Ma Briskow always had been known as a woman without guile, but of late
she had developed rare powers of dissimulation. She was, in fact,
leading a double life, and neither her husband nor her daughter
suspected the extent of her deception. To the patrons of the Burlington
Notch Hotel she was merely a drab, indistinct, washed-out old woman,
unmarked except by a choice of clashing colors in dress; to her family
she remained what she always had been; nobody dreamed that she was in
reality a bandit queen, the leader of a wild, unfettered band of
mountaineers. But that is what she was. And worse at times.
Yes, Ma had slipped the leash. She was a robber baroness; she dwelt in
a rocky "fastness"--whatever that was--surrounded by a crew of outlaws
as desperate as any that ever drew cutlass and dagger, and she ruled
them not only by native strength of character, but also by the aid of
other forces, for she was on friendly terms with the more prominent
wood sprites, fairies, and the like, and they brought her wisdom.
Moreover, she had learned the language of dumb animals and could talk
to squirrels, beetles, porcupines, frogs.
All this, as may be surmised, had come about as the result of Ma's
early reading: a haphazard choice of story books, in which were tales
of treasure trove, of pirates, of wronged maidens and gallant
squires--romantic stories peculiarly designed to stir a cramped
imagination like hers. It was from them that she had gained her ideas
of the world, her notions of manners, even her love of the mountains,
and that unquenchable desire to see them that she had confided to
Calvin Gray.
He it was, by the way, who had selected the Notch for these Texas
nesters. It had proved a happy choice, for the hotel sat upon the top
of the world, and beneath it lay outspread the whole green and purple
vastness of the earth. The Briskows were entranced, of course, and,
once they had established themselves here, they never thought of
moving, nor did it occur to them that there might--be other mountains
than these, other hotels as good as this. To them Burlington Notch
became merely a colloquial name for Paradise, and life in the great
hotel itself a beautiful dream.
The place was famous the country over as a health resort, and, indeed,
it must have possessed miraculous curative properties, otherwise Gus
Briskow, strong and vigorous as he was, could never have survived the
shock of receiving his first week's bill. It was with conflicting
emotions that he had divided the sum at the foot of the statement into
seven parts and realized the daily ransom in which he and his family
were held; it had given him a feeling of tremendous importance and
extreme insignificance. He spoke feelingly that night about the high
cost of loafing, but Ma showed such dismay at the mere suggestion of
leaving that he had resigned himself, and thereafter the sight of his
weekly bill evoked nothing more than a shudder and a prayer--a prayer
that none of his wells would go dry overnight.
But lifelong habits of prudence are not easily broken. The Notch Hotel
was altogether too rich for Gus Briskow's blood, so he sought a more
congenial environment. He found it in the village, in a livery stable;
there, amid familiar odors and surroundings both agreeable and
economical, he spent most of his time, leaving Ma to amuse herself and
Allie to pursue the routine of studies laid down by her tutoress.
Now Ma had not gone wild all at once; her atavism had been gradual--the
result of her persistent explorations. She had never seen a real
waterfall, for instance, and the first one proved so amazing that she
was impelled to seek more, after which she became interested in caves,
and before long her ramblings had taken her up every watercourse and
into every ravine in the neighborhood. This sense of treading untrodden
ground roused in Ma a venturesome spirit of independence, an
unsuspected capacity for adventure, and when the wealth of her
discoveries failed to awaken interest in her family she ceased
reporting them and became more solitary than ever in her habits. Every
morning she slipped out of the hotel, meandered through the grounds
apparently without purpose, but in reality pursuing a circuitous route
and taking sudden twistings and turnings to throw pursuers off the
scent. Ever deeper into the wilderness she penetrated, but with the sly
caution of an old fox returning to its lair, for she was always being
followed by wicked people, such, for instance, as minions of the law,
members of the Black Hand, foreign spies, gen-darmys, and detectifs.
Having baffled them all, she laughed scornfully, flung deceit to the
winds, then hurried straight to the "fastness," and there uttered the
tribal call. At the sound her gypsy band came bounding forth to meet
her, and she gave them her royal hand to kiss, raising them graciously
when they knelt, giving a kind word here or a sharp reprimand there.
They were the fiercest gypsies in the world, and quarrelsome, too. They
were forever fighting among themselves and crying: "Curse you, Jack
Dalton! Take that!" and plunging swords into one another, but they had
good hearts and they loved Ma and were devoted to her lost cause. She
could handle them where others would have failed.
Having accepted their homage and heard the details of their latest
raids against her enemy, the false Duke of Dallas--he whose treachery
had made her what she was--she assumed her throne and held formal court.
The throne was a low, flat rock beside a stream, and usually Ma removed
her shoes and stockings and paddled her feet in the water while she
gave audience to visiting potentates. Those enlarged joints never
seemed to accommodate themselves wholly to the sort of shoes Allie made
her wear. Court "let out" when Ma's feet had become rested, after which
there were less formal affairs of state to settle. These out of the
way, it was time for the queen's recreations, which took the form of
singing, dancing, conversations with animals, visits with the invisible
fairy folk who lived in flowers and gave them their pretty smells.
Ma never had any trouble putting in the whole day in some such manner
as this; evening came all too soon, as a matter of fact. Then it was
that she bade good-by to her faithful subjects and prepared once more
to fare forth and mingle, in the cunning guise of an old woman, with
the followers of the false and lying Duke of Dallas. But courage!
Patience! The day of reckoning was at hand when she would come into her
own and the world would recognize her as the wronged but rightful
Princess Pensacola.
Thus would Ma Briskow spend one morning. Another perhaps she would be
an altogether different character, but always she was young and
beautiful and full of grace, and only when it came time to go did she
assume the disguise of an aged, wrinkled, bent old woman. Sometimes she
ran miles and miles at a stretch, darting, springing like a fawn,
rushing through the soft, green leaves, leaping rock and rill, her
laughter echoing, her bare limbs flashing, her gold hair streaming, her
scanty silken draperies whipped to shreds behind her by the very
swiftness of her going. Oh, the ecstasy of that! The excitement!
Of course Ma did not actually run. Neither did her bare limbs
flash--being incased in flannels. And her hair was not gold. It was
gray, what little there was of it. No, she ambled a bit, perhaps, where
the grass was short and the ground smooth, then she stood still, closed
her eyes, and ran and leaped and swayed and darted--with her arms.
Anybody can do it.
At other times she defied gravitation, a secret accomplishment all her
own, which she manifested in this wise. She would begin to jump, higher
and higher, and the higher she jumped the lighter she became, until
finally she weighed no more than a thistledown, and the effort of
leaping became a pure joy and an exhilaration. Having attained this
perfect state of buoyancy, she would set out upon wonderful journeys,
springing lightly as far as it pleased her to spring, soaring
gracefully over obstacles, and deriving a delirious pleasure from the
sensation. One cannot appreciate the enjoyment to be had from this
method of locomotion without trying it.
And always when Ma came back to earth and opened her eyes there were
the great smiling mountains, the clear, clean waters foaming over the
rocks, and underfoot was the cool, green grass, not that hot, hard
'dobe clay she had always known. Trees, too! Beautiful whispering
trees, with smooth leaves instead of burrs and spines and stickers. Nor
was there the faintest choking smell of dust; no sand blowing up her
nose and smarting her eyes.
Ma Briskow had never dreamed that the world was so clean. She blessed
God for making oil to lie in the rocks of the earth, and she prayed
that none of "them hotel people" would discover her retreat.
But, of course, somebody did discover it. Mr. Delamater, the dancing
instructor, for one, stumbled upon it while Ma Briskow was in the midst
of one of her imaginary games, and he reported his discovery to the day
clerk.
"What ails that old dame, anyhow?" he inquired, after recounting Ma's
peculiar behavior.
"Not a thing in the world except money," the clerk declared.
Doubtfully Mr. Delamater shook his handsome auburn head. "People with
good sense don't act like that. She was doing an Isadora Duncan when I
saw her. Dancing--if you care to call it that! Anyhow, her hair was
hanging, she was flapping her arms and jiggling up and down." Delamater
laughed at the memory. "There's a big, awkward bird--sort of a crane or
buzzard of some kind--that dances. I never saw one, but she reminded me
of it. And she _sang_! Gee! it was fierce!"
