A VISIT TO RAINBOW MINE
TWO days later, as things were once more in working order at the Rainbow
Mine, Ralph Merrit suggested that Jim Colter bring Ruth and the girls
and Frank Kent down to see how things were going. And soon after
luncheon the little party started.
A trip to the mine was actually like an expedition to a foreign place,
so long a time had passed since the family had been allowed in its
vicinity, and so of course everybody was in especially fine spirits. It
was well to have Rainbow Mine running again and a relief to find that
the striking miners had yielded to circumstances so much more readily
and peaceably than their first threats suggested. They had influenced
the mine workers near at home to have nothing to do with Ralph Merrit's
management; nevertheless since the arrival of his new force the
atmosphere about Rainbow Ranch had remained serene and untroubled, so
that evidently the strikers were not to be heard from.
True, a single ugly letter had mysteriously appeared at daylight this
morning left before the door of the new foreman, but except for
mentioning it to Ralph, the man had paid no further attention to it. And
Ralph, in the interest and excitement of getting things into working
order at the mine, had given it less consideration than it deserved. For
the annoyance was not so much in the threat of trouble that the letter
contained, as in the puzzle of its being found at the quarters built for
the Rainbow Mine workers, which were not far from the old Ranch house.
No outsider had been seen anywhere about the great ranch either on the
preceding day or night.
Jim and Frank and Jack walked on ahead in order that they might have a
few moments' conversation with the new miners; for no one had yet gone
down the shaft into the mine. Before lunch they had been going over the
machinery and seeing that the elevators for the men and for the ore were
in good working order.
Now Ralph Merrit was insisting that he be lowered first into the mining
pit and that his new men with their hammers and chisels and other
mining paraphernalia follow after him. However, observing that Ruth and
the other girls were coming nearer he went forward to speak to them. Not
since the evening when he and his friend had taken dinner at the Rainbow
Lodge had he seen any one of them.
"We are awfully pleased, Ralph, that affairs are straightening out so
comfortably," Ruth began. "I think we owe you a vote of thanks." She had
not known what had been making Ralph Merrit so unlike himself for the
past few months, since neither Jim nor Jean had seen fit to confide
Ralph's weakness to any one else; but she did recognize the change for
the better in him today. She had never before thought of Ralph as
specially handsome, yet he looked so fine and capable; his expression
was so full of energy and ability that instinctively Ruth held out her
hand.
"Go in and win, Ralph," she added, half laughing and half serious. "I
don't just know what it is that you are fighting for, except to make
more money for the girls who don't deserve it. But whatever it is I am
going to put my money on you, even though betting is against my Puritan
traditions; for you'll win in the end. Why, Ralph, you look like the
famous statue of 'The Minute Man' near Boston, except that you have not
his gun or knapsack. You're just as typical an American fighter and just
as ready for action."
Crimsoning like a small boy at unexpected praise, Ralph crushed Ruth's
hand in reply until she had to repress a cry of pain.
"I'm not worth the powder to blow me up if you really knew the truth
about me, Mrs. Colter; but just the same any kind of fellow likes a
compliment now and then, and I don't remember when I have had one," he
returned.
A movement of Jean's graceful shoulders and a single glance from her
demure dark eyes made the young man swing half-way around to face her.
"You are not disputing that statement, are you?" he demanded. "Why
shouldn't a fellow like a compliment as well as a girl?"
Jean slipped off the big pink straw hat she had been wearing and with
the velvet ribbon about it, swung it on her arm like a basket.
"Oh, I am not disputing _that_ part of your statement if you please,
sir," she answered. "I am only regretting that you have forgotten all
the other compliments which you have received in the past. For when I
remember how many I have bestowed upon you lately, it is discouraging
to think what a failure I have been in trying to make myself agreeable."
