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THE RANCH GIRLS SERIES
The Ranch Girls at Home Again
BOOKS BY MARGARET VANDERCOOK
THE RANCH GIRLS SERIES
The Ranch Girls at Rainbow Lodge
The Ranch Girls' Pot of Gold
The Ranch Girls at Boarding School
The Ranch Girls in Europe
The Ranch Girls at Home Again
The Ranch Girls and their Great Adventure
The Ranch Girls and their Heart's Desire
The Ranch Girls and the Silver Arrow
The Ranch Girls and the Mystery of the Three Roads
STORIES ABOUT CAMP FIRE GIRLS
The Camp Fire Girls at Sunrise Hill
The Camp Fire Girls Amid the Snows
The Camp Fire Girls in the Outside World
The Camp Fire Girls Across the Sea
The Camp Fire Girls' Careers
The Camp Fire Girls in After Years
The Camp Fire Girls on the Edge of the Desert
The Camp Fire Girls at the End of the Trail
The Camp Fire Girls Behind the Lines
The Camp Fire Girls on the Field of Honor
The Camp Fire Girls in Glorious France
The Camp Fire Girls in Merrie England
The Camp Fire Girls at Half Moon Lake
The Camp Fire Girls by the Blue Lagoon
THE GIRL SCOUTS SERIES
The Girl Scouts of the Eagle's Wing
The Girl Scouts in Beechwood Forest
The Girl Scouts of the Round Table
The Girl Scouts in Mystery Valley
The Girl Scouts and the Open Road
[Illustration: "WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT, RALPH MERRITT?" SHE
DEMANDED]
THE RANCH GIRLS SERIES
The Ranch Girls at Home Again
BY
MARGARET VANDERCOOK
ILLUSTRATED BY
RALPH P. COLEMAN
THE JOHN C. WINSTON COMPANY
PHILADELPHIA
Copyright, 1915, by
THE JOHN C. WINSTON CO.
PRINTED IN U. S. A.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. THE RACE 9
II. AN UNANSWERED QUESTION 21
III. THE ENGINEER OF THE RAINBOW MINE 30
IV. OLIVE COMES HOME 40
V. THEIR RIDE TOGETHER 51
VI. THAT SAME AFTERNOON 66
VII. "COURAGE MAKES THE MAN" 79
VIII. THE MIDNIGHT CONFERENCE 91
IX. A DILEMMA AND A VISITOR 100
X. CROSS PURPOSES 110
XI. A DINNER PARTY 121
XII. TWO CONVERSATIONS 134
XIII. A VISIT TO RAINBOW MINE 146
XIV. THE EXPLOSION 155
XV. AN UNFORTUNATE DISCUSSION 165
XVI. A DESERT STORM 187
XVII. OLIVE'S REMORSE 200
XVIII. JACK SURRENDERS AT LAST 210
XIX. RAINBOW CASTLE 221
XX. A PARTY AT THE NEW HOUSE 230
XXI. MAIDS AND MEN 240
XXII. OLD FRIENDS AND SOMETHING MORE 254
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
"WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT, RALPH MERRITT?" SHE
DEMANDED _Frontispiece_
PAGE
"SHE HAD HEARD THAT MASTERFUL TONE BEFORE" 84
"THE STARS HAD DISAPPEARED AND BEYOND THE UNIVERSAL
GRAYNESS THERE WAS NOW A FAINT ROSE LIGHT" 211
"YOU WOULD HAVE MARRIED ME ANYHOW" 241
The Ranch Girls at Home Again
CHAPTER I
THE RACE
AN hour before sunset a number of persons were standing in a small group
facing the western horizon. But although the prairie was covered with a
crop of young grass, a pale green mirror to reflect the colors of the
sun, they were not looking at the landscape but toward two figures on
horseback, a girl and a boy who were riding across country as rapidly as
their horses could carry them.
"Will Jack Ralston ever learn to be less reckless about her riding,
Jim?" Ruth Colter inquired. "Since we returned from Europe it seems to
me that she has grown more attached to the Rainbow ranch than ever
before. Yet at about the time we were married, dear, do you know I had a
fancy that Jack and Frank Kent were going to care for each other
seriously. Of course, I was mistaken since he has never been to see her
in almost a year."
Then with both hands held out invitingly, Ruth received a small pink and
white bundle which Jim deposited in them with infinite care. For the
bundle consisted of an absurdly tiny person measuring its early
existence by weeks instead of months or years. And its face, though as
delicately shell pink as the blanket enveloping it, yet bore a
ridiculous resemblance to the tall man's in whose arms it had lately
been borne.
A moment later and Jim Colter strode forward with a blond girl at his
side. For by this time the two riders were almost within hailing
distance, the girl's horse scarcely a neck in advance of her
companion's.
"Carlos don't like Jack," Frieda Ralston remarked unexpectedly to her
guardian, "so I do wish that she would not keep on doing things to
irritate him. He perfectly hates to think that a girl can beat him at
any outdoor sport and yet he rarely gets ahead of Jack. Indians are so
strange and silent that sometimes I feel afraid he may try and revenge
himself upon her for some fancied wrong. See, he is furious now at her
having won their race!"
"Well, I expect Miss Ralston will be able to manage him;" Jim returned.
"Nevertheless, the boy has not turned out as I had hoped; he is lazy and
proud and extremely ungrateful. Sometimes I have half an idea of turning
him off the ranch, and I came very near doing it the other day, only
Jack pleaded for him. Because he is Olive's friend she seems sentimental
about keeping him on here, at least, until Olive joins us. Bravo, Jack!
Be careful, you hoyden, don't you know you are a grown woman!" he cried.
And with his tone divided between admiration and anger, Jim caught at
the flying figure of a girl as she landed lightly on the ground at his
feet. She had jumped from her pony while it was still going at full
speed and then run along beside it until she was able to stop without
losing her balance.
"I wish you would not behave like a circus rider, Jack," Frieda scolded.
For at eighteen Frieda Ralston had become a far more dignified and
reposeful character than her older sister, who was now past twenty.
Nevertheless Jack only made a slight grimace, calling back over her
shoulder carelessly, "Carlos, see to my horse, will you, when it gets to
the stable?" And then in a kinder tone, "Oh, never mind, I had
forgotten; some one else can look after him. Of course you will be
interested to hear the news from Olive--Miss Van Mater," she corrected
herself. "I am going to tell the family at once." Then she walked on
between Jim and Frieda, with an arm laid lightly across her sister's
shoulder. And without replying Carlos followed the little party.
He was a beautiful slender Indian boy of about fifteen or sixteen, with
skin the color of bronze, with straight dark hair and moody, unsatisfied
black eyes--the same Indian boy who had formerly helped Olive to return
to the ranch after her enforced capture by old Laska, and had afterwards
sought refuge there himself. As a small lad, in spite of his pride and
difficult disposition, the Ranch girls and Ruth had been fond of him,
but since their return from Europe they had found Carlos a problem. He
was unwilling to work like the other men, either on the ranch or at the
mine, and was equally determined not to go to school except when forced
into it. Indeed, so far as possible, the boy had insisted upon living in
the midst of civilization like one of his chieftain ancestors.
Oftentimes he chose to sit idly in the sun doing nothing, save perhaps
to clean his gun or else gaze for hours at the sky overhead. Then again
he might without warning disappear on a hunting expedition, taking any
horse from the stables that he wished for his purpose, and usually
returning with game or furs, which he sometimes bestowed on Jean or
Frieda or Ruth, but never on Jack.
At the present moment his manner was absurdly dignified and haughty,
since he particularly objected to being treated at any time as though he
were a servant, and considered Jack's request in that light. However, as
no one was paying the slightest attention to him, it was self-evident
that he was longing to hear Jacqueline Ralston's news.
"Have you heaps of letters, Jack? Do please hurry and give them to us."
Jean Bruce called out, walking away from the two young men with whom she
had been recently talking. One of them was Ralph Merritt, the engineer
in charge of the Rainbow mine, and the other a visitor from one of the
neighboring ranches. For as Jack had always insisted, wherever Jean was
to be found there also was a masculine admirer, even in a wilderness.
Over her shoulder Jack carried a small leather mail bag, which she now
opened; but before drawing forth her letters she leaned over and glanced
anxiously into the face of the small baby snuggled in Ruth's arms.
"Nothing has happened to Jimmikins since I have been away? He has not
cut a tooth or anything, has he, Ruth?" she queried. And as the others
laughed, the baby being at the present hour only about seven weeks old,
Jack drew forth more than a dozen letters and began passing them around
to the different members of her family.
"Here, Jean, of course there are more for you than for any of the rest
of us, and in so many handwritings that it looks as if you kept a
correspondence school for young men. And, Frieda, I am sorry I had to
discover this was from Tom. But the youth does send you so many boxes of
candy, I can't help recognizing the address. Ruth, won't you ask
everybody please to wait here a moment for I have something really
important to tell you." Then Jack's radiant face grew graver.
"I have at last had a long letter from Olive," she explained. "And a
week after her grandmother's death the will was read." The girl glanced
about her. Ralph Merrit and their visitor had walked off several yards,
so that only the few persons interested were standing near.
"Of course old Madame Van Mater has made the curious will that we might
have expected. For it seems that she has given Olive one more year to
make up her mind whether or not she will marry Donald Harmon. If she
does, of course they will then inherit the greater portion of the estate
with only a few legacies to be paid outside. But if she does not decide
to marry him--and here is the strange thing--at the end of the year
another will is to be read, which will divide the property differently.
