A WIDENING CHASM
Ten days later Brevoort arrived in Denver and the deal was fully
consummated. As the possessor of a million, cowpunching lost its charms
for Douglass, who resigned his connection with the VN interests.
Brevoort, realizing his own inability to make a success of ranching
without expert assistance, made Douglass a very favorable proposition to
take over his ranch holdings, which was promptly accepted. Within thirty
days he had purchased a fine "bunch" of high-grade cattle, placing the
whole "outfit" under the efficient supervision of Punk Wilson, who,
reinforced by a trio of Lazy K boys, who transformed their allegiance to
Douglass, soon had matters running along swimmingly. The ranch was
thereafter known as the Circle D, that being Douglass's private brand.
Immediately upon taking possession of his new property he had made an
ineffectual overture towards Grace's conciliation; the girl, stung by
jealousy and smarting under a sense of his disloyalty, had scornfully
rejected his advances and the breach was wider than ever in consequence.
Yet her visit was prolonged far into the autumn, possibly because she
was determined not to give a clear field to Constance Brevoort, who had
also apparently become a fixture. All relations between the two women
had been severed irrevocably, each keeping to her own respective
bailiwick. Constance had, with a reluctant regard for the proprieties,
established herself at the Blounts, in Tin Cup, and after Grace's
contemptuous treatment of Douglass, he spent the major portion of his
time in the village. Brevoort, engrossed in his mining schemes,
gravitated between Tin Cup and the Roaring Fork, unseeingly.
Over at the C Bar the situation was fast growing intolerable to Grace
Carter. Although she would rather have died than admit it even to
herself, her love for Douglass only increased with every heart-wrenching
report of his recklessly open relations with the object of her deepest
hatred, which were constantly sifting down to her through the neighbors'
gossip. As their engagement had not been made public, she was spared the
irritating commiseration which would otherwise have been her uneviable
lot. All knowledge of it was fortunately restricted to Abbie, McVey,
Brevoort and his wife; for obvious reasons it gained no further
publicity. Therefore Douglass's affair was regarded enviously by the
other range men, and it must be confessed, rather indulgently by the
range women, who found not a great deal of fault with his conquest of
this supercilious "big-bug" who had weaned the hearts of their men away
from proper altars of devotion. Old Abbie, alone, was bitterly
vituperative of both the man and his condoning admirers.
"Why is it," she indignantly snorted to Mrs. Blount, on the occasion of
one of that lady's garrulous visits, "that all wimmen, even r'ally good
ones, have a kinda sneakin' likin' foah a rake? Thu worse thu mizzable
he-critters be, thu moah yuh giggle at theah nastiness! It's a wondeh to
me thet men eveh get married at all any moah. I disremembeh eveh hearin'
any she-male talkin' about thu goodness of any r'ally decent man,
married er single; but jest let some tur'ble mean-minded cuss get to
cuttin' capehs with some fool woman er tother, an' every ole brindle on
thu range chaws on thu cud of it like a dogie on May blue-joint; an' as
fer thu heifers, every blessed one on 'em purtends to be buffaloed if he
crosses theah trail an' skitteh away, lookin' back disap'inted if he
don't folleh an' try to raound 'em up. An' bimeby, when he gets good an'
plenty tiahed o' hell-ahootin' araound, he jes' ups an' nach'rally takes
hes pick o' thu cream o' thu bunch, leavin' thu skim milk fer better men
whose shoes he ain't fitten to lick!
"I don't know why," she went on regretfully, calmly ignoring the
indignant protest of her scandalized hearer, "an' I reckon Gawd,
Hisself, don't know eitheh, but we locoed wimmen allus love bad men a
heap better'n we do good ones. I've been seein' it all my life ontil I'm
got plumb ashamed o' my sect."
But to Grace, that night, she said inconsistently, her gray crest
bristling with impatience:
"Honey, anything in this wohld that's worth havin' is worth fightin'
foh! Yuh are no Cahteh if yuh stand foh anybody's runnin' off yuah
stock. Neveh yuh mind haow wild an' ornary he 'peahs to be just now,
that fool boy is a thorrerbred at heart, and the best on 'em go loco by
spells. Thu betteh the breed, thu worse they bolt when things go wrong,
but they are mighty good critters to have in yuah brand! Thu trouble is
that you been feedin' him on bran mash when he's system was ahollerin'
foh star-shavin's! Ken Douglass ain't no yeahlin' no moah, honey; he
ain't no child to be tooken' an' raised like we did Buffo; he's a strong
man an' wants strong meat with salt an' peppeh on it. An' long's he's
not robbin' yuah lahdeh what yuh gotta kick about?"
