A DILEMMA AND A VISITOR
"GREAT SCOTT," muttered Jim Colter at the breakfast table some days
later, "if there was only another man around this place to take care of
you women, I would not let Ralph Merrit carry so much of this burden
alone. It's getting past a one-man's game to manage our present
affairs."
In return Jack shook her fist at him with what was not all a pretense of
indignation. "Ruth, you may not object to hearing your husband speak of
you as a burden," she protested, "but I can't say I ever like hearing
that I am not able to look after myself. Oh, yes, I know what the family
thinks of my vanity! But seriously, Jim, there isn't any danger, no
matter what goes on down at the mine, of anybody's annoying us. You need
not worry over leaving us alone. I am quite sure we don't need 'another
man.' The ranch is too full of them already!" And Jack shrugged her
shoulders in the face of her guardian.
But from her place at the head of the table behind a big silver coffee
urn, Ruth looked at the girl in the seat next her who had just finished
speaking.
"I am sorry to hear you say that, Jack," she began quietly, "because
pretty soon we are going to have what you and Jim are pleased to call
'another man' as our guest at the Rainbow Lodge and one whom of all
others I most wish to see."
Jack was puzzled, but Olive Van Mater, with a swift glance at the older
woman, felt the blood leaving her face and her hands turning cold. Her
lids drooped swiftly over her dark eyes and immediately she devoted
herself to eating her breakfast, though all the while she was studying
Jack's expression.
At this moment a diversion was created by the entrance of a very fluffy,
blue-eyed person in a pale blue breakfast toilet, who after kissing Ruth
slipped into a place next her sister.
"Sorry I'm late," she said, without any suggestion of real contrition,
"but since Jim makes us stay in the house so much lately there isn't any
reason for getting up."
"Thank you, Frieda darling, for the pleasure you take in our society,"
Jean murmured, setting down her coffee cup in mock indignation. "I am
sure that each and every member of your family feels grateful to you for
your flattering suggestion. But since we are of no interest to you,
perhaps you would like to hear that Ruth has just said we are to have an
unexpected visitor--a man!"
Frieda first helped herself to the entire pile of griddle cakes. "I
suppose everyone else has nearly finished," she remarked by way of
explanation. And then: "Oh, I suppose the visitor is one of those
tiresome men who is coming to help Ralph about the mine. I do wish
things would quiet down, because as soon as our new house is finished
Jean and I are dying to have a houseparty. Ralph said himself that his
mining engineers were too old to be any fun--the youngest one is past
thirty!"
"Yet I am still able to get about at that age, Frieda Ralston," Jim
Colter protested.
At this instant Jack shook her head. "We are being very impolite to Ruth
by talking so much," she declared. "Ruth was going to tell us about a
new visitor and of course we are desperately anxious to hear. Who is
he, Ruth, a stranger or an old friend? And where are you going to find a
place for any one else at Rainbow Lodge?"
Purposely Ruth waited a moment in the silence that followed.
"I'll give you three guesses," she said finally.
"Peter Drummond and Jessica! Wouldn't it be splendid if they came to us
on their wedding trip?" Jack answered immediately.
"No," Ruth answered.
"Tom, the chocolate-drop boy!" Jean exclaimed, laughing at Frieda's
sudden blush.
But Olive Van Mater had put down her knife and fork and was looking
quietly at Ruth. "May I have a turn at guessing, please?" she asked in
her usual gentle fashion. "Isn't our visitor to be Frank Kent?"
And then as Ruth nodded with a smile of pleasure every pair of eyes at
the table immediately turned upon Jacqueline Ralston.
And Jack's cheeks grew suddenly a deeper pink, like the heart of a pink
rose, for she was too surprised for the present to be self-conscious.
"You must be mistaken, Ruth dear," she insisted. "Frank hasn't written
me; I haven't said that he could come." And then seeing what her words
suggested, she went on in greater confusion, "I thought he was to wait
until our house was finished or until later in the summer or until some
time," she ended lamely. "I don't understand."
"Perhaps Frank will explain to you, dear," Ruth replied carelessly. And
then turning toward the other girls:
"You see Frank has been writing me about his visit for several weeks.
But he and I both wanted his coming to be a surprise. He has said that
he could not endure waiting longer to see his dearest friends. So a week
ago when he arrived in New York he telegraphed me to know when he could
come to the Rainbow Ranch and of course I said 'at once.' I rather think
he may be here some time this afternoon. You won't have to worry now,
Jim, about taking care of your wife and family, for Frank will----"
But Frieda was clapping her hands together with much more pleasure than
that slightly selfish young person usually showed.
"Oh, I am so glad, Jack. We do like Frank better than any one we know,
don't we? And if you don't, I am sure Olive does," she persisted.
