The Golden Woman Part 11

He traced the purple ridges step by step till they became a blurred, gray monotony of tone fading away until it lost itself in the glittering white of the snowcaps. Everything he beheld in a new light.

No longer did those hills represent the battle-ground where he and the Padre fought out their meagre existence. They had suddenly become one vast and beautiful garden where life became idyllic, where existence changed to one long joy. The torrents had shrunk to gentle streams, babbling their wonderful way through a fairy-land of scented gardens.

The old forceful tearing of a course through the granite hearts of the hills was a thought of some long-forgotten age far back in the dim recesses of memory. The gloom of the darkling forests, too, had pa.s.sed into the sunlit parks of delight. The rugged canyons had given place to verdant valleys of succulent pasture. The very snows themselves, those stupendous, changeless barriers, suggested nothing so much as the white plains of perfect life.

The old harsh lines of life had pa.s.sed, and the sternness of the endless battle had given way to an unaccountable joy.

Every point that his delighted eyes dwelt upon was tinged with something of the beat.i.tude that stirred his senses. Every step he took was something of an unreality. And every whispering sound in the scented world through which he was pa.s.sing found an echo of music in his dreaming soul.

Contact with the yielding burden lying so pa.s.sive in his strong arms filled him with a rapture such as he had never known. The thought of s.e.x was still far from his mind, and only was the manhood in him yielding to the contact, and teaching him through the senses that which his upbringing had sternly denied him.

He gazed down upon the wonderful pale beauty of the girl's face. He saw the rich parted lips between which shone the ivory of her perfect, even teeth. The hair, so rich and flowing, dancing with glittering beams of golden light, as, stirring beneath the breath of the mountains, it caught the reflection of a perfect sun.

How beautiful she was. How delicate. The wonderful, almost transparent skin. He could trace the tangle of small blue veins like a fairy web through which flowed the precious life that was hers. And her eyes--those great, full, round pupils hidden beneath the veil of her deeply-fringed lids! But he turned quickly from them, for he knew that the moment she awoke his dream must pa.s.s into a memory.

His gaze wandered to the swanlike roundness of her white throat, to the gaping s.h.i.+rt-waist, where the delicate lace and tiny ribbon peeped out at him. It was all so wonderful, so marvelous. And she was in his arms--she, this beautiful stranger. Yet somehow she did not seem like a stranger. To his inflamed fancy she seemed to have lain in his arms all his life, all her life. No, she was no stranger. He felt that she belonged to him, she was part of himself, his very life.

Still she slept on. He suddenly found himself moving with greater caution, and he knew he was dreading the moment when some foolish stumble of his should bring her back to that life which he feared yet longed to behold. He longed for the delight of watching the play of emotions upon her lovely features, to hear her speak and laugh, and to watch her smile. He feared, for he knew that with her waking those delicious moments would be lost to him forever.

So he dreamed on. In his inmost soul he knew he was dreaming, and, in his reckless fas.h.i.+on, he desired the dream to remain unending. He saw the old fur fort no longer the uncouth shelter of two lonely lives, but a home made beautiful by a presence such as he had never dreamed of, a presence that shed beauty upon all that came under the spell of its influence. He pictured the warmth of delight which must be the man's who lived in such an atmosphere.

His muscles thrilled at the thought of what a man might do under such an inspiration. To what might he not aspire? To what heights might he not soar? Success must be his. No disaster could come--

The girl stirred in his arms. He distinctly felt the movement, and looked down into her face with sudden apprehension. But his anxiety was swiftly dispelled, and a tender smile at once replaced the look in his dark eyes. No, she had not yet awakened, and so he was content.

But the incident had brought him realization. His arms were stiff and cramped, and he must rest them. Strong man that he was he had been wholly unaware of the distance he had carried her.

He gently laid her upon the gra.s.s and looked about him. Then it was that wonder crept into his eyes. He was at the ford of the creek, more than two miles from the camp, and on the hither bank, where the road entered the water, a spring cart lay overturned and broken, with the team of horses lying head down, buried beneath the turbulent waters as they raced on down with the flood.

Now he understood the full meaning of her presence in the camp. His quick eyes took in every detail, and at once her coming was explained.

He turned back in the direction whence he had come, and his mind flew to the distance of the ford from the camp. She had bravely faced a struggle over two miles of a trail quite unknown to her when the worst storm he had ever known was at its height. His eyes came back to the face of the unconscious girl in even greater admiration.

"Not only beautiful but----"

He turned away to the wreck, for there were still things he wished to know. And as he glanced about him he became more fully aware of the havoc of the storm. Even in the brilliant suns.h.i.+ne the whole prospect looked woefully jaded. Everywhere the signs told their pitiful tale.

All along the river bank the torn and shattered pines drooped dismally. Even as he stood there great tree trunks and limbs of trees were washed down on the flood before his eyes. The banks were still pouring with the drainings of the hills and adding their quota to the swelling torrent.

But the overturned spring cart held most interest just now, and he moved over to it. The vehicle was a complete wreck, so complete, indeed, that he wondered how the girl had escaped without injury. Two trunks lay near by, evidently thrown out by the force of the upset, and it pleased him to think that they had been saved to their owner.

He examined them closely. Yes, the contents were probably untouched by the water. But what was this? The initials on the lid were "J. S." The girl's name was Rest. At least so Mrs. Ransford had stated. He wondered. Then his wonder pa.s.sed. These were very likely trunks borrowed for the journey. He remembered that the Padre had a leather grip with other initials than his own upon it.

Where was the teamster? He looked out at the racing waters, and the question answered itself. Then he turned quickly to the girl. Poor soul, he thought, her coming to the farm had been one series of disasters. So, with an added tenderness, he stooped and lifted her gently in his arms and proceeded on his way.