But she turned her head away as the girl said bitterly:
"And you, too? It Is part of the Divine scheme, then, that only women
should keep themselves pure and sweet and clean in order to merit the
beatitudes of 'holy' matrimony! Delilah gets the kernel, and Ruth the
husks! You shameless old woman! To think that _you_ would dare preach
such a wickedness with unblushing face!"
"Dearie," said the old woman slowly, "Theah's been Delilahs eveh since
theah's been Samsons an' they allus will be. I reckon Gawd made 'em to
kinda take thu aige offen men's sharp desiah so as to keep it from
cuttin' puah hearts apaht. Yuh cain't change natuh, lammie; wild oats
will be agrowin' long afteh thu second comin' o' Christ! But theah allus
sown in wild an' waste places as is right an' fitten, an' thu seed runs
out in time. Thu betteh growths need pureh soil, an' men wisely sow
theah good seed in the clean gahdens that Gawd intended thu otheh kind
o' wimmins' hearts to be. Yuh kin allus cook betteh, too, on thu steady
heat of thu coals afteh the flame O' fierce fiah has buhned itself out,
an' thu brand that holds a man bites deepeh if it's heated In the
glowin' heart of Love afteh thu flame an' smoke of passion has drifted
away.
"Theah's things In a man's natuh that's gotta be buhned out; yuh cain't
prune 'em away. An' like measles, mumps an' small-pox, it's bettah to
happen when he's young. When that Brevoort critter has trimmed Ken's
lamps so's they'll burn steady without flickerin' he'll light up yuah
life foh all time, honey. An' she's almost got thu jawb done, or I miss
my guess! Yuh take my advice, an' when he comes cavortin' about yeah
again within ropin' distance get yuah string on him and corral him foh
keeps. He'll be good from now on if you give him thu chanct. An' if yuh
don't, he'll run rampageous to the bad--an' yuh'll be to blame!"
And the wise old woman was even wiser than she knew. At that very
moment, Douglass, looking at a picture that should have logically
thrilled him to the core, was travailing in a morose discontent quite
incompatible with his environment. The woman for whose sake he had
imperiled all that a man holds dear, was sitting opposite him on the
hotel veranda In the soft moonlight, with little Eulalie cuddled closely
to her. Every full, round line of her betokened her perfect fitness for
maternity and the motherhood implanted in every woman's heart was softly
irradiating her face as she bent caressingly over the sleeping child.
Intended by Nature as a mother of soldiers, here by the caprice of fate
she was fostering the weak offspring of another less fit, denied
woman's highest mission, debarred from Nature's most noble function. And
he had but to say the word!
For that afternoon, in an agony of passion, she had whispered a
temptation in his ear, clinging to him with all the seductiveness in her
nature:
"Let us go away, dear, anywhere, anywhere, so that we are together!
There will be a separation without any publicity, for he is very proud;
and he really never cared! Make me the wife and mother that Nature
intended me to be; give me the fulfillment that is every woman's due!"
It came to him with a shock, for he had been living only in the
enjoyment of the present. Brought face to face with the eternal future,
he realized a great unpreparedness, abnormal as it was disquieting. He
had answered her evasively, with a politic tenderness that satisfied her
temporarily; but he knew that her insistence was only deferred, and his
answer was not ready. And to-night he was cursing the inevitable
brutality that he knew he would ultimately be compelled to exercise.
For even as his soul yearned at the tender appeal of that picture most
exquisite to man, the mothering of a child, the beauteous face before
him was replaced by another, reproachful and haughty yet fair with a
purity and beauty indescribable, the patrician mouth trembling and the
sweet eyes brimming with appeal. Sharply he shut his teeth and sat
erect.
Only one woman in the world should be mother to his children--and that
woman was not the beauty crooning softly to that sleeping babe! He had
lost her for a little while but he would find her, and the way back
into her favor! And having found her, at whatever bitter cost, he would
never let her go again! He resolved that on the morrow he would ride
over to the C Bar and grovel in abasement at her feet if need be.
The woman sitting opposite him shivered telepathically and a tear fell
on the face of the child.
"He is weighing me against her," she thought, fearfully, "and I am
afraid--afraid! But I will not give him up! Oh, my God! I can not!"
And down at the C Bar Grace was crying to her heart:
"Will he come? Will he come?"
But it was Red McVey who came awooing in the soft dusk of the succeeding
evening, his handsome face bright with a great love, his six feet of
stalwart manliness begroomed with appropriate care. He was far from
possessing his ordinary confidence, but he came bravely to the point and
the girl's eyes held as much pride as they did sympathy for him.