Jim got up from his place. "I don't like this fashion you have, Mrs.
Colter, of corresponding with gentlemen and not informing your husband,
but just the same I am delighted that Kent is coming to us. It's amazing
what a fine fellow he is for an Englishman, and certainly we owe him a
lot. When a man marries at another's house--and such a wedding--it's
hard work getting even with him!"
Out to the door Ruth followed her husband.
"I am dreadfully uneasy about this trouble at the mine. I did not dare
show how much I am worried before the girls. But you must tell me just
what the conditions are, Jim. You know we don't believe in marriages
where the woman is shut out from facts," Ruth insisted.
For half a moment the man hesitated. Then he kissed the little woman who
had to stand on her tip-toes to be on a level with his chin.
"I don't tell you the facts, Ruthie dear, because I don't know them," he
answered. "How can I tell what a lot of crazy, obstinate men are going
to do? But evidently the miners who deserted us have managed to
intimidate the other mine workers in this neighborhood. Ralph has not
been able to get hold of any men who want to work for us, and things at
the mine have been idle for some time, as you know. So far, all we have
been able to do is to have the cowboys do picket duty down at the mine
so as to keep the other fellows from wrecking our machinery or blowing
us up. There, don't turn white as a sheet, Ruth! I don't believe that
the old miners are that anxious to injure us; yet we have to be on the
look-out. Merrit has got to be away all day today hunting for men, so I
must be on the job. Sorry I can't meet Kent, but you'll see that he is
looked after all right and I'll be with you at dinner tonight. I'll
bring Merrit with me if I can persuade him--he is apt to be pretty well
fagged."
The greater part of the day the four girls spent together in the garden
near the Lodge. It was a lovely June day, with the air full of the
scents of innumerable wild flowers. And everything within the immediate
neighborhood of the Lodge was as peaceful and undisturbed as though the
mine were a hundred miles away. Jean and Jack at least half a dozen
times confessed to the desire to walk over to the mine and see what was
taking place; but since Jim had given strict orders against it they did
not quite dare.
A part of the time they spent helping Frieda gather great bunches of
violets from her old violet beds, which had never been allowed to die
out, until the Lodge was finally filled with them and the big living
room was fair and fragrant enough for any festival.
Then, when other amusements failed, there was always the new house to be
investigated. It was now so nearly completed that when things quieted
down at the mine again, if they were still to have a sufficient income
to meet expenses, the moving into the new home was to take place.
While the other three girls were rummaging about making suggestions Jack
managed to slip quietly away. She went directly to Ruth, who was in the
nursery with her little son. And as Jack was never used to evasions or
to trying to get her own way by indirect methods, she asked immediately:
"Ruth dear, may Olive and I drive to the station and meet Frank Kent
this afternoon? I have a special reason for wishing to be there. You
see, dear, I don't want Frank to think that I am not delighted to see
him or that I have put off his coming to us because I had forgotten him.
You knew he had been wanting to come for a long time, didn't you?"
Ruth nodded. "I had guessed it, Jack, though I did not know positively
until Frank's letter to me. Nor do I know now why you put off his visit.
I am not asking you to tell me," she added quickly. For, observing the
sudden look of reserve on the girl's face, she appreciated that it must
be respected. "Frank merely said that he wanted to see us so much, and I
did not see how his coming could fail to give pleasure. You don't mind,
do you, dear?" Ruth concluded, wondering if this might be the moment for
confidence.
Although still keeping her clear, almost transparently honest gray eyes
on her friend, Jack flushed.
"Yes dear, I do want Frank, now that Olive is here," she replied. "I
meant to write him and ask him just as soon as things were quiet at the
mine again. Now may we go to meet him?"
Ruth looked worried. "I have been wondering what we ought to do about
going to the station all morning," she returned. "Of course some of the
family must meet Frank or he will feel deeply wounded, but I can't leave
the baby and yet there seems no man about the place to go with you
girls. Jim has taken possession of everybody."
Jack kissed Ruth on the hair and then bent over and looked at the baby
with a new expression of wonder and reverence. She had always been much
more afraid of the "little Jimmikins" than the other girls.
"Don't trouble over things a minute, Ruth. You know the danger that Jim
is fearful of for us is what may happen here on the ranch. But we shall
be leaving the ranch as soon as we drive through the gate. Moreover, we
can take Carlos with us for an escort; he is only a boy, but he will do
perfectly well. And if we don't take him, it won't make much difference
since he would be more than likely to follow us. As far as I can see he
trails constantly after Olive like a faithful dog. It would annoy me,
but I don't believe she has even noticed how much he does it. I wonder
what the boy's exact reason is? Nevertheless, as it gives Carlos a
regular occupation, I suppose we should be grateful."