THE GRADUATION DANCE
"Horses, dogs, guns, women, whiskey, the open country of the
Rockies--enough for any man."
--_Charleton Falkner_.
Instead of riding home with Judith, after the ceremony, Douglas, on
sudden impulse, took a roundabout way to the post-office, thence toward
the Browns' ranch. Dusk was settling in the valley. The quivering aspens
along Lost Chief creek were etched gray rose on the deep blue snow. Far
to the east a single scarlet mountain-top pierced through the twilight
blue. Buster loped swiftly through the swimming landscape.
When he reached the post-office Douglas did not stop but rode on along
Black Gulch trail to the Browns'. Grandma, returning by the direct route
from the cemetery, had been home for a half-hour before Doug arrived.
She was coming out of the cow stable, lantern in hand, when the boy
dismounted at the corral. Spurs clanking, brave chaps flapping, Douglas
ran to her like a child and caught her apron in his gauntleted hand.
"Grandma! Tell me something! Did you believe what you said at the grave?"
The old lady held the lantern up to his face. "Come into the cow stable
out of the wind, Doug."
Within the dim shelter she hung the lantern on a nail and sat down on a
box, indicating another to the young rider.
"Yes, I believed it, boy. Didn't you?"
"No, Grandma! And none of the men do that count in this valley. Is it
just old woman stuff, like they say?"
"Maybe!" sniffed Grandma.
"And if you believe it," Doug rushed on, "why did you let us run the
preacher out?"
"O, the preacher! Pooh! He's nothing but a blankety blank sissy like the
rest of the sky pilots!"
"But can't I believe like you do, Grandma? I'm just the unhappiest guy in
the world!"
"You mean," the old lady spoke deliberately, "that this is the first
funeral you've seen that's set you to thinking and the fear of death is
on you for the first time. I hope it'll do you good, Doug. You're an
awful rough little devil."
Douglas swallowed audibly. "Grandma," he cried passionately, "how can I
get to believe what you do?"
Grandma looked thoughtfully from her plump milch cow to the lantern, and
from the lantern to Douglas. "Doug, I don't think you can, living among
the folks you do. To have my kind of faith, you've got to have a mother
that breeds it in you from the time you're a baby."
Douglas, his face looking absurdly young above his broad shoulders, said
despairingly, "I don't believe you want to help me."
"Well," Grandma was still deliberate, "I don't believe a wild young devil
like you really wants help. You're just scared."
Douglas rose, drawing himself to his full height. He was deeply offended.
"I thought you might understand me!" he exclaimed. He strode out to
Buster and galloped home.
It was extremely difficult to find a moment alone with Judith in the
two-room cabin; but the chores were late that night and Judith, instead
of helping her mother with the supper preparations, went out to milk, and
so Doug's second interview that evening was in the cow shed, for when he
reached the home corral, Judith had not finished her task.
This time, he was not precipitate. He sauntered into the little stable
with a manner of large leisure.
"Hello, Jude!"
"Hello, Douglas! Finished feeding?"
"No. I just got back. What did you think of the funeral?"
"I'm not thinking of it at all."
"Jude, don't you believe there's any hereafter?"
"Doug, I don't want to talk about it."
"But, Judith, I'm lonely and I've got to talk to some one."
Judith turned an indignant face toward the tall boy. "Don't you suppose
I'm lonely, too? What good does talk do? Religion is all right for little
kids but you can't believe in fairy tales as you grow up."
"But what can we do?" insisted Douglas, the sweat breaking out above his
lips again. "Doesn't the thought of no God, no hereafter, just paralyze
you?"
"I tell you," repeated Judith obstinately, "I just don't let myself think
about it."
"Then what's made you so cross ever since that night?"
Judith rose and set the brimming milk pail in a feed box. Her eyes, in
the lantern light, widened with a horror so devastating that Douglas
clutched the manger behind him.
"How did you know? Doug, that's it and there's no place to go for help
because there isn't any help for that!"
The sudden revelation of her need roused Douglas. He moistened his lips
and said, "We've got to harden ourselves to stand it, like the rest of
'em do. And when it gets too bad we can talk to each other about it.
That'll help."
Judith clutched his arm as if she felt the need of touching a human
being. Douglas did not stir but as he stood looking down at her a strange
aching gladness at her nearness and at her splendid girlhood flooded the
horror out of his thought.