"Your love is an honor to me," she said, gently. "I am proud to have
inspired such a feeling in so grand a man, and I shall thank God on my
knees for it to-night! But it is impossible, my dear friend; you will be
generous and spare me explanations--"
"Don't cry!" he said, gently, but his face was very white and drawn. "I
understand. Yuh are shore they ain't any hope. I'd wait foh yeahs?"
"No, dear friend, there is none. I do not think I shall ever marry. And
I am going away to-morrow."
She held out her hand and he bent awkwardly over it. Very softly he
pressed his lips upon the little pink palm. Then he stood erect, still
holding the fluttering fingers in both his bronzed hands.
"Yuh will neveh know what yuh've been to me," he said, gravely, "and
what yuh will always be to me still. It's goin' to hurt a little, of
course; but I'll have my dreams, and that's something. And I'm shore
yuah friend as you said. Gawd make yuh happy!"
Then he went quietly out, carefully closing the door behind him. The
girl waited until the last echo of his firm steps had died away. Then
she sat down beside the table, laid her face on her arms and cried
bitterly.
It never occurred to either of them that he had made no reference to her
engagement to Douglass, whose severance he could not possibly have known
except by deduction.
The next afternoon he drove her over to a point where the stage could be
intercepted without going to Tin Cup. She desired to avoid the
possibility of a chance meeting with Constance Brevoort or Douglass,
despite an almost irresistible temptation to see him for the last time.
In ten days more she was aboard an ocean liner, her mother
unquestioningly complying with her request for a continental tour,
wisely leaving the girl to her own time in the matter of explanations.
Besides, she had adroitly drawn out of Robert enough to confirm her
suspicions, and she was unqualifiedly glad to encourage any distractions
for the pale girl whose eyes were heavy with misery. As Grace expressed
no preference she decided on Egypt, and the departure was made without
unnecessary loss of time.
Had Grace gone direct to Tin Cup that day, instead of intercepting the
stage some twenty miles out, or if the driver had been a more loquacious
man than "Timberline," she would have been spared many heartaches at the
price of a sickening terror. For the day before, the man that she loved,
bleeding and senseless, had been carried into the hotel at Tin Cup,
where a white-faced, wild-eyed woman sat by his bedside waiting the
arrival of the doctor, stonily facing a despair too great for words.
With the firm intention of riding out to the C Bar that afternoon to
make a last appeal to Grace for forgiveness and reconciliation, Douglass
had rather reluctantly accompanied Constance for her morning's
constitutional on horseback. Divining his intention in some mysterious
manner known only to the loving jealous, she had determined to frustrate
his purpose by making her ride unusually long, thus keeping him with her
until too late to reach the C Bar that night. She was fighting for time,
and every moment of delay was vital, she having been informed of the
intended departure of Grace within the next few days. If she could
manage to prevent their meeting before that time the chasm between the
two would become permanently unbridgable.
Some ten miles out of town, in a magnificent canyon, reachable only by
a somewhat difficult trail, was an exquisite little spot well known to
both. It was one of their favorite rendezvous in the trout-fishing
season, where they stopped to fry the delicious fish and boil the coffee
indispensable to an _al fresco_ luncheon. Hither, too, they had come on
other innumerable occasions when absolute privacy was the desire of
both, and it was to this place of tender associations and more or less
compelling memories that she diplomatically led the way. Here, in the
great outdoor temple of this pantheist's loving, with no other goddess
to divert him from her own homage, was the place of all places to regain
her fast waning influence over him. If she could only hold him for a
little time longer success was assured.
Cleverly disregarding his taciturnity she kept up a merry chatter as
they rode along, finally drawing him skillfully into a discussion of the
geological features of the interesting region which they were slowly
traversing; like every mining expert he was a bit professionally
pedantic on this subject, and to this woman of abnormally clear
perceptions it was a positive pleasure to him to impart the really great
information with which his mind was stored. Once she got him warmed up
to his subject he waxed enthusiastic in his dissertation on dykes,
fissures, blanket veins and the like, even riding out of their course to
point out confirming formations and collect specimens of their
characteristic components. By the time they reached the embowered little
glade in the canyon his sullenness was completely dissipated, and he
kissed her very passionately as he lifted her from her horse. There was
much of the old fire in him as she clung distractingly about his neck,
and her eyes gleamed with triumph.
So absorbed had they become in each other that neither noticed the
slinking figure which stole out of the glade at the sound of their
approach, or the charcoal of a hastily-extinguished fire swirling in the
eddies of the little pool. And mercifully they did not know, as they
stood there in close-held rapture, drinking with clinging lips the Lethe
of all things save love, that twenty feet away, from the vantage of a
dense clematis tangle veiling a clump of dwarf box-elder, a pair of evil
eyes burned above a snarling mouth, as a grimy hand drew cautiously back
the firing bolt of a Mauser.