And no one knows just how, for this second will is sealed and in the
possession of her executors. So Olive may finally be left penniless or
she may receive everything, or else Donald may suffer the same fate. It
is a queer and interesting state of things, isn't it?" Jack concluded.
"Yes, and pretty well calculated to make everybody that had anything to
do with the old lady uncomfortable for another twelve months longer
anyhow," Jim Colter replied frowning. "Funny how the old woman arranged
to make her relatives and friends as miserable after her death as she
had before it. It is pretty hard on both Olive and Donald. In the end I
have an idea that the money will go to some charity."
In reply Jean slowly shook her head, turning over the envelopes in her
hand with pretended interest, but with her thoughts plainly not centered
upon them.
"Olive is very foolish," she remarked at length. "Really I can't see why
she does not make up her mind to do as her grandmother wished. Don is a
charming fellow and it is ridiculous not to appreciate the value of so
much money. Why the longer I live the more important it seems to me!"
Too displeased with Jean's unexpected burst of worldliness to discuss
the question with her, Jim marched a few steps away. Ruth was
distressed, but being a woman she was not so unmindful of what lay
behind the girl's apparently careless speech, while Frieda became
immediately influenced by her cousin's point of view, just as she
always had been since they were small girls. So it was Jack who was the
one person in the group to take Jean's statement lightly, for she merely
laughed, saying:
"Oh, of course we know that Jean is the really worldly person in our
family, so we must watch and see how she lives up to her sentiments!
Still you have not yet heard my most important piece of news. Olive has
also written that she is completely worn out with all the business and
worry of these last weeks and so she is coming to us at once. She asks
if she may bring Miss Winthrop along with her for a visit?" Jack paused
for a moment, looking inquiringly about at the faces of the others. "Of
course she may," she ended. "It will be a pleasure to have Miss
Winthrop, and besides I don't see how we possibly could refuse."
Frieda held up two white hands protestingly. She was not an industrious
person and so devoted a great deal of her valuable time to her toilet
instead of to more serious labors. "Oh, dear," she began, "it will be
just like going back to Primrose Hall again to have Miss Winthrop
staying in our house. Goodness, how she will disapprove of me for
having no ambition to improve myself as Olive does. I shall have to lead
a changed life!"
"Thank Providence, then. Do ask Miss Winthrop to come on the next
train," Jim chuckled, returning at this instant, while Ruth shook her
head thoughtfully.
"Naturally it will be an opportunity for all of us to have a woman like
Miss Winthrop for our guest," she declared, in a slightly worried tone.
"But has it ever occurred to any one of you where we are to put her? The
poor old Lodge is so crowded now with babies and girls and Jim Colter
that we have not a single spare room. Oh, of course Olive can be tucked
in anywhere, but----"
"Jim, do take your son and let us walk over and look at our new house,"
Jack at once suggested. "Surely there will be enough bedrooms finished
by the time Olive and Miss Winthrop arrive, for some of the family, so
that we may give ours to our guests. Funny how we cling to the dear old
Rainbow Lodge in spite of our new grandeur."
Then Jack moved on ahead, leading the way through the grove of
cottonwood trees almost up to the old house. She turned to the left and
about an eighth of a mile farther along came to a slight elevation,
recently planted with shrubs and evergreens. There, facing the little
party, was a splendid pile of stone and wood that was evidently growing
into an old-time colonial house.
For of course now that the girls were older and wealthier, and Jim and
Ruth married, Rainbow Lodge was no longer suited to their needs. And as
the Rainbow Mine still continued to yield a handsome income, the new
house had occupied a great deal of the family's time and attention since
their return from Europe. For it had been both Jim's and Jack's desire
to build a wonderful colonial mansion here in their own beautiful
Western country, where in times past men and women had been content with
rude cabins. Since a colonial house meant to Jim Colter the beauty and
dignity of the old Virginia homes that he remembered in his boyhood and
since Jacqueline had long cherished a photograph of the place owned by
her Southern grandfather who had been killed in the Confederate army,
the new house was to be as nearly as possible a replica of the latter.
In the interest of discussing what the workmen had accomplished since
their last visit to the new building, no one noticed that the Indian
boy, Carlos, who had followed the others up to this time, listening
intently to every word of their conversation, had stalked silently away
as soon as Olive's name ceased to be mentioned. His face wore a more
pleasing expression, and unlike his usual habit he afterwards joined old
Aunt Ellen in the kitchen, who was still the ranch girls' cook and
devoted friend. To her he at once imparted the information concerning
the expected visitors; then he retired to his own tent in the yard. For
Carlos had absolutely refused to live in the ranch house with the other
employees about the estate and had erected for himself an Indian tepee
at some distance.
CHAPTER II
AN UNANSWERED QUESTION
ON a pile of boards in a great unfinished room Frieda Ralston stood
facing--the unknown future.
In the family it was sometimes said that though on occasions the younger
Miss Ralston could assume the airs of a social queen, at very many other
times she was more of a baby than ever. For of course Frieda had not yet
been touched by any of life's hard realities, and since her sister's
recovery from her accident her way had been fairly plain sailing. For
did she not have health, youth, plenty of money and an adoring family?
What else was there to wish for? Thus far she had never taken any of her
mild love affairs with the least seriousness and had no idea of
"settling down," as she expressed it, for at least ten years to come. So
what was there for Frieda to do but each day to grow fairer and more
charming, like a lovely wax doll that had come to life and taken upon
itself the airs and graces of a really grown-up person. Because Jack
objected, Frieda some time ago had given up her former fashion of
wearing her heavy yellow hair in a Psyche knot, and in these months at
the ranch when no strangers were about had returned to her old childish
custom of two long braids. On dress occasions, however, her coiffure,
copied after a Paris model, could again be made bewilderingly lovely.
On this particular occasion Frieda had unfortunately neglected to attire
herself for the role which she was about to play, as she happened to be
wearing an old blue and white middy blouse and a short duck skirt with
one long plait hanging over each shoulder.
"I wonder," she began at this moment, though no one chanced to be
looking toward her, "which one of us will finally fall heir to this
grand new house we are building? I have just been thinking, houses are
not like clothes, meant for one person and to last through one or two
seasons: they may last through many generations and no telling what
changes in a family."
"Hear! Hear!" cried Jean, straightway whirling around to regard her
cousin with astonishment and then striking an attitude of mock
admiration. "Listen, everybody, please, Frieda is making a speech! She
wants to know which of us shall become the royal family of Rainbow
Castle. It is an interesting question, dear; I never should have thought
it of you!"
Frieda hesitated, but the next instant went on quite seriously. "Of
course it won't be you though, Jean, because of all of us, Ruth, Olive,
Jim, and Jack and me, why I think you love the Rainbow ranch the least.
You will never want to stay on in the West once you are married; that
visit you made the Princess Colonna in Rome has completely spoiled you."
And now it was Jean's turn to endure the family laughter, and though she
made no reply, she showed more annoyance than the accusation merited.
Still surprisingly thoughtful, Frieda continued: "I suppose that either
Jim or Jack and their children ought to inherit the new house, for of
course I am the youngest and have done nothing toward making the ranch a
success as Jim and Jack have. Ruth, you and Jim would want Jack to have
the place after she marries and has children, wouldn't you? And yet not
long ago, do you know, I believed that in spite of loving the ranch
best, Jack would be the first one of us to leave it for good. I don't
think so now," she added hastily, catching an expression on her sister's
face that she could not altogether understand.
But by this time Jack had marched across the room and was gently but
firmly pulling Frieda down from her exalted position.
"I suppose hearing the news of old Madame Van Mater's will has gone to
your head, Frieda darling," Jack protested. "But really no one of us
wants to hear you arranging our futures and talking about our
descendants, as if fifty years might suddenly pass away before tea time.
Of course 'Rainbow Castle,' as Jean calls our new home, shall belong to
the one of us who wishes it and needs it the most. But which of us that
may be--well, in the words of Mr. William Shakespeare, 'that is the
question.'"
Jack now turned to her cousin, Jean, who was standing before one of the
unfinished windows looking out at the beautiful view. For the prospect
from the new house was far lovelier than any outlook from Rainbow Lodge,
since it stood on a higher incline and showed a wider sweep of the
prairies.
"Jean," Jack asked, "I wonder if you happen to know where Ralph Merrit
is? There is something Jim and I want particularly to talk over with
him. I happened to notice he was with you last. Did he say whether he
was going to have dinner with us tonight or with the men at the Ranch
House?"
The other girl shrugged her shoulders impatiently.
"Really, Jack, I don't see why I should be expected to know Ralph
Merrit's plans because I was talking to him for ten minutes. But what is
all this mystery about anyway? What is going on down at the mine? Ralph
looks either as if he were working himself to death or as if he had the
weight of the world on his shoulders. To tell you the truth, I believe
he did ask me to tell you that he was going away for several days
perhaps. He preferred to talk over matters with you on his return. But
do come on home, Ruth," Jean finished crossly, "it is much too cold for
the baby to be outdoors now the sun is down. And Jim and Jack always
prefer to have their business secrets alone. I suppose we have no right
to be interested. But of course there can't be any serious trouble at
the Rainbow Mine while Ralph is managing things." Then Ruth, Jean, the
baby and Frieda walked on ahead, leaving Jim and Jack to follow slowly
behind. For in spite of the accusation in Jean's speech, her cousin had
made no denial.
