BACK TO ATHENS
Mendoza and Tom walked toward the Casa Grande ranch-house with fearful
hearts.
"Dark as a pocket," commented Tom. "You set down here, Mendoza, while I go
around in back." From the side, a faint light was visible from the
dining-room of the house. "Hullo, what have we here?" ejaculated the
engineer. At the same time, he saw a man's figure coming toward him; a
very familiar figure. "Hard!" he gasped, darting forward and knocking the
load of firewood from Hard's arms with the fervency of his greeting.
"Hullo, Tom!" Hard returned the handshake quite as heartily. "Glad to see
you. We were beginning to think we were marooned on this place."
"We?" Tom's face lit up. "You're all right? All of you? Didn't none of you
get killed by them Yaquis?"
"Why, didn't Scott tell you?" demanded Hard, with sudden anxiety.
"I ain't seen Scott sence you all went off together," said Tom, puzzled.
"Hold on! Do you mean to say that they haven't shown up yet? Scott and the
girl?"
"Well, I left Athens yestiddy morning. You see, I walked to Conejo and
picked up Mendoza and his car."
"You walked to Conejo!" Hard's voice was awed.
"'Twa'n't much. I took my time. You see, the Chink brought us word that
there was something going on over here. He seen the barn burning when he
was up on the mesa, and he didn't know what was up. He pretty nigh killed
Cochise, so I had to walk. I knew there was no use coming here with no
horses, so I went to Conejo. They've got martial law there. The Colonel's
a nice young feller, if he is a greaser, and he loaned me Mendoza and the
Ford. Now what happened here, anyhow?"
Hard gave a brief outline of their adventures.
"Mrs. Conrad," he said, "is an old friend of Herrick's and mine, who's had
to leave her plantation in the South, and is on her way home. She is going
East with Miss Street. She and I tried camping out at Soria's last night
after Gonzales left us, but we got starved out and we tramped it back
here, waiting for someone to come after us. I'm lame as I can be."
Clara's face lit up when she saw the three men enter, and she shook hands
cordially with Johnson and the old Mexican. Then an anxious look came into
her eyes. Hard, seeing it, spoke quickly.
"Johnson left Athens yesterday before Scott and Polly got there," he said,
reassuringly. "He walked to Conejo."
"Walked to Conejo!"
"You see, Tom, Mrs. Conrad and I walked here from Soria's and we've both
been crippled ever since. A walk to Conejo fills us with excited
admiration."
Tom chuckled. "Well, I always could walk," he replied. "Never done
anything particular with the other end of me, but I could always depend on
my feet. Say, folks, Mendoza's got his car outside. How about a quick bite
and then beating it for Athens?"
Clara turned eagerly to Herrick.
"You'll come, won't you, Victor? I hate to think of your being here alone
when everything is so upset."
Herrick smiled and patted her hand affectionately.
"You will give me no peace until I do, so I will go," he said.
* * * * *
It was a sober little crowd that sat around the dining-room table at
Athens that night. Though their joy had been very great at the safe coming
of Hard and Clara in Mendoza's car, it had been tinged with gloom at the
non-arrival of Scott and Polly. Jimmy Adams was reported much improved.
"That Chinaman doesn't cook any more," confided Mrs. Van to Clara. "He's
had a rise in life and he just sits and meditates. Awful people to
meditate--the Chinese. What they find to think about I can't see, but it
seems to make 'em happy."
Clara's mind, however, was upon the absent. "I can't see what could have
happened to them. They didn't fall in with Angel Gonzales, that we know,"
she said. "I'm dreadfully worried about them."
"Hello!" It was O'Grady's voice. "Here comes horses down the road--two of
them. I believe it's our folks." And he bolted out into the moonlight,
followed by the others.
It was, and a more exhausted and bedraggled couple it would have been hard
to find.
"Look like a pair of forty-niners," said O'Grady, "on the last lap of the
trip."
Scott rolled out of the saddle while Hard lifted Polly to her feet.
"Coffee!" whispered the girl. "Is it really coffee that I smell?"
"Gracious, I believe they're starving," gasped Mrs. Van, running into the
house.
"All we've had to-day is a cake of chocolate and some lumps of sugar,"
said Scott, briefly. "Look after the horses, O'Grady, will you? They've
had it pretty rough, too."