Just why recently, indeed ever since their conversation together that
afternoon on the veranda at the Lodge and later here in the shadow of
one of the great rocks, Jean Bruce had been trying to make herself
particularly agreeable to Ralph Merrit and to win back his former
attention and friendship, the girl herself did not know. On her return
from Europe, after a few months at home, she had certainly discouraged
Ralph's devotion, feeling instinctively that his affection for her had
now become more serious than in the past when he had looked upon her as
only a half-grown girl. For Jean did not wish to be unkind or unfair,
and assuredly Ralph had none of the things to offer her which she
desired. Perhaps because of this she had talked more of wealth and of
worldly ambitions than she might otherwise have done. And Ralph had
either understood her intention or else had recovered from his former
affection, for in the past few months, during his foolish and futile
struggle for money through speculations, he had entirely ceased making
love to her or treating her in any way differently from the other
girls.
At heart Jean was essentially a coquette, one of those girls and women
who, having once gained a man's admiration, cannot bear to find
themselves losing it. And surely Jack and Frieda and Olive had often
accused her of this vice.
Now, knowing that Ralph cared at present more for the successful working
of the Rainbow Mine than for anything else, Jean pointed with apparently
the deepest concern toward the group of new men.
"Tell us about the new miners, won't you please, Ralph," she asked,
"their names and where some of them came from--anything you know? They
are a splendid-looking lot of fellows!"
But at this moment Frieda interrupted the conversation to ask a
question. "Who is that thin man over there all by himself in the blue
overalls and old hat? Why isn't he with the others who are being
introduced to Jim and Frank and Jack? I wonder if Jim knows him?"
Then, quite unaccountably, Ralph Merrit appeared extremely
uncomfortable.
"See here, Frieda, I might as well tell you, for you would be sure to
find out anyhow if I didn't. That fellow isn't one of the new miners.
He is Russell, the friend I brought up to the Lodge with me to dinner
the other night. You see----"
But Frieda's eyes were widening and in truth the other three women
seemed almost equally surprised.
"But I thought Professor Russell had gone away from Rainbow Ranch,"
Frieda protested, "why he told us good-by the night he left and said
that he would have to be off so early the next morning that he could not
see any of us again."
Ralph nodded. "I know," he conceded in some embarrassment. "And you're
still to think he has gone if you please. Don't any one of you go near
enough to Russell to speak to him or he will probably die of confusion
before your eyes. I am afraid I forgot he was around and he is under the
impression that he is safely disguised. You see the truth of the matter
is this. When Russell got me away from the Lodge the other night there
is nothing he did not say to me for having taken him unprepared to a
place where he had to meet four girls. He declared it nearly killed him
and he had every intention of sneaking away from the Ranch house the
next morning on foot rather than suffer the chance of meeting any one
of you again. He is an awful ass, but just the same he is a tremendously
clever fellow and I was awfully anxious to show him the mine and he
wanted to see it almost as much. So I persuaded him that he could just
stay on at the Ranch house with me for a few days, letting you believe
he had disappeared until he saw how things down here looked and worked.
I assured him no one of you ever came near the men's quarters, but now
he is hanging around the mine waiting for me as I promised to take him
down into the pit as soon as we start work. Don't scare him to death
beforehand."
Ruth and Jean and Olive laughed, and Olive said sympathetically:
"Poor fellow, I can feel for him. I used to feel so shy that nearly all
strangers made me wretched. But I don't see just why he should be so
specially severe upon girls?"
"Because he is a goose," Frieda returned so sententiously that every one
else laughed. So plainly was she offended at her own failure to charm
their strange guest a night or so before.
It was time for Ralph to say good-by. Arrangements at the pit shaft had
been made so that the first elevator could be lowered into it. He then
waved his hand in farewell to his friends, as he and the new foreman of
the mine and the odd-looking figure of Henry Russell climbed on to the
elevator.
"I shall go away before they come up again, so that foolish fellow won't
even have to look at me," Frieda remarked scornfully, as without any
hitch or delay the car slowly disappeared into the bowels of the earth.