"I'll carry the milk pail in for you, Jude," he said.
"Fudge!" she returned scornfully. "As if I hadn't carried it in every
night for four years! You'd better do your feeding before Dad gets after
you."
Douglas suddenly laughed and went out.
For a day or so he was haunted, particularly after he went to bed, by the
thought of the grave scene and by the comments Grandma Brown had made.
But Doug was only sixteen, after all, and shortly he was absorbed by
other matters: the hunt for Scott Parsons, the preparations for the
dehorning, and his new and thrilling and secret feeling toward Judith.
The search for Scott delayed the round-up only for a short time. A day
or so after the funeral it snowed and removed the last chance of finding
Scott's tracks. The cold was intense, and the job really belonged to
Sheriff Frank Day, so the posse broke up after a few days and the
dehorning was undertaken.
Early in the morning, half a dozen young riders helped Douglas and Judith
to cut out of the great herd in the swamp field the steers in need of
dehorning. In proportion to their strength, Lost Chief girls were as
clever as the men in handling horses and cattle. Judith was easily the
best of them. There was a fire and vim about her work, a wild grace, that
the other girls lacked. Douglas, his vision sharpened by his new attitude
toward Judith, thought she never had looked so handsome as she did this
morning, in her beaver cap, her new scarlet mackinaw, curls flying,
sitting the excited little Swift as easily as a boy.
Out of the circular corral led a smaller one. A cedar fire burned in
the middle of the lesser enclosure. John Spencer and two helpers stood
near the fire, saws at hand, searing-iron heating, tar-pot simmering.
The herd bellowed in the outer corral. The riders, ropes in hand, sat
with laughing faces turned toward Judith, who was to rope the first
steer. Douglas wished that there were not so many of the riders with
admiration in their eyes. Judith sat Swift lightly, edging mischievously
now against one rider, now another. Swift bit Buster, who reared while
Douglas swore laughingly. Magpies swooped from the blue spruce at the
edge of the corral, black and white against pale blue. The cattle, all
Herefords, red and white, milled about and lowed and tossed worried
heads. The riders, sheepskin chaps flapping, bright neckerchiefs
fluttering, shouted and cursed and fingered their lariats. Dogs, yellow
dogs, black dogs, gray dogs, spotted dogs, continuously encroached
from without the fence and were ordered or lashed away.
Suddenly Swift shot from the group of horses. Judith spun her lariat
and a lusty young steer, well back toward the south fence, turned and
stumbled. Swift sat back on her haunches, turned as she rose and leaped
toward the dehorning corral. The bellowing steer was dragged backward,
his left foot securely roped. He fell as they reached the gate and
skidded helplessly on his side through the trampled yellow snow.
The men by the fire were ready. One of them perched on the steer's flank
and freed the lariat, while another sat astride his neck and amidst a
gush of blood sawed off the horns close to the head. John seared the
stubs with the hot iron dipped in tar. The poor brute bellowed with
fright and pain. Judith recoiled her lariat and made way for Jimmy Day,
who slid up with a protesting heifer.
"'Jude!" he shouted. "You're the cow ropingest girl in the Rockies! Say,
Jude, ain't you afraid that baa-baa you're riding will buck with you?
Swift! What a hell of a name for that thing!"
"She can beat you roping 'em at that, Jimmy!" cried Douglas.
"Better ride light, Jimmy," warned John. "She thinks more of that mare
than she does of me."
"All right, John," laughed Jimmy. "Take this heifer, fellows! She thinks
she's a moose!"
"She'll think she's a kitten when we finish with her," chuckled John.
There was an uproar now in the two corrals that echoed from mountain to
mountain. The trampled snow was crimson. White angora and sheepskin chaps
were gaumed with thick clots of blood. The horses, half frantic from the
smell of the bleeding cattle, tried every means in their not limited
repertoires to bolt the hateful job.
The work had gone fast and furiously for some time when Douglas touched
his father on the arm.
"Dad, look up on the shoulder of old Dead Line!"
John straightened his back and shaded his eyes. A rider leading a
Hereford was coming down the ridge.
"That's Scott's horse, Grover," said Douglas. "Can you make out the
rider?"
"Not yet." John continued to stare intently. Others noticed his posture
and followed his gaze.