With her hand inside his, after the fashion she had as a little girl
when anything about the big ranch troubled her, Jack gazed earnestly up
into her old friend and guardian's strong and gentle countenance.
"I am right not to speak of this trouble Ralph Merrit is having with the
men at Rainbow Mine, don't you think so, Jim?" she queried. "You see I
don't understand the situation anyhow, and it all may come to nothing in
the end. So any discussion does not seem to me fair to Ralph. Surely the
men are only grumbling! Why next to you I feel that we owe our fortune
to the splendid way Ralph Merrit has managed the mine. And you know you
have always liked him better than any other young man we have ever
known, better even than Frank Kent."
Jim cleared his throat. "Have I said that I had changed my mind about
Merrit?" he demanded. "You are right, Jack; you just lie low and say
nothing even to the men who may come to you with their complaints. In
my opinion the trouble is this: The fellows at work on Rainbow Mine are
most of them middle-aged men, kind of down-and-out miners and a hard
lot, who have either given up the hope of discovering gold for
themselves or postponed searching for it for a while so as to first make
a good living out of us. Well, you see, compared to them Ralph Merrit is
a kid. And of course his being a real mining engineer graduated out of a
college and placed as the boss over them makes the older men kind of
sore. Then, besides paying our miners their regular wages we have been
giving them a percentage also of the amount of gold that is taken out of
the mine each month. There is still enough pay dirt for us to live
pretty comfortable, but the men say we ought to be getting a whole lot
more. Merrit isn't certain yet, he wants to make some more
investigations. The gold that is a whole lot deeper down under the earth
may prove either too dangerous or too expensive to get out. So at bottom
I believe that is what the real grievance is, they want Ralph to hurry
up. It is nothing to them to have us sink, say a hundred thousand
dollars, in new mining machinery and maybe get nothing back. So they
have been spreading ugly stories, say Merrit does not know his job and
that he is too busy speculating and trying to earn a fortune that way
for himself to care what becomes of the mine."
After this speech Jack kept silent for several moments and they were
almost at the Lodge before she replied:
"Look here, Jim, don't be angry with me if I say something. Of course I
know Ralph is doing the best he can for us at the mine. But about that
other story--really you ought to try and find out if it is true. John
Raines, one of the miners, said he wanted to tell me something; do let
him tell you instead. Because, Jim dear, if once you believe in a person
you know you believe in him forever, and yet maybe Ralph may have gotten
into mischief. You see I should not wish to be prying into his private
affairs, but it is as plain as the nose on your face to everybody but
you that Ralph is in love with Jean and always has been for that matter,
though I must confess he has been paying her a good deal less attention
lately. And as for Jean, well I don't believe she will marry any one who
cannot give her wealth and position; yet just the same it would be wiser
to know the truth about Ralph. Couldn't you ask him to tell you? I
believe he would. Oh dear me, I do hope we won't have a strike at the
mine or any other kind of trouble."
"You sound pretty sensible, partner," Jim agreed, "maybe I had better
look into things a little more. It never hurts any fellow to keep his
eyes open. But let me tell you that I have never heard of a gold mine
yet, whether it was a good one or a poor one, that did not keep on
piling up trouble."
CHAPTER III
THE ENGINEER OF THE RAINBOW MINE
READERS of the Ranch Girls' Series probably remember that the first
meeting between the members of the Rainbow Ranch family and Ralph Merrit
occurred several years before, while they were making a caravan journey
to the Yellowstone Park.
And Jean Bruce had been Ralph's original acquaintance. How many times
since had they not laughed at the vision of the girl idly washing her
hair in an outdoor stream with no thought of a stranger in many miles.
Then there was the story of their first luncheon together with only
Frieda as chaperon and Ruth and Olive's return, the storm, and Jim and
Jack's disaster by the deserted mine. Within less than a week Ralph
Merrit had appeared like an old and tried friend. And from the hour of
his arrival to advise and assist Jim Colter in regard to the Rainbow
Mine he had seemed almost like one of the family. Only twice had he left
his work for any length of time--once to visit his mother and sister in
Chicago, and the second time to say farewell to the Ranch girls when
they sailed for Europe. His friends understood that a large part of his
generous salary went each month to the support of his people, and that
in his present position Ralph was not making his fortune so quickly in
the West as he had hoped. But was that the reason why he had been taking
so many short trips away from the ranch in the past few months and why
he had recently changed so decidedly in his appearance and manner?
Though Jean may have had her own special reasons for observing these
changes most, no one else was wholly blind. Could it be possible that
Ralph Merrit's difficulties were graver than they suspected?
There is a possibility that Jack Ralston's and even Jim's faith might
have been shaken had they been able to follow the young man's
proceedings on the afternoon of their conversation about him.
He and the neighbor, who had simply been a visitor at the ranch for
afternoon tea, walked along without much conversation until they came to
within the neighborhood of Rainbow Creek--that portion of the creek
where important mining machinery had been set up and near which a shaft
had been sunk, forming a narrow entrance into the Rainbow Mine.
As the hour for work had passed some time before, the place was now
deserted and Ralph Merrit showed no interest in lingering in its
vicinity. Yet the discovery of the surprising wealth contained in the
Rainbow Mine had never ceased being a subject of interest, of
speculation and oftentimes of acute envy to many of the ranch owners in
that end of Wyoming, and the young man, Hugo Manning, who was Ralph's
present companion, had only recently purchased a cattle ranch about ten
miles away. He had come from the western part of New York State and this
was his first sight of a gold mine.
Plainly Ralph was at first simply bored by the stupid questions that his
neighbor asked of him. Then unexpectedly the young engineer's expression
changed and his face flushed angrily.
"I hear that your famous Rainbow gold mine is panning out," the young
man had remarked carelessly. "They tell me around here that you have
already taken out all the gold that lies near enough to the surface to
be of value. They insist that it is going to cost you more to buy new
machinery and try out new methods of mining than the gold is worth.
Better advise your friends to sell out while selling is good and before
their mine loses its reputation."
Ralph made a queer noise in his throat that was half anger, and yet he
did not positively deny the suggestion. "Oh, they say that, do they?" he
exclaimed. "It's funny how much sooner strangers find out about your
affairs than you do yourself! I don't believe Mr. Colter or Miss Ralston
have yet had to complain of any lack of money. When that time comes then
we shall decide what is best to do."
And Ralph started to move along, but his companion waited, hesitating
for half a moment. "I say, Merrit," he continued, "if the Rainbow Mine
owners should make up their minds that they want to get out, I wish you
would let me hear the news first. Isn't it possible that they might be
willing to take a lump sum down and not run the risk of losing what they
have already got by investing in new machinery? I believe it mostly
belongs just to the two Ralston girls. But a company of men, say in New
York City, might look at the proposition differently. They could afford
to sink a few hundred thousands easier."
Ralph nodded dryly and this time walked on so resolutely that his
companion was obliged to hurry in order to keep alongside and to hear
the answer to his request.
All the reply he received was: "Thank you; it is kind of surprising to
meet a fellow who knows people who are willing to lose money."
But when at the edge of the ranch the two men finally separated, Ralph
Merrit went on alone to the nearest railroad station. It was several
miles away and few persons from the Rainbow Ranch ever attempted walking
so great a distance. But Ralph had not ordered a horse for one reason
because he did not wish to have a boy accompany him to bring the animal
home again and also because he preferred not having any one know just
where he was going. That there was discussion and ill feeling concerning
him among the men at work on the Rainbow Mine he understood, although
Ralph was not yet aware how unkind the criticism was, nor just what was
being said.
By midnight he had finally arrived at his destination, Laramie, the
largest city in Wyoming. He had then gone directly to a small,
out-of-the-way hotel. But after his arrival, instead of getting
immediately into bed as any tired, healthy fellow should, the young man
dropped into a chair before his open window, sitting there most of the
night. Now and then he dozed a few moments from sheer exhaustion, but
the greater part of the time he stared out into the lighted streets
below him, moody and restless and totally unlike the Ralph Merrit of
former days.
If one trait of character had previously distinguished Ralph from the
Ranch girls' other young men friends, it had been his practical common
sense. Unlike Frank Kent and Donald Harmon, Ralph Merrit was a self-made
boy, who had earned his own way through college and had afterwards
suffered many disappointments and disillusions on coming West to seek
his fortune. Upon taking charge of the Rainbow Mine and making the
success of it, which he certainly had, for a time Ralph felt happy and
satisfied. He was doing work which many an older man might have envied
him. Then why had he recently become so disheartened and dissatisfied?
It was true that the Rainbow Mine was not yielding so much gold as it
formerly had and that he was beginning to feel fearful that the veins
near the surface, which had held valuable ore, were now nearly worked
out. Yet Ralph did not even try to pretend to himself that his
nervousness and discontent were due to conditions at Rainbow Mine. No,
his anxiety and despondency were entirely personal.
For in the past six months Ralph had been overtaken by an ambition that
makes for more unhappiness and destroys the careers of more young men
than almost any other vice. He had developed an overpowering desire to
make a large fortune quickly, not by hard work or economy or any of the
ordinary, slow methods for gaining wealth, but by some single, brilliant
stroke of good luck that should make him a rich man at once.
