, it seemed. Then I began to remember,
and the pain in the arm bound fast to my side helped to remind me that
life implied a struggle. Raising my head, I noticed that there had been
changes made in my room, and a young woman standing by the window
frowned at me.
"I guess all men are worrying, but you're about the worst I ever struck,
Rancher Ormesby. Just you lie back till I fix you, or I'll call the boys
in to tie you fast with a girth."
She was a tall, fair, well-favored damsel, with a ruddy countenance and
somewhat bold eyes; but I was disappointed when I saw her clearly, even
though her laugh was heartsome when I answered humbly: "I will try not
to trouble you if you don't mean to starve me."
Miss Sally Steel, for it was my neighbor's sister, shouted to somebody
through the window, and then turned to the man who rose from a corner.
"You just stay right where you are. When I call cookie I'll see he
comes. I've been running this place as it ought to be run, and you won't
know Gaspard's when you get about, Rancher Ormesby."
The man laughed, and I saw it was Thorn, though I did not know then that
after doing my work and his own during the day he had watched the
greater part of every night beside me.
"Feeling pretty fit this morning?" he asked.
"Comparatively so," I answered. "I should feel better if I knew just
what happened to me and to the stock. You might tell me, beginning from
the time the fence went down."
"If he does there'll be trouble," broke in Miss Steel, who, I soon
discovered, had constituted herself autocratic mistress of Gaspard's
Trail. "He must wait until you have had breakfast, anyway." And I saw
the cook stroll very leisurely towards the window carrying a tray.
"Was anybody calling?" he commenced, with the exasperating slowness he
could at times assume; and then, catching sight of me, would have
clambered in over the low window-sill but that Miss Steel stopped him.
"Anybody calling! I should think there was--and when I want people
they'll come right along," she said. "No; you can stop out there--isn't
all the prairie big enough for you? There'll be some tone about this
place before I'm through," and the cook grinned broadly as he caught my
eye.
Miss Steel's voice was not unpleasant, though it had a strident ring,
and her face was gentle as she raised me on a heap of folded blankets
with no great effort, though I was never a very light weight, after
which, between my desire to please her and a returning appetite, I made
a creditable meal.
"That's a long way better," she said approvingly. "Tom brought a fool
doctor over from Calgary, who said you'd got your brain mixed and a
concussion of the head. 'Fix up his bones and don't worry about anything
else,' I said. 'It would take a steam hammer to make any concussion
worth talking of on Rancher Ormesby's head.'"
"Thorn has not answered my question," I interrupted; and Miss Steel
flashed a glance at the foreman, who seemed to hesitate before he
answered. "It happened this way: You were a trifle late lighting out
when you'd cut the fence. Steel said one of the beasts charged you, and
after that more of them stampeded right over you. The horse must have
kept some of them off, for he was stamped out pretty flat, and it was a
relief to hear you growling at something when we got you out."
"How did you get me out?" I asked, and Thorn fidgeted before he
answered: "It wasn't worth mentioning, but between us Steel and I
managed to split the rush, and the beasts went by on each side of us."
"At the risk of being stamped flat, too! I might have expected it of you
and Steel," I said; and the girl's eyes sparkled as she turned to the
foreman.
"Then Steel went back for the wagon after we found you had an arm and a
collarbone broken. I rode in to the railroad and wired for a doctor.
Sally came over to nurse you, and a pretty tough time she has had of it.
You had fever mighty bad."
"There's no use in saying I'm obliged to both of you, because you know
it well," I made shift to answer; and Sally Steel stroked the hair back
from my forehead in sisterly fashion as she smiled at Thorn. "But what
about the stock? Did they all get through?"
Thorn's honest face clouded, and Sally Steel laid her plump hand on my
mouth. "You're not going to worry about that. A herd of cattle stampeded
over you and you're still alive. Isn't that good enough for you?"
I moved my head aside. "I shall worry until I know the truth. All the
beasts could not have got out. How many did?" I asked.
Thorn looked at Sally, then sideways at me, and I held my breath until
the girl said softly: "You had better tell him."
"Very few," said the foreman; and I hoped that my face was as
expressionless as I tried to make it when I heard the count. "Some of
those near the fence got clear, and some didn't. Steel had grubbed up a
post, and when the wires slacked part of the rest got tangled up and
went down, choking the gap. It was worse than a Chicago slaughter-house
when the fire rolled up."
"The horses, too? How long have I been ill, and has any rain fallen?" I
asked, with the strange steadiness that sometimes follows a crushing
blow, and Thorn moodily shook his head.
"Both horses done for. You've been ill 'bout two weeks, I think. No rain
worth mentioning--and the crop is clean wiped out."
There was silence for some minutes, and Sally Steel patted my uninjured
shoulder sympathetically. Then I pointed to a litter of papers on the
table, and inquired if there were any letters in Lane's writing. Thorn
handed me one reluctantly, and it was hard to refrain from fierce
exclamation as I read the laconic missive. Lane regretted to hear of my
accident, but the scarcity of money rendered it necessary to advise me
that as I had not formally accepted his terms, repayment of the loan was
overdue, and he would be obliged to realize unless I were willing to
pledge Crane Valley or renew the arrangement at an extra five per cent.
on the terms last mentioned.