"It's Scott Parsons!" cried Charleton Falkner.
"Shall we go get him?" exclaimed Jimmy Day.
"No. He's starved out and giving up. Let's hear what he has to say," said
John.
The dehorning went on. Half a dozen more bleeding steers had been
turned out before Scott, weary, gaunt, haggard beyond words, leading an
emaciated young bull, drew rein beside the smaller corral. The roping
came to a pause. John twisted a lariat round the neck of a steer he was
working on and led it to the fence. The others followed.
"Well, why the committee of welcome?" asked Scott hoarsely. His bloodshot
eyes turned from one to another.
"Where'd you find the bull, Scott?" asked John.
"First located him on Fire Mesa. Been round about considerable since."
"Whose bull is it now?" Charleton Falkner pushed Democrat toward the
fence.
"Mine!" Scott spoke shortly, his freckled face unmoved.
"Do you think it was worth the price?" demanded Spencer.
Scott looked searchingly at the crowd before him. The steer John was
holding had been dehorned but not seared. The blood had run down the
brute's white face and formed a crimson icicle on its under lip. John
had run his fingers through his ashen hair, leaving it blood-smeared.
Charleton was lighting a blood-stained cigarette with the hot
searing-iron. Judith pounded her half-frozen ringers together.
"What price did I pay?" asked Scott.
"Doug," commanded John, "you tell your story."
Douglas, with considerable embarrassment and assisted by Judith, told of
their trip with the mail stage. Scott listened with little apparent
interest. He said nothing when the story was done.
"It's like this, Scott," said John. "It looks like you killed him. You've
got a bad temper. So had Oscar. You fought for over a year about that
fool bull, first one of you branding it, then the other. You're young
and you'd better give yourself up. You'll stand a better chance."
"Go ahead, Scott!" cried Judith. "I'll stand your friend like you did
mine when I rode old Oscar's milch cow 'most to death!"
"Shut up, Jude!" exclaimed Douglas.
"Go ahead, Scott," John half smiled. "You needn't worry. You have a
friend!"
"A friend won't do him much good, if he's guilty," grunted Charleton
Falkner.
"Anybody's better off for at least one friend," repeated Judith stoutly.
"Darn it! All of you picking on poor old Scott!"
"Lean on me, Grandpa!" piped Jimmy Day.
Scott's haggard eyes focused on Judith. "I'll hold you to that, Jude! By
God, you're the only white man in the valley! I came in to give myself
up, Jude. The cold got me. I shot him, after he'd rebranded the bull
before my eyes and after he'd given me this."
He ripped open his mackinaw and shirt and tore a rag from his shoulder,
disclosing a vivid wound. "I ain't the only one that's quick on the
trigger!"
There was a quick murmur among the riders. John and Charleton, the oldest
men in the group, looked at each other.
"Charleton, you and Jimmy Day ride to Scott's house with him," said John.
"I'll go to the house and telephone to the sheriff." He mounted and rode
off.
"Can your horse carry you so far, Scott?" asked Judith.
Scott nodded, with something curiously like tears in his hard hazel eyes.
"You take the bull, Jude," he said. "I'd like for you to have him. He's
standard bred."
Judith's eyes shone like stars. "If Dad'll only let me! Do you think he
will, Doug?"
Douglas shrugged his shoulders. The bull was tied to the fence and Scott
rode slowly away with his escort. When John returned from telephoning he
gave a grudging consent to Judith's taking the bull, and the dehorning
went on. Not until the blue velvet shadow of Falkner's Peak lay heavy on
the incarnadined corral and the last bellowing steer had found solace at
the haystacks did the riders start homeward. Douglas followed Judith, as
she led the scare-crow bull.
"He's a good mate for Swift," he said.
"You're just jealous!" retorted Judith.
"Of what?" demanded Douglas.
"Of me starting a herd before you do!"
"Ha! Ha!" ejaculated Doug, without a smile, and nothing more was said
until they reached the house.
At supper that night John asked Judith why she had shown so much
friendship for Scott Parsons.
"I was sorry for him," she replied.
"But he killed our old neighbor!" exclaimed John.
"Yes, and Oscar had a notch on his gun, Dad; and you have one on yours."
"We put those notches there in the early days," returned John, "when
every cowman carried the law on his hip. It's different now. You're
altogether too highty-tighty, Jude, for a girl. You keep away from Scott
Parsons, or I'll make you regret it."