Yet this represented such a curious change in Ralph Merrit's former
nature, in his good sense and sound judgment, that surely some outside
influence must have been at work to render him so unlike himself. What
that influence really was Ralph Merrit alone knew perfectly well.
Now it is idle to deny that while under most circumstances a refined
girl is an ennobling influence in a young fellow's life, now and then
there may be exceptions to this fact as to all others. At the very
beginning of their acquaintance Ralph Merrit had understood that he was
falling hopelessly in love with Jean Bruce. But in the two years of her
absence at school and in Europe he had fought the matter out with
himself and decided that he had mastered his impossible fancy. During
her short visits at the ranch they had remained especial friends as at
the start, but nothing more. Now, however, since Jean's return to live
at the Rainbow Lodge, Ralph had not only felt a return of his first
affection, but an emotion that was very much stronger and more serious.
And he felt this in spite of recognizing that Jean herself had greatly
changed. No longer was she the fascinating unspoiled girl of his early
acquaintance; she was a far more worldly-minded and ambitious Jean than
he could have imagined. She was also far prettier and more alluring from
her experiences and opportunities, and there was no doubt but that she
was constantly yearning for the companionship of distinguished people,
for more society, broader social opportunities of every kind. During
the past year at the ranch she had not been altogether contented. Their
former life now seemed too simple and uneventful to her, she no longer
had Jack's intense interest in outdoor amusements. Yet to Ruth's and her
cousin's suggestions that she make a visit in the east to her friends,
Margaret and Cecil Belknap, Jean would not listen. Of course she was
happy at home, and whatever her family might say to the contrary they
would be absurdly lonely without her. Moreover, did they believe that
she would miss Olive's home-coming? But any other influence that may
have been at work in the back of the girl's heart or mind she did not
mention. And assuredly Ralph Merrit did not dream that his presence on
the ranch could be in any possible sense an added influence.
For whatever Ralph's present weaknesses, he did not put the blame upon a
woman. Jean had given him no false encouragement, had shown him no
special favor. The fault was his, that moved by what he believed her
attitude toward wealth, he had used the wrong method for obtaining it.
He had not even given Jean the chance to say that his struggle was
unwise or unnecessary, since he had been paying her far less attention
recently.
At ten o'clock the next morning Ralph learned from his stock broker that
instead of being nearer the fortune he so much desired, he was several
thousand dollars farther away. And this loss represented almost the last
dollar he had in the world.
CHAPTER IV
OLIVE COMES HOME
SOON after dinner Ruth and Jim Colter and of course the small son had
retired to their rooms in Rainbow Lodge, leaving Jack, Jean and Frieda
to amuse themselves in the living room until bedtime. A week had passed
since their visit to their new house and tonight Frieda and Jack were
busily studying over their original plans and discussing various
alterations which they felt were absolutely necessary, while Jean,
without seeming to regard them, was playing idly upon the piano.
It was not cold, and one of the front windows was partly raised with the
blind drawn down; but a small fire was burning in the old fireplace,
since the Rainbow Lodge living room was never exactly the same
delightful abode without it.
Except for a few handsome, additional pieces of furniture and some odd
pictures and china which the girls had brought home from abroad, there
was no material change in the beloved room. For Ruth and the girls had
the good taste to know that its primitive character with its decorations
of bright Indian rugs and simple furnishings was far more suitable and
beautiful than any alteration their money could bring. So the newer and
more splendid furnishings which they had purchased in New York and in
Europe had been safely stored away for the finishing of their new house.
And this evening in their former familiar surroundings Jack, Jean and
Frieda looked not unlike they had on that first evening years ago when
Jack had returned from her original meeting with Frank Kent and before
either Ruth or Olive had ever been seen at the Rainbow Lodge.
"But, Frieda dear, it will be far too expensive to make such a change as
you suggest," Jack protested. "You know that we agreed to have the four
big bedrooms and two baths on one side of the house and just one
upstairs sitting room. Now if we try to arrange a private sitting room
off from your room, it will either make your bedroom too small or else
rob the rest of us. And another big bay window would cost hundreds of
dollars more."
"Well, why not?" Frieda returned petulantly. "Here we have all been
living quietly at the ranch for nearly a year and spending no outside
money except on the house. It is only because you are suddenly growing
stingy, Jack. I heard you tell Ruth that we had better not order as many
new oriental rugs as we planned to have. Mr. Parker says that he can add
the extra space to my apartment without spoiling the effect of the house
in the least. Do let me have him do it, Jack darling, please? You know
you and Jean and Olive will often be talking about things in our big
sitting room that you won't wish me to hear and I do want a tiny den all
to myself."
Because Jack did not agree at once to her sister's pleading the girl at
the piano ceased playing for an instant to glance at her cousin, and,
surprised by her expression, did not look immediately away.
Jack was frowning and was a little pale. But she had been out all day
riding over the ranch and talking to the men at the mine, and naturally
might be expected to be tired. She had gone to her own room and
undressed almost immediately after dinner, and as there was no
possibility of any visitors arriving unexpectedly at the ranch, she was
now wearing a lovely old Chinese blue silk kimono and had her gold brown
hair in a loose knot on top of her head. Leaning over she suddenly
kissed Frieda, who sat on the other side of their small table puzzling
over the drawings for their new place.
"It isn't fair to say that I am stingy, baby," Jack declared, "when you
know that our house is costing thousands of dollars more than we first
expected. People say that is just what all houses do, yet just the same
we have to set a limit somewhere. And of course I don't want you or Jean
to worry, but there is a possibility that we may not get as much money
out of Rainbow Mine in the future as we have for the past few years. And
you know we have not a large fortune stowed away in bank. Besides, we
have gotten into the habit of living pretty expensively and spending an
awful lot of money thinking that our mine would hold out forever. Today
Jim told me that frequently there were gold mines that ceased to yield
almost altogether when certain veins had been worked out. I don't think
he meant that this was going to happen to ours--only that our income
might be cut down."
As Jack finished speaking Jean Bruce got up from her piano stool and
came across the room to face her cousin.
"It's funny, Jack, that you let Jim give you all this information about
affairs at the mine, instead of Ralph Merrit. It seems to me that Ralph
must know more than Jim. And as he is head engineer you know you ought
to get your information from him," she protested.
Rather wearily Jack leaned back in her chair; yet she answered without
any show of temper. "I thought you knew, Jean, that Ralph has not yet
come back to the ranch. Five or six days ago he wrote Jim not to expect
him for some little time as he had important business to look after. So
you see I could not very well discuss business with him while he is
away."
With a little shrug Jean turned to stare into the fire.
"Yes, but you could have waited until Ralph's return and then have had
the conversation with him. Besides, it isn't only Jim who has been
telling you that the gold in our mine will give out unless some new
method for mining it is employed. No, it is the other miners who have
been grumbling to both of you. I wonder if they can be dissatisfied with
Ralph's management? But, Frieda, for goodness sake don't be a baby and
don't worry Jack about spending more money on our new house than we can
afford. Dear me, I wonder how we shall behave if suddenly we should
become poor as church mice again. It would be my duty then, I suppose,
Jack, to let you get rid of supporting such an expensive cousin by some
means or other."
Already won over by her sister's argument, since Jack's judgment was
almost always hers in the end, Frieda had left her chair and was sitting
on the arm of her sister's, pulling softly at the loose coils of her
hair and trying to rearrange them.
She and Jack both stared at Jean in surprise and consternation. What was
the matter with her? Why should she talk in this absurd fashion? Had
they ever felt or shown any difference between her and themselves in the
right to everything they possessed? Something was making Jean unlike
herself tonight.
Seeing the hurt and surprise in the other two faces Jean at once changed
the subject.
"Jack, have you heard anything more about when Miss Winthrop and Olive
are planning to come for their visit to us?" she demanded. "Just think,
we have not seen Olive since our return from England! Won't it be
splendid for you to have her with you again, Jack dear? Frieda and I are
so dreadfully spoiled and lazy, we never do anything to help you about
the ranch and only complain if things go wrong and we haven't more money
to spend. I do wish somebody would show me how to be useful. I haven't
even the beds to make now we have another girl to help Aunt Ellen."
Jack shook her head. "I am sorry you are bored. I wish I could think of
something to interest you. You seemed to like the ranch when we first
came back and the work at the mine. The only word I have heard from
Olive since her other letter was a short note in answer to my telegram
that begged her to come at once. She said that she and Miss Winthrop had
a lot of business matters to look after, but meant to run away as soon
as possible. What in the world was that?" And Jack, who seemed unusually
tired and nervous tonight, startled the other two girls by jumping up
unexpectedly.
Jean had also heard the noise and turned in the direction from which it
came.
"It is only that tiresome boy, Carlos," she explained. "I mean to tell
Jim that I don't like his sneaking up here and peering into our window
in that spooky fashion. Carlos can move more like a spirit than a human
being anyway! But what has become of him recently, for now I think of it
I have not seen him before for several days?"
"He has been away from the ranch most of the time," Frieda answered
sleepily, "for I wanted him to do an errand for me the other day and
could not find him. But Aunt Ellen says he has come to her for food
several times and then has gone off with as much as she would give him.
Somehow I'm fond of Carlos--he was such a queer, handsome little boy
when he first came to us. I hope Olive will understand him better than
the rest of us do. But dear me, what does he mean by coming in at the
front door without knocking?" And Frieda also jumped up hurriedly. "I
hope he is not bringing us bad news!"
