THE BLOSSOMING
At the supper table Slade returned to his jovial praises of Elsie as a
cook. Under his bold admiring gaze the girl blushed much and ate little.
Lennon kept his head with difficulty. To sit quiet and feign
indifference required all his self-control.
Farley had been brought in by Carmena. Toward the end of the meal Slade
began to browbeat the abject, liquor-poisoned man. Lennon had no pity to
spare for his broken-spirited host, but his compassion for Elsie and his
growing anger against Slade soon received fresh stimulation.
The trader made blunt demand that Farley should agree to give Elsie to
him in marriage--Indian marriage. After considerable bullyragging,
Farley weakly gave way. Carmena continued strongly to protest, but her
plea was only for a legal marriage.
Slade contended that one kind of marriage was as good as another. But he
finally said he would wait and take Elsie out to where they could get a
license and a minister. This would be immediately after the relocation
of the mine and the driving off of Cochise.
Lennon was more than satisfied over the final agreement. Once rid of
Cochise and out of the Hole with Slade and Elsie, he felt certain of his
ability to save the girl from a forced marriage. In keeping with his
assumed indifference to the affair he changed the subject by inquiring
when the start for Triple Butte would be made.
"Daybreak," muttered Slade, and he fixed an intent gaze upon Elsie.
"I'll be ready by then. I'll bunk with you to-night, Dad. Come in and
we'll check up on business accounts."
The moment the two older men left the living room Elsie burst into tears
and began piteously imploring Lennon and Carmena to save her. Carmena
clapped a hand over the quivering lips of the terrified girl and rushed
her out of hearing of Slade.
At the same time Lennon stepped out after the trader to keep him from
turning back. The massive bulk of Slade shadowed the light of the candle
that Farley was carrying into a second of the inner rooms.
The trader looked back, but failed to see Lennon, who had stepped to one
side of the living-room doorway. The bull voice rumbled in what was
evidently intended for a murmur:
"Well, Dad, I guess Carmena ain't such a fool as you might expect from
her being your gal. She sure got that tenderfoot roped mighty slick.
Just wait and watch me hogtie the cripple. All I got to do is let him
lead me to that there gold mine. Then I figger he's apt to git lost.
Mebbe he believes that bunk about the lode being copper, and mebbe he
don't. The point is, I git the mine, and he----"
The rest of the prediction was lost to Lennon. He went back into the
living room and pulled his arm out of the sling to test his grip on
Farley's short-barrelled revolver. His wounded hand had almost regained
its full strength. As he replaced the arm in the sling Elsie peeped
timidly into the room. She saw that he was alone and darted out to clasp
his arm.
"Oh, Jack, dear Jack!" she panted. "You--you won't let Slade take me
either, will you? You promised about Cochise. But Carmena--she says
Slade--that maybe I'll have to marry him--unless you have heaps of grit.
He's no better than Cochise. But at least he's not an Indian, Mena
says."
Lennon patted the yellow locks of the girl's back-flung head.
"Never fear, Blossom. We will take care of you. Where is Carmena?"
"She's still looking for Dad's old pick for you. We found the pan and
spade. Mena says Dad stumbled into Dead Hole 'cause he was looking for
that lost gold mine of Cripple Sim's you're after. Then he went into
stock."
"Was he--did he--er--brand-blot before Slade came?"
"Oh, no. Slade and Cochise started the business. Cochise rounds up the
hosses and cattle when Slade tells him of a good chance, and the 'Paches
rustle 'em and bring 'em into the Hole and make the brands over, and
then they run 'em out Hell Canon, and Slade sells 'em under his other
name. Dad's share is for the feed and the use of the Hole."
For the first time Lennon's suspicions of the Dead Hole partners were
clarified and confirmed. The gang were not only moonshiners but horse
and cattle thieves. Slade was the ringleader and brains of the gang,
while Cochise and his followers were the crafty and probably murderous
rustlers and brand-blotters.
Farley was a more or less willing accomplice. He may have been forced
into the criminal partnership, but now refused to attempt an escape.
Rather than give up his share of the loot, he chose to risk the great
danger to his little foster-daughter.
The realization that Slade was even more of a criminal than the
moonshining and bootlegging had indicated, quickened Lennon's
compassion for the girl. She was so artless and clinging and
helpless----
He put his free arm about her quivering shoulders. In a twinkling her
hands were clasped about his neck and she was smiling up into his face
in naive delight.