Judith made no reply.
Scott's trial took place in April. It was a matter of deep interest, of
course, to Lost Chief, and every one who could get to Mountain City by
horse, wagon, or automobile, attended the court sessions. Judith and
Douglas were chief witnesses and were royally entertained by young Jeff,
who had returned to Lost Chief a week or so after his father's funeral.
Scott was acquitted on the plea of self-defense but he did not return at
once to Lost Chief. The attitude of young Jeff did not make an early
return seem diplomatic.
Douglas, when he came home from the trial, had a curious feeling that the
winter just passed had ended his boyhood. He did not know why. He was not
old enough to realize that when the fires of desire and the fear of death
begin to sear a boy's mind, adolescence is passing and manhood has all
but arrived.
Judith, who had accomplished her fifteenth birthday in March, a day or so
before Doug arrived at the dignity of seventeen, had changed too. She had
been less profoundly affected by the murder than Douglas; not that she
was less sensitive or intelligent than he, but she was far less
introspective than her foster-brother. And Judith had two unfailing foods
for all hungers of the mind. One was her love of reading, the other, her
love of riding; both absorbing, to the elimination of self investigation.
Douglas read a great deal, himself. Books and magazines furnished the
only mental stimulants in the valley and it was a surprisingly well-read
community. But Douglas, caring for Judith as he did, found it impossible
to become fully absorbed in his old pastimes. He was restless, moody and
lonely as only youth can be.
He and Judith both graduated from the log school early in June. There was
the usual graduation dance at the post-office at which, as usual, Peter
Knight officiated. It was a heavenly moonlit night. The air was fragrant
from the acres of budding alfalfa and full of the lift and tingle that
can belong to June only in the high altitudes. The ever strong, steady
west wind of Lost Chief summers swirled down the valley.
The hall was dimly lighted by a single kerosene lamp. Cigarette smoke
mingled with the pungent smell of whiskey, which seemed to be the chief
ingredient of a concoction in a large pail, under the lamp. In the corner
opposite the pail was a phonograph over which Peter presided.
Everybody danced. Even the dogs were not prohibited the floor. Only when
Sister started a fight with Prince did any one protest and the dogs were
driven back, temporarily, under the benches.
The schoolgirls in their white dresses were, of course, the belles of the
occasion. Lost Chief, living its intensive life of isolation, probably
did not realize of what superb physique were the youngsters of its third
generation. Jimmy Day devoted himself to Little Marion Falkner, aged
fourteen. Marion was called little to distinguish her from her mother,
also Marion. The daughter at fourteen was five feet ten inches in height,
the mother an inch taller. Even a badly cut muslin dress could not fully
conceal the fine breadth of Little Marion's shoulders nor the splendid
length and straightness of her legs.
Jocelyn Brown, Grandma's grand-daughter, dancing frequently with
Charleton Falkner, was at twelve only slightly shorter than Little
Marion. She had the face of an angel, the vocabulary of a cowman, and was
built of steel.
Inez Rodman, very fair and slender, easily five feet nine, was scorned by
the older women but was brazenly popular with their husbands and the
younger set of boys and girls.
Judith danced all the time but only occasionally with Douglas, who took
her to task for her neglect.
"But, Doug, you and Dad are no novelty to dance with. What's the matter
with you anyhow? You never used to want to dance with me."
"I'm just trying to keep you from dancing with all these roughneck
riders." Douglas' chin was in the air above his bright blue silk neck
scarf.
Judith's eyes swept him appraisingly. His white silk shirt hung loose
on his thin, fine shoulders. His broad rider's belt, studded with blue
enameled rings, encircled a waist almost as slender as Jude's own. His
white duck trousers were turned up to display new riding boots, and his
spurs, a graduation gift, were of silver and chimed at his slightest
movement.
"You're almost as good-looking as Jimmy Day," she said with a sudden
chuckle. "Run along, Doug. You aren't old enough to protect me from these
bad men!" And she turned to dance with the waiting Jimmy.
It was nearing midnight when Douglas achieved his first dance with Inez.
She was the best dancer in the room, and Douglas told her so.
"I'll bet you haven't told that to the other girls," she said with a
flash of her white teeth.