Not only had the front door opened, which had not yet been locked for
the night, but the door of the living room was mysteriously unclosing
just half an inch at a time.
The three girls were seriously annoyed and Jack spoke sharply:
"Carlos, what do you mean by entering our room without asking
permission? Unless you have something important to say I should prefer
your waiting to speak to us until tomorrow."
A soft voice, which was not that of the Indian boy, replied: "But I
can't wait till morning or not another moment, Jack dearest, when I have
traveled across a whole continent to see you. And please forgive Carlos
for my sake, because he and I have been planning this surprise together
ever since I left Primrose Hall."
Afterwards Olive Van Mater could only get a few steps further inside the
old Lodge living room, because Frieda, Jean and Jack at once flung
themselves upon her. And the tears were gathering fast in the girl's big
star-like black eyes as she tried her best to explain the mystery of her
arrival and to embrace her three friends at the same instant.
"You see, Miss Winthrop found that she could not leave home for some
time yet and I was so tired and so nearly dead to see you that she would
not let me wait until she could come. So I thought that I would rather
surprise you than anything else I could imagine. I wrote Carlos when to
expect me and to have a horse and carriage at the train. But the poor
lad has been at the station apparently for several days, fearing he
might make some mistake and that I should arrive without his knowing.
But you brought me home safely after all, didn't you, Carlos?" And Olive
disengaged her hand for a moment from the girls' hold to extend it to
the Indian boy.
"Goodness, how you have grown, I haven't had a good look at you until
this moment," she ended admiringly.
And surely Carlos made a handsome picture. In honor of Olive's
home-coming he wore a soft shirt of some yellow material and a pair of
clean khaki trousers with a bright sash knotted about his waist and a
crimson tie at his throat. All the surliness had disappeared from his
expression, his skin was like polished bronze and his eyes like shining
coals, as he took his old friend's hand and for a moment pressed it
reverently to his lips.
Then Jack removed Olive's traveling hat and long broadcloth coat, with
every movement of her hands a caress.
"But please, Carlos and Olive," she demanded, "I don't pretend to be
able to hear outdoor sounds as you can; yet I have fairly well trained
ears of my own. Would you mind telling me how you managed to drive a
rickety old hired carriage up to the very door of Rainbow Lodge with us
in the living room and yet never a sound heard we?"
Olive laughed. "That is our secret, but if you must know, we did no such
thing. Half a mile away I sent the driver back to the station and Carlos
and I ran on tiptoes under the stars all the way home." The girl ended
her sentence with a slight catch in her breath. "Then please to remember
that we are both Indians, or at least I am almost one. And now won't
somebody go and find Ruth and Jim, for I just must see the baby this
minute even if he cries his eyes out the rest of the night."
CHAPTER V
THEIR RIDE TOGETHER
OLIVE and Jack had scarcely been alone for more than a half hour at a
time since Olive's arrival almost a week before. But before ten o'clock
this morning they had both started off on horseback with their lunch
boxes packed, leaving word at home that they were not to be expected
back until sundown.
First of all they yearned for a long, uninterrupted gallop together over
the sweet-smelling, wild, rose-strewn prairies. For not since the very
first year of Olive's life at Rainbow Ranch had they enjoyed this
formerly well-loved entertainment. Soon after then had come Jack's
accident, and until this year she had not been in entirely good health
during any of their days at the ranch.
And the beauty of this special windswept, sunlit day was nature's gift
to the two friends' reunion.
Jack rode a little ahead on her own horse, Romeo, which she had bought
immediately after their return from abroad and christened "Romeo" in a
kind of joking recollection of their visit in Rome. Of course, he was
the fastest riding horse on Rainbow Ranch, but not a beautiful animal,
since he had been chosen for speed and endurance rather than appearance.
And in truth he was only a rough Western pony with sagacity and
knowledge of the country, dignified by the name of horse simply because
of his slightly greater size and length of limb.
Following close behind, her pretty nose almost able to touch the other
animal's rough coat, came Olive's smaller mare, which Jean had named
"Juliet" by reason of following Jack's horse about whenever they were
permitted to graze in the open fields.
Juliet had been no one's special property, since she had been born on
the place and no one had chosen her for personal use. So shortly after
Olive's return the other three girls had escorted her to the stables and
there solemnly presented her with "Juliet," avowing that no one else
should have the privilege of using the mare except with Olive's consent.
The two friends rode for more than an hour after leaving the
neighborhood of the Lodge without speaking, except now and then to call
attention to some particularly beautiful effect in the landscape. First
they galloped to the farthest outskirts of the great thousand-acre
ranch, which was still as carefully and scientifically managed as during
the time when the Rainbow Mine was an undiscovered quantity and when the
girls and Jim's living depended entirely upon its success. There were
groups of cattle scattered here and there wherever the alfalfa grass was
ripe for eating, and mares with young colts were allowed free pasture.
But by and by when a far-off rim of hills could be seen, with their
summits glistening with caps of snow and the sky above them so scattered
with fleece-like clouds that snow and cloud seemed to touch and melt
into each other, Jack slowed down for a moment, waiting for her friend
to come up alongside her.
"Is it because I am a Western girl and all this means childhood and home
to me that the country seems more beautiful and inspiring than anything
we saw in Europe, Olive dear?" Jack asked.
And Olive looked into the other girl's face searchingly for an instant
before replying. She had been wondering for a good many months why
Frank Kent had never come to America to see Jack when on leaving England
she had believed that he and Jacqueline were almost on the point of
being engaged. Several times recently she had actually written and asked
Jack why on earth Frank had not made his promised visit to Rainbow
Lodge. Without really answering, Jack had always arranged to evade her
questioning. "Frank was too busy, he was thinking of running for
Parliament, he preferred waiting until Olive was also able to be at
home, so that they might be there together once again." None of these
replies had made a very profound impression upon the questioner. So
today Olive had planned in her own mind to get at the real truth. Jack
would not dare to refuse to answer her direct inquiry if once she had
the courage to demand it of her. Positively she must know whether
Frank's apparent indifference was due to a change in his own feeling or
to an unreasonable request on Jack's part for postponing her decision.
Now at Jack's question, studying her friend's face, Olive feared that
this last idea must be the true one. Love of her old home, the grip
which the western country and atmosphere always had on the girl's
character and affections--these must have been waging a winning battle
against her former affection for Frank Kent.
Must she ask Jack if this were true? No, Olive decided that she had best
refrain until later in the day. For Jack was not at the present moment
in the mood for confidences. She was just gloriously alive and filled
with the physical beauty and splendor of the morning. Later on, when
there had been opportunity for more conversation, Olive would make her
query. For there were dozens of intimate personal things which she and
her best beloved friend must get at the heart of before this ride of
theirs together was over. So now Olive only laughed, and leaning over
lightly stroked the neck of the other horse.
"It is only because you are such a pagan, Jack, that Europe seems too
crowded for you," she answered. "Besides you know how dearly you finally
learned to love the English country, although it was the direct opposite
of all this! Doesn't its wonderful greenness, the splendid old trees and
the flowers and cultivated beauty of the fields make up to you for the
great wide spaces and the colors in your prairies?"
Slowly Jack shook her head, in reply, at the same instant taking off her
soft brown felt hat and hanging it on the pommel of her saddle. "I don't
know," she answered, drawing in a deep, quiet breath.
The past year of outdoor work and amusement on the ranch had brought
back to Jacqueline Ralston the glow and brilliant, healthy color of her
childhood. Her complexion was several shades darker than it had been the
summer before, her cheeks more vividly rose and her hair lighter from
exposure to the sun. Then Jack had again grown dreadfully indifferent to
clothes since their return home, much to Jean's and Frieda's disgust and
to Jim Colter's secret amusement. For quite forgetting their fortune and
the fact that she was now almost ready to cast her first vote in
Wyoming, Jack had returned to wearing the old brown corduroys or faded
khakis of her youth, together with almost any soft hat which she
happened to find convenient for her outdoor jaunts. And only when the
other girls insisted, or Ruth pleaded, or guests were expected to dinner
at the Lodge, would Jack return to wearing the pretty toilets which she
had brought home from Europe. For not one single dress had she given
time or thought to purchasing since then, although Jean and Frieda
frequently amused themselves by sending east for hats and gowns.
So today, although Jack was actually the older and in times past had
looked it, Olive would have been considered her senior. For one reason
she was still weary from the shock and strain of her grandmother's death
and from the business difficulties resulting from her strange will. Then
there was a last and final interview with Donald Harmon which even yet
the girl did not like to recall. She was sorry not to be able to return
his affection. Moreover, Olive's new riding-habit was of black cloth,
which Miss Winthrop had ordered from a well-known New York tailor,
adding to her appearance of age and dignity. Yet in spite of the
elegance and decorum of her own riding attire, Olive did not feel the
objection to her friend's as Jean and Frieda undoubtedly would have. For
Jack's costume was eminently characteristic. Moreover, the old corduroy
skirt and leather leggings and slouch hat were not unbecoming now that
her coat was open showing the curve of her strong white throat.
It was equally characteristic of Jack when they finally reached the
clump of trees where they were to have luncheon to jump first from her
horse and then lift Olive as carefully down as though she had been her
masculine escort. Afterwards it was she who led the horses to water, fed
them and then tied them.