"Bad news?" said Sally. "Then I guess Thorn sha'n't worry you any more;
but it's just when things look worst the turn comes. That team will be
bolting soon, Thorn. I'll sit right back in the corner, and until you
want to talk to me you can forget I'm there."
The high-pitched voice sank to a gentler tone, and I felt grateful to
Sally Steel. Her reckless vagaries often formed a theme for laughter
when the inhabitants of the prairie foregathered at settlement or store;
but there was a depth of good-nature, as well as an overdaring love of
mischief in her, and not infrequently a blessing accompanied the jest.
Thorn was moving towards the door when, recollecting another point, I
beckoned him.
"How was it that when they had, or should have had, time enough,
Henderson's man and Redmond did not stop the cattle bunching in the
fence? It's very unlike our ways if they made no effort to save my
beasts as well as their own masters' property," I said.
Foreman Thorn looked troubled, and I saw that Sally was watching him
keenly. "I don't understand it rightly, and I guess no man ever will,"
he said. "Of course, we struck Henderson's Jo with just that question,
and this is what he made of it. He and Redmond were camping in Torkill's
deserted sod-house, and when they saw the fires were bad that night,
Redmond said he'd ride round the cattle. Their own lot was pretty well
out of harm's way, east of the fence, but Jo told him to take a look at
yours. Redmond started, and, as Jo knew that he'd be called if he were
wanted, he went off to sleep."
"That does not explain much," I interjected, when Thorn halted, rubbing
his head as though in search of inspiration.
"There isn't an explanation. Jo, waking later, saw the fire coming right
down the hollow and started on foot for the fence. There was no sign of
Redmond anywhere. Jo couldn't get the stock out, and he couldn't cut the
fence, and he was going back for an ax when we met him. You know all the
rest--'cept this. Steel and I were standing over you, and the fire was
roasting the beasts mixed up in the fence, when Redmond comes along. The
way he stood, the flame shone right on his face. It seemed twisted, and
the man looked like a ghost. He stood there blinking at the beasts--and
it wasn't a pretty sight--then shook all over as he stooped down and
looked at you. There was a good deal of blood about you from the horse.
"'What the devil's wrong with you? Stiffen yourself up!' says Steel; and
Redmond's voice cracked in the middle as he answered him: 'I'm feeling
mighty sick. Is he dead?'
"'Looks pretty near it. If you'd seen those beasts clear he mightn't
have come to this. Here, take a drink. We'll want you presently,' says
Steel, and went on strapping you together with a girth and bridle, while
I watched Redmond with one eye. As you know, there was never much grit
in the creature, and he had another shivering fit.
"'Get out until you're feeling better. That kind of thing's catching,
and we've lots to do,' I said; and he laughs with a cackle like an
hysterical woman, and blinks straight past me. Steel and I figured he'd
got hold of some smuggled whisky and been drinking bad, but afterwards
Henderson's Jo said no.
"'It's murder. My God! It's horrible--an' he never done anyone no harm,'
he says, and falls to cussing somebody quietly. I can talk pretty
straight when I'm hot myself, but that was ice-cold swearing with venom
in it, and when he got on to Judas, with the devil in his eyes, I ripped
up a big sod and plugged him on the head with it.
"'If you don't let up or quit I'll pound the life out of you,' says
Steel.
"Well, we got you fixed so you couldn't make the damage worse, and when
Steel went for the wagon and I looked around for Redmond he was gone.
Don't know what to think of it, anyway, 'cept his troubles or bad whisky
had turned his head. You see he was never far from crazy."
"Why didn't one of you get hold of him and make him talk next day?" I
asked; and Thorn looked at me curiously.
"Because he'd gone. Lit out to nobody knows where and stopped there. I
don't know just what to think, myself."
Sally took Thorn by the shoulders and thrust him out, but he left me
with sufficient, and unpleasant, food for reflection. The stock I had
counted on were gone. Also, when it was above all things desirable that
I should be up and doing, I must lie still for weeks, useless as a log.
One thing at least I saw clearly, and that was the usurer's purpose to
absorb my property; and as I lay with throbbing forehead and
tight-clenched fingers, which had grown strangely white, I determined
that he should have cause to remember the struggle before he
accomplished it. That Redmond had been driven by him into shameful
treachery appeared too probable, though there was no definite proof of
it, and the thought stiffened my resolution. My scattered neighbors,
patient as they were, were ill to coerce and would doubtless join me in
an effort before the schemer's machinations left us homeless.
Then I could hardly check a groan as I remembered all that the brief
glimpses of a brighter life at Bonaventure had suggested. A few months
earlier it had appeared possible that with one or two more good seasons
I might even have attained to it; but since then a gulf had opened
between Beatrice Haldane and me, and the best I could hope for was a
resumption of what now seemed hopeless drudgery. It was a bitter
awakening, and I almost regretted that Steel and Foreman Thorn had not
been a few seconds later when the fence went down. An hour passed, and
Sally Steel, bringing a chair over to my side, offered to read to me
what she said was a real smart shadowing story. I glanced at the
invincible detective standing amid a scene of bloodshed, depicted on the
cover of the journal she held up, and declined with due civility.