"I have! I said it to Jude when she turned me down for Dad."
"Smart! Helps both you and me with Jude, of course!"
"Much you care about that!" retorted Douglas.
"I like to be liked, of course," said Inez.
"You do?" Douglas' voice was so honestly incredulous that Inez exclaimed
resentfully:
"Am I so much worse than a lot of the kids at school?"
Douglas shrugged his shoulders and replied, "Judith's straight. I've kept
her so."
Inez laughed. "Judith's straight because she's that kind of a girl. Why
don't you watch your dad instead of Jude?"
Douglas' lips tightened and Inez studied his face in silence for a
moment; then she went on, "Pretty fond of Jude, aren't you, Doug? Your
father is a devil with women--that big, bossy, good-looking kind always
is. I tell Jude so every time I see her."
"How often do you see her?" demanded Douglas quickly.
"I guess she has a right to come to my house as often as she wants to."
"No, she hasn't," brusquely.
Inez sniffed, then smiled. She had a frank and lovely smile. Douglas'
face softened and they finished the waltz in silence.
Not all the music was of the cheaply popular variety. Between dances
Peter slipped on occasional opera records. He was playing from _Martha_:
"Ah, so pure, so bright,
Burst her beauty upon my sight,
Ah, so mild, ah, so divine
She beguiled this heart of mine."
when a man called from the open door, "Good evening, folks!"
"Why, it's Scott Parsons!" cried Grandma Brown.
There was a pause, during which the tender voice of the phonograph
thrilled on. Young Jeff, his red face even redder than his visits to the
pail would warrant, put his hand to his hip. Judith darted before him and
ran the length of the room.
"Hello, Scott! Welcome home! The next dance is yours."
"No, it's not!" shouted John Spencer. "You let Judith alone, you blank
young outlaw you!"
"Get out of my way, Jude!" shouted Young Jeff. "I told Scott not to come
back to Lost Chief!"
He strode down the room, his hand still on his gun. Scott's hand had been
equally quick. Peter Knight turned off the machine. "Hold on, Jeff!" he
cried. "You turned Scott over to the law, and the law acquitted him. If
you'd wanted to take things in your own hands, you should have done so
before the trial. If you kill Scott, you're no better than he is."
"That's right!" cried Grandma Brown. "And your record ain't so clean,
Young Jeff, that you can afford to start anything!"
Judith tossed her head. "I don't see why Young Jeff should be allowed to
spoil a perfectly good party."
"If you can't put him out, Jude, I can!" cried Inez.
Everybody laughed. Jude seized one of Young Jeff's big hands, Inez the
other. There was an uproarious scuffle which ended in the three, laughing
immoderately, executing a hybrid folk dance to the one-step which Peter
began to play. And Scott danced unmolested during the remainder of the
night.
Charleton Falkner had drunk a good deal but was as yet little the worse
for it. He and Douglas met at the pail shortly after midnight. Charleton
gave the young man an amused glance.
"You look sort of bored, Doug! Come outside and talk a little."
Douglas gave a quick glance around the hall--at Judith, swooping in great
circles with Scott Parsons, at Inez dancing with his father. "All right!"
he said, and followed Charleton out into the moonlight. They perched
on the buck fence and smoked for a time in silence.
"That's a good horse of Young Jeff's, eh?" said Charleton finally.
"Not as good as the dapple gray he gave me will be when I get time to
break him," replied Douglas. "I don't know! I'm not as interested in
things as I was."
"What's the matter?" asked Charleton, sympathetically.
"I guess Oscar's killing upset me," said Douglas vaguely.
"I don't suppose you ever heard of Weltschmerz," mused Charleton. "It's a
kind of mental stomach-ache most young fellows get about the time they
begin to fall in love."
Douglas grunted.
"Though you were pretty young to run into Oscar that way," Charleton went
on thoughtfully.
"It isn't that; though I was scared stiff, of course. But it was seeing
Oscar laid in the ground to rot and hearing you and Peter and Dad say
that was all there was to it."
Charleton nodded. "I know! But you'll reach my state of don't give a
hoop-la, when you're a little older. Wine and women and a good horse.
They help."
Douglas drew a shuddering breath. "Is that all you've found out? All?"
"Of course, there's ambition," said Charleton. "I was ambitious, myself,
once. You know my father was a college man and he wanted me to go back
East to school. I almost went."