Coming back, she flung herself down on the ground by her friend and
taking one of the girl's hands in hers kissed it, saying carelessly:
"Olive, child, did you hear any one or anything while I was away? I
thought we were going to have a perfectly peaceful and uninterrupted
day, but I have an idea that while I was looking after the horses I
heard some one stirring about not so very far off. Still I may have been
mistaken or it may have been a deer or a wildcat. This woods gets so
much denser as one goes further into it. This is near the same place
where I managed to break my poor little pony's legs several years ago.
It was when we were making that horrid visit at the Norton's before it
was finally decided that you were to come and live with us. I never have
been able to think of having to shoot 'Hotspur' without its giving me
the shivers." And Jack now took a small pistol out of a leather holster
fastened about her waist. "I never go on a long ride with either of the
girls without carrying this," she remarked carelessly, "but I don't
believe I am ever going to like hunting again as I did when I was
younger. That was one of the lessons I learned when I was ill so long--a
greater respect for life, anybody's or anything's." Then the girl's
voice grew suddenly hushed.
"Didn't you hear a slight noise then?" she whispered.
After a moment of enforced silence Olive shook her head. "No, or at
least nothing of importance," she replied. "Of course these woods must
have wild game in them, since it is the only place with running water
nearer than Rainbow Creek. But it is odd your having this impression
now. Several times I meant to tell you and forgot--that while we were
riding I kept having the idea that some one was following after us. Half
a dozen times I looked around thinking that it might possibly be either
Jean or Frieda. But I saw no one, so of course it must have been only a
fancy."
"Well it certainly was neither Jean nor Frieda," Jack replied
laughingly. "They have both grown too lazy for such a journey as we are
taking. But come along, because if we are ever to get to your old Indian
village and back again this afternoon, we must hurry."
For this had been the supposed object of Jack's and Olive's free day
together. Soon after her arrival at the Lodge Olive had suggested that
she would very much like to go back to the little Indian village where
she had lived as a child with old Laska, and see if the woman and her
son were yet alive. She desired also to pay a visit to her former
teacher and first friend, who was still at work among the Indian
children at the little Indian reservation school.
Before the two girls had finally arrived at their destination, it was
Olive who discovered the ghost stealthily pursuing them. And it was he
whom Jack must have heard in the woods.
Olive at once turned apologetically to her friend. "Don't be cross,
Jack, and don't scold if I tell you something," she began unexpectedly.
"But just now I saw at some distance behind us a brown shadow on a brown
horse. So I'm afraid it is Carlos who has been trailing after us. But
really it is my fault for having told him where we intended going.
Probably he won't trouble us if we don't wish to notice him."
Frowning, Jacqueline returned: "I'm sorry to confess it to you, Olive
dear, but really, Carlos is getting to be rather a nuisance to Jim and
me. I do hope you may be able to influence him to settle down to some
kind of work or study--to anything he likes. Neither Jim nor I care so
much what except that his idleness is a bad influence among the men on
the place. There is no use in my trying to do anything with him, for he
has taken such a violent dislike to me. Frieda says that I am too much
of a boss and it has offended the boy's dignity. But I shan't scold
today since Carlos is only following us because he does not entirely
trust me to look after you and adores you so that he does not wish you
out of his sight."
Just as though four or five years had not passed with its crowded and
ever changing experiences, walking up to old Indian Laska's dirty hut
alone Olive Van Mater found the Indian woman still sitting in her same
open doorway, smoking the apparently identical pipe and clothed in the
same old nondescript rags of former days with a brilliant Indian
blanket across her shoulders. But at the sight of her beautifully
dressed visitor the Indian woman showed not the slightest sign of
recognition. Nor did she do anything further than nod and grunt several
times in succession when Olive assured her that she had once been the
girl "Olilie," who had lived with her from the time she was a baby.
Possibly Laska could neither understand nor believe what this charming
American girl was trying to explain to her, but certain it was that she
never once invited Olive inside her former home, nor showed the
slightest interest in her, except to smile at the handful of small
change that was bestowed upon her in parting. For of course Olive had
long since ceased to feel any bitterness against the old woman, whose
ignorance and greed had not been nearly so responsible for her past
unhappiness as her own grandmother's careless neglect of her.
Olive's interview with her first teacher was such a great pleasure and
satisfaction to them both, that except for Jack's insistence that it was
already past time to go back to the ranch and that Olive and her old
friend could now meet each other frequently, the two girls would never
have started for home until nearly sundown. And as it was they were an
hour later than they should have been in leaving.
They were not able to ride as rapidly as in the morning because neither
of the horses was so fresh. So that by and by, just as both girls had
wished, they fell into the first long, confidential talk they had
enjoyed in nearly a year.
And there was so much to say! Olive had to repeat the strange terms of
her grandmother's will and her own positive intention not to marry
Donald Harmon, no matter what the second will might insist upon--even if
it left her penniless.
Then Jack confided the present trouble at the Rainbow Mine. For during
Ralph's continued and unexplained absence the miners had grown uglier,
threatening that unless a new engineer was secured at once they would go
upon a strike. Moreover, they would see that no other men be allowed to
take their places. Already they insisted that there was not enough gold
in the former veins to make Rainbow Mine worth working. A new manager
and new machinery must be procured at once.
Just how to quell the disturbance and set things right neither Jim
Colter nor Jacqueline could decide at present. Of course they were
awaiting with impatience Ralph Merrit's return in order to have a talk
with him. But afterwards what should they do? Would Ralph be forced by
the miners into advising them to buy more machinery before he knew just
what should be done? This might sink all their capital and make them
poor again.
"Really it is Jean and Frieda about whom I am worrying the most if we do
lose our money," Jack frankly acknowledged. "For Ruth and Jim and I can
be happy living as we used to do. But then of course the building of our
new house must be completed, since the contract is already given for
finishing it."
So the two friends talked on, and it was small wonder that the sun was
sinking as, followed by the ever watchful Carlos, they finally rode up
to the Lodge. But Olive had not yet satisfied herself in regard to the
state of affairs now existing between Jack and Frank Kent.
In answer to a point-blank question Jack had simply replied that she and
Frank had not been engaged to be married. Also that she had too much
upon her mind at present to ask him to make them a visit. However, now
that Olive had arrived, perhaps Frank would wish to come in a short
time.
CHAPTER VI
THAT SAME AFTERNOON
SINCE a short time after lunch Jean Bruce had been alone at the Rainbow
Lodge, except for the presence of Aunt Ellen and the housemaid. For at
about two o'clock Jim and Ruth, Frieda and the baby had driven off to
pay a long visit to some old-time friends. For Ruth had not entirely
recovered her strength since the baby's birth and therefore Jim was
unwilling to have her far away from him.
But Jean was not lonely, or at least not for the first few hours. She
had letters to write--one to her New York friend, Margaret Belknap, and
another to her adored Princess, who had never wavered in her interest
and affection for the American girl since Jean's visit to her in Rome.
Then, at about four o'clock, Jean strolled over to look at their new
house, which seemed to have been making tremendous strides in the last
few days, now that the outside had been entirely completed. She had one
or two suggestions that she wished to make to the architect about her
own room and this was the best hour for having a talk with him, as she
happened to know that he had been spending most of the day with his men.
The architect did not superintend their house building more than two or
three times a week. Determined to have their new home as beautiful and
as harmonious as possible, the girls, Jim and Ruth had decided upon
employing the most distinguished architect in that part of the country.
Theodore Parker was a Wyoming man with his central office in Laramie,
and yet his work on public buildings and his creation of certain types
of houses for western millionaires had given him a reputation throughout
the country. So it was scarcely possible to expect him to devote a large
portion of his valuable time even to the construction of "Rainbow
Castle." For Jean's laughing title for their new home had somehow clung
to it.
The place would probably be almost, if not quite, as beautiful as many a
palace, Jean thought, as she slowly approached the front entrance. This
was to have a flight of broad, low stone steps leading up to it, while
the base of the house would be banked with low, close-growing evergreen
shrubs.
For the outdoor work on their estate the girls had not consulted a
landscape gardener, but they had studied many books and pictures of
beautiful gardens and had then developed certain ideas of their own. In
order to keep the view of the rolling prairies to the distant line of
hills several miles beyond, the slope before the house was to be left
unchanged. Here and there were flower beds in the carefully planted and
tended blue grass lawn, which with constant watering and top soil might
be persuaded to grow. But on either side and toward the back of the
modified colonial mansion were to be the real gardens. Although the
flowers had not yet been planted, bushes had been set out that were
later to form green and blossoming aisles. In the preceding autumn a
dozen or more large evergreen trees had been transplanted from the
nearby forests, and zealously tended all through the winter, so that
already they showed signs of growth.
Jean's interview with Mr. Parker was entirely satisfactory and the girl
would have liked to linger and talk at greater length with the big,
purposeful man, who seemed to bring to one of the noblest of all the
professions the spirit of the artist, and the executive ability of the
business man. But Mr. Parker was plainly too busy to give her more than
a few minutes of his attention, although in their conversation they did
wander from her errand far enough to permit their discussing a few of
their impressions of Europe. And, oddly enough, the architect who had
studied in Paris and traveled a great deal, had never been to Italy, the
mother of much that is most beautiful in modern architecture.