"I am afraid my nerves are not good enough. I should sooner you talked
to me, Sally," I said.
She laughed coquettishly, and there was no doubt that Steel's sister was
handsome, as women on that part of the prairie go. Sun and wind had
ripened the color in her face, her teeth were white as ivory, her lips
full and red, and perhaps most men would have found pleasure watching
the sparkle of mischief that danced in her eyes as she answered
demurely: "That would be just too nice. What shall we talk about?"
"You might tell me who was the first to come ask about me," I said.
The girl stretched out one plump arm with a comprehensive gesture. "They
all came, bringing things along, most of them. Even the little
Icelander; he loaded up his wagon with a keg of herrings--said they were
best raw--and lumps of grindstone bread. Oh, yes; they all came, and I
was glad to see them, 'cept when some of their wives came with them."
"They are kind people in this country; but how could the women worry
you? In any case, I think you would be equal to them," I commented; and,
somewhat to my surprise, the girl first blushed, and then looked
positively wicked.
"They--well, they would ask questions, and said things, when they found
Tom was down to Brandon," she answered enigmatically. "Still, I guess I
was equal to most of them. 'Rancher Ormesby's not sending the hat round
yet, and that truck is not fit for any sick man to eat when it's just
about half-cooked,' I said. 'You can either take it back or leave it for
Thorn to worry with. Fresh rocks wouldn't hurt his digestion. Just now
I'm way too busy to answer conundrums.'"
Sally seemed glad to abandon that topic, and did not look quite pleased
when I hazarded another question, with suppressed interest, but as
carelessly as I could: "Did anybody else drive over?"
The girl laughed a trifle maliciously, and yet with a certain enjoyment.
"Oh, yes. One day, when I was too busy for anything, the people from
Bonaventure drove over, and wanted to take you back. I don't know why,
but the way Haldane's elder daughter looked about the place just got my
back up. 'You can't have him. This is where he belongs,' I said.
"'But he is ill, and this place is hardly fit for him. There are no
comforts, and we could take better care of him,' said the younger one,
and I turned round to her.
"'That's just where you're wrong. Rancher Ormesby has lived here for
eight years, and when he's sick he has plenty friends of his own kind to
take care of him. I'm one of them, and we don't dump our sick people on
to strangers,' I said.
"The elder one she straightens herself a little, as though she didn't
like my talk. 'He could not be as comfortable as he would be at
Bonaventure, which is the most important thing. We will ask the doctor;
and have you any right to place obstacles in the way of Mr. Ormesby's
recovery?' says she, and that was enough for me.
"'I've all the right I want,' I answered. 'I'm running Gaspard's Trail,
and if you can find a man about the place who won't jump when I want
him, you needn't believe me. That makes me a busy woman--see?--so I'll
not keep you. Go back to Bonaventure, and don't come worrying the
people he belongs to about Rancher Ormesby.'"
I groaned inwardly, and only by an effort concealed my blank
consternation. "What did they say next?" I asked.
"Nothing much. The younger one--and I was half sorry I'd spoken straight
to her--opened her eyes wide. The elder one she looks at me in a way
that made me feel fit to choke her, while Haldane made a little bow. 'I
have no doubt he is in capable hands, and we need not trouble you
further. No, I don't think you need mention that we called,' says he."
Sally tossed her head with an air of triumph as she concluded, and I lay
very still, for it was too late to pray for deliverance from my friends,
though of all the rude succession this was about the most cruel blow.
What mischievous fiend had prompted the quick-tempered girl to turn upon
the Haldanes I could never surmise, but jealousy might have had
something to do with it, for Trooper Cotton had once been a favorite of
hers. In any case, the result appeared disastrous, for, while I believed
her no more than thoughtless, there was no disguising the fact that some
of the settlers' less-favored daughters spoke evil of Sally Steel, and I
feared their stories had reached Bonaventure.
When five minutes or so had passed she looked at me somewhat shyly.
"You're not mad?" she said.
"I could hardly be vexed with you, whatever happened, after all you have
done for me. I was only thinking," I made shift to answer. "Still, you
might have been a little more civil, Sally."
For a moment or two the girl appeared almost penitent; then she bent her
head towards my own, and again the mischief crept into her eyes.
"I'd have brought them in to a banquet, if I had only guessed," she
said; and with a thrill of laughter she slipped out of the room. It was
with sincere relief I saw her go, for I was in no mood for the somewhat
pointed prairie banter, and felt that, in spite of her manifold
kindnesses, I could almost have shaken Sally Steel. Then I turned my
head from the light, remembering I was not only a ruined man without
even power to move, but had left a discordant memory with the friends
whose good opinion I most valued, and whom now I might never again meet
on the old terms.