ALLEN ARRIVES
Amy was delighted with the praise she received from the girls and the
first thing she did after they returned to the ranch was to write home
to her guardian for the concert program she had so luckily saved.
Naturally the girls were more curious than ever after this second trip
to his little cabin in the woods and longed to find out about this
strange musician who hid himself so persistently from the world.
"Of course," Grace said, during one of the many times when they talked
the matter over, "we're not at all sure that the Hermit is the same man
who played at our benefit."
"Of course we're not," Mollie agreed with her. "There must be a great
many musicians who can play those same selections that we heard him
play."
"That's all very true," said Betty argumentatively. "But if he is really
this same musician that played at our benefit, then that explains the
queer hunch I've had of having seen him somewhere before."
"Well," said Mollie resignedly, "I guess all we can do for the present
is to wait until Amy gets her program. When we find out the name of the
violinist that played for us then we can decide what to do next about
the Hermit."
Reluctantly they admitted that what she said was true, and for the time
being let the discussion rest there.
Then came the day when Betty received a letter from Allen announcing
that he would reach Gold Run the following afternoon on the
four-thirty-five train. The letter ended by begging her to meet the
train herself and please not to send any one else, for no one else would
do!
Betty's pretty face flushed a deeper pink and her eyes shone brighter as
she read this passage--and two or three others--several times over. Then
she went to find the girls and tell them the good news.
They also had received mail from the other boys and some of the folks at
home, and she found them all together on the eastern porch having the
time of their lives. Mollie and Amy were perched on the railing while
Grace and a box of candy reposed in a hammock.
"Well, have you finished reading yours already?" Mollie greeted the
Little Captain as she swung up the steps. "It was such a fat one I
thought it would take you till lunch time at least to get through with
it."
"Speak for yourself," retorted Betty, too happy to mind being teased.
"Guess what, girls!" she added, unable to keep the news to herself for
another minute, "Allen arrives via the Western Limited at four-thirty or
thereabouts to-morrow afternoon."
"Hooray!" cried the girls, and momentarily forgot their own letters in
very real delight. Allen Washburn was a favorite with all of them.
"Will you let us all go to meet him, Betty dear?" asked Grace, with a
twinkling smile. "Or does he insist on seeing you alone?"
"Don't be silly," retorted Betty good-naturedly. "I know he would take
it as a personal slight if you weren't all there to welcome him."
"Well, I don't know," Mollie commented ruefully. "Something tells me he
would manage to live through it even if we weren't there. But go on,
Betty," she added. "Tell us what else he has to say."
"That's pretty nearly all," said Betty truthfully. "He said he would
save all the news until he saw me--us. One thing he did say," she
added, dimpling: "The boys are simply wild with jealousy. They say it is
all a deep dark scheme on Allen's part to get out here with us."
"Us!" repeated Grace, with a giggle. "Much he cares about the rest of
us."
Be that as it may, they certainly all turned out that following
afternoon to meet the Western Limited which was bearing Allen swiftly
toward them.
There was the usual gathering of picturesquely garbed miners and
cow-punchers on the platform, and for most of these the girls had a
smile and a nod.
"Seems funny to think how strange everything looked to us when we first
came," remarked Grace, as they waited for the train. "Now we feel as
much at home as if we had lived here all our lives."
"The people are all so nice and friendly, too," said Amy. "It's
wonderful how soon you come to know them."
"It is a nice atmosphere," Betty agreed. "At home in the East we want to
know pretty much all there is to know about people we make our friends.
But out here they take you for granted. Nobody seems to care where you
came from or who your relatives are----"
"Huh," grunted Mollie. "I guess in a good many cases it wouldn't do to
be too curious," she said cynically. "If you believe the stories you
read and the movies you see everybody who has committed a crime anywhere
from petty larceny to murder skips out West to escape just punishment."
"Then at this moment," drawled Grace, glancing around at the rather
harmless looking crowd on the station platform, "we are surrounded by
thieves and murderers. Though I must say they are a pretty nice looking
set," she added, and the girls giggled.
"Grace could forgive a man anything, if he was only good-looking
enough," remarked Amy.
"Here comes the train!" cried Betty suddenly, as the Western Limited
thundered around a curve in the distance and steamed toward them.
Immediately she forgot everything but that Allen was on that train and
that in a moment more she would see him----
Then Allen himself, handsome as ever, eagerly scanning the faces on the
platform as he jumped from the train the instant the porter opened the
door.
It took him barely a moment to discover the group of girls, and he came
toward them, hand outstretched, eyes alight with greeting.
"Well, if this isn't great!" he cried in his hearty voice, shaking
hands with all of them but looking mostly at Betty. "Knew I could trust
the Outdoor Girls to turn out for a rousing welcome. How's everything?"
"Just fine," they assured him, and then Betty took him in hand.
"We've brought a wagon along from the ranch to carry your luggage," she
said, dragging him over to the wagon beside which two of the boys from
the ranch were waiting bashfully. "Come over and meet a couple of our
cow-punchers, and they will help you load your trunk on board."
All this accomplished, the cowboys and Allen having formed an immediate
and staunch friendship, Betty introduced the latter to the horse she had
brought for him to ride. The pony was a magnificent animal, dark brown
in color with a curve to his graceful neck and a flash to his eye that
proclaimed his thoroughbred ancestry.
"Say, you old peach of a horse," said Allen, fondly stroking the soft
muzzle, "you're just about the most perfect thing of your kind I've ever
seen. It seems almost a sacrilege to ride you."
"His name is Lightning," Amy volunteered. "The boys call him that
because he can outrun almost any other horse on the ranch. Though," she
added loyally, "I shouldn't wonder if Lady could beat him if they
should give her a head start."
This characteristic speech brought a laugh, and Allen regarded the four
other beautiful horses in the group.
"You girls seemed to have picked winners yourselves," he said
admiringly. He studied them a moment, then his eyes narrowed quizzically
as he turned to Betty.
"I'll bet you a box of candy against a pair of gloves," he said, "that I
can tell which horse belongs to which. Do you take me?"
"Of course," said Betty. "Go ahead."
He guessed them nearly right, except that he gave Nigger to Mollie and
Old Nick to Betty.
"Almost does not avail," sang Betty gayly. "You owe me a box of candy,
Allen Washburn."
He looked at her for a moment laughing, and suddenly her gaze faltered.
There had been something new and forceful about Allen ever since he had
come back from the war that had made Betty a little afraid of him. But
she did not think any the less of him--oh, no indeed!
"I'll give you a dozen of them if you'll take them," he was saying
ardently--evidently in reference to the candies.
"And if she won't take 'em, I will," said Grace, with a gusto that made
them all laugh.
On the way home the girls, with what they thought was great
consideration, cantered along in front, leaving Allen and Betty to bring
up the rear. Allen blessed them for it, but Betty was furious and kept
up such a running fire of comment and laughing narrative that Allen had
no chance to say the things he had wanted to say.
Only once as they neared the ranch she paused a moment, pointing out
over the dazzling plains to the purple tipped mountains in the distance.
"Isn't the country beautiful, Allen?" she asked breathlessly. "I've
fallen dead in love with it."
"It looks too good to be true," Allen agreed seriously, then added
boyishly, with a glance that took her in, as well as the scenery: "Just
now, I don't care if I never go home!"