A man of about thirty-five or six, Jean imagined he must be as she
returned to the Lodge, and assuredly extremely good-looking, with his
iron-gray hair, dark eyes and smooth face. One could hardly help
wondering why he had never married.
At home once more, Jean suddenly had a sensation of feeling deserted and
forlorn. What could she do to amuse herself? Although she insisted upon
denying it to her family, certainly there were occasions lately when
their former life did seem dull and uninteresting to her. Yet perhaps
Jack was right in thinking that this was due to her paying no special
regard to the things that were happening on the ranch itself. Should
she take a walk now, or go down to Rainbow Mine to see if anything was
going on? Ralph Merrit was still away, certainly for an unaccountably
great length of time! And undoubtedly there was some kind of trouble
brewing among the workers in the mine, though what it was Jean had not
the remotest idea. Yet Jack and Jim had been plainly annoyed and
concerned over some disturbance, otherwise so many consultations between
them and their workmen would have been unnecessary.
But at the present moment Jean did not find the subject of the mine of
sufficient interest to persuade her to walk down to it in an effort to
make her own investigations. Things would clear up soon enough without
her troubling. For there had to be friction every once and a while where
so many people were employed.
Yawning several times, Jean finally dropped into a hammock that had been
swung for Ruth on the porch at Rainbow Lodge. She was holding a magazine
in her hand and reading it fitfully.
Probably Jean would have assured you that she was wearing the oldest and
simplest dress in her entire wardrobe and that she really had not made
any kind of toilet for the afternoon. Yet with Jean Bruce pretty
clothes and a graceful and pleasing fashion of wearing them were second
nature. It is true her pale pink cashmere frock was not new and was made
in a straight piece with no trimming save a round lace collar and a
girdle of broad pink silk ribbon. Yet Jean had wound a ribbon of the
same color about her dark brown hair, until her usual pallor seemed to
be warmed by its glow.
For a half moment she must have fallen asleep, for she was awakened by
thinking she heard some one coming toward the Lodge. The next moment
Ralph Merrit stood beside her.
He looked entirely unlike himself; his clothes were untidy; he seemed
not to have slept for a number of nights; his face was worn and drawn.
Jean was startled into sudden pity and interest. For Ralph had always
seemed so capable and so efficient and if things worried him, he had
always kept them to himself.
Now as Jean struggled to her feet he only said: "How do you do, Jean.
Will you tell me, please, whether Mr. Colter is at home or whether I may
be apt to find him anywhere about the ranch?"
But Jean's eyes questioned, although her lips as yet said nothing, and
the young man flushed.
"I must beg your pardon for my appearance," he began awkwardly, "but I
have been doing some rather hard traveling and I have not yet been to my
own quarters to fix up. I had no idea of running across you." Ralph
stared hard for a moment at the dainty girl slowly rising out of the
hammock and then at himself. She was like the inside of a sea shell in
her pink costume with her white skin and the pretty detached air she so
often wore.
Ralph laughed uncomfortably and not very mirthfully.
"Won't you wait a minute, please?" Jean asked quietly. "Jim is not here
and won't be for some little time perhaps. But I have an idea that you
are hungry as well as tired and I have been longing for some one to
drink afternoon tea with me." And before her companion could reply the
girl disappeared.
Ralph Merrit fingered his hat uncertainly. He did not wish to remain and
yet it would seem singularly ungracious to have Jean return and find him
vanished. And since he had a confession to make, why not begin with her
to whom it would be hardest to say it?
Ralph dropped into a chair on one side of a small rustic table and Jean
and the tea party had both arrived before he lifted his eyes again.
Under the influence of the tea, strawberries and cream and Aunt Ellen's
hot scones, with Jean making herself as charming as she knew how to be,
Ralph could not help forgetting for a few moments the things that were
weighing upon him, while he enjoyed the gifts that the fates provided.
And Jean was truly kind, for she was shocked as well as a little bit
frightened by Ralph's appearance. Naturally she was not unaware that he
had once cared for her, even though he had not recently revealed it in
any open fashion. And of course Jean felt that she had always regarded
Ralph with the sincerest friendship.
She was hoping now that he would tell her what was worrying him as a
sign that their old friendship was yet alive, when Ralph spoke.
"Jean, I might as well tell you now as a little later," he began, "it
can't be delayed for any length of time at best. I am going to have to
say good-bye to you all pretty soon."
Jean's hand shook a little, so that she first set down her teacup.
"You mean that you are having to go home for a visit. I hope nothing has
happened to your mother or sister; I was afraid you were feeling
troubled," the girl answered.
With the old decision that she remembered the young man shook his head.
"No, it is not that," he returned, "but simply that I am going to resign
my position as engineer of Rainbow Mine. Fact of the matter is, I am not
making good. The men don't like me, don't want to work under me, and
things are in a muddle anyhow. My staying on would only embarrass Jim
and Miss Ralston." (Ralph only called Jack by her grown-up title when he
was considering her as his employer.)
"So you are going to quit just because things at the mine are no longer
plain sailing. Is it because you have had a better position offered you?
Then of course I am sure, even though it makes everything much harder
for them, Jack and Jim would neither of them wish to stand in your way,"
Jean answered with intentional cruelty.
And the young man understood her. "That is not fair, Jean; you know
those are not my reasons," he declared. "I am leaving to _save_ Jim and
Jack the trouble, not to make things more difficult. If I clear out the
men will quiet down and perhaps they will get hold of some other
engineer who will understand the present situation better. The truth is
our old gold supply is giving out and we have got to find a different
method of getting at the gold deeper down. I have been away studying how
this might be done for the past ten days, but I have not yet made up my
mind."
"Then stay on until you can decide, Ralph," Jean replied quietly, "or at
least until you are certain that you don't know what to do. Surely you
must know the situation at the Rainbow Mine better than any one else. I
have been guessing that both Jim and Jack were worried, but you know
they won't go back on you until the very last minute and not then unless
you say the word. So I don't think I would let the other miners frighten
me away. It seems to me that a man will never be able to manage other
men if he turns and runs at the first approach of a storm. I should
never have believed this of you, Ralph, of all people!"
With a little, quickly suppressed sound that was almost a groan Ralph
suddenly dropped his head. "But a man isn't fit to govern other men if
he can't govern himself, Jean," he answered.
Even the color of her pink gown did not now hide the pallor of the
girl's cheeks.
"What are you talking about, Ralph Merrit?" she demanded a little
unsteadily. "You behave as though you had robbed a bank or taken more
than your share of gold out of the mine. I wish you would not be so
absurd--I do hate uncomfortable people."
The man got up. "I am sorry, Jean, and I did not mean to trouble you
with my personal confession," he went on, "though I thought it only fair
that I should tell Jim Colter. No, I have not been robbing anyone except
myself and my own family, though the men may be saying even that of me
soon," he added bitterly. "But the truth is that I have been speculating
until I have lost every red cent that I have earned and I don't think a
man who has been as big a fool as I have has the right to try and hold
down a job the size of mine."
"You have been speculating!" The girl repeated the words almost
foolishly, as though not understanding at first what they meant. Then
she flushed angrily. "Ralph, what a perfect goose you have been! For
goodness sake tell me what ever induced a sensible, level-headed fellow
like we all believed you were to do such a stupid thing?" Jean demanded.
But this was the one question which of all the questions in the world
Ralph Merrit could never answer Jean truthfully.
"Hush, never mind!" Jean interrupted hurriedly, for she could see what
her companion had evidently not yet observed and that was that another
man was at this moment approaching the house. His face had looked ugly
and forbidding, but at the sight of Jean he raised his hat.
The girl recognized him as John Raines, a man of about fifty years of
age and a kind of leader and spokesman among the other miners.
"Beg your pardon, Miss," he began stiffly, "but having just heard that
Mr. Merrit has returned to the ranch, I want to ask him if he will come
and have a little talk with some of us men. We've been waiting for this
talk for a considerable time."
Ralph stepped down from the porch at once. "Certainly, I will come
along with you now," he answered quietly. And then turning to Jean and
with a gesture asking that she excuse him, the young man followed the
older one. And Jean could not but notice how slender and boyish and,
yes, how spent he looked as he walked behind the big, heavy miner, with
arms and chest so powerful that he seemed able actually to have crushed
the slighter man like a great bear, had he so desired.
What could the miners be wishing with Ralph that they must see him at
once, now when they knew that Jim Colter was not on the ranch?
Without trying to answer the question herself and only lingering long
enough to fasten a dark coat over her light frock Jean hurried after the
two figures, taking care, however, that neither of them became conscious
of her presence.
CHAPTER VI
"COURAGE MAKES THE MAN"
THERE were as many as twenty men waiting to talk to Ralph Merrit within
the vicinity of the Rainbow Mine. And they chanced to be standing close
together near one of the big rocks that rose like a miniature fortress
beside Rainbow Creek. After Ralph had entered the group, Jean managed
without being observed to slip behind this rock where she was in safe
hiding.
But just why she had followed the two men and what her motive was for
concealing herself she did not try to explain to herself. Simply she had
yielded to an impulse of fear, of curiosity and perhaps to some other
instinct that was partly protective. One young fellow among so many
older, rougher and more lawless characters! What might not happen to
him?
And yet Jean Bruce had not her cousin Jacqueline's physical bravery nor
determination of purpose, and moreover she had an openly expressed
dislike of mixing herself up in the things which she did not consider
essentially feminine. However, she had no idea now of letting anyone
guess her nearness, not even Ralph Merrit himself.