At last he came to the farm, which only that morning he had so eagerly avoided. And his feelings were not at all unpleasant as he saw again the familiar buildings. The rambling house he had known so long inspired him with a fresh joy at the thought of its new occupant. He remembered how it had grown from a log cabin, just such as the huts of the gold-seekers, and how, with joy and pride, he and the Padre had added to it and reconstructed as the years went by. He remembered the time when he had planted the first wild cuc.u.mber, which afterward became an annual function and never failed to cover the deep veranda with each pa.s.sing year. There, too, was the cabbage patch crowded with a wealth of vegetables. And he remembered how careful he had been to select a southern aspect for it. The small barns, the hog-pens, where he could even now hear the grunting swine grumbling their hours away.

The corrals, two, across the creek, reached by a log bridge of their own construction. Then, close by stood the nearly empty hay corrals, waiting for this year's crop. No, the sight of these things had no regrets for him now. It was a pleasant thought that it was all so orderly and flouris.h.i.+ng, since this girl was its future mistress.

He reached the veranda before his approach was realized by the farm-wife within. Then, as his footsteps resounded on the rough surface of the flooring of split logs, Mrs. Ransford came bustling out of the parlor door.

"Sakes on me!" she cried, as she beheld the burden in her visitor's arms. "If it ain't Miss Rest all dead an' done!" Her red hands went up in the air with such a comical tragedy, and her big eyes performed such a wide revolution in their fat, sunburnt setting that Buck half-feared an utter collapse. So he hurriedly sought to rea.s.sure her, and offered a smiling encouragement.

"I allow she's mostly done, but I guess she's not dead," he said quickly.

The old woman heaved a tragic sigh.

"My! but you made me turn right over, as the sayin' is. You should ha' bin more careful, an' me with my heart too, an' all. The doctor told me as I was never to have no shock to speak of. They might set up hem--hemoritch or suthin' o' the heart, what might bring on sing--sing--I know it was suthin' to do with singin', which means I'd never live to see another storm like we just had, not if it sure come on this minit----"

"I'm real sorry, ma'm," said Buck, smiling quietly at the old woman's volubility, but deliberately cutting it short. "I mean about the shock racket. Y' see she needs fixin' right, an' I guess it's up to you to git busy, while I go an' haul her trunks up from the creek."

Again the woman's eyes opened and rolled.

"What they doin' in the creek?" she demanded with sudden heat. "Who put 'em ther'? Some scallawag, I'll gamble. An' you standin' by seein'

it done, as you might say. I never did see sech a place, nor sech folk. To think o' that pore gal a-settin' watchin' her trunks bein'

pushed into the creek by a lot o' loafin' b.u.ms o' miners, an' no one honest enough, nor man enough to raise a hand to--to----"

"With respec', ma'm, you're talkin' a heap o' foolishness," cried Buck impatiently, his anxiety for the girl overcoming his deference for the other's s.e.x. "If you'll show me the lady's room I'll carry her right into it an' set her on her bed, an'----"

"Mercy alive, what's the world a-comin' to!" cried the indignant farm-wife. "Me let the likes o' you into the gal's bedroom! You? Guess you need seein' to by the State, as the sayin' is. I never heard the like of it. Never. An' she jest a slip of a young gal, too, an' all."

But Buck's patience was quite exhausted, and, without a moment's hesitation, he brushed the well-meaning but voluble woman aside and carried the girl into the house. He needed no guidance here. He knew which was the best bedroom and walked straight into it. There he laid the girl upon an old chintz-covered settee, so that her wet clothes might be removed before she was placed into the neat white bed waiting for her. And the clacking tongue of Ma Ransford pursued his every movement.

"It's an insult," she cried angrily. "An insult to me an' mine, as you might say. Me, who's raised two daughters an' one son, all of 'em dead, more's the pity. First you drown the gal an' her baggage, an'

then you git carryin' her around, an' walkin' into her virgin bedroom without no by your leave, nor nuthin'."

But Buck quite ignored her protests. He felt it was useless to explain. So he turned back and gave his final instructions from the doorway.

"You jest get her right to bed, ma'm, an' dose her," he said amiably.

"I'd guess you best give her hot flannels an' poultices an' things while I go fetch her trunks. After that I'll send off to Bay Creek fer the doctor. He ain't much, but he's better than the hoss doctor fer womenfolk. Guess I'll git back right away."

But the irate farm-wife, her round eyes blazing, slammed the door in his face as she flung her final word after him.

"You'll git back nuthin'," she cried furiously. "You let me git you back here agin an' you'll sure find a sort o' first-cla.s.s h.e.l.l runnin'

around, an' you won't need no hot flannels nor poultices to ke'p you from freezin' stone cold."

Then, with perfect calmness and astonis.h.i.+ng skill, she flung herself to the task of caring for her mistress in that practical, feminine fas.h.i.+on which, though he may appreciate, no man has ever yet quite understood.

CHAPTER VIII

THE SECRET OF THE HILL

It was the morning following the great storm, a perfect day of cloudless suns.h.i.+ne, and the Padre and Buck were on their way from the fur fort to the camp. Their mission was to learn the decision of its inhabitants as to their abandonment of the valley; and in the Padre's pocket was a large amount of money for distribution.

The elder man's spirits were quietly buoyant. Nor did there seem to be much reason why they should be. But the Padre's moods, even to his friends, were difficult to account for. Buck, on the contrary, seemed lost in a reverie which held him closely, and even tended to make his manner brusque.

But his friend, in the midst of his own cheerful feelings, would not allow this to disturb him. Besides, he was a far shrewder man than his simple manner suggested.

"It's well to be doing, lad," he said, after some considerable silence. "Makes you feel good. Makes you feel life's worth a bigger price than we mostly set it at."