He was lame and sore from his fall of the day before, and tired and hungry
from the day's discomforts, but he managed to say enough to give them an
idea of what had happened.
"After I climbed out of the arroyo," he said, "I didn't know which way to
go. If those fellows had got Polly I wanted to go after them; if they
hadn't--well, I didn't dare take the chance that they hadn't. I was
pelting down the trail like a madman when I heard her voice calling me
from up the trail.
"We got on the horses and began climbing again, pretty well pleased with
our luck, but the horses were all in. They'd been at it since early
morning, climbing most of the time, and I saw that they weren't going to
make it. So I picked a good-looking spot near the head of the stream that
we'd been following, and we camped there for the night, ate the rest of
our sandwiches, and rolled up in our blankets. It wasn't very comfortable
but it was a case of needs must.
"In the morning I set out to find the trail again. It had pretty well
disappeared--choked up by the brush. We fought our way through it all
morning and finally lost it; struck out higher up on the mountain and came
out on the barren side near the top. That's all, except that we've been
going since five this morning on nothing but a cake of chocolate that
Polly found in her coat pocket and a few lumps of sugar."
"If I were going back to Chicago to live I believe I'd start soup kitchens
for hungry people," declared Polly, suddenly. "It's the worst thing in the
world--being hungry."
"If you was----" Mrs. Van Zandt started suddenly and stopped equally so.
Polly blushed. Scott came to the rescue.
"We may as well tell 'em while we're telling our other troubles," he
suggested, and Polly told them.
"I'm going home because he won't marry me unless Father consents," she
said, "and he doesn't seem to think a consent by wire is legal. But I'm
coming back."
"Well, I wish you good luck, I'm sure." Mrs. Van Zandt leaned over and
kissed Polly impulsively. "He'll browbeat you a bit but he'll stick by
you. Guess I'll make some more coffee," and she bounced into the kitchen.
"Gracious! Would you call that a congratulation?" gasped Polly.
"Here's a bona-fide one, my dear," said Clara, gently. "I am sure you'll
be happy."
The others laughed and joked while Clara and Hard kept their secret to
themselves. Scott followed Mrs. Van Zandt into the kitchen with some empty
cups and their voices could be heard talking earnestly.
"Well," said the latter, as she returned, "I'll say I think Mr. Scott's
idea a good one." By a psychological process quite her own and quite
unconsciously followed, Mrs. Van had promoted Scott to the dignity of the
prefix upon hearing that he was engaged to the superintendent's sister.
"He's hired Mendoza and that junk-pile of his to take you all to the
border so's you can get a train East without traveling on the Mexican
railroads."
"It's like this," Scott explained. "Tom says they told him at Conejo that
the revolutionary government had taken over all the railroads, both
Mexican and American, and is operating them. Now, we might make the trip
all right--they say lots of refugees are coming North; but what's the use?
I'll run over to Conejo and get them to let us keep Mendoza for a few days
and perhaps we can get some sort of a safe conduct for the road from that
military guy over there.
"I'd rather have old Villa's safe conduct than any of the rest of them; I
think it cuts more ice with the population at large. But perhaps this chap
can do something for us. We'll try to hit the border at Chula Vista--the
roads that way are pretty fair. Now, Hard, suppose you and I take a turn
down the road and have a look at Jimmy before he goes to sleep."
"Scotty," they were outside and Hard spoke frankly, "I didn't want to
speak of it before the others, but Mrs. Conrad and I have made up our
minds to undo an old mistake. We've going to try life together instead of
apart."
"I hoped you would, Hard. She's a fine woman."
"When I say an old mistake, don't misunderstand me," continued Hard,
soberly. "She and Dick Conrad were happy together. She loved him when she
married him--and she didn't love me. The mistake was mine, in not making
her love me when I had the chance. I've got the chance again and I'm going
to make good this time."
"You're very lucky, Hard. Most fellows don't get a second chance--with the
same woman. Will she come back here with you?"
"I don't know. We're going to be married in Chula Vista and she's going
home just as she had planned. I can't go, of course, but as soon as Street
comes back I'll either go to her or she'll come to me. She hasn't given up
her music and I don't want her to. It's all rather hazy, Scott. I only
know that I let her get away from me once, and, selfish brute that I am,
I'm going to tie her to me now while she's in the humor."