Sitting down on the ground in a kind of scooped-out cave in a rock she
could occasionally manage to get a glimpse of the miners, although at
present while they were talking quietly she could only rarely catch a
word or so of what they were saying, and not a sound from Ralph, who
seemed the calmest and most self-controlled of them all. After a while
she realized that John Raines, the man who had been sent to summon her
companion, must now have been chosen as spokesman for the lot and was
evidently making his voice sufficiently loud for them all to hear
distinctly. And this of course included the unknown listener.
"See here, Mr. Merrit," John Raines began quietly, "us men have been
talking things over among ourselves for some time past and we have done
come to the pretty positive conclusion that we don't like the way you're
running things at Rainbow Mine. And we thought it might be fairer to
you, all told, just to mention this little fact and to let you quit
without any kind of rumpus or trouble for nobody."
Jean could not see Ralph Merrit's face or even his figure, he was so
closely surrounded, but because he too was speaking so that his entire
audience might hear, Jean understood every word.
"What's the trouble with me, Raines, as a boss?" he asked with such
self-control and apparent lack of anger that Jean was both amazed and
pleased.
Then there was a kind of low muttering among the other men and finally
their spokesman went on:
"I guess you know most of our complaints pretty well by this time--we've
been tellin' 'em to you long enough and hard enough. If this is a
profit-sharing business, as you and Jim Colter and Miss Ralston said it
was goin' to be, then you ain't gettin' gold enough out of the Rainbow
Mine to suit us."
"But we are getting all we can, aren't we? You men aren't loafing with
the work?" Ralph interrupted.
John Raines scowled. "That's senseless talk! You know what the trouble
is; we have already gotten out most all the gold there is near the
surface of the earth around here. Now what we have got to do to make it
pay big again is to get more machinery and try different ways of
working. And we want a boss to tell Miss Ralston and Jim Colter to get
busy buying the new machinery and then to show us how to run it. We are
not going to waste any more time around here on a few dollars pay a
day."
From her hiding place Jean did her best to hear Ralph. Here of course
was the time and place for him to make the same confession to the miners
that he had recently made to her. For he did intend to do just what the
men had demanded of him, resign his work and give way for a better man.
Nevertheless, he evidently intended delaying a bit longer before making
the confession.
"But I have explained to you men before this why I have not done what
you ask," he went on, still in a reasonable tone of voice. "I told you
that I did not feel certain that it was the _best_ thing to do. We are
by no means sure that there is enough gold below the present mine to
make it worth while to go deeper. You men know what a lot of money the
machinery for certain kinds of gold digging takes. It would probably eat
up pretty much all the capital that the owners of the Rainbow Mine
have. And I don't want to tell them to buy this machinery until I am a
lot surer that the gold is down there waiting to be hauled out."
John Raines glanced about at the faces surrounding him. It was easy
enough to take his tone from their expressions.
"Then there is no use wasting any more of our time and yours in talk,
Merrit," the older man announced in a rougher manner than he had before
employed. "Your sentiments was pretty well known to us before you
spouted them forth. And that's just the point! You don't know what ought
to be done about things and we do. And we want a man to boss us that
knows same as we. Now, young man, you just get out pleasant and the
quicker the better."
All over her body, to the very tips of her ears, Jean felt herself
tingling with sudden, overpowering anger. Why had Ralph Merrit not said
what he intended saying before now? To resign at this moment in the face
of this other man's insolence, which represented the same feeling in his
companions, was to behave like a small boy at school who had been stood
up in a corner and soundly thrashed by his schoolmaster and then made
to apologize for his pains. Jean felt that she would never care to look
Ralph in the face again. But he was speaking now for the third time.
[Illustration: "SHE HAD HEARD THAT MASTERFUL TONE BEFORE"]
"Have Miss Ralston and Mr. Colter told you that they wanted me to quit?"
he inquired. "It seems like they would have mentioned the matter to me
first. I have usually taken my orders from them and not from the men
_under_ me."
There was quite a different ring in Ralph Merrit's voice during this
speech that made the girl behind the rock unexpectedly put up her cold
hands to cool her hot cheeks. She had heard that masterful tone before,
but not in some time.
"No, they ain't said nothing yet," Raines admitted. "But it don't
matter; you got to quit just the same. You can't run a gold mine by
yourself with all your 'book larnin,' and it's either you or us that
gets out."
"Then it'll be you," Ralph replied in such a matter-of-fact and
undisturbed fashion that Jean could hardly believe she had heard him
aright, or else she must have been dreaming less than an hour before.
"Look here, fellows, don't be fools," Ralph went on, still showing no
loss of temper. "The hour Mr. Colter and Miss Ralston tell me they want
me to give up my job at the Rainbow Mine, that hour I go. And the minute
I am really convinced that another man is able to do my work better than
I can, that man gets my position, if I can persuade the Rainbow Mine
owners to try him. But I've got to study things out here a little
longer, I've got to make some new experiments and maybe kind of feel my
way slowly toward deciding what had best be done. I have been away for
the past ten days studying conditions at other mines and trying to find
out some of the latest ideas in mining machinery."
But the other men were making no pretense of listening and were
muttering and talking among themselves as a direct and intentional
insult to the speaker. Ralph waited in silence, and Jean had an
intuition that the end of the discussion was about to take place. The
noises that the miners were making were ugly, vicious sounds entirely
unfamiliar to the girl's ears and she had no conception of what they
might portend. She had a sudden fear that they might mean some bodily
injury to the younger man. Then would she have the courage to rush out
to his defense as Jack undoubtedly would have, no matter what overtook
her?
But she was mistaken in the form of her present uneasiness.
"You can talk that way here, if it makes you feel better, young fellow,"
one of the other miners announced contemptuously, "but it ain't goin' to
make a mite of difference in the way things has to go. We give you
thirty-six hours' notice to get clear of Rainbow Mine, and if you don't,
why you can stay around here and play by yourself as long as you like
provided your bosses are willing to give up the gold-mining business.
Because if you stay, we git out and that means there is not another
miner going to be allowed down a shaft in this here mine."
"You mean," said Ralph, "that you are going to strike and make the other
men boycott us. I don't believe your union will stand for it. You
haven't got a kick coming to you about your hours of work, or your pay,
or any of the conditions about the mine. And just because you don't
think I've got brains enough for my job is no reason why you should
strike. I want you to know, you fellows," and here Ralph's voice was no
longer in the least conciliatory, but as firm and decisive as a judge's
sentence, "I am a union man myself, but you must understand once and for
all that if the Rainbow Mine owners agree to stand by me I am going to
keep on with the job of bossing this mine. And I am going to keep on
digging out the gold we can get with our old tools until there's a way
of knowing what ought to be done next. But I think in the future it is
going to suit me better to have another lot of men to work with me and I
think I'll be able to get hold of them. You may go to your quarters now.
I'll let you hear in the morning what Miss Ralston and Mr. Colter want
to do."
And to Jean Bruce's immense amazement, though some of the men laughed
rudely and others muttered threats and curses, the entire number after
some delay and further discussion among themselves, walked off, leaving
Ralph Merrit entirely alone. Notwithstanding, the miners were evidently
unanimous in their intention.
Jean snuggled closer than before in her rocky alcove, scarcely daring to
breathe for fear of their discovering her and so creating further ill
feeling. Then after they had gone, and the last man of them was
entirely out of sight, she still did not move. For Ralph Merrit had
never stirred from his position and she did not know whether she even
wished him to learn of her eavesdropping.
Ralph did not move and Jean was growing bored with her cramped position,
now that events were no longer sufficiently exciting to make her forget
herself. Besides, did she not really wish to let Ralph know just how she
felt about him?
Curiously he did not turn around until she was within a few feet of him.
Yet when he did, Jean laughed and clapped her hands childishly at the
change in his expression since their interview on the veranda.
"Why, Jean, where have you come from? You did not see anybody, did you,
on your way from the house? This is not a place where you should be."
Jean nodded. "Yes, I did see everybody and heard everything. Please
forgive me for being a horrid spy," she confessed, "but I was hiding
behind that rock the whole blessed time. And oh, Ralph, I am so pleased
and proud of you! Of course Jack and Jim will stand by you to the bitter
end--I should dare them not to; but then nobody need ever accuse Jim
and Jack of not enjoying a good, clean fight."
Jean put her hand through the young man's arm. "Do come on back to the
Lodge with me. It is almost time for the others to be coming home. You
must rest a while first and have dinner and then tell them what you
intend to do."
A little dazed by the girl's unexpected appearance and by her sudden
flow of words, and still deeply engrossed on what had just taken place,
Ralph Merrit allowed himself to be led along for a few steps in silence.
"You must think I am a good deal of a turncoat, Jean, and don't know my
own mind for half an hour," he said finally. "Maybe I haven't the right
after all to get you people into trouble."
Jean gave the young man's arm a vehement shake. "You haven't got the
right to be anything but--a man, Ralph Merrit!" she announced.
"Goodness, you don't know how ashamed I was of you and for you a while
ago! I suppose it is because I am such a coward myself, because I am so
afraid of rough things and rough places, that I love courage more than
anything else in the world."
"Do you, Jean?" Ralph murmured almost to himself. "Well, I have been a
coward in more ways than one in these past six months."