"Why didn't you go?" asked Douglas, immensely flattered at the mark of
confidence being shown him. Charleton Falkner was notoriously reticent
about himself.
"O, it's this easy life of the open! Why should I have gone into politics
as my father wanted me to, when I could be happier with an easy living
right here? And it would all end up there in the cemetery, anyhow. And
what had ambition to offer me in comparison to the sport of running wild
horses on Fire Mesa, or riding herd in the Reserve or hunting deer on
Falkner's Peak. Horses, dogs, guns, women, whiskey, the open country
of the Rockies. Enough for any man."
"Maybe!" muttered Douglas.
"What are you going to do now you're through school?" asked Charleton
abruptly.
"Ride for Dad. He's promised me a herd of my own when I'm twenty-one."
"Listen!" said Charleton. "How'd you like to do a little business with me
once in a while when John can spare you? You know, cattle, horses and
such!"
Douglas grinned delightedly. "Do you really mean it? Why, you know,
Charleton, as well as I do, there isn't a young rider in Lost Chief who
wouldn't give anything to go out on trips with you."
"Fine! I'll be tipping you the wink one of these days. In the meantime,
keep your mouth shut to every one but your father. Come in and we'll have
a drink on the new partnership."
Douglas had as yet acquired no great taste for such fiery pollutions as
the pail contained. But Charleton now applied himself so strenuously to
the business of getting drunk that shortly he was leaning on the
phonograph and reciting with powerful lungs:
"'Tis but a tent where takes his one day's rest
A Sultan to the realm of Death addrest;
The Sultan rises and the dark Ferrash
Strikes and prepares it for another Guest."
No one heeded him particularly. He smiled amiably at Peter, leaned
farther on the machine, and said, "Somebody will have to ease me to my
horse," then he drowsed forward over the phonograph. Douglas and Peter,
laughing, eased him to his horse, and Charleton, his arms around
Democrat's neck, jogged slowly off on the home trail.
June dawn was peering over the Indian Range when the party broke up.
Scott disappeared with Judith. When John discovered this, he bolted after
the two.
"You'd better go see that nothing happens, Doug," said Mary Spencer.
"John's drunk too much."
"I'm going home," declared Douglas. "I got some pride, and Judith's
treated me like a dog to-night. She's too fond of starting something she
don't know the finish of."
Mary and he were riding alone in the dawn. "You promised me you'd look
out for her. Don't you care for her any more, Douglas?"
"Yes, I do!"
"Have you ever told her so?"
"She's too young."
"No, she isn't, Douglas. You remember you told me she knew more than I
do."
Douglas said nothing; and after a moment, his step-mother said,
hesitatingly, "Doug, I hate to see you dancing so much with Inez."
"What harm was there in it?"
"I don't know that I can tell you, Doug. When I was a girl, going to the
log schoolhouse, we girls never thought of touching whiskey. Our mothers
would have killed us if we had."
"The world do move!" grunted Douglas.
"I don't believe it's the world. Not from the books I read. I think it's
just Lost Chief. The old folks in my day had real influence in the
valley. There were many like Grandma Brown. But now! Why, your father
will never be the good influence his father was, and I'd never be like
Grandma. I don't know why."
"You can't even train your own daughter," said Douglas with entire
frankness.
"Can the other mothers?" asked Mary resentfully. "What can I do when the
other mothers are so easy?"
"It ain't exactly easy." Douglas spoke thoughtfully. "The Lord knows, all
the kids in Lost Chief work hard enough and get walloped enough."
Mary sighed deeply. Douglas watched her face, so like Judith's but
bearing tragic lines it would have broken his heart to see around
Judith's young lips. With unwonted gentleness he leaned over to put his
hand on Mary's while he smiled at her half sadly.
"Poor Mother! We are an ornery lot! But you are as good as gold, and Jude
and I both know it!"
Quick tears stung Mary's gray eyes. She lifted his hand to her cheek for
a moment, then, as he drew it away, she tried to return his smile. But
nothing more was said until they reached home.
Just as they entered the living-room, Judith rushed in,
"I hate Dad! I hate him! Scott and I were jogging home by way of the west
trail as peaceful as anything when Dad has to come along and start a row
going!"
"Anybody hurt?" asked Douglas, watching Judith as she sat down on the
edge of her bed, big tears on her cheeks.