"Did she see you?"
"Scarcely. I don't mind being alone with Allie"--Delamater's teeth
shone in a smile, then, seeing his reflection in a convenient mirror,
he studied it with complacent favor. He tried the smile again, and,
getting it to his better satisfaction, concluded--"don't mind it a bit,
but a bosky dell with a mad woman is my idea of no place to be."
"Allie?" The clerk lifted his brows. "So--'_Allie_'! Has it gone as far
as that, Del?"
"Oh, you know how it is! A lesson every day, soft music, arm around the
waist, a kind word. The girl is human. I'm probably different to
anything that ever came into her young life. Look at my wardrobe! She's
not so bad to take, either, and yet--" The immaculate speaker frowned.
"Father smells like a horse, and mother's a nut! Gee! It would take
some coin to square that."
"That's one thing they've got," asserted the clerk. "Nothing but!"
Mr. Delamater debated further. "Think of marrying The Powerful
Katrinka! I'll admit it has its points. If anything went wrong with the
bank roll Allie could make a good living for both of us. Suppose, for
instance, the old Statue of Liberty slipped and fell. Allie could jump
over to Bedloe's Island and take a turn at holding the torch. Ifi
they've got the coin you say they have, I think I'll have to see more
of her."
"You won't see any more than you do. She's hitting on all four."
"What is she up to all day?"
"I don't know. Working, studying, exercising. Rehearsing for the
movies, I guess. She has worn that companion of hers down to a frazzle.
She has her own masseuse in the bath department, she rides a horse
three days a week, and every morning she takes a long walk--"
"I've got it!" Mr. Delamater slapped his thigh. "Road work! She's
getting ready to take on Dempsey." He laughed musically. "If she
marries me her days of labor will be over; it will mean for her the
dawn of a new life--provided, of course, those oil wells are what you
say they are. Kidding aside, though, I don't dislike the girl and--I've
a notion to give her a chance."
What the clerk said was true. Allie Briskow was indeed in training,
both physical and mental, and the application, the energy she displayed
had surprised not only her parents, who could but dimly understand the
necessity of self-culture, but also Mrs. Ring, the instructress. Mrs.
Ring, a handsome, middle-aged woman whose specialty was the finishing
of wealthy young "ladies," had been induced to accept this position
partly by reason of the attractive salary mentioned in Calvin Gray's
telegram, and partly by reason of the fact that she needed a rest. She
had met the Briskows in Dallas only a short time before their departure
for the north, and although that first interview had been a good deal
of a shock to her--almost as much of a shock as if she had been asked
to tutor the offspring of a pair of chimpanzees--nevertheless she had
nerved herself to the necessary sacrifice of dignity. After all,
Allegheny was only an overgrown child in need of advanced kindergarten
training, and in the meantime there was the prospect of a season at
Burlington Notch. The latter was, in itself, a prospect alluring to one
suffering from the wear and tear of a trying profession. After some
hesitation, Mrs. Ring had accepted the position, feeling sure that it
would rest her nerves.
But never had the good woman suffered such a disillusionment. Allie,
she soon discovered, was anything but a child, or rather she was an
amazing and contradictory combination of child and adult. What Mrs.
Ring had taken to be mental apathy, inherent dullness, was in reality
caution, diffidence, the shyness of some wild animal.
Nor was that the most bewildering of the teacher's surprises; Allie
possessed character and will power. For some time she had accepted Mrs.
Ring's tutorship without comment or question--Calvin Gray had
recommended it, therefore she obeyed blindly--but one day, after they
had become settled in the mountains, she came out with a forceful
declaration.
She knew full well her own shortcomings, so she declared, and she was
not content to learn a few things day by day. She demanded intensified
training; education under forced draught.
"They took green country boys durin' the war--"
"During the war. Don't drop your g's, my dear."
"--during the war, and learned 'em--"
"Taught them!"
"--taught them to be soldiers in six months. Well, I'm strong as a
horse, and I've got a brain, and I'm quick at pickin'--I mean I pick up
things quick--"
"You pick them up quickly. Quickly is an adverb; quick is an--"
Allie's dark eyes grew darker. Imperiously she cried: "All right! But
let me say this my own way. It won't be right or elegant, but you'll
understand. And that's what we got to have first off--a good
understanding. After I've said it, you can rub it down and curry it. I
been watching you like a hawk, Miz' Ring, and you're just what he said
you was. You got everything I want, but--I can't go so slow; I got to
get it quick--quickly. You been teaching me to read and talk, and how
to laugh, and how to set--sit--but we been _playing_. We got to _work_!
Oh, I know I'm forgetting everything for a minute. Miz' Ring, I gotta
learn how to act pretty and talk pretty and _look_ pretty. And I gotta
learn how, _quick_."
"You are a fine-looking girl as it is, Allegheny."
"Oh, I guess I look _dressed up_, but I'm awkward. I'm stiff as a hired
hand, and I fall over my feet. Look at 'em. Biggest live things in the
world without lungs! I got to get slim and graceful--"
"I'll teach you a setting-up routine, if you wish, although it is
scarcely in my line. Goodness knows you don't need physical culture."
"But I do," cried the girl.
"Very well. Riding is a smart accomplishment. Can you ride a horse?"
"Pshaw! I can carry a horse."
"You'd look well in a habit, and with baths, massage, dancing, and a
little diet I dare say you can reduce."
"I'll starve," Allie asserted, fiercely. "But that ain't half enough.
You gotta give me more studyin'. I got callouses on my hands and I'm
used to work. We'll get up at daylight-"
"Good heavens!" Mrs. Ring exclaimed, faintly.
"You learn me how to do the sitting-up things first off, then I'll do
'em alone. Ride me hard, Miz' Ring. I'll remember. I'll work; you won't
have to tell me twice. But I gotta make speed. I 'ain't got the time
other girls have."
"My dear child, all this cannot be done in a day, a week, a month."
"How long you allow it will take?"
The elder woman shrugged. "Years, perhaps."
"Years?"
"Real culture, social accomplishments, are the results of generations
of careful training. I'm not a miracle worker. But why this impatience?"
"I got-"
"I have."
"I have a reason. I can't take a generation; I'd be too late."
"Too late for what?"
But Allie refused to answer. "We'll start in to-day and we'll work
double tower till one of us plays out. What d'you say?"
At first Mrs. Ring took this energetic declaration with some reserve,
but before long she realized with consternation that Allie Briskow was
in deep earnest and that this was not a soft berth. Instead of
obtaining a rest she was being worked as never before. Allie was a
thing of iron; she was indefatigable; and her thirst for knowledge was
insatiate; it grew daily as she gained fuller understanding of her
ignorance. There was a frantic eagerness to her efforts, almost
pitiful. As time went on she began to hate herself for her stupidity
and to blame her people for her condition. She was a harder taskmaster
than her teacher. Most things she apprehended readily enough, but when
she failed to learn, when mental or physical awkwardness halted
progress, then she flew into a fury. Her temper appalled Mrs. Ring.
At such times Allie was more than disagreeable. Hate flamed in her
eyes, she beat herself with her fists, she kicked the furniture, and
she broke things. Once she even butted her head against the wall,
uttering language meanwhile that all but caused her companion to swoon.
Mrs. Ring resigned after this final exhibition, but, lacking the
courage to face Allie in a mood like that, she went to Gus Briskow.
"It is simply impossible to remain," she told him. "Already I'm a
physical wreck, for I never get a moment's rest. The salary is
attractive, but Allegheny is too much for me. She saps every ounce of
vitality I have; she keeps me going every hour. And her terrific
tempers are actually--dangerous."
"She don't ever get mad at you, does she?"
"Oh no! And she repents quickly enough. As a matter of fact, I am
afraid she is overdoing her studies, but there's no holding her back."
"You're kinda worked up, Miz' Ring. Mebbe I can make it pleasanter for
you."
"In what way, may I ask?"
"Well, by payin' you more."
"You are generous. The salary we agreed upon isn't low."
"Yes'm--No, ma'am!"
"I wouldn't feel right to accept more."
"Try it, ma'am, for a little while. Mebbe it won't bother you so much
after you get used to it. Allie likes you."
"And I--I _am_ interested in her. She is progressing, too; in fact, I
have never seen anyone learn more rapidly. But--she is so unusual.
Still, perhaps I _am_ the one--perhaps it is my duty, under the
circumstances--"
With this disposition to compromise the father had little difficulty in
dealing, so the daily routine was continued. Allie applied herself to
the cultivation of the ordinary social niceties with the same zeal that
she followed her studies and her physical exercises. Fortunately these
exercises afforded outlet for the impatience and the scorn that she
felt for herself. Otherwise there would have been no living with her.
As it was she showed herself no mercy. Daylight found her stirring, her
Swedish drill she took with a vigor that fairly shook the floor, and,
having finished this, she donned sweater and boots and went for a swift
walk over the hills. At this hour she had the roads to herself and was
glad of it, for she felt ridiculous. At breakfast, although she had a
ravenous appetite, she ate sparingly. The day was spent in reading
aloud, in lessons in deportment, voice modulation, conversation, and
the like; in learning how to enter and how to leave a room, how to
behave at a tea or a reception, how to accept and how to make an
introduction, how to walk, how to sit, how to rise. Allie did sums in
arithmetic, she studied grammar and geography and penmanship--in short,
she took an intensified common-school course. Here was where her
tutoress had trouble, for when the girl's brain became weary or
confused she relieved her baffled rage in her most natural way, the
while Mrs. Ring stopped her ears and moaned. It was a regimen that no
ordinary woman could have endured; it would have taxed the strength of
an athlete.
Late in the afternoon Allie went riding, and here was one
accomplishment in which she required no coaching. Frequently she vented
her spite upon her horse, and more than once she brought it home with
its mouth bleeding and its flanks white with lather. She rode with a
magnificent recklessness that finally caused comment among the other
guests.
Allie was sitting alone in her room one evening, fagged out from a hard
day. Some people were talking on the veranda outside her window, and
she heard one say:
"The girl can look really stunning."
"Exactly. I don't understand where she gets her looks, for her parents
are--impossible. Wouldn't you _know_ what they were?"
Allie needed no clearer indication of who was under discussion.
Instinctive resentment at the reference to her father and mother was
followed by amazement, delight, at the compliment to herself--the first
she had ever received. She leaned forward, straining to hear more. What
mattered it how these contemptuous outsiders referred to her parents?
They agreed that she was "stunning," which was their way of saying that
she was pretty, nay, more--beautiful, perhaps.
"She's a glorious rider," the first speaker was saying. "She passed me
the other day, going like sin, with her face blazing and that big,
lively chestnut running flat. The way she took that curve above the
Devil's Slide brought my heart into my mouth."
The breathless eavesdropper felt a hot wave of delight pour over her,
her very flesh seemed to ripple like the fur of a cat when it is
stroked.
"Oh, she's a picture, mounted! Seems to have complete confidence in
herself; and the strength of a giantess, too. But--my God! when she's
on her feet! And have you heard her talk?" Evidently the other speaker
had, for there came the sound of low laughter, a sound that stabbed
Allie Briskow like a bayonet and left her white and furious. She sat
motionless for a long time, and something told her that as long as she
lived she would never forget, never forgive, that laughter.
She was unusually silent and somber for the next three or four days;
she went through her exercises without vim; at her studies she was both
stupid and sullen. When Mrs. Ring's patience was exhausted and her
frayed nerves finally gave out, Allie rounded upon her with a violence
unparalleled. Those previous exhibitions of temper were tame as
compared with this one; the girl spat scorn and bitterness and hatred;
she became a volcano in active eruption.
In a panic Mrs. Ring sought out Gus Briskow and again resigned. By this
time, however, the novelty of her resignation had largely worn off, for
seldom did more than two weeks elapse without a hysterical threat to
quit. But this one required more than the usual amount of persuasion,
and it was not without long and patient pleading, coupled with the
periodical raise, that the father induced her to change her mind. Gus
told himself somberly that the price of Allegheny's education was
mounting so rapidly that it might be the part of economy to take Mrs.
Ring in as a full partner in the Briskow oil wells. He decided, after
some consideration, to wire Calvin Gray and offer to pay his traveling
expenses if he would come to Burlington Notch for a few days.