"Dear, dear Jack!" she whispered. "You're just awful nice to me. I
believe, really and truly, I love you even more than Mena."
The girl was too childlike in mind to realize the meaning of her sweet
emotion. Lennon made allowance for her innocence, but her allusion to
Carmena startled him, though the words were ambiguous. Elsie may only
have meant that she loved him more than she loved Carmena--not that she
loved him more than Carmena loved him.
The girl's upturned piquant face was more than tempting. Its flowerlike
delicacy and prettiness and the glow in her wide blue eyes were more
than he could withstand. He bent down and pressed a kiss upon her
half-parted lips.
"You darling!" he said. "You adorable little Blossom!"
She sought shyly to draw away from him. He held her fast. The kiss had
put an end to his last doubt.
"Wait, dear, do not try to get away from me," he commanded. "I am going
to keep you--always. Until I get you out of here--safe from Slade and
Cochise--I shall be just your Brother Jack. But I love you, dear, and
when we reach a town we shall be married."
"O-o-oh! Then I'll belong to you--I'll be your woman?"
"You will be my darling little wife. I will be good to you and take care
of you--always."
"Oh, you dear, nice Jack! And Mena--she'll go along too and help take
care of me and love us? Won't she? You know I couldn't ever bear to go
away and leave Mena."
Along with his amusement over the child's naive suggestion Lennon was
conscious of an odd thrill. He remembered the look in Carmena's dark
eyes when she saved him from the poison of the Gila monster and at the
end of their desperate flight across the Basin. They had risked death
together--and _she_ was not a child.
But close upon these pleasantly disquieting remembrances of the older
girl came the harsh afterthought of his suspicions against her. He bent
to kiss Elsie with almost aggressive fervour.
From the doorway behind him came a stifled cry that might have been a
sob. He held fast to Elsie and glanced over his shoulder. Carmena was
standing in the doorway, with her head bent. As Lennon looked, she
straightened and came toward him, cold-eyed and determined.
"What are you doing, Jack Lennon?" she demanded. "I trusted you. I
believed that you were not the kind to take advantage of Blossom. I
thought you----"
Elsie struggled free from Lennon to fling her arms about her
foster-sister.
"Oh, Mena, please, please don't be cross with Jack! I love him so,
and--and he loves me back!"
Lennon met Carmena's hard stare with a gaze no less cool and resolute.
"Elsie is to be my wife," he declared. "I shall marry her as soon as
possible."
"Your wife? Marry her? You mean that?"
"Yes."
Carmena's fixed gaze wavered and sank. But almost immediately she looked
up again, her eyes lustrous with soft radiance.
"She is very precious to me, Jack. She deserves to be safe and happy all
the rest of her life."
Before Lennon could reply, the girl gently freed herself from Elsie and
turned to go.
"Pardon me--one moment, Miss Farley," appealed Lennon. "There is
something I must tell you. I happened to overhear Slade speak to your
father. He insists that the lost mine is a gold lode and proposes to
take possession when I have led him to it."
The girl smiled a bit mockingly.
"What else could you expect?" she asked. "If he hadn't believed it a
gold lode he wouldn't have made the deal with you. When you show him the
copper, it will be up to you to hold him to his bargain. We have no
chance unless he splits with Cochise."
"Why not persuade your father to slip out of the Hole with us--start
immediately? The Apaches have gone off. I'll engage to tie up Slade. We
would have an all-night lead."
"No," refused Carmena. "The Hole belongs to Dad. He will not leave it.
Besides, there are at least three Apaches on watch in Hell Canon."
Lennon realized the uselessness of arguing with the girl. If, as he
still half suspected, she was scheming with Slade, the less said about
her father's share in the stock stealing the better.
"Very well," he acquiesced. "I shall try to manage Slade. If he is
unreasonable, I will do as I think best."
"So will I," replied Carmena, her eyes sombre.
"Come on, Blossom. Slade said he would leave at daybreak."
She abruptly turned away, and made no remonstrance when Elsie offered
her lips to Lennon for a good-night kiss.
Left alone, he sat down in one of the big chairs and fell to planning
how, after the relocation of the copper lode, he would make his escape.
He would bring a sheriff's posse to arrest Slade and his fellow
criminals. Elsie would then be freed from all danger, and the mine could
be developed.