"No, but no thanks to Dad! Scott turned round and left because I asked
him to. There's Dad now!"
John clanked in, but before he could speak Judith rose and shook her
forefinger in his face.
"Now, Dad," she said steadily, "there's going to be no rowing and no
cursing. I'm sick of it! Right here and now I warn you to stop
interfering with me or I'll leave!"
John raised his ready fist.
"None of that!" Doug's voice was quiet. "Finish what you have to say,
Jude."
John scowled, breathing heavily, his eyes never leaving Judith.
"I'm sick of it," she repeated. "There must be places in the world where
there's something beside family rows."
"Are you through?" demanded John.
"Yes, I am."
"Then I've got one thing to say. You let Scott Parsons alone." John flung
himself on the bed, and before Mary had taken off his spurred riding
boots he was asleep.
Douglas went out to the corral where, soon after, Judith appeared with
her milking pail. The tender pink mists rolled slowly away from the
yellow wall of Lost Chief range. Judith, with heavy eyes and burning
cheeks, looked from the mists to Douglas, who leaned on the fence and
watched her.
"Jude," he said, "you are on the wrong foot. You ought to let whiskey and
Inez Rodman alone."
"Why don't you let 'em alone?" demanded Judith.
"It's different with a man!"
"O, don't give me that old stuff!" cried the girl. "We women do men's
work in this valley. We'll have the men's kind of fun if we want it!"
"That's not the point," returned Douglas. "Women have to pay a price the
men don't and that's all there is to it."
"It's not fair! It's not fair! I hate the world! I hate it! Looks like
you'd either got to be like Mother or Inez Rodman."
"Your mother's all right. Only Dad's broke her just like he broke old
Molly horse."
"Did I ever say my mother wasn't all right? Only I'll tell you one thing,
Doug Spencer, Inez Rodman's given me more sensible warnings about men
than my mother ever did."
Douglas wore a worried expression. "Seems like there's something wrong
about that. Mother knows all about those things." He cleared his throat.
The half angry look on Judith's face gave way to a smile.
"O Doug! Doug! You old owl! What's the matter with you? After all, it's
good to be alive! I wish I had a horse as good as Buster and I wouldn't
ask for much more in life."
"I'll give you Buster," said Douglas suddenly.
Judith's jaw dropped. "Give me Buster!"
"I mean it."
"But--but--why, Douglas, what's happened to you?"
"Judith!" Douglas tossed back his yellow; hair and put a brown hand over
Judith's. "Judith! I love you. Won't you be engaged to me?"
"Love _me_?" Judith's beautiful gray eyes opened their widest. "Why, it
doesn't seem more than yesterday that you were calling me a pug-nosed
maverick. And besides, I'm only fifteen and you're only seventeen."
"Is it Scott?" asked Douglas.
"It isn't anybody! Why, Douglas, you must be crazy!"
"Do I look crazy?"
Judith stared deep into Douglas' blue eyes. "No," slowly, "you don't."
"You can have Buster and Prince too," said Douglas.
"No, sir, Doug! Why, they're all you've got in the world!"
"I have that dapple gray Young Jeff gave me after the trial. He's old
enough to break now."
There were tears in Judith's eyes. "Douglas Spencer, you are a gentleman!
If I do have a horse like Buster, I can be lots more help handling the
cattle."
"He's yours from this minute," repeated Douglas. "And so am I yours. But
I'm not going to nag you about it. I'm just going to try to look out for
you."
There was something so sober, so gentle, and so determined about Douglas
that for once in her life Judith was at a loss for a reply. She started
slowly for the cow shed. Then she turned back.
"But I'm not going to take Prince, Douglas. That's too much!"
"Well," said Douglas. "Maybe I will keep Prince for a while. It'll be
kind of lonesome."
"Lonesome!" Judith repeated the phrase as though it struck a familiar
chord. "Life is lonesome, isn't it Doug! Seems as though I never dare to
be myself any more, since Oscar's death. That was the first time I ever
realized how lonely you can be."
Douglas nodded, his eyes full of an understanding that was pitiful. Youth
should not be allowed to contemplate this sort of loneliness. It is soul
searing.
"But remember, Judith," he said, "that you've always got me."
She gave him an enigmatic